From Hullaballoo via FireDogLake:

Larry Sinclair is one of the most outrageous anti-Obama smear merchants. So why is the National Press Club hosting him this coming Wednesday? Apparently Jeff Gannon wasn't available.

Sinclair's story about having used cocaine and having sex with Obama in 1999 is not credible. As Stoller says, it's another "whitey" style rumor and we all know how quickly this stuff makes the leap from the right wing smear machine to Sean Hannity to Fox News and then alley-oops its way into the AP.

Hat tip to Jack and Jill Politics:

The black women's blog, What About Our Daughters? is about to inaugurate
the Michelle Obama Watch page to both list and refute attacks and smears on the character and aims of Michelle Obama, who may indeed become the first African American First Lady in history.

I should say that it's an 'alleged' coverup.  But why should I give the Bush Administration any slack, especially when Pennsylvania's primary is filling up all of the known airwaves.

(Go Barack.)

I don't have cable anymore--I just can't afford it right now.  Hell yeah, I miss Olbermann daily, and I miss watching Rachel Maddow use only a scintilla of her vast intellect to bash Buchanan and Scarborough.  Friday nights without Real Time with Bill Maher pall as well.

So now, between nature shows, American Experience ("Roberto Clemente"!) and reruns of Masterpiece Theatre, I watch the braindead dreck that is network TV nowadays, including how many versions of Law and Order, and Howie Mandel's Deal or No Deal.

TROY, Mich. (AP) -- The husband of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow told authorities that he used the Internet to arrange a $150 sexual tryst with a prostitute at a metropolitan Detroit hotel, police said Wednesday.

Thomas Athans, 46, co-founder of the liberal TalkUSA Radio network, was stopped by police who were investigating prostitution at the hotel, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press.

...and ain't that a kick in the head?  

Interesting that Stabenow, as a Hillary supporter and who is over a decade older than her second husband, now has to deal with this bimbo eruption.

No doubt, it wasn't the first time he ever strayed.  Bummer.

In Pennsylvania, where Governor Ed Rendell broadly suggested that Hillary might be more palatable to white voters in the state:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows Obama attracting 49% of the vote while McCain earns 39%. However, in a McCain-Clinton match-up, the Arizona Senator has a statistically insignificant two-point lead, 44% to 42%.

In Pennsylvania, Clinton leads McCain by six among women but trails by nine among men. Obama leads McCain among both men and women, but has a larger lead among women. McCain wins 69% of the conservative vote when matched against Clinton, 60% against Obama.

Contrast to the Badger State, Wisconsin, where Obama was previously at a deficit:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows Obama with a narrow four-point advantage over Clinton, 47% to 43%. Nearly one-fourth of the voters say there's a good chance they might change their mind. Five percent (5%) of those who currently support Obama and Clinton say there's a good chance they could change their mind before voting.

Let's hope some of that mind-changing is from Clinton to Obama and not the other way around.

Unfortunately, Ohio seems resistant to the Obama juggernaut.  More at the jump.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Virginia shows Barack Obama leading Hillary Clinton by eighteen percentage points. Obama earns 55% of the vote while Clinton attracts 37%.

The demographic divisions are similar to those seen in other states. Obama leads among white men while Clinton leads among white women. Overall, the two contenders are even among white voters while Obama leads 72% to 22% among African-Americans.

Clinton leads among senior citizens while Obama has the edge among younger voters.

Forty percent of Katrina evacuees, two years later, are now living below the poverty line, according to a new Census Bureau report.  In fact, they may be in worse economic straits than they were before they were dispersed all over the country.

There never was a honeymoon for many.  I'm calling this The Long Return.

I've often wondered what the Democratic candidates have in store for my beleaguered birthplace.  Ray in New Orleans has compiled a list of Dem candidates who have plans for the city in their platforms.

In terms of interest and "rough order of worthiness," they are:

1. Obama
   
2. Edwards
   
3. Clinton
   
4. Richardson
   
5. Dodd
   
6. Biden
   
7. Kucinich
   
8. Gravel

Visit Adrastos for all the latest on St. Bernard Parish Councilman Joey DiFatta. First he was running for State Senate, then he withdrew from the race due to chest pains, and now the T-P informs us that DiFatta was doing the Larry Craig toe-tap in public rest rooms.

Joey DiFatta is a former member of the Republican State Central Committee, the governing arm of the state GOP. In his campaign web site he pledges to "defend our conservative values from extreme liberal groups".

Uhuh.  First, Vitter.  Then Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee, honorary good old boy and Mafia hanger-on, bites it (he who posted armed deputies at the Gretna side of the Mississippi River Bridge to keep mostly African Americans New Orleanians from crossing to safety after the levees burst from Katrina). Now this.  

Is this giving the predicted Jindal juggernaut pause to reflect?  Or is this the prelude to some GOP housecleaning before Jindal sits in the governor's chair?  More after the jump.

Yep, I should have expected it to be so. And bad news from this Administration is always announced on a Friday.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Official reprimands issued to three high-ranking Army officers are only mildly critical of their mistakes after the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman and at times praise the officers.

The Army also said it would not include the reprimands in the officers' military records, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Tillman's direct superiors knew within hours of his April 2004 death in Afghanistan that the former football star had been killed by fellow Army Rangers, but the truth was kept from the public and Tillman's family for five weeks - in direct violation of Army regulations.

"You should not consider this as an adverse action," letters to the officers say. "This document will not be filed in any system of records maintained by the Army."

At first, Rummy backed off, claiming that he had a prior commitment.

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Now, he's on.  And not only him.

Wanna bet they've been strong-armed?

Generals Abizaid, Brown and Myers are going to be testifying before Rep. Henry Waxman's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the circumstances--as they understand them--regarding the murder by 'friendly fire' of Corporal Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. 

They've had to issue a subpoena for fall guy Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger to appear, but it's unconfirmed as to whether he will show up.

For me, it was Olbermann who broke the bad, sad news from the Associated Press.  And I know that I wasn't the only one who wasn't surprised, knowing how morally-bankrupt, oppressive, lying and craven this Administration is:

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Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

"The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.

The doctors _ whose names were blacked out _ said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

Now it only stands to reason how far up the chain of command does this wretched crime go.

I had a bad feeling when this young man with everything to live for as a football pro making gazillions of bucks VOLUNTEERED to go feet first into this quagmire in the making.  I knew he was going to die. And I knew that they were going to make his heroism into a public altar to nationalism.

That's right: nationalism, not patriotism.  The extreme, chest-thumping love of country that brings in fresh recruits and blinds people to what death and loss of limb, of friends, and of innocence truly mean.

What I didn't figure was that his own government was going to fuck him, and then cover up its complicity like Mafia families.

Why?  Because he was reading the likes of Noam Chomsky and was going to meet with him after returning from Afghanistan.  Because he questioned the war.  Because he told soldiers to vote for Kerry.

Because he was going to call BULLSHIT on this war.

Goddamn them ALL to hell: those who were the trigger fingers, and those who ordered it.

This is the equivalent: those FEMA trailers laden with formaldehyde, in which thousands must live.  Thousands trying to renew their lives, looking for opportunity and a turn in their shattered fortunes that would allow them to move out of these temporary, unstable shelters for good.  It always seems, however, that they are waiting, for Godot:

And one of the witnesses--a white mother--said that she didn't believe that FEMA really meant to send her and her family a formaldehyde-suffused trailer. Well, who the hell did they really mean to send it to?  In the past, something like this would be sent to people like the Negroes and the Indians, while the white people got the good, chemically-treated stuff.  Get a clue, lady: we're ALL the Negroes and Indians (and by extension, the  Chinese and the  Mexicans) now.  Especially if you are from Mississippi--Trent Lott's Mississippi--this is your government--the government that you voted in--in action.

It is just not your fault that you're alive, sister. Anyone who would insist on sending these slow death traps to Iraq or selling them even to Native Americans in this day and age as appropriate living or working space for American citizens of any color or culture are trying to kill and maim you and your family. The use of formaldehyde-laden temporary housing to sicken, kill and drive people away is much like how smallpox was used as a weapon of deadly biological warfare during the French and Indian War (1754-1757) in this country.

In effect, they want to make Katrina go away by making YOU go away.

Gold Star mom and anti-Iraq War gadfly Cindy Sheehan is going to run against Nancy Pelosi unless the California Democrat files articles of impeachment against George W. Bush.

``Democrats and Americans feel betrayed by the Democratic leadership,'' Sheehan told The Associated Press. ``We hired them to bring an end to the war. I'm not too far from San Francisco, so it wouldn't be too big of a move for me. I would give her a run for her money.''

I don't think she's kidding, either.