The discovery of time travel would make it possible to bring our founding fathers to this time from 1776.  The shock of the world's appearance might kill them.  The strong ones that survived would then endure wave after wave of horrible revelations about our entire existence.  If some strong men among them still retained sanity after that, then what would they say about their discoveries?

The idea doesn't work, does it?  Even basic interstellar travel eludes us, much less reversing the course of time.  Fans of Primary will be quick to point out the discovery could come accidentally, in a heartbeat.  For the fans who don't buy it, that idea remains a fairy tale.  This diary isn't about time travel, however.  It's about how our departed ancestors would feel about our nation today.

My grandfather would have organized armed resistance to this administration.  Yes, that phrase was "armed resistance."  My father would be in New Zealand by now.  Here's a toast to the dearly departed:  "Rest in peace, and God bless you.  I'm glad you missed all this."

More after the flip.

I got back from the park a little bit ago.  I was at our city's 4th of July festival registering voters.  One of our Democratic candidates for State Assembly was there and, you know, if he had been the first Democrat I ever met I would have walked away hating Democrats.

First, he complained that there were too many 4th of July celebrations in the county.  He said he thought they should just have one celebration in the county seed because it is too hard for the candidates to get to all the people.  Funny, I didn't realize the 4th of July celebrations were about the candidates.

Then he went out to pass out his literature.  He was gone about 15 minutes and came stomping back like a two-year-old.  He proclaimed that he wasn't going to walk around anymore because it was a "waste of time" because "half these people aren't even registered anyway."  Mind you, we had clipboards with voter registration forms at the booth.

But you know what really bugged me?  He got on a soap box about healthcare and then actually said that if a patient does not follow the doctor's orders exactly they should be allowed to kick them off the healthcare plan and refuse to treat them anymore.  The fu..?

Gordon Smith has his story, and he's sticking to it, no matter that it's, well, a lie.

A few weeks ago, I posted on Gordon Smith's deceptive ad, in which he tried to claim that he was just like Barack Obama. He's a little like Charlie Crist who becomes completely heterosexual just before every election, but Gordon Smith miraculously becomes a Democrat before every election.

Local news programs have called him on it more than once. The latest is from a Eugene station, in which Smith once again claims the mantle of Obama-ism for his own.

This appears to be the Obama press release Smith is saying proves that he's just like the Democratic nominee for President.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Richard G. Lugar (R-IN), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) today introduced legislation that would reduce U.S. gasoline consumption by nearly half a trillion gallons by 2028 and greatly decrease our dependence on foreign oil.

Yup, Smith really is singled out there, isn't he. He's in pretty good WINO company there, with Lugar who can never quite make up his mind to actually vote against the president, and Coleman, who's just as desperate to keep his day job as Smith.

Here's a reminder for Oregon voters, and especially for Gordon Smith:

Here's the Obama campaign's response to the ad:

"Barack Obama has a long record of bipartisan accomplishment and we appreciate that it is respected by his Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate. But in this race, Oregonians should know that Barack Obama supports Jeff Merkley for Senate. Merkley will help Obama bring about the fundamental change we need in Washington," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

And when he was actually in Oregon in May, here's what he had to say about Gordon Smith:

"Gordon Smith's problem is that he rarely breaks away from George Bush and the Republican agenda that I think has done this country great damage."

Just to set the record straight. The actual Democrat in the race is Jeff Merkley, who also happened to post here today on his opposition to the FISA bill.

Race tracker wiki: OR-Sen

You know your legal problems are bad, when you're spending more on your campaign manager's legal fees than he makes, and more than you're spending on campaign polling despite facing the two toughest challengers you've seen in nearly twenty years.

With an election-year corruption investigation looming, Rep. Don Young has tapped his campaign war chest to pay not only his own million-dollar legal tab but also to hire lawyers for his campaign manager, who is also under FBI scrutiny.

The Alaska Republican spent more than $35,000 between October 2007 and April on lawyers for longtime campaign manager Steven Dougherty. That's more than Dougherty himself made during that period and nearly as much as the campaign spent on political polling, according to campaign finance reports.

It's fortunate that Young has amassed such a formidable war chest over the years, as his campaign coffers are taxed on three fronts now. One, of course, is keeping him in Congress.

One is keeping him out of prison.

And the third, apparently, is keeping his cronies out of prison with him.

The payments, which are legal under federal law as long as they are associated with the candidate's official duties, are another indication of how the FBI investigation has become a drag on the congressman. Instead of coasting to a 19th term, Young is shelling out money to pay his bills and Dougherty's even as he faces a well-funded opponent in August's Republican primary.

The best part is, he's spending all his campaign money to defend himself from an investigation into, yup, his fundraising practices.

Young and Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens are under scrutiny for their relationship with VECO Corp. executives, who have admitted bribing Alaska lawmakers to push legislation favorable to their oil field services company. VECO executives were, until recently, Young's largest contributor and hosted an annual pig roast fundraiser for him.

He's on the hook for over $1 million in legal fees so far, so I hope it was all worth it.

Young still has not been charged; nor has Dougherty, or Senator Ted Stevens, who is also under federal investigation.

Race tracker wiki: AK-AL

My anger at this point is at an all-time high. The MSM is sooooo ready to try and tie this thing to have an exciting race that they have all together abandon their role as just news and is reporting all kinds of shit. The PUMA, pro-Clinton, folk was a fucking right out lie. The Obama dissing a kid story, just a fucking straight out lie. The entire Obama moving to the center hit-piece is a straight up lie. FISA is a real deal. Thats it. McSame broke the pledge for campaign finance period. And now, this fucking bull-shit about Iraq time tables is..... Look, I know that a lot of you are mad as shit at Obama for FISA, so be it. But are we really gonna sit back and let the MSM do this shit to us a-fucking-gain? Look at this bullshit hit job on Obama on CNN.

More.........

Senator Obama, your words;

" Your organizing, your activism and your passion is an important reason why this bill is better than previous versions. No tool has been more important in focusing peoples' attention on the abuses of executive power in this Administration than the active and sustained engagement of American citizens. That holds true -- not just on wiretapping, but on a range of issues where Washington has let the American people down.

More after the bump

In April, as they were being buried under a flood of some 310,000 new Democratic voter registrations in Pennsylvania, state Republican leaders promised a major effort to win back voters after the primary.

But according to Pennsylvania Republican Committee Spokesman Michael Barley, the GOP will mount a "pretty aggressive voter registration effort right after the primary," to get those who have switched sides back into the Republican fold.

Republicans predicted success.

[Republican] party officials believe they can get as much as 40 percent of those who left this year back into the Republican fold after they’ve voted in the primary.

Not only did voters not return, Republicans haven't even mounted the effort they promised. Now they're talking about getting around to it some time this summer. Derrick Nunnally of the Inky reports:

In several counties, Republicans are just beginning to move to try to recapture lost ground...

In Bucks County...GOP leaders haven't yet begun a planned effort to shepherd home their lost sheep.

"We haven't pushed yet to send out letters and talk to them," said Harry Fawkes, Bucks County's Republican chairman for 36 years. "A lot of them, we're hoping, will come back. I can't predict it. We're going to try to do it."

Can't you just feel the enthusiasm? Scott Kraus reported in the Morning Call on June 28 (no link) that the state GOP is adrift:

In Montgomery County...a highly promoted GOP website set up to win back wayward Republicans disappeared after a change in party leadership...

"We do feel that within the summer months and as we get closer to the presidential election, and more volunteers come out, that is a big effort we will be pushing," Barley said.

As Republicans wait for volunteers who aren't showing up, the imbalance in party registrations quickly grows even greater. Between the April primary and the end of June, some 47,000 voters have registered as Democrats. In the same period, Republicans lost about 2,000 registrations.

The following counties (all but one in the south east) have added more than 3,000 new Dem voters: Allegheny, Philadelphia, Montgomery, Berks and Delaware. The gains in Bucks and Lehigh counties were not far behind.

Remember back in April when Republicans tried to dismiss the Democratic tidal wave as an artifact of Rush Limbaugh's gravitational attraction? Well, nowadays they're exploring other excuses.

"I'm just not sure that people consider registration as important as in the past," said Bob Asher, the longtime state Republican power broker. "There's just a lot more people that vote more of an independent streak and not necessarily a straight party, so they don't really feel that's important."...

The tide of Democratic registrations in the Philadelphia suburbs has not been matched by new independent or third-party registrations, suggesting that the change may be decidedly partisan. Montgomery County, for example, has gained about 1,000 more Democrats since April 22 than it has independent and third-party registrants combined.

Nobody but Republican leaders seem to be buying the argument that party registration no longer matters. The Morning Call (no link) quotes pollster Chris Borick on this talking point:

[Borick] said the continued Republican voter erosion shouldn't be shrugged off. The post-primary registration numbers continue a damaging two-year trend for the GOP.

Switching voters "have done this for a reason," Borick said. "That might be a broader statement of dissatisfaction with the Republican Party, the leadership and the [Iraq] war, but whatever it is, these people have taken the time to redefine themselves. I don't take that lightly."

Neither do Republican leaders in PA, you can be sure, otherwise they wouldn't be trying so hard to spin the bad news. So it's all the more remarkable that they've been unable even to begin to address their problems.

I am voting for Barack Obama.  It will be the first vote I ever cast as an American citizen and it will be done so with all the pride and honor a human being could possibly feel.  This entry is my story.  It represents what is most beautiful about this country, and the supreme importance of not taking that beauty for granted.  I hope that by telling it, I can inspire you to be a better American.

Environmentalism is not an upper-income issue, it's not a white issue, it's not a black issue, it's not a South or a North or an East or a West issue. It's an issue that all of us have a stake in - Barack Obama

Contrary to reports of my untimely demise I am still here I just have been having problems coming up with stuff to write about. I've written a lot of diaries on Obama's platform but there is one issue that I have not written about much. And it's a very, very important issue. A little something called our environment. Barack Obama has been a champion of the environment for a long time. In this diary I will take a look at his background on this issue and plans for moving our country and environment forward.

Welcome back for more veep speculation! Last thread we considered the top military veteran candidates to be Obama's v.p. Averaging in those votes yielded the same top 14 average vote-getters overall as the thread before that, so we'll consider them again in today's poll.

I'm still alternating "break-out" polls with the top 14 average vote-getting candidates in these threads' polls, averaging in each day's votes as we go. I'm going to do the top possibilities experienced with foreign policy/national security issues and governors/former governors before cutting 14 names to narrow the field to just two tiers--that's if Obama hasn't decided by then, of course. I'll reset the averages then, too. So that would be three or four more threads away from today.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The correct format would be to simply state their name, unless you have further comments, in which case, "I believe ___ ___ should be Obama's v.p. running mate because..." "Oh my God, where's Johnny/Jane Politician?!" would be a bit alarmist, don't you think? I'm sure they're fine. I'm happy to hear all ideas, and of course I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

This is a flood of delicious news. A flood.

Here are the Cook Political Report's latest race ranking changes.  

From "Solid Republican" to "Likely Republican":

AL-03, Mike Rogers
CA-46, Dana Rohrabacher
FL-09, Gus Bilirakis
FL-18, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
ID-01, Bill Sali
IN-03, Mark Souder
IA-04, Tom Latham
KY-02, Ron Lewis (open seat)
MN-02, John Kline
NE-02, Lee Terry
NV-02, Dean Heller
NJ-05, Scott Garrett
NC-10, Patrick McHenry
OH-07, Dave Hobson (open seat)
PA-05, John Peterson (open seat
PA-15, Charlie Dent
TX-07, John Culberson
TX-10, Michael McCaul
VA-05, Virgil Goode
VA-10, Frank Wolf
WY-AL, Barbara Cubin (open seat)

From Likely Republican to Lean Republican:

FL-08, Ric Keller
FL-21, Lincoln Diaz-Balart
PA-03, Phil English
WV-02, Shelley Moore Capito

From Toss Up to Lean Democratic:

NY-13, Vito Fossella (open seat)
NY-25, Jim Walsh (open seat)

From Likely Democratic to Lean Democratic:

PA-11, Paul Kanjorski

Wow.

That's an astonishing number of changes, first of all, but I'm equally amazed by the particular districts on this list. Most of the rating changes involve long-shot flanking races, the kind of races that would never be competitive in normal years, but happen to have unusually strong Democrats running this year, in an unusually favorable climate for Democrats. Some of these districts - like ID-01, IN-03, KY-02, NC-10, and TX-07 - are just wildly Republican, and many of them didn't even feature competitive races in 2006.

Many of those races added to the "Likely Republican" category won't be especially competitive this fall. But some of them will, and a few might even be Democratic pickups.

Even if it's just for this cycle, in the perfect storm of 2008, Democrats are making inroads into areas they have written off for years. The world is grown so good, it seems, that we are making prey where angels have long feared to tread.

Today Barack Obama wrote:

This was not an easy call for me... It grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that may have violated the law by cooperating with the Bush Administration's program of warrantless wiretapping. This potentially weakens the deterrent effect of the law and removes an important tool for the American people to demand accountability for past abuses. That's why I support striking Title II from the bill, and will work with Chris Dodd, Jeff Bingaman and others in an effort to remove this provision in the Senate.

Yet today Markos was a blockhead when he wrote:

Bottom line is that Obama wants to cave on FISA not because of "moving to the center" concerns, but because they are afraid of television ads claiming Obama is inviting terrorists over for BBQ.

Really, did he email you that, because he did send us a message you know...

Here we go again.  It is not sufficient that the Enviro-types sabotaged Gore in Florida because on one single issue (something to do with an air-strip) he fudged a bit.  Now the so-called liberal blogosphere must brand and tag Obama with the same right-wing talking points that the corporate media is gleefully using against him, because he weighs things differently on one single piece of legislation.  All because a couple of telecom companies might get away with cooperating with the heavy hand of the Government, at a time when even otherwise intrepid journalists such as Dan Rather confess to feeling overcome by both a misplaced sense of patriotism and fear.

Will we ever learn?  Do the purity hounds on the left actually care about the people we are supposed to be looking out for?  (Helpful hint: people whose wages have not risen in decades and people who do not even have that luxury of non-increasing wages.)

After listening to a 10 minute rant on MSNBC where they basically played two obama quotes back to back that said the exact same thing in different words and them have them characterize it as a flip-flop, I figured I'd come here to see them getting chewed out...but no.

I've gotten a million media requests lately to talk about Obama's "move to the center". Exhibit A for that conventional wisdom is Obama's capitulation on FISA.

As I've made clear to those reporters, there's nothing "centrist" about the FISA vote. There's nothing liberal or conservative about protecting the constitution. And given libertarians and liberals are both for keeping the Constitution out of the shredder, it's hard to pretend the issue sits on the simplistic left-right axis.

Bottom line is that Obama wants to cave on FISA not because of "moving to the center" concerns, but because they are afraid of television ads claiming Obama is inviting terrorists over for BBQ. It's the same crappy-style ads that failed miserably in the IL-14 special election (and Foster went on to vote against the FISA capitulation) and have gotten little traction this year. But the Obama campaign thinks that by capitulating, it'll "take the issue off the table", as if Republicans need any excuse to accuse Democrats of being weak on terror.

"Taking the issue off the table" led Democrats to vote for Bush's disastrous tax cuts, and most still lost that year (like Jean Carnahan and Max Cleland). It led them to vote for Bush's disastrous war, yet that didn't stop Republicans from morphing Cleland into Osama Bin Laden. And of course, no matter how they vote on FISA, Republicans will still accuse Democrats of being weak on terror. It's pretty much the only thing they've got left in their toolbox, no matter how ineffective it has become.

But in any case, Obama's FISA capitulation has nothing to do with "moving to the center", and everything with being afraid of the ads Republicans will run.

But don't expect the media to care. Their media narrative has been set. It ain't going anywhere.

Full Statement Available at:

http://my.barackobama.com/...

"In addition, for the next 30 minutes or so, three members of our policy staff will be in the comments on this post to respond to any questions you have. Danielle Gray is our Deputy National Policy Director, Denis McDonough is a Senior Foreign Policy Advisor, and Ben Rhodes is Foreign Policy Advisor and Senior Speechwriter."

UPDATE:  Seems like the chat time is over with the Obama campaign.  I'm impressed with the responsiveness of the campaign, though they didn't answer anywhere near all the questions that remain out there.

Feel free to continue the discussion below.  I'm out.  Happy 4th.

UPDATE: I know obama.com is not the real website...I just didn't type the long real one in the title.

This will be short as I'm at work and there really isn't much to say. Up until today I was always able to go to the campaign website, to check on news, how many had registered their independence, etc.

Until today. Today, when I go on there it is blocked because it is labeled as a "sex" site according to our blocking software. This strikes me as odd. Could someone have maliciously done something to the site?

I'm not sure who to tell on Team Obama, or whether i'm just crazy, but I thought it was something that should be known as it could result in lots of software blockers keeping young people or people on public computers from viewing the campaign site.

Unfortunately, I can still access the painful John McBush site.

I'm going to make this short.