davidvoegtle.net

Democrats set sights on Texas:
Reporting from Washington — As they review the results of Tuesday’s election victories and begin looking toward future campaigns, some Democrats have settled on a rallying cry: Texas is next.
It sounds improbable for the Republican bastion that produced President Bush and served as an early laboratory for Karl Rove’s hard-nosed tactics. [...]

I’ve never been one for conspiracy theories. The 9/11 Truth movement? Not credible. Alex Jones from InfoWars? I’m from Austin, TX, and he’s been our town idiot with a cheesy cable access show for as long as I can remember. Nevertheless, there’s something curious going on in California with regards [...]

Via the Wall Street Journal:
Barack Obama said a storm like Hurricane Gustav raises “bipartisan concerns” and it’s “fine” that John McCain visited Mississippi’s emergency operations center Sunday morning.
But he reiterated his worry that the security required for either presidential candidate could divert local law enforcement and other personnel from storm preparations. For that reason, Obama, [...]

Hotline On Call: AFL-CIO Drops New Mailers In OH, MI, PA, WI: One of the mailers aims directly to dispel myths and rumors about the IL senator. The other features worker testimonials on Obama’s record on jobs, health care reform and workers’ rights.
Union officials tell On Call that the mailers mark the launch of a [...]

POLITICS: Bush Forced al-Maliki to Back Down on Pullout in 2006: WASHINGTON, Jul 28 (IPS) – Many official and unofficial proponents of a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq are dismissing Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s demand for a U.S. timeline for withdrawal as political posturing, assuming that he will abandon it under pressure.
But [...]

Steve Chapman: Are the media biased against Obama?: A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, which conservatives have always regarded as sympathetic, says the three broadcast networks have been more critical of Obama than of John McCain in their recent news coverage.
(Via Chicago Tribune.)
Not a surprise to many [...]

Key GOP senator won’t attend party’s convention: WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina won’t be attending the Republican national convention, which begins over Labor Day weekend.
(Via McClatchy.)
Whew. Is this another sign of a possible Republican Party meltdown? As noted in the article, Dole is the latest in a string of [...]

Justice finds that Gonzales aides broke federal hiring laws: WASHINGTON — Aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales violated federal laws and Justice Department policies by illegally selecting employees based on their conservative and Republican leanings, a joint report by two department watchdog agencies reported Monday.
(Via McClatchy.)
I can’t say this is very surprising (more like [...]

That is not a competitive campaign. Including third-party options in polls right now clearly benefits Obama. An 11.5% victory for Obama would put him over 400 electoral votes, and put a whole swatch of red states either in play, or in his column. So, the question is, how can Obama go about raising the national [...]

McCain: Ratcheting up the rhetoric – First Read – msnbc.com: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports that there was never a plan for Obama to take the press to Landstuhl, despite the claim by McCain folks and others. The plan was to go with his military aide, retired General Scott Gration. The Pentagon said Gration was off-limits [...]

John C. Coughenour – The Right Place to Try Terrorism Cases – washingtonpost.com: I have spent 27 years on the federal bench. In particular, my experience with the trial of Ahmed Ressam, the “millennium bomber,” leads me to worry about Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s comments last week, urging Congress to pass legislation outlining judicial procedures [...]

U.S. citizens in Europe give more to Obama – Decision ‘08- msnbc.com: “Barack Obama’s campaign has received roughly 10 times more money from declared U.S. donors living in Germany, France and Britain than his Republican rival, reflecting his popularity in Europe as he makes his first tour of the continent as the presumed Democratic nominee.”
Interesting [...]

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 07/24/2008 | Obama sparks debate: Would Europe elect a black leader?: “Obama’s current tour — he landed in Berlin Thursday and was travelling to Paris and London — has provoked an intense debate among members of Western Europe’s racial and ethnic minorities: What are the chances of a minority politician rising [...]

House votes to boost bridge spending – Capitol Hill- msnbc.com: “The House overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday aimed at improving the safety of the nation’s bridges, nearly a year after the deadly collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis.
The vote was 367-55.”
(Via artsgal @ Newsvine.)
Good news. It’s about time that America invests in its [...]

Why the press is ignoring the Edwards “love child” story. – By Jack Shafer – Slate Magazine: “But if Edwards had an affair and lied about it, shouldn’t he suffer scrutiny akin to that of Craig? At least three-dozen daily newspapers in the United States published the Craig news the day after the Roll Call [...]

How much does John McCain really know about foreign policy? – By Fred Kaplan – Slate Magazine: “If Obama had blurted even one of those inanities (especially the one about the Iraq-Pakistan border), the media and the McCain campaign would have been all over him like red ants on a wounded puppy.
McCain caught almost no [...]

Olympic Deal Sealed: Obama Makes $5 Million Buy – Advertising Age – News: “It’s official. Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign will be among the TV sponsors of NBC Universal’s Olympics coverage. In the first significant network-TV buy of any presidential candidate in at least 16 years, the Obama campaign has taken a $5 million package of [...]

Just what is up lately with John McCain? One has to wonder if his campaign is sabotaging him on purpose. Surely it can’t be the case that the candidate of a major American political party is completely without access to a basic fact checker?
Even a college-aged intern (with the Google or other basic [...]

Austinist: YouTubeTexas: Here’s the Bush Video They Didn’t Want You To See: “During a political fundraiser for Congressional candidate Pete Olson in Houston last Friday, President Bush admits that the economy is clearly in the pits.
‘There is no question about it. Wall Street got drunk,’ he says. ‘That’s one reason I asked you to turn [...]

Mobilization Nation: “Evidence from the 2004 presidential election and the findings of recent GOTV research indicate that mobilization campaigns work even if their effects are fairly modest. Dollar for dollar, money spent on voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives probably pays bigger dividends than money spent on further saturating already saturated media markets with 30-second TV [...]

McCain Vows To Court Young Voters : NPR: “‘John McCain sees young voters as a competitive demographic this year,’ said McCain youth outreach spokesman Joe Pounder, ‘and we’re going to go after them.’”
(Via NPR.)
Really? Really? John McCain sees young voters as a competitive demographic this year, is just delusional to such a degree [...]

As World Embraces Obama, McCain Attacks: “‘I believe any partisanship ends at the water’s edge,’ John McCain said when he visited Colombia in early July.
At least that’s what McCain believes when he’s across the water.
Since Obama departed overseas–on a trip McCain baited him to take–the McCain campaign has sent out a barrage of emails, statements [...]

Seeded at Newsvine:
Expert advisor Stephen Spoonamore, who among other things designs and runs computer programs to analyze and detect fraudulent financial activity for the world’s leading credit card companies, said, “You cannot secure electronic voting.

Seeded at Newsvine:
Majority Leader Harry Reid has had it up to here with Tom Coburn, the Senate’s scourge of excessive spending and pork-barrel earmarks. Mr.

Seeded at Newsvine:
A website with the goal of unearthing evidence that PUMA is (at the very least) a Republican founded organization.