Oliver Willis

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Patrick Ruffini writes.

Finally, a Republican campaign that is unafraid to explicitly take on the media.

Apparently Patrick has been under a rock for the last 30 years. Every Republican campaign - from president on down to dog catcher - builds itself around the myth of the liberal media. The conservative movement has invested millions in propping up this myth for their candidates to fight against. But apparently some of them missed it.

That is totally shocking. Surely it is unprecedented.

John McCain bitching about someone else supposedly getting preferential media coverage is sort of like attacking Jeffrey Dahmer for cruelty to animals and ignoring the other stuff. Seriously. This guy:

More: Meghan McCain shows how the press corps is so biased against her dad they let him grill for them.

This is pretty cool.

“There have been comic book biographies before, that’s not new,” said Scott Dunbier, special projects editor at IDW, which will publish the comics. “But we’re talking about a story that isn’t finished: two views of the candidates, two men who are both vying for what is arguably the most important job in the world.”

The comics went from ideas to production in about a week. “We don’t have a lot of red tape,” Mr. Dunbier said of IDW, a division of the IDT Internet Mobile Group. The small company is dwarfed by publishing giants like DC Comics and Marvel Entertainment. “Larger companies will investigate something for three months and have a number of meetings to decide if it was feasible.”

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A few weeks ago it was accepted, in the day to day scoring of the presidential campaigns in the media that passes as coverage, that Sen. McCain had scored a hit versus Sen. Obama by apparently goading him into visiting Iraq. It was said that this proved that Obama was weak and bowing to McCain’s supposed superiority on the issue.

Now that Sen. Obama is a few days into his trip, the dominant theme is that the trip has made Obama seem more presidential, and the Iraqi prime minister agreeing with him so important that the White House tried to push back the story on behalf of McCain.

It’s possible that that perception is also incorrect, and the trip will turn out to be a wash for Sen. Obama. But it shows us once again that the media created narrative is wrong with an alarming frequency. Its only because we now have alternative media outlets that we learn just how wrong they regularly are.

Democrat Mark Begich is up 9 over the incumbent, incompetent Ted “Tubes” Stevens. A Democrat can win a senate in Alaska if people step up.

That wacky idea Howard Dean had of competing in all the states as if the Democrats were a national party just might work.

He’s been one of the standouts the last few years as a guest host on SNL (he brings the funny, and doesn’t just read cue cards - I’m looking at you Jonah Hill) and here he is on the ESPYs:

The DSCC and the DCCC have strong fundraising advantages over their Republican counterparts.

You know what this means, right? Good For John McCain!

It might be funny if he weren’t running for leader of the free world. Some forgot their Centrum Silver again.

In one day, Sen. Obama raised more than John McCain did for the entire month of June.

It must be something genetic with conservatives why they are driven to offer up advice. From their side flows a never ending stream of hints and tips and tricks and tactics, and the intriguing part is it doesn’t matter what their particular political fortunes are at the moment. Now National Review has a doozy, advising John McCain that in order to defeat Barack Obama he should emulate Hillary Clinton. This is a lot like the 1-15 Miami Dolphins of 2007 offering up playoff advice to the Super Bowl champion NY Giants, but sure, as an Obama supporter I say please listen to them. Because on the last Thursday of August, Sen. Clinton may be in Denver, but she won’t be the center of attention. Sen. Obama will be otherwise engaged.

And if McCain follows this strategy (or the current losing path he’s on), I’m sure he won’t catch a cold on January 20th watching the inauguration on TV.

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As the next president comes in, one of the things we will uncover is just how widespread the systematic perversion of the government into an arm of the Republican party is. In this instance it’s the Bushies pushing Iraq’s Maliki to walk back what was clearly an endorsement of Sen. Obama’s strategy in Iraq.

The statement by an aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki calling his remarks in Der Spiegel ‘misinterpreted and mistranslated’ followed a call to the prime minister’s office from U.S. government officials in Iraq.

Of course, as the current administration comes to a close, they’ve been adopting the Democratic position on much of their foreign policy - from Iraq to North Korea and Iran - because what they’ve pushed is such an amazingly miserable failure.

UPDATE: More on how the White House/GOP is pushing a made up retraction on this story. Even for them, this is mighty disgraceful.

But the interpreter for the interview works for Mr. Maliki’s office, not the magazine. And in an audio recording of Mr. Maliki’s interview that Der Spiegel provided to The New York Times, Mr. Maliki seemed to state a clear affinity for Mr. Obama’s position, bringing it up on his own in an answer to a general question on troop presence.

The following is a direct translation from the Arabic of Mr. Maliki’s comments by The Times: “Obama’s remarks that — if he takes office — in 16 months he would withdraw the forces, we think that this period could increase or decrease a little, but that it could be suitable to end the presence of the forces in Iraq.”

He continued: “Who wants to exit in a quicker way has a better assessment of the situation in Iraq.”

Very interesting survey that sort of confirms the low regard I have for guys like Terrell Owens and Randy Moss. (via)

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The conservative opinion, yet again, finds itself left behind in the rear view mirror of history. Time and time again cons have sought to stand athwart history yelling “stop” while blacks got equal rights, women got equal rights, etc. And they just get left behind. This time its gays in the military.

Seventy-five percent of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said homosexuals who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military, up from 62 percent in early 2001 and 44 percent in 1993. Majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents alike now believe it is acceptable for gays to serve openly in the U.S. armed forces. Shortly after he took office in 1993, Clinton faced strong resistance to his campaign pledge to lift the military’s ban on allowing homosexuals to enlist. At that time, 67 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of conservatives opposed the idea. A majority of independents, 56 percent, and 45 percent of Democrats also opposed changing the policy.

That’s what happens when you bring one of the Swift Boat smear campaign participants like Bud Day onboard.

One of John McCain’s fellow POW’s in Vietnam defended the war in Iraq, saying, ‘The Muslims have said either we kneel or they’re going to kill us.”

In a phone call with reporters arranged by Republican Party of Florida, Colonel Bud Day added: ‘I don’t intend to kneel and I don’t advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn’t advocate to anybody that we kneel.”