How can you ‘leak’ an AP photo? 

Left, the National Examiner Feb. 4, 2008

Now it can be told. This truly absurd non-story is actually quite useful as an example of Clinton Rules, which Paul Krugman neatly summed up in February:
Hate Springs Eternal

What’s particularly saddening is the way many Obama supporters seem happy with the application of “Clinton rules” — the term a number of observers use for the way pundits and some news organizations treat any action or statement by the Clintons, no matter how innocuous, as proof of evil intent.
There’s not the slightest shred of evidence that Clinton staff circulated the picture, but it is a fact that it was circulating on right wing sites previously. And even if some local Clinton dweeb in East Buttfuck, Texas, passed it along, nothing as yet links it to anyone with any executive power in the Clinton campaign. So all we have is the word of the notoriously ethical and reliable Matt Drudge. Compare the outrage over the anonymous sources in the New York Times story on McCain’s sleazy side. But when it comes to the Clintons, Drudge gets a complete pass. Read more »

For the record, a truly beautiful moment in American politics. It’s being called a concession speech, and maybe it is. If so, I fervently hope that Barack Obama delivers the goods. I worry that he has some still-undisclosed truly horrible bad stuff that will only come out after he gets the nomination. Maybe I am a simpleton, but I can’t understand why else Republicans like Peggy Noonan would be exhorting Democrats to nominate him.

Despite their smarmy enthusiasm, I think that what Ann Coulter has to say is far more revealing. They are convinced that real Americans won’t vote for a black man named Barack Hussein Obama. I’m sure there was a time when they would have been absolutely right about that. I am definitely not sure that they are right now.

What will George W. Bush’s place in history be? The worst president in United States history? No doubt about that. The man who set in stone the right wing control of the judiciary? Well, we’ll see. The man who did the most to set the stage for either a woman or a black man to become President of the United States? Hey. I’ll hoist a glass to that.

Cheers. It looks as if it’s going to be Denzel Washington (or Martha Stewart) versus Mr. McGoo. Even the blind can see the odds. The only thing we can’t calculate is what Karl Rove has up his sleeve.

Go to original by Time.com Washington Editor Ana Marie Cox on Swampland

Ana Marie Cox has been one of my favorite political commentators since the days when she was running Wonkette. She’s crisp, intelligent and witty. I don’t agree with all of her positions, but I’ve never seen her indulging in the kind of vicious cat-calling that others (insert …. er… Maureen Dowd?) substitute for reasoned analysis. Today, she kind of blew it on the delegates controversy by rushing ahead with spurious material from Politico. She soon corrected herself, though, and generously published an explanation from DNC Press Secretary Stacie Paxton.

It is superfluous to say that this is someone to watch, but I’ll say it anyway. Watch Ana Marie Cox. She’s seems a bit nervous in the webcast above. That’s part of her charm. We need more human beings commenting on politics. She is very definitely human. In our time, what greater praise can we offer? In defending silver android Jimmy Carter against hair dye humanoid Ronald Reagan, Hendrik Hertzberg (then Carter’s chief speech writer, now a New Yorker senior editor) wrote to me in 1980, “He is not insane.” Very true. Times have changed, however. It is no longer enough to be sane. One must be human, too. That is not a trivial task. Let’s hope that Ana Marie is up to it.

“Teeth,” with Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Hale Appleman, Lenny Von Dohlen. Written and directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein. 88 minutes. Rated R for disturbing sequences involving sexuality and violence, language and some drug use. Varsity.

Why they aren’t releasing “Teeth” on Valentine’s Day is a mystery, as it may be the date movie of the year — if you’re a parent. Well, a psychotic parent. OK, if you’re the late radical feminist Andrea Dworkin.

The horror-comedy about a teenage girl with a vagina dentata — translation: teeth in her hoo-hoo — is painfully unwatchable for anyone else.

Growing up in the shadow of a nuclear plant, lovely young Dawn (Jess Weixler) has known from an early age that she has something extra down south. Now in high school, she’s taunted for her “love is worth waiting for” abstinence speeches. Stickers cover female anatomy in her school textbooks. And when she goes on a double-date, the group avoids a PG-13 movie because it might show “heavy making out.”

But hormones are stronger than brainwashing. It isn’t long before Dawn has to deal with the reality of her burgeoning sexuality, with the horror of that mythical killer smile between her legs, and with some overly aggressive males who include her stoner perv stepbrother (John Hensley).

Go to original by Mark Rahner, Seattle Times staff reporter

Glenn Greenwald : “Consider this new daily tracking poll today from Rasumussen Reports . At least according to this poll, it is true that there has been one candidate who has been genuinely surging in the last week or two among Democratic voters nationally — John Edwards:

“Edwards — who, just one week ago, was 10 points behind Obama nationally among Democrats — is now only two points behind him. Less than a month ago, he trailed Clinton by 29 points. Now it’s 13 points. He is, by far, at his high point of support nationwide. Apparently, the more exposure Democratic voters get to Edwards and his campaign positions — and that exposure has been at its high point during his surge — the more they like him. By contrast, Obama is more or less at the same level of support nationally, even having decreased some since his Iowa win (for most of mid-December, he was at 27-28 points).”

While the headline is misleading, this is really sickening. So what if Republicans attack him as being too liberal? The more they scream, the better for him. I’ve been really tolerant about Hillary, but I am reaching my limit. That said, I’d be interested in seeing an analysis of where the top three Democrats stand on the drug war and the prison-industrial complex .

Hillary Hits Obama For Opposing Harsher Prison Sentences

By Thomas B. Edsall

Hillary’s aides point to Obama’s extremely progressive record as a community organizer, state senator and candidate for Congress, his alliances with “left-wing” intellectuals in Chicago’s Hyde Park community, and his liberal voting record on criminal defendants’ rights as subjects for examination.

Along the same lines, ABC reported that Clinton aides gave the network various examples, of Obama’s controversial stands. The aides cited Obama’s past assertion that he would support ending mandatory minimum sentences for federal crimes, pointing to a 2004 statement at an NAACP-sponsored debate: “Mandatory minimums take too much discretion away from judges.”

The Huffington Post has learned that, in a move bound to create controversy, the New York Times is set to announce that Bill Kristol will become a weekly columnist in 2008.

Go to original.

“An Update on the Trial of Bilal Hussein”

Scott Horton at Harpers Magazine has an update for us on the current state of the art in spinning the press.

Aren’t we all glad these things can’t happen here?

That we know of?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. *

*subject to change without notice to citizens

The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.

To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.

Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.

Go to original KDKA Pittsburgh