There are apparently some liberals, and some Democrats, and some independents out there, who claim that the media is not only not "liberally biased," but that it in general slants its coverage in order to make the facts come across as less biased to the right and far right. (Most often accomplished, so this claim goes, by largely ignoring or glossing over them, but other times, by miscontruing them or simply parroting misleading arguments with little objective context.)

McCain gets skewered all over teh intarwebs today; apparently a lot of people are worried about his foreign policy expertise. Who'da thunk it?

I recently posted the latest numbers showing the horrific 30-year rise in the federal debt caused by the wondrous Reagan Revolution (with only a brief respite under Clinton)—a debt built on the apparent belief among so-called conservatives that we can borrow and spend our way to prosperity.

It went from 34% of GDP in 1980 to nearly 70% today. Graph here.

McCain doesn't just want to continue that decades-long decline. The man who Republicans want as president wants to hit the accelerator on the way off the cliff.

The numbers are below the fold.

McCain: "I know war. I can win wars.  There will be more wars. It's okay with me if we stay in Iraq for 100 years." Yes, with McCain as president there would be lots more wars and he's just shown us how. Even David Ignatius criticizes Dangerous McCain quips about Georgia!

Poland signed onto a US missile system today that included US Patriot Missiles in the fine print. Shield deal for Poland/neocons  The Georgia/Russia fight helped change public opinion to make this deal possible. Bush admired Saakashvili's dancing so Poland signed on for a missile shield.

NATO will not fight with Russia. Period.

I'm sure you've already read theSullivan article that mentions that according to the Bush Administration's definitions McCain was not actually tortured during his time in Vietnam.

The fact McCain voted against a bill that would have prohibited the CIA from using some of these said techniques makes it an issue that sticks to McCain as well.  Soon the thought came to me, how could this be better brought out to the general public.  I could actually make a blog and write about it, or make yet another diary on the subject, though kosand  jpadgetthave beaten me to it.  What would be better would be if some collective internet action could generate attention.  A sort of internet protest...a wikipedia bomb.  The problem is I don't know if this would be a grand gesture or just ignored as random wikipedia vandalism.  

Details below the fold.

This is going to be a short diary, so forgive me, but this is getting too pathetic, seeing everyone convinced we're gonna lose. It's sad when I see Michael Moore and Bill Maher and the Huffington Post go into panic mode as well. It's even sadder that some find it so gosh-darn difficult to do a little volunteer work for the campaign, but it's much easier to scream and cry as if you all were Corporal Hudson from Aliens.

It's become very aggravating to come on here or Huffington and see headlines about how we're all screwed and whatever the hell else.

Has anyone forgotten that our lives are at stake here? This isn't sports standings. This is our futures, and we have to work for it as if those were the stakes here.

Northwest Airlines serves Minneapolis-St Paul in a big way.  It's no wonder they tout themselves as "The Official Airline of the Republican National Convention," and they're concerned about the comfort of Republicans.  That's why NWA fired off a demand to Clear Channel Communications that the mega-media company take down a billboard they thought carried a "strong anti-McCain message" that was in the Minneapolis-St Paul airport.

Northwest worried that the thousands of Republican delegates, officials, and members of the media would find the ad "offensive" and "scary" and insisted that it come down immediately.

Clear Channel agreed.

Well, Rudy -- straying dangerously into non-9/11 territory -- has really stuck his foot in it this time...

Rudy Giuliani's appearance on a McCain conference call got off to a rocky start when Ron Kampeas, the Washington, D.C. of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, compared an Obama advisor's trip to Syria -- the subject of the call -- to Giuliani's and McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann's paid work on behalf of Georgia (in Scheunemann's case) and Venezuela's Citgo and the Saudi government (in the case of Giuliani's law firm).

[More below the fold...]

In his glory days as heavyweight champ, Muhammed Ali perfected a technique known as the "rope a dope" in which he would allow an opponent to repeatedly punch him in the mid-section while Ali guarded himself against the ropes.  Then, when the opponent tired from punching Ali, the champ would move in for the kill and finish off his winded opponent.  This was a great strategy for boxing.  It is a sure loser in politics.  

We must spread this around the blogosphere and get the MSM to cover this.

Via Think Progress, John McCain was at a townhall today, and a questioner said:

If we don’t reenact the draft, I don’t think we’ll have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.

To which McCain responded:

Ma’am, let me say that I don’t disagree with anything you said.

Video below the jump:

While troubled to see McCain ahead in the latest Reuters/Zogby poll, I was even more surprised at the media's reaction. First of all, this is not the latest nationwide poll. It was conducted August 14-16. The latest nationwide poll is LA Times/Bloomberg, conducted August 16-18 (with a larger sample size), which has Obama leading by 2.

Second, Reuters/Zogby is most likely an outlier. Unless, of course, you're willing to believe that he's lost the support of 12 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 in the last week.

But far more worrisome than Obama's performance in recent national polls are the numbers coming out of battleground states, particularly Ohio.

McCain and the Republicans like to say that Obama is just a good speech giver, but not a true leader.

We all know that's absolutely wrong - Obama's policies are worlds better than McCain's and he's a natural leader.

BUT, the DNC can't come soon enough: We need a speech!

So, a little poll from Zogby comes out and lots of people are in freakout mode, and Kos has front-paged about how silly that is.

Good.

Let me add one little bit o' info to the fire for each of you to chew on...

Anybody here remember 1992?

The hot topic lately seems to be how and why Barack Obama should be hitting John McCain with every negative attack imaginable.  The logic goes that while we all despise negatives, they work.  It is said that we may be the party and people of high minded ideals, but to succeed we need to get down in the gutter with Republicans and tear down John McCain.  

Republicans are playing to their base by being crass and combative.  Neocons are all about picking fights to further their own cause.  I hope that isn’t what we are becoming.  I hope to bring my kids into a world where pride, greed, and religion aren’t bringing about the deaths of millions of innocent people.  We are rewarding a strategy of bluster and aggression.  As long as we judge people by who has the biggest pair, hate and aggression will permeate to every aspect of our global society.

Barack Obama talks about the politics of raising everyone up, rather than tearing them down.  If you really believe this is the man who best represents your ideals then let him lead the country and party on the path he has chosen rather than push him and us to be something we are not.

Obama is now presented with the biggest political opportunity of this campaign and his single best prospect for defining John McCain for what he is – a no-hold-barred Rovian political opportunist who is willing to engage in hyperbole, misrepresentation and outright lying to question the patriotism of his political opponents.  Americans do not like people like John McCain.  Generally speaking, Americans are skeptical of people like John McCain who habitually tout their own patriotism while questioning the patriotism of others.  And more importantly, Americans have been forced to endure the last 8 years of failed government under George W. Bush, a person who, just like John McCain, is willing to lie about the patriotism of his political opponents.

There's an amazing article in The New York Times. A true must read.

Obama and McCain’s "Slur du Jour"

Barack Obama faces a quandary: how to respond to the McCain campaign’s Niagara Falls of negative attacks, a "slur du jour" since Steve Schmidt took charge that pummeled Obama’s lead.

If this was preconcieved, I must admit that it was executed brilliantly. Here's how the plot went.

It was understood that McCain will benefit from internation crisis this Fall.
It was also understood that he will not get much mileage out of Iraq/Pakistan/ Afganistan conflict. At very least, Obama will tie him there.
A new international crisis needed for November. Not any crisis, but serious one, one that will capture Americans' fears once again.
How about Cold War II vs. Russia, asked McBush?

I know, now that you've gotten nauseous, hear me out. And yes this is another suggestion from a nobody but it dovetails with what Josh Marshall has argued about how Obama needs consistent arguments.

Flame me if you want. Call me a concern troll. But I see what McCain is doing and Obama is not doing and something really needs to be done about it.

And here's the Rove recipe. Attack in 3s. Sounds simple. It is.

I witnessed Bush beat Ann Richards for governor and he did it by picking three issues which were weak about Richard's past 4 year term. He repeated these three over and over and over. Soon the campaign became about those three arguments. I believe one was a rise in teenage crime. There was so little to criticize her on but he found three. Soon the campaign becamse about those three issues and Richards was forced to play defense. And despite great popularity, she lost to Shrub.

It was Karl Rove who did this and he laughed about it later. Americans have such a short attention span, they won't spend time disecting issues. Pick three points and run with them. That's all you need. Three weaknesses of your opponent.

Why threes? It works. When writing persuasive papers or making a closing argument, uses threes. It works. Simple. Direct. Repeatedly.