Permanent link to MTA daily media news

18 Million Cracks (video)
“Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in.  And when you stumble, keep faith.  And when you’re knocked down, get right back up, and never listen to anyone who says you can’t, or shouldn’t, go on.”
Please help Hillary retire her debt.

What Does Hillary Want? (by Katharine Q. Seelye at The Caucus, New York Times)
The most recent New York Times poll puts [Hillary Clinton’s] favorability rating among Democrats at 70 percent and Mr. Obama’s at 66 percent. [Emphasis added.] Now Mr. Obama is struggling in the polls to maintain parity with Senator John McCain.

Ya Know, That’s a Really Good Question (by Alegre)
From an article on Yahoo…  ”At least eight in ten Americans believe the nation is on the wrong track. The Republican president is historically unpopular. From stunning Democratic gains in party registration to the high levels of economic anxiety, Obama should have a healthy lead by almost every measure. Yet, in poll after poll, Obama conspicuously fails to cross the 50 percent threshold.” There’s no excuse for BHO’s anemic numbers against McCain at this point. I don’t know about you, but if I were a Democrat running for office down-ticket to BHO, I’d be mighty worried about his short – or nonexistent coattails here.  I think they know as well as we do that BHO’s inability to close the deal will hurt their chances at winning their own contest.

Are Georgia Voters Sending Obama A Message? (by Daniel Halper, originally published in Commentary magazine on August 6, 2008, reposted at No Quarter)
Politicians grabbing Barack Obama’s coattails should take note: In the Georgia democratic Senatorial primary runoff held [Tuesday], Jim Martin defeated Vernon Jones by a 60% to 40%… Jones’s campaign hoped to emulate Obama’s impressive primary victory in Georgia (he defeated Senator Hillary Clinton in Georgia, 66.4% to 31.1%), but now he’s failed to even make it to November’s ballot.

In fact, Jones distributed campaign paraphernalia consisting of a picture of himself and Obama, with the words “Yes We Can!” prominently scrawled underneath the photographs. Also, Jones sent a mass email meant to smear his opponent Martin: “My campaign has uncovered evidence that my opponent, Jim Martin, did not want Senator Barack Obama to be President of the United States and that Jim Martin voted against Barack Obama in the February 2008 Presidential Primary election in Georgia.“

Deconstructing Hillary (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign appears reluctant to have any sort of roll call vote at the Democratic convention this month. Why? They have no interest in highlighting the narrowness of his victory. This would mean the first Democratic convention without a roll call vote since President Lyndon Johnson ran unopposed for reelection in 1964… At a recent fundraiser in California … Clinton said … “what will happen at the convention in respect to my putting my name into nomination, a roll call vote and the usual kind of process that occurs at conventions… I think that is a very big part of how we actually come out unified.”

Obama’s Delusional Campaign: Seized by Demons in Their Heads (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
On Morning Joe [Thursday, NBC political editor] Chuck Todd said that the “feeling in Chicago,” presumably referring to the Obama campaign, is that Hillary Clinton is seeking treatment that she would never have given Barack Obama had the roles been reversed. If they REALLY believe that, then they are fools. If Hillary Clinton were the nominee, Barack Obama would have been the vice presidential nominee a month ago… Let’s follow their whacked out thinking. They fantasize that Hillary would cut them out and dump on them if she were the nominee. Therefore, it’s legitimate for them to cut her out and dump on her and her supporters. Make sense?
Sounds an awful lot like Republicans.  Especially the Bush people.

A condition of harmony? Or enforced allegiance? (by katiebird at The Confluence)
[T]hey didn’t go for public disagreements in the Soviet Union. They liked a show of unity. Where the “show” was more important than the “unity”. Sound familiar?… Defying all tradition, the Democratic Party led by Barack Obama and Howard Dean have tried to imply that there is something controversial about Hillary’s supporters wanting her name entered in nomination at the convention. Dean has deliberately spread misleading, if not outright lies, about the process for allowing her delegates a real vote in Denver… [W]hat is there to GAIN by shutting her out of the convention ballot? Are we really to pretend – in a year when we have the closest primary season ever – that giving Barack Obama the nomination by acclamation represents the will of rank and file Democrats?… Do they think we won’t notice that something is missing?

Have the Clintons Gotten Over It? (by Karen Tumulty, Time)
In public, Clinton is doing everything she is asked — and then some — to help the man who defeated her get elected to the White House… But behind the united front, says an adviser, “it’s not a great relationship, and it’s probably not going to become one.” In private conversations, associates say, Clinton remains skeptical that Obama can win in the fall… Underlying it all is a feeling on Clinton’s part that Obama has never shown proper regard for a campaign she believes was as historic an achievement as his… Clinton has been giving tacit encouragement to suggestions that her name be placed in nomination at the convention, a symbolic move that would be a reminder of the bruising primary battle.
Whether or not the Clintons reconcile with this poseur, many of us will not.  Not until he gets down on his knees and begs forgiveness for the way he has treated them—and us.  And stops waffling on important issues.  And keeps on refusing to waffle.  It will be a long, slow road to recovery, and only some humility from the Anointed One will pave it.

Bill Clinton to speak at Democratic convention
Former President Clinton will speak at the Democratic National Convention, three sources said Thursday.
Okay, that’s a start.

Bill To Speak at Convention (by Alegre)
Sounds like by giving Bill a chance to speak on Wednesday, [Obama is] trying to short-circuit any sort of meaningful roll call vote. [Emphasis added.]  Ya know we can get around all of these head-games if the Superdelegates would just back the grown-up in this race and send up Hillary to go against McCain in the general election.

The Clintons: “A cancer on liberalism” (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
Ed Schultz recently claimed that Hillary Clinton is hurting Barack Obama. The implication: If — when — the Lightbringer loses in November, blame her… Is there any possible way progressives could be more self-destructive? Last time I turned on Air America, I heard a several-minute riff on John McCain’s age. The implication: Everyone over the age of 60 is a senile fool who can’t be trusted to fasten his adult diapers properly. Smart move, guys: Everyone knows that the surest way to win an election is to piss off one of the largest voting blocks. Given the Lightbringer’s anemic poll numbers, you’d think the progressives would finally stop insulting the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party. Nope.

Get the hell out of the Party! No Wait! Support Obama or else! (John: south of Melrose at Liberal Rapture)
The malletheads have already started the “Blame Clinton If Baby Jesus Loses” meme. Check it out if you dare. I am getting far enough away from the Democratic Party to get the joke that they are now…I can’t even get pissed off when they say we are not “Real Democrats” anymore. Not if those bozos are in charge. No I am not. Thanks be to God.

The new Democratic party (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)

Steve Cohen, a very progressive Democrat, holds Harold Ford’s old seat in Tennessee’s 9th district. Cohen is white; the district is mostly African American. He just won a primary race against a black lawyer named Nikki Tinker, who portrayed Cohen as a Klansman and a Jesus-hating Jew. (This, despite the fact that many modern KKK-ers hate Jews even more than they hate blacks.) Tinker obviously believes that black people have a god-given right to be as bigoted as they please… Would Tinker have dared to flaunt her prejudices if Obama and Reverend Wright had not shown how to do it?… When Tinker began spewing racism, Obama refused to condemn such tactics — until election day. As the votes were being cast, and far too late to do Cohen any good, the Lightbringer finally issued a bland statement condemning “incendiary and personal attacks.”

Cocktails at The Scratching Post: August Memories (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
[I]t sure looks like the powers that be would like Hillary’s online fans to sit down and shut up.  The natives are getting restless and they are in a dither… The bottom line, guys, is that this is rapidly spiralling out of the control of the DNC, the media and even Hillary herself.  The 18,000,000 voters will have their say.  We will not get in line.  We want our voices heard at the convention and we have every right to expect that our votes will be honored in a fair, open and transparent way.  So, if any of you were discouraged by the unity pony stuff she was mouthing, don’t be.  The Dean Democrats are getting nervous and confused.  But we aren’t under Hillary’s control.  She is not responsible for what we do and a forced webchat with those of us who are causing them the most grief is going to fail. Crank it up to 11, PUMAs!

Hoo Boy. Now We’re “Those People”. (by campskunk at Alegre’s Corner)
Remember when using the phrases “you people” and “those people” meant a horde of Obamazoid banshees would try to take your head off for being “racist”? Well, those days are over, praise The One™. Dear Leader himself used the term to refer to all those not within the sacred folds of The Movement™. From The Page… “Obama gaggled with reporters on his plane between Minneapolis and Chicago… When asked about reports of angry Hillary supporters, Obama said: ‘We’re not talking to those people and we’re talking to directly to the Clinton campaign people and it has gone seamlessly.’” It’s refreshing to know we’re now “those people”, and that we’re no longer worth talking to. If Obama is stupid enough to believe that talking to Hillary will solve his PUMA problem, this is going to be an much uglier election for him than he ever imagined.

Friday: “THOSE PEOPLE” are *Voters*, Barack (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
Stupid, stupid, stupid.  When you find yourself in a hole, it’s best to stop digging.  We’re not THOSE people,  We’re voters.  Does he consider all of the voters illegitimate or just Hillary’s?  I guess HIS voters are HIS people.  But we in the big states like NJ, NY, CA, MA, AZ, MI, FL, PA, OH and TX don’t really count.  He does not have to speak to us.  He only has to speak to Hillary’s campaign.  Doesn’t he know that Hillary’s campaign is a relatively small operation and THOSE PEOPLE represent 18,000,000 votes?  You’d think with the latest tracking polls shaping up the way they are that he’d be sucking up more to THOSE PEOPLE.  Apparently not. This is the brilliant politician with the bestest judgement in the world?  Seriously?

Captain Howard Dean, the 21st Century Edward John Smith (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
The warning signs are everywhere. Barky Obama has no sense of humor, prickly thin skin, an ego the size of an artic iceberg, and is getting no traction in the [polls]. In fact, the more folks learn about him the less they like him. And this without the Republicans mounting a significant, comprehensive ad campaign to introduce the Chicago Messiah. Anybody out there buying the notion that the Republicans will give Obama a pass come 1 September? Didn’t think so. Howard Dean, unlike the Titanic’s [Captain Edward John] Smith, can see the danger ahead. At least Smith’s crew tried to steer clear of the iceberg once they spotted the threat. But Dean’s crew? Hell no. Full speed ahead. These clowns are going to sunder the Democratic party in the name of a symbolic gesture.

McCain’s aggressive videos have sent his YouTube views soaring (On Politics, USA Today)
Comparing Democratic contender Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears sparked lots of debate over whether that was the right thing for Republican John McCain’s campaign to do. But there’s no disputing the fact that McCain’s Celeb ad, the video his campaign did calling Obama The One and other recent aggressive TV and Web spots have sparked a dramatic increase in visits to the Republican’s YouTube page. The Washington Times reports that “Mr. McCain has beat Mr. Obama’s channel for seven straight days and 11 of the past 14 days, in a signal he intends to compete for the YouTube vote.”

Phallic (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
From Keith Olbermann…: “That not only in that McCain ad were there two underdressed blondes mixed with the black guy in the ad, but there are also images of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Washington Monument, and the Victory Column in Berlin, as Bob Herbert put it, “phallic symbols”—three phallic symbols, two blondes and Barack Obama… [Y]ou know that Olbermann is smart enough not to take this nonsense seriously. Apparently, the Obama camp believes that they can get away with the same crap in the general election that they pulled in the primary: Throw opponents off their game by crying “Racism!” at every opportunity. If someone you don’t like says “Pass the salt,” scream about the racism inherent in the choice of salt. The trick may work with guilt-addled Dems, but in the general, it’ll just piss everyone off.

By the way, a reader asks an interesting question: Is the McCain ad sexist? Using Paris Hilton as a symbol of vapidity amounts to a blond joke. On the other hand, the folks who put the ad together needed a face that instantly conveyed the message “celebrity silliness.” I can’t think of a male celebrity who would do that job. Well, maybe Keith Olbermann.

Paris for president!

Daschle Says Celebrity Ads Working (Political Wire)
Sen. Tom Dashle, a senior adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, told the Financial Times that the recent attack advertisements “comparing the Democratic presidential hopeful to celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton” are to blame for his candidate’s recent dip in the polls. Said Daschle: “To a certain extent the ads are having some effect. But you can’t be thrown off your game plan by a momentary dip in polls.”

Schumer: ‘Hit McCain Harder‘ (Politico)
One of the Democratic Party’s leading electoral street fighters, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, said that Barack Obama should respond to John McCain’s personal attacks with an equally personal slap. “I would not be afraid to attack back,” said Schumer… Obama’s campaign responded to McCain’s barrage by accusing him in television ads and press releases of taking the “low road,” while casting Obama as above such attacks on his opponent’s character. The strategy has produced some questions in Democratic circles as to whether Obama shouldn’t be hitting back more personally – but Obama’s aides argue that the perception that McCain is running a traditional, negative campaign is damaging McCain’s reputation for high-minded independence.
High minded campaign losses, you mean.  That’s what Democrats are good at.

Aloha Barack (by Steve Soto at The Left Coaster)
[A Washington] Post story correctly notes that the Obama campaign has eviscerated the Democratic Party’s capability and infrastructure to run a Tier Two campaign against McCain by its insistence that all contributions go to Obama… So as Team McCain gradually wears down Obama’s favorable ratings during August from a multi-pronged attack that encounters a feeble pushback from just one source, we will all wait for the smart kids inside the Obama campaign to show us all in September and October how wrong we were when they launch their message of hope and change from a position of weakness against a guy who just spent a whole month convincing the independents and wayward Republicans that you are more dangerous than four more years of Bush/Cheney…

Have a good time in Hawaii Senator; I can assure you that while you’ll be vacationing, John McCain will not be, spending the month talking about issues that will decide the election while his surrogates drag you down to his level.

Know-Nothing Politics (by Paul Krugman)
Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid. Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives. What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”…

[T]he state of the energy debate shows that Republicans, despite Mr. Bush’s plunge into record unpopularity and their defeat in 2006, still think that know-nothing politics works. And they may be right. Sad to say, the current drill-and-burn campaign is getting some political traction.
And what does Obama do?  Give in, of course.  He’s changed his positions on offshore drilling and on tapping the national oil reserves, both of which he previously opposed.  Someday, Democrats may actually pop their cerebral bubbles and start to learn how to fight these battles.

STUPIDIFICATION HAS WORKED: (by Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler)
The New York Times’ most famous columnist just couldn’t figure it out. Why would McCain, a man of such honor, be running such a “childish” campaign?… [Maureen Dowd:] “McCain is pea-green with envy,” she brightly divined. Indeed: “That’s the only explanation.” That’s a good example of how balls-out stupid our number-one Antoinette columnist is. Beyond that, it helps show us the shape of the political world we’ve been handed, in the past decade, by our Democratic and “liberal” elites. Why has McCain been running this “stupid” campaign? Could it be for an obvious reason—because stupidifcation has worked in the past?

In fact, in the spring of 1999, the Republican Party announced its plan to create such a clowning discussion. And with the help of the mainstream press corps, it has worked out quite well… [Andrea Mitchell:]  “After years of battling with President Clinton, House Republicans are shifting their sights to Vice President Al Gore and using ridicule as their weapon of choice.“… And as everyone knows (except Maureen Dowd), this campaign of ridicule played a leading role in the next two White House campaigns. Ludicrous claims about Gore were churned—and were repeated by “journalists.” (Al Gore was raised at the Ritz, Anne Kornblut compliantly typed from an RNC text.) Four years later, Kerry looked French, and he wind-surfed—and he ordered the wrong kind of cheese! Inanities like these were endlessly churned—and people like Dowd ran to pimp them. Today, of course, she has no idea why McCain might head down this same path.

Democrats can use humor without resorting to meanness or ridicule, if they really want to start winning elections.  This cartoon below is a good example of using humor to make an important point about an important issue, and to skewer one of the many stupid phrases Republicans use so effectively.  Of course, Obama has hobbled himself by refusing to give any credit at all to Bill Clinton, even now that the primary is over, so this particular issue can’t be exploited by his campaign.
Steve Greenberg (thanks to Crooks and Liars)

Quote of the Day (Political Wire )
“I’m very sorry about it.” — Sen. John McCain, in an interview with David Broder, on the negative turn to the presidential campaign.
I can just see the smile on his face as he said it.

Leaked McCain Memo: Paint Obama As A “Job Killing Machine” (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
In a McCain campaign “Economic Communications Plan” that was obtained by the Huffington Post, an aide to the Senator lays out several themes, tactics and objectives to shore up the Arizona Republican’s standing on the economy… The strategy, which was authored by Taylor Griffin — a veteran of the Bush White House and Treasury Department who serves McCain as a senior adviser — seems built around traditional themes. The McCain campaign will paint Obama as being “aligned with trial lawyers” and “unions (card check, trade, education reform),” and push the frame that he “raises taxes” and “will kill jobs.”

Lieberman might be McCain’s most potent VP pick (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — If a few votes had shifted eight years ago, Joseph Lieberman might now be the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.  Instead, the Connecticut senator, who won re-election in 2006 as an independent, is one of Republican John McCain’s more potent political weapons, maybe even potent enough to make another run at vice president, this time as a Republican. “I’d love that,” longtime friend and author Ben Wattenberg said. Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, chuckles at the idea, but doesn’t rule it out.

Obama Camp Routed Out Illegal Donations from Palestinians (Washington Wire, Wall street Journal)
Obama campaign officials said a trio of Palestinian brothers in the Middle East attempted last year to make $33,000 in illegal donations to the campaign via the internet… They wrongly identified themselves as American citizens, campaign officials said, and listed their address as “GA”, the abbreviation for Georgia, when in fact they live in a refugee camp in Gaza, a rump city-state between Israel and Egypt that is under the control of Hamas. The donations came in between Sept. 20 and Dec. 6 and virtually all of the money, about $33,500, was returned by December 6. But the refunds weren’t reported to the Federal Election Commission due to a technical error, campaign officials said. The remaining $2,500 was refunded Monday. The refunds will all be reflected shortly in an amended report. New controls to prevent such attempts are now in place, the campaign said.

Arabs deny Obama camp returned illegal donations (by Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily)
Candidate’s staffers insist Gaza brothers refunded, but men say, ‘We did not receive any money back’
Yes, WorldNetDaily is right wing, but this reporter got the initial story right, so he may be correct here.

Did New York couple give $61,600 to McCain, GOP?
WASHINGTON — Alice Rocchio is an office manager at the New York headquarters of the Hess Corp., drives a 1993 Chevy Cavalier and lives in an apartment in Queens, N.Y., with her husband, Pasquale, an Amtrak foreman. Despite what appears to be a middle-class lifestyle, the couple has written $61,600 in checks to John McCain’s presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee, most of it within days of McCain’s decision to endorse offshore oil drilling.
Funny that this should come out just after the story about Obama receiving political donations from Palestinians, donations that should have been suspect just because the totals were way over the limit.

Edwards tabloid photo offers no clarity
The National Enquirer’s purported photo of former Sen. John Edwards and a child it says he fathered out of wedlock is merely making things blurrier.

Bad Advice (by TChris at TalkLeft)
Really bad advice: “Former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel was caught on tape last week telling a crowd in Washington, D.C., that they should harass a federal prosecutor who helped bring criminal contempt charges against a Palestinian activist. … ‘Find out where he lives, find out where his kids go to school, find out where his office is, picket him all the time,’ Gravel said, in an audio tape obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism and provided to FOX News.” No matter what you think of this prosecution or any other, stalking a prosecutor, and particularly doing anything involving his or her kids, is way over the top, and will probably land you in jail.
I’ve lambasted Republicans for talking this way about judges and prosecutors.  And I REALLY don’t want people in what I have considered my party to be talking like this, either.  The situation for prosecutors is bad enough already.  See below.

U.S. Prosecutors Feel the Heat, Want Protection (Law.com)
In the wake of three murders and the recent attack on a federal prosecutor in a New York courtroom, a group representing the nation’s federal prosecutors is calling for stepped-up security, including home alarms, self-defense training and the right to carry firearms. Additionally, the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, which represents the country’s 5,400 federal prosecutors, wants secure parking for prosecutors, particularly those who handle dangerous criminal cases. “Statistically, we are threatened more than judges,” said Steve Cook, chairman of the NAAUSA security committee and a Tennessee federal prosecutor. “Security is a very important issue for us.”

Hayes: Iraqis Destroyed Their Own Country ‘Far Worse Than Any Damage We Did During The War’ (Think Progress)
[Wednesday], Weekly Standard senior writer — and Cheney biographer — Stephen Hayes appeared on CNN and defended the Bush administration’s ineffective reconstruction in Iraq, claiming that the infrastructure there was “deplorable” long before the U.S. invasion: “… I’m not suggesting a five year war has helped things, necessarily, although the reconstruction has. But most of the damage that was done to the Iraqi infrastructure was done well before the U.S. came.”
Click through to watch the insanity.

AMERITHRAX INVESTIGATION: Court Affidavits Unsealed in FBI Probe
Search warrant affidavits related to the government’s ongoing investigation into the 2001 anthrax mailings were unsealed August 6, 2008, in federal court in Washington, D.C. The tainted mailings killed five people and injured 17 others.  * View the Documents *

Anthrax And The Bush ‘War On Terror’ (by Dave Neiwart at Orcinus)
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the Bush administration — including the FBI, Homeland Security, and the Pentagon — all want the anthrax-killer case to quietly die with the person of Bruce Ivins. Yep, case closed, move along, folks. Right? Well, excuse us. If you don’t mind, we still have a few questions:

– Was Ivins … a conscious part of the disinformation campaign to convince Congress and the public to go to war with Iraq?
– Did Ivins — if he really was the anthrax killer — have any co-conspirators, as the evidence suggests?
– Why was security at Fort Detrick, home of USAMRIID, probably the nation’s most sensitive and secretive weapons laboratory, so lax as to allow this to happen?
– And finally (and perhaps most significantly), was the mere fact of this kind of weaponized anthrax’s existence at Fort Detrick another example of the Bush administration’s flagrant violations of international law?

At the end of the day, what we’re looking at is a Bush clusterfuck of historic proportions: an intensely important weapons program where security is criminally lax; an administration so intensely politicized that it is willing to seize upon terrorist attacks against their political enemies as a club for obtaining their agenda — potentially through collusion with the terrorist; an administration similarly willing to flout the fundamental tenets of international law; while the actual perpetrator remains scot-free and is only finally revealed by his own continuing miscreancy. If that doesn’t bear investigation, nothing does.

Anthrax Bruce Ivins wins highest civilian award from Defense Dept. in March, 2003 (by John Amato at Crooks and Liars)
I’d love for somebody to explain this one to me. I know he was working on the anthrax vaccine, but who nominated Ivins for this award? This item has not been picked up by the press like it should have. C&L’s Mark Groubert tells me via email: “On March 14th, 2003 Bruce Ivins, the alleged anthrax killer and anthrax vaccine inventor, was awarded the highest civilian honor of the Pentagon by Army Secretary Thomas White. Exceptional Civilian Service Award.”

Myth or fact? Capitol jail (CNN video – transcript)

Bush White House has its own interrogation room (Think Progress)
In Ron Suskind’s new book, Suskind describes a disturbing case in Washington, D.C., where security officials detained and interrogated Usman Khosa, a Pakistani U.S. college graduate, because he was “fiddling” with his iPod near White House gates. Officials took Khosa to an interrogation room “beneath” the White House.

Mukasey appoints torture apologist as his chief of staff. (Think Progress)
[Wednesday], Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed Brian Benczkowski to serve as his chief of staff. TPMMuckracker reminds readers that Benczkowski served as one of the Justice Department’s torture apologists, arguing that if torture is conducted to prevent an attack “rather than for the purpose of humiliation,” it doesn’t violate the Geneva Conventions’ ban on “outrages upon personal dignity” and thus is likely acceptable.

Artist opens ‘Waterboard Thrill Ride’ at Coney Island. (Think Progress)
Artist Steve Powers has opened the new “Waterboard Thrill Ride” at Coney Island in New York. “It looks at first like any other shuttered storefront near the boardwalk: some garish lettering and a cartoonish invitation to a delight or a scam — in this case there’s SpongeBob SquarePants saying, ‘It don’t Gitmo better!’”

Army offering six-figure bonuses for Arabic speakers, after kicking out dozens under DADT. (Think Progress)
The Christian Science Monitor reports today that the Army may begin paying retention bonuses worth as much as $150,000 to Arabic-speaking soldiers, “in reflection of how critical it has become for the US military to retain native language and cultural know-how in its ranks.” Yet as Steve Ralls points out, the Army is “taking almost every step imaginable” to keep Arabic speakers except rescinding the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, which resulted in the expulsion of dozens of Arabic speakers and translators. A GAO report found that between 1998 and 2003, more than 60 linguists specializing in Arabic or Farsi were expelled from the military for being gay.

Kansas politician who crusaded against abortion loses big (McClatchy)
For the second time in two years, voters in Kansas have handed a stinging defeat to Phill Kline, an anti-abortion crusader who’s reputation was made attempting to prosecute the state’s abortion providers, first as state attorney general, and then, after he lost re-election to that post, as a district attorney in suburban Kansas City.
That is very good news.  Stay out of my womb, politicians.

Media Matters for America headlines

• Ignoring study of McCain’s 2007 votes, O’Reilly criticized Obama ad for using McCain’s 2003 statement that he voted with Bush “90 percent of the time”

• Wash. Times inflated Bush’s approval ratings, falsely portrayed unemployment rate under Bush

• Fox’s Kilmeade claimed Bush “never even said there’s a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq”

• Hannity falsely claimed “Obama can’t point to a single instance in which … Sean Hannity or talk radio” has “made an issue of Obama’s race”

• Echoing Milbank, Cavuto repeated disputed version of Obama’s “symbol” remark as purported evidence of his “messianic thing”

• On Hugh Hewitt Show, Politico’s Allen said McCain suggestion that Obama will “raise your taxes” might be effective — but doesn’t note it’s false

• Ignoring Obama’s proposed tax cuts and McCain’s Social Security remarks, Rove claimed McCain “opposes tax increases and Obama favors them”

• NY Times repeated falsehood about why Casey was denied speaking slot at 1992 Dem convention

• McCain’s reversals don’t stop Harwood from continuing to use “maverick” moniker

Fearing Violence, Random House Pulls Book on Islam
Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about the Prophet Mohammed’s child bride, fearing it could “incite acts of violence.” The Jewel of Medina, a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on August 12 by Random House, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, and an eight-city publicity tour had been scheduled, Jones told said Thursday.

Embedded Reporters or Republican Activists?
On its face, it seems like an idea any enterprising editor could have come up with: Gather a group of veterans of the Iraq war who also have journalism experience,then send them back to the areas of Iraq in which they served, this time as reporters embedded with the troops still fighting there. But the “Back to Iraq” trip is the brainchild of Vets for Freedom (VFF), a pro-war group.

Stop Big Media … Before It Stops Itself (by Michael Miner, Chicago Reader)
Who’s the new Big Media bogeyman? Despite the vastness of the News Corporation and its recent consumption of the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch seems to have ceded the position to Sam Zell. Zell’s new, he’s fresh, he’s a loose cannon, and he sounds dangerous.

Backwards Reeled The Mind: Inkie Will Print First, Serve Philly.com Later (Paid Content)
The Philadelphia Inquirer is reverting to what once was the policy for most newspapers—print first for most stories, then online. Now, with the exception of breaking news, the Inkie plans to buck the trend of online first or going online after the print editions are in but before they’ve been delivered. The new policy also affects the paper’s bloggers,

New York Numbers on the Rise
The folks at New York have informed us that the magazine has achieved a “3.4% increase in single copy (newsstand) sales for the first half of 2008.” Not only that, they achieved it after raising their cover price by 20%. The strongest performers included the Spring Fashion issue featuring Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn Monroe, Hillary Clinton, the fall of Eliot Spitzer, and the Best of New York.

25 Pink Slips at MSLO
A week after reporting surprisingly strong financial results, including a swing back to profitability, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has wielded the ax, cutting 25 people from its payroll this week, sources confirmed yesterday. The cutbacks at Martha Stewart’s company have come across the merchandising, media and corporate ranks.

NBC Takes in Over $1B in Olympic Ad Revenue
The Olympics which kick off Friday are bringing in over $1 billion in revenue to NBC Universal, by some measures itself justifying GE’s ownership of the division. But the Olympics are far more than just a boost for NBC Universal, they’re also an unprecedented experiment with online content distribution, bound to transform the way media companies distribute their content.
They paid almost $900 million for the privilege.  I have no idea what their production costs are, so I don’t know what kind of return this represents.

TheWB.com Set to Launch on Aug. 27
TheWB.com, now in Beta testing, will launch on August 27, offering classic series that aired on the now defunct WB TV network along with new web series. Warner Bros. Television Group is promoting the new site as “the next great network that won’t be televised.” But cable operator Comcast, will offer classic WB series via its video-on-demand service.

Social Networking Sites Attract Friends, But Also Enemies
MySpace bills itself as “a place for friends.” But it and other social networking sites are becoming a place for enemies too. A couple of things happened today that reinforce the point that these sites, while being a terrific way to keep in touch with friends and throw sheep at them, are very much not the safe sandbox that many take them to be.

Search Soars, Challenging Email as a Favorite Internet Activity (Pew Research)
The percentage of Internet users who use search engines on a typical day has been steadily rising from about one-third of all users in 2002, to a new high of just under one-half (49%). With this increase, the number of those using a search engine on a typical day is pulling ever closer to the 60% of Internet users who use email, arguably the Internet’s all-time killer app.

Google believes $1B investment in AOL is crumbling
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – In an assessment that could lead to a substantial charge against its future profits, Google Inc. believes its $1 billion investment in advertising partner AOL is souring.