And not a moment too soon for Wyoming voters who have been subjected to one damned ugly Republican battle. There are four names on the Republican primary ballot today, but the battle is between just two of them: Mark Gordon, a rancher and businessman, and Cynthia Lummis, former state representative and state treasurer.

The going got ugly in the race months ago, when an anonymous flier started circulating around the state that detailed Gordon's past contributions to Democratic candidates and his past membership on the board of the Sierra Club. A follow up flier released by the Lummis campaign echoes the charge.

Lummis' flier notes Gordon was a board member of the Sierra Club and describes the group as a "left-wing environmental organization" that opposed a coal-fired power plant in the Gillette area.

"As a member of the Sierra Club board, Mark Gordon helped them! Just what kind of Republican is he?" read the Lummis flier.

Not to be outdone, Gordon has gone on tv with his own nasty ad.

"When you find yourself in a hole, you stop digging," says the voice over the image of the digging girl, whose blond hair resembles Lummis'. "Career politicians like Cynthia Lummis just don't get it. She voted to increase taxes on gasoline, supported raising taxes to balance the state budget and opposed tax relief for veterans.

"Cynthia Lummis will dig a deeper hole, not get us out of the one we're already in."

Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Orange to Blue candidate Gary Trauner is unopposed, and he's kept up his grassroots, retail campaign. He's just completed a state-wide trip, having gone to all 23 county fairs. He's likely to see some dividend from this very ugly Republican battle.

Oliver Walter, Arts and Sciences dean at the University of Wyoming and a political science professor, said the ultimate beneficiary of the negative Republican campaigning might be neither Gordon nor Lummis, but Gary Trauner.

"The more contention, the greater chance he has," Walter said Tuesday.

Professor Walter isn't the only one who thinks so. The editorial board of the Casper Star-Tribune seems to be really wanting to root for the Republicans in November, but can't help saying

At a time when the economy is in a downturn, the country still doesn't have a national energy policy, and we're mired in a war in Iraq, aren't there more relevant issues to discuss?....

[W]e'd like to remind both candidates that it's their party's nomination they're seeking, and Republicans already have their work cut out for them in the general election. Democrat Gary Trauner, who lost to incumbent Rep. Barbara Cubin by only about 1,000 votes in 2006, doesn't face any opposition in this year's primary. He's effectively been running for the office for four years, and he has built a solid campaign network.

Trauner also has an advantage over his eventual GOP opponent: He'll be a member of the majority party in the House. A freshman in the minority party won't be operating from a position of strength.

Gary has a lot of advantages over his eventual GOP opponent. Whether it's Gordon or Lummis (or maybe one of two the dark horses on the ballot who benefit from the Lummis/Gordon death spiral) Trauner faces in November, he's got a strong grassroots army and the fundraising to show for it.

Gary Trauner, Democratic candidate for U.S. House, has raised more than $1 million so far in the election cycle and will carry more than $660,000 into the general election.... Trauner said the totals show his message is resonating with Wyoming voters.

"The grassroots is excited about my race," he said. "We have orders of magnitude more Wyoming contributors than the entire other side combined, so clearly people believe in what we are trying to do."...

Republican candidate Cynthia Lummis infused her campaign with an additional $50,000 in personal funds Aug. 4, after filing her pre-primary campaign finance report. Lummis detailed the donation in an addendum to that report. Lummis raised about $110,000 in the last month, including her own contributions, and about $480,000 for the election cycle. She carries about $220,000 into the final week of the race for the Republican nomination....

Republican Mark Gordon of Buffalo kicked an additional $60,000 into his campaign Wednesday, according to an addendum filed with the Federal Election Commission, bringing his total contributions to his campaign to almost $1.1 million. Gordon has raised about $1.2 million and is carrying a little less than $200,000 into the final week of the primary....

Actually, that "raised" figure for Gordon should be clarified--he has self-funded to the tune of more than $1 million in this primary, and Lummis about $67K. So if you can judge enthusiasm in Wyoming by where the people are putting their money, Trauner is in good shape for November. That, combined with the baseline poll Research 2000 conducted in May, means that Dick Cheney's old seat could most definitely be in danger of turning Blue.

In the really green part of Oregon, Gordon Smith has a long tradition of presenting himself as the moderate, anti-drilling, good guy. In fact, one of his infamous ads in which he tries to pretend he's been endorsed by Obama, trumpets

"Who says Gordon Smith helped lead the fight for better gas mileage and a cleaner environment? Barack Obama!"

Clean environment? Tell that to the Oregon Department of Environmental Equality, not to mention the folks in Weston, OR.

For the second time in about a year, wastewater from the frozen-foods plant owned and operated in Eastern Oregon by the family of U.S. Sen Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) overflowed into a nearby creek in violation of state environmental regulations....

Smith Frozen Foods has a long history of wastewater violations.... According to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, an employee of Smith Frozen Foods contacted the state agency on July 29 (while the plant was processing corn) to report an overflow from the company's wastewater lagoon that "resulted in a milky discharge to Pine Creek."

...[T]he incident is considered a serious "Class 1" violation, meaning it "can harm aquatic life, contaminate drinking waters, and impair recreational, commercial and agricultural uses of water."...

On July 30, 2007, at the height of last year's corn season, Smith Frozen Foods had a similar violation. That violation resulted in a $3,000 fine — a small sum compared with the $25,000 DEQ fine in 1992 for another infraction. Between those two events, Smith Frozen Foods has been cited or fined by the DEQ more than a handful times.

After one of those fines in the early 1990s, Smith received $766,000 in state and federal grants to bring his plant into compliance with environmental regs. And then he had the gall to run his first, losing campaign against Wyden on "the principles of less government and unfettered free enterprise."

The most recent spill (there have been six or seven in the past 15 years) is hardly the same scope as the massive fish kill of 2002 that Smith helped engineer with Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, an environmental and economic disaster that killed over 60,000 fish, including naturally raised Chinook and endangered Coho salmon.

But it does put the lie to Smith's claim that he's a friend to the environment. And it's one of the reasons Oregon's environmental and conservation communities are lining up behind Jeff Merkley.

They sure have to do a lot of clarifying in the McCain campaign, don't they?

McCain set off a firestorm last week when he suggested that the 86 year old agreement that allocates the scarce resource of the Colorado River among the seven states of the Colorado Basin "obviously needs to be renegotiated" because of "new realities of high growth, of greater demands on a scarcer resource," he didn't mean it should, you know, be renegotiated, really, to make sure that the high growth states of California, Nevada, and Arizona got more of that scarce resource. But that's sure how it sounded to the people of Colorado.

So here comes the McCain campaign with what he "really" meant:

Tom Kise, the McCain campaign's Colorado spokesman, said McCain was not proposing that the 2007 agreement be reopened or any immediate talks on the compact.

"He's talking about ongoing conversations, conversations that happen this year, next year, 10, 20, 30 years down the road," Kise said.

Kise said McCain knows global warming is changing water conditions in the West, and that means the states need to talk. "As long as water is going to be an issue in the West, there should be an open conversation among all parties," Kise said.

Ah, so the states need to talk, that's all he was saying. Only problem is: they have been.

Considering he's a Senator from one of those seven states in the compact, you think he'd have somewhat of a better grasp of the actual policy making on the issue in his state. See, the seven states' governors came together last year to address current changing water conditions. In fact, they came up with an agreement:

The agreement was signed April 23 in Las Vegas by representatives of the Colorado River basin states of Colorado, Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The agreement proposes reducing deliveries of Colorado River water to Arizona and Nevada when storage in Lake Mead drops below certain set levels, thus reducing the risk of shortages in Colorado. The agreement would reduce the risk of shortages in the lower Colorado River by coordinating Hoover and Glen Canyon dam operations. The agreement also proposes a system for storing in Lake Mead water saved through conservation efforts or the development of new water sources.

In addition to resolving current Colorado River disputes, the agreement reduces the likelihood of future litigation among the seven Colorado River basin states by encouraging cooperation and consultation between the states. "Litigation pitting state against state over the Colorado River would cost taxpayers millions, and the likely result would not please anyone," said Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. "Thanks to the hard work of the parties involved, we can now work with - not against - other states to resolve our water disputes."

Into the middle of all this stumbles McCain, ignoring--or completely ignorant of--the fact that the seven governors (including California's, Nevada's, and Arizona's) decided that those states needed to work on how to find some of their own water, ignoring the fact that this was a complex and difficult set of negotiations.

Between this and his long support of using Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dump, McCain's shown that he's pretty much completely out of touch with what is going on in the West. He's just not much of a westerner anymore.

It seems like Republican House members have decided that they'll have a better chance at reelection if they don't remind voters back home of their existence. We've seen it during this August recess while they flocked to the floor to play at being Congressmembers over drilling instead of hanging out in their districts having to deal with real constituents and real issues.

Now they've announced that they want to stay in DC all fall if that's what it will take to get a drilling bill through.

House Republicans said Monday they would refuse to consider any energy bill that came straight to the floor from the Democratic leadership’s offices, rather than working its way through committee markups — a process that can take weeks or months.

Granted, there's safety in numbers, and they like each other better than anybody else--particularly their constituents -- like them. But this would suggest they really are afraid of voters.

It also suggests that any need to find "compromise" with them on the part of House Democratic leadership is bullshit.

While Darcy Burner is unopposed in her primary election tomorrow, the race will still provide a bit of a preview for November. Washington state has adopted a ridiculous "top-two" primary system, with every candidate listed on the ballot and their party "preference" indicated rather than a real party identification. The top two vote getters from tomorrow's primary will advance on to the general election--in most cases there isn't any question who will be the top two, so the outcome is pretty much already determined. Like I said, ridiculous.

And not particularly popular, with very poor turnout expected, given the lack of suspense. So far, only about 27% of ballots have been returned (Washington has high absentee/mail-in voter participation). Despite the low turnout projected, the primary could still provide a bit of a preview of November.

To that end, getting the vote out for Darcy Burner tomorrow is the campaign's top priority. So folks in Western Washington, if you can help out by volunteering to work on GOTV, contact the Burner campaign to pitch in. And don't forget to vote. Even if it is a silly primary system, it's all we got.

This is the kind of things Republicans only say when they think they're not being recorded.

"But because prices are soaring, the reality is the federal government is raking in a bunch of cash right now on the backs of energy producers."

Those poor, poor energy producers. With all the money we're raking in from them, maybe the energy companies can just pay for that whole war in Iraq. Wasn't that how it was supposed to work, anyway?

• For the third day, bombers have targeted Shiite pilgrims in Karbala, killing as many as six today. Meanwhile, as Greg Mitchell reports, the death toll for U.S. military personnel for the first two weeks of August has topped last month's rate.
• The Justice Department has sent target letters to half a dozen Blackwater security guards. They have initiated a probe into the shootings that killed 17 Iraqis last September.
• A new Pew Research survey breaks down the partisan divide of cable news viewer:

  CNN: 51% Democrats, 18% Republicans, 23% independents
  MSNBC: 45% Democrats, 18% Republicans, 27% independent
  Fox News: 33% Democrats, 39% Republicans, 22% independents

  As Atrios sez, you'd think that might actually lead those cable news programmer to "rethink the 'no liberals allowed on the teevee rule." I'm not going to hold my breath waiting.

• John Amato watches FOX News so you don't have to:

  Neo-Con Man Bill Kristol had one of his weekly ironic moments...
     "...if countries don’t have confidence in our ability to help them, it’s going to be a much more dangerous world."

  Sigh.

• Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt are phenoms, there is absolutely no doubt about it. And congratulations to them both. But this shout out is for Dara Torres. Dara, you're my hero.
• This is very cool.

  Ever wonder what a bear really does in the woods? Scientists finally are answering that question, thanks to some high-tech cameras hooked to an equally high-tech Internet uplink. More important, the solar-powered remote sensors also are helping biologists to catch just the bear they want, when they want.

  The USGS has been deploying remote video cameras in Glacier National Park to monitor grizzlies (update: home page with lots more video). One of their cameras caught amazing video of a wolf interacting with a sow and two cubs. The wolf and the cubs appear to want to play, though mama isn't too keen on the idea. Here's your moment of zen.

  
  

This has been a very bad week for Ted. First there was his sorry fundraising and new evidence against him in his corruption case. Then late in the day yesterday came two more damaging stories.

First, prosecutors released new evidence that there was a quid-pro-quo in his relationship with VECO. While the case is build around the fact that he accepted gifts and failed to disclose them, the new information shows the favors went both ways.

But in new court filings last night, the feds laid out evidence from wiretaps and seized emails to show in detail some favors Stevens allegedly did for the company. Prosecutors made the disclosure in a motion seeking to introduce the information at Stevens' trial set for September.

When Stevens was indicted, the prosecutors were questioned why they weren't making bribery charges and they implied that the statute of limitations had passed, though they didn't say that explicitly. The release of this information, though, does fairly clearly show that this case is about the bribery.

But that wasn't the only bad news for Ted yesterday. In another set of court documents filed Thursday, prosecutors had an e-mail from Stevens to a "Person A," who turned out to be a witness that was to appear before the grand jury.

By mid-May 2007, Stevens learned that Person A had been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in D.C. On May 17, 2007, Stevens sent Person A two emails that discussed Person A's upcoming grand jury testimony. In the first email, Stevens told Person A that "I hope we can work something out to make sure you aren't led astray on this occasion."

In the second, Stevens was more explicit: "don't answer questions you don't KNOW the answers to."

Maybe he thought the Tubes wouldn't keep a record of the Internets he sent to try to influence a witness, something the judge in his case is likely to take a rather dim view of.

Coming Up on Sunday Kos ...

• Devilstower wonders "Who Really Won the Cold War?"
• smintheus explains what "McCain's foreign 'policy' problem" is - that he doesn't have a foreign policy.
• Plutonium Page will discuss the "silent proliferation" of biodefense laboratories in the US after 9/11.

On Thursday, Rasmussen reported a 2 point lead for McCain over Obama in Colorado, 47-45.

If they repolled today, chances are very good that slim gain would be gone. Because there's one thing you do not mess with in Colorado, and that's water.

In an interview yesterday with the Pueblo Chieftan, McCain committed what could amount political suicide in the state by saying that the 1922 water compact negotiated between seven western states should be renegotiated to give Arizona, Nevada, and California (the Lower Basin states) more water. That's unlikely to make Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico (the Upper Basin states) any happier than it's made Colorado.

There's nothing more controversial in the West than water, and the single water issue that is most pressing is what happens as the Colorado drainage continues to experience drought and demand continues to grow. California's water rapaciousness was the issue in 1922 that brought the seven states' governors to negotiate the compact, and California's huge thirst is still the problem. But massive population growth in and around Las Vegas and Phoenix have the Lower Basin states--and the Republican nominee for president--eyeing a greater share of the Colorado.

Reaction in Colorado has been swift and incensed. Here's Ken Salazar:

"Senator McCain's position on opening up the Colorado River Compact is absolutely wrong and would only happen over my dead body," Salazar said. "It's an anathema to the fundamental principles of Colorado's water rights and our compacts."

The senator said that when the state's compacts with the lower basin states were negotiated, everyone knew at the time that those states would grow in population faster than Colorado. As a result, the upper basin states' water rights needed to be protected.

"We did not want California to gobble up all of the water supply on the Colorado River, and they would have done that under the doctrine of equitable apportionment," Salazar said. "In my view the compact is sacrosanct. I will fight tooth and nail to make sure that it is not opened up."

Even Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer had to attack his party's standard bearer on this one:

"Over my cold, dead, political carcass," Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer said.

"The compact is the only protection Colorado has from several more politically powerful downstream states," Schaffer added. "Opening it for renegotiation would be the equivalent of a lamb discussing with a pack of wolves what should be on the dinner menu."

The Denver Post was particularly snarky:

Memo to: John McCain.

From: Five million thirst-crazed Coloradans.

Subject: Forget about winning our nine electoral votes next November. We don't vote for water rustlers in this state; we tar and feather them! ...

As a senator, McCain has long represented a state, Arizona, that would love to steal Colorado's water. But now, he wants our votes. Apparently, nobody bothered to brief the candidate who Paris Hilton called "that wrinkly, white-haired guy" that stealing Colorado's water to benefit Arizona, California and Nevada isn't as popular an idea in Colorado as it is in Arizona, California and Nevada.

And ColoradoPols says McCain just lost Colorado.

There's nine electoral votes in Colorado (the state's unofficial motto: "Whiskey's for drinking, water's for fighting) that are a lot less likely to be swinging in November. It's probably safe to say New Mexico's five aren't going to be up for grabs now, either. It sure as hell isn't going to give McCain California, though it might shore up his chances in his home state. Maybe that's what this was all about after all, trying to make sure he doesn't lose Arizona. Because there isn't any other way to explain it.

• Remember, the surge worked.

  BAGHDAD - Bombers struck Shiite pilgrims Saturday for a third consecutive day, killing six people in the latest in a series of attacks apparently aimed at stoking sectarian tension. The attacks have targeted pilgrims headed for the Shiite city of Karbala, where hundreds of thousands of people have gathered for festivities that culminate Sunday morning.

• July fundraising numbers are in. Obama more than $51 million, McCain $27 million.
• McCain should be happy, though, that he's still got his base.
• The Republican Dream Ticket is one step closer to realization: Bob Ney is out of the halfway house and is a free man.
• The Web ad created by our own cartwrightdale is going viral, picked up today by Juan Cole and Josh Marshall, who says it has the "makings of a killer ad ..."
• This is very cool.

  Companies will build two solar power plants in California that together will put out more than 12 times as much electricity as the largest such plant today, the latest indication that solar energy is starting to achieve significant scale.

  The plants will generate about 800 megawatts of power on sunny days--that's as much as a large coal-burning plant, says the NYT. But I have to admit my favorite part of the article is the correction from the original: "Its panels pivot from east to west to follow the sun over the course of a day — not west to east," as originally reported. Heh.

• Coastal "dead zones" are growing:

  There are now more than 400 known dead zones in coastal waters worldwide, compared to 305 in the 1990s, according to study author Robert Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science....

  Earth's largest dead zone, in the Baltic Sea, experiences oxygen deprivation year-round, the press release said.

  The second largest dead zone surrounds the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico. Despite decades of efforts to clean up U.S. rivers and lakes, high nitrogen levels are currently combining with strong water flow to make that dead zone larger than it has ever been.

  --Plutonium Page

Last month came the news that Obama significantly outraised McCain in Idaho, including in some of the state's most traditionally conservative areas. ID-01 Democratic candidate Walt Minnick has also consistently been outraising the hapless Bill Sali, and Republican Senate candidate Jim Risch has had to loan himself nearly half a million dollars to gain a cash on hand lead over Larry LaRocco.

And now there's more evidence that Idahoans are ready to invest in Democrats.

Here’s a surprising development: The Idaho Election Campaign Fund, for which Idahoans have checked boxes on their state tax returns since 1975 if they want to donate a dollar to a political party of their choice or to a general political campaign fund, this year is giving more money to the Democrats than the Republicans. The checks, which will be handed over to the parties in a ceremony tomorrow, total $35,540 for the Democrats and $30,891 for the Republicans. The Libertarian Party will collect $2,854 and the Constitution Party $2,144....

It was the first time since 1994 that the Democrats have collected more than the Republicans from the checkoff fund. Interestingly, the Democrats routinely collected more than the Republicans in the early years of the fund, but that turned around in 1982. The Democrats regained a slight edge in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, but the Republicans took the lead from 1996 on, and in 2000 hit their widest margin when they collected $58,691 to the Democrats’ $43,068.

One party rule for the past decade and a half hasn't done much to advance Idaho's interests, particularly when those Republicans are the national embarrassments Larry Craig and Bill Sali. But it's more than just being tired of the mortification that kind of representation brings--Idahoans want change just as much as the rest of America. As Jim Hansen, director of the IDP said

"This reflects a sea-change in political attitudes across the state, a reversal of fortune for the party that best reflects the people’s desire for a better country and a better state.... When so many Idahoans fill out their tax forms and designated $1 to the Idaho Democrats, it means more people feel a kinship with our values of protecting Idaho’s unique way of life and standing up for the middle class. . . . . The pundits may still see red when they look at Idaho, but the ordinary taxpayers of Idaho are turning it blue, one dollar at a time."

On the Web:
Minnick for Congress
LaRocco for Senate

Josh on Saakashvili:

It seems Georgian President Saakashvili's tear of international showboating continues unabated. In a press conference with Secretary Rice currently being televised he is claiming that Europe is to blame for the Russian invasion because of the failure to grant NATO entry to Georgia. This is followed by some odd arguments about why Georgia didn't at the least give Russia a robust pretext by launching into South Ossetia last weekend. It's Czechoslovakia (1938 & 1968), Poland, Kuwait, Afghanistan and several other crises of the past rolled into one and we don't greet this like standing up to Hitler and Stalin our honor is lost today and our freedom tomorrow.

Given that Russia's military intervention was at the very least provocative, and at the worst, a gross overreaction, what the hell kind of message are we sending by having Condi Rice (who finally decided to end her vacation and do something) stand up with Saakashvili and backing up Bush's rattling of the anti-Russian sabre?

"We support Georgia's sovereignty, we support its independence, we support its territorial integrity, we support its democracy and its democratically elected government," Rice said....

In Washington, President Bush on Friday chided Russia for Cold War-style behavior, saying, "Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century."

Bush said the United States stands "with the people of Georgia and their democratically elected government." He said the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity "must be respected."

"We will not cast them aside," he said.

Bush said Russia's invasion of Georgia in recent days has "damaged its credibility."

"Russia must respect the freedom of its neighbors," Bush said, calling Georgia a "courageous democracy."

All in what appears to be an attempt to shore up McCain's presidential prospects and to join him in his irresponsible pronouncements on the conflict. The ironies in Bush's condemnation aside, this coming on the heels of the agreement with Poland to station US missiles there, leading to this:

A senior Russian general warned Poland today that it was leaving itself open to retaliation - and possibly even a nuclear strike - by agreeing to host a US missile base.

General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Russian armed forces' deputy chief of staff, issued the extraordinary threat in an interview with Interfax, a Russian news agency.

"Poland, by deploying [the system] is exposing itself to a strike - 100 per cent," he was quoted as saying, before explaining that Russian military doctrine sanctioned the use of nuclear weapons "against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them".

Excellent. Just excellent. Good job, BushCo.

Bill Sali just makes it far too easy for us.

In a meeting in his Capitol Hill office, Sali reportedly told a candidate for Idaho’s House of Representatives, Byron Yankey, that there "‘could be up to 40 barrels of oil‘ in a single tree." Yankey wrote on his campaign blog:

Congressman Sali informed us that a solution to the high price of gasoline was to make petroleum from "all those trees in our forests." ... He continued by saying there "could be up to 40 barrels of oil" in a single tree.

Sali made a similar comment in 2006:

"Forty percent of the mass of every tree in the forest is crude oil," he said. Going after that, he said, "could put Idaho in the oil business for the first time."

Carrying on the grand tradition of "Congressman" Helen Chenoweth, who famously declared Idaho's wild salmon couldn't be endangered because there was plenty of canned salmon to be found at the grocery store. Not to mention Ronald Reagan. Maybe they're on to something, maybe the oil is where all that pollution the trees cause is coming from.

Please, Idaho, make all us expats proud. Dump Sali, give us Minnick.

Update: Sali's spokesman (unclear whether he's wearing his congressional or campaign hat) gives a sort of denial to TPM:

"I wasn't there," spokesman Wayne Hoffman told Election Central, "but I can assure you he didn't say there's 40 barrels of oil in a tree."

It's been noted that Sali said something virtually identical in 2006, when he was quoted by the Spokane Spokesman-Review saying that "Forty percent of the mass of every tree in the forest is crude oil."

Hoffman told us that the 2006 quote was "out of context."

How he can be so certain of something that occurred when he wasn't present is unclear, but that's his story.

• McCain on Gitmo: "one of the nicest places in the world to live in."
• Bush has backed down from threatened sanctions against states which provide SCHIP benefits for children in families above the threshold set by the administration. California, New Jersey and New York filed lawsuits against the administration over the issue.
• Pakistan's president Musharraf appears to be considering resignation in order to avoide facing impeachment or criminal charges.
• Isn't this sweet? McCain and Phil "nation of whiners" Gramm are BFFs, again, and Gramm's apparently back on the list of official supporters. He's raising money for McCain, anyway.
• While the House Republicans continue to play Congress over the energy crisis, four Democratic Senators--Maria Cantwell of Washington, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Bill Nelson of Florida and Ron Wyden of Oregon--are calling on the IG of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to get to the bottom of high oil prices. They've requested the IG to investigate a study released by the futures market regulator that concluded speculators are not to blame for high oil prices.  

  In particular, the lawmakers called the interim report's timing "suspicious." The report was released in July just a few days before the Senate voted on a bill aimed at reining in excessive speculation in futures markets.

• How fast is your Internet? The Communication Workers of America released their second annual state-by-state Internet speed report, finding "the average U.S. Internet speed was 2.3 megabits per second (mbps), representing a minimal gain of 0.4 mbps over last year's average speed. At this rate, it will take us more than a hundred years to catch up to Japan, where average speeds are estimated at 63 mbps."  The fastest states were Rhode Island, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts, while the slowest speeds were in rural states: Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska.
• ID-01: Sali's little ethical issue of having his congressional press secretary also provide the face of his campaign is reaping fantastic journalistic benefits for the Idaho Press Tribune, which editorialized on the issue last weekend. That editorial prompted said spokesman, Wayne Hoffman, to accuse the paper of libel. Which prompted the IPT to create a blog to explain to him the difference between opinion and libel. Which in turn brought one of the looniest guest editorials, from Hoffman, ever to see the light of newsprint. The highlight:

  ". . . the Press-Tribune has, regrettably, joined the chorus of shrill news lemmings all marching willingly to a sea of liberalism, filth and innuendo."

  Ah, fun times. H/T Ridenbaugh Press.

• Mars, bitches! The Phoenix lander has sent back the very first image we've seen of Martian dust.
• Want to go to the RNC Convention? The UpTake is making it easier, providing a New Media Space for "a safe, comfortable place for journalists to work, meet and relax during the convention," with all the comforts of home. Provided home is 300 yeards from the convention center and has dedicated T-1 lines.
• Don't forget if you are in the Bay Area, you can attend Markos's book release party/Netroots Nation fundraiser next Wednesday. Details at that link. There's also a Facebook page for the event.

There's bad news and worse news for Stevens today. First, candidates had to file fundraising reports for the August 26th primary. Orange to Blue challenger Mark Begich  outraised Ted Stevens $412,549.02 to $269,274.00.

That's the bad news. This is the worse news, worse if you're Stevens, that is. Via the Anchorage Daily News, federal prosecutors have released more information they intend to use as evidence in his upcoming trial.

New information filed late Thursday by federal prosecutors says Sen. Ted Stevens made more than $100,000 in profit off a Florida real estate deal after a friend secretly loaned him $31,000 interest-free to buy a condominium....

Stevens failed to report the personal loan in the condo deal when he filed his 2001 Senate financial disclosure forms, prosecutors said in their motion.

Court filings filed late Thursday also reveal other new evidence that prosecutors intend to use to prove Stevens didn't just make innocent paperwork mistakes when he failed to disclose the value of Veco's renovations to his Girdwood home.

They say he also failed to disclose that Bill Allen, the former Veco CEO, installed a backup generator -- at Stevens' home and at the senator's request -- that Stevens never paid for....

There are "multiple instances of Allen providing, at Stevens' request, things of value to benefit two of Stevens' children and one of Stevens' grandchildren," proseuctors say.

Prosecutors said other evidence they plan to introduce will include "communications between Stevens and a personal friend that demonstrates Stevens' consciousness of guilt."

Meanwhile, Stevens' lawyers are arguing that the case against him is unconstitutional and are demanding that the charges against him be dropped. We'll see how that goes for them.

Here's a message from James Roosevelt Jr., grandson of President Roosevelt, courtesy the DNC:

Transcript:

"It's hard to remember now, but before Social Security, nearly half of America's seniors lived in poverty. After a lifetime of playing by the rules and working hard, there was no guarantee of a secure retirement.

"My grandfather, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and a majority of Americans thought that was wrong.

"They believed that lifting our seniors out of poverty is a reflection of our nation's core values.

"That's why my grandfather signed the Social Security act seventy three years ago today. One of the great successes of the 20th Century, today Social Security lifts nearly 13 million seniors and 1.3 million children out of poverty.  

"Back in 1935, a small minority did not share those values. They opposed the creation of Social Security because they believed that government should not have a role in ensuring a retirement with dignity or helping seniors stay out of poverty. They said, "You're on your own".

"John McCain agrees with that old way of thinking. Like President Bush, he wants to privatize our Social Security, turning it into a gamble with our futures, and making 8.6 million American seniors vulnerable to poverty.  John McCain has even said Social Security is "a disgrace".

"I couldn't disagree more.

"Our Social Security isn't a disgrace; it's a compact, a trust between generations of Americans. It's a reflection of our values.

"On the 70th anniversary of Social Security, Americans stood together and said no to George Bush's attempt to privatize Social Security.

"On this anniversary, let's make sure John McCain hears the same message. Tell John McCain to keep his hands off of our Social Security."

Here's part of Obama's statement marking the day.

On this anniversary of Social Security, let’s reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that Social Security remains a safety net that seniors can count on today, tomorrow, and always. It is impossible to fully measure Social Security’s value for its recipients, as well as for those who look after and love them. Nearly 13 million seniors depend on it each month to keep from falling into poverty, and millions more depend on survivor and disability benefits to protect their retirement.

As President, I will protect Social Security for today’s seniors and future generations. That means strengthening Social Security’s solvency while protecting middle class families from benefit cuts, tax increases or increases in the retirement age. It means treating Social Security not as a political football or describing it as an “absolute disgrace,” but instead honoring it as the cornerstone of the social compact in this country. And it means opposing efforts to privatize Social Security, as I did when President Bush proposed risky private accounts a few years ago....

John McCain apparently hasn't released a statement, which isn't a great surprise since he doesn't seem to have a consistent position:

In the space of one week, he opened the door to an increase in Social Security taxes, denied he would raise payroll taxes and then, through an ally, called a tax increase a “dumb idea.” He has also sowed confusion about whether he favors privatizing Social Security, or continuing with the current system.

Nor has McCain backed away from his ridiculous statement that Social Security is "an absolute disgrace." Of course, he's still happily collecting his benefits, $24,000 last year, to be exact.

Bill Sali, the gift that just keeps on giving.

First, despite repeated efforts, he just can't get the hang of FEC reports, and it's not just the Idaho bloggers having fun with it. Now Comedy Central has joined in, describing Sali's difficulty with that "Strange Magic Typewriter" that is causing so much confusion.

Sali's office has apparently had financial disclosure problems since for a while now. Since at least 2005. But, you know, they always have really good excuses...

   * Couldn't figure out how to make the smiley face with the parenthesis

   * Tried to upload FEC report through Facebook, but it was down

   * Office network was inflicted by some sort of porn spam/virus

   * Dog was home sick and spilled coffee on the hard drive

   * Madden '09 just released

Add to Sali's inability to just make that damned computer work the little issue that arose today. Turns out that neither his campaign NOR his congressional district office are in the district he, you know, represents.

But it gets even better. This weekend, the Idaho Press Tribune editorialized the myriad ways in which Sali's whole operation is a bit of a trainweck, honing in particularly on the fact that the "mastermind" behind Bill Sali, his campaign spokesman, also happens to be his congressional spokesman.

The dual employ of Hoffman as an official spokesman for Sali’s congressional office and as his campaign spokesman is unusual and inappropriate.

Hoffman says he can keep his jobs separate by using different phones and stepping out of the congressman’s office to deal with campaign-related calls.

It’s a shell game. The truth is, if he’s handling campaign matters, he’s not available at that time to answer questions in his official capacity as a spokesman for the office. Sali’s decision to let Hoffman wear two hats essentially means that taxpayers pay for his campaign press secretary and he doesn’t have to cover another salary out of his campaign coffers.

These issues raise questions about the management of the congressman’s office, his decision-making ability and even his ethics. In order to have Idahoans’ trust, he needs to get his operation in order.

To which Hoffman replied:

"They took the entire matter out of context in my mind, and I worked for the Press-Tribune for four years," he said. "It borders on libel."

I don't think that word "libel" means what Hoffman thinks it means. Neither does the Idaho Press Tribune, one of the state's most staunchly conservative papers. They're so worked up about it, they decided to do something drastic:

We've wanted to start up an editors' blog for quite some time, but it's always been pushed to the back burner. Not any more. This is our official launch, and you can thank Wayne Hoffman for that.

When you've got pundits and bloggers, locally and nationally, bantering about your paper, and you've got a seasoned public relations person who cries "libel," it's time to speak up.

I suspect we're going to be seeing quite a bit more scrutiny of Sali in at least one Idaho paper now. Maybe there can also be a bit of scrutiny fro the House ethics committee, because it seems like Sali and Hoffman don't have too solid a grasp on that whole ethics rule the Congress has about congressional employees conducting campaign business. Not that the "rules" mean anything to Sali and Hoffman. But at least they're good for a joke or two this election season. It's just too bad Idaho has to be stuck with them.