The Man Has A Point

Why the hell isn't this story front-page news? McSame is only 6 points up in his home state of Arizona and has been steadily losing support there for 12 months now. But Obama is the one in trouble? (h/t AmericaBlog)

Let's just, for a moment, imagine the polls in Illinois showed Obama only ahead of McCain by 5 or 6 points. That would cause a frenzy in the political punditry. A frenzy. The latest poll in Illinois showed Obama leading by a 15 point margin: 55% - 40%.

McCain, on the other hand, is only ahead by 6 points: 47% - 41%. He's not even breaking 50% and barely breaking 45%. That's why John McCain has to campaign in his home state. Arizona is the place where McCain has most of his houses. The people who know him best don't really like him.

But of course, McSame being up 6 points is good for McSame. Obama being up 15 points in his home state is proof that he's losing. The Village has spoken.

And Just In Case You Were Feeling Good About Democrats In General

...The AP comes along to take a big crap in the punchbowl.

Two weeks after a devastating revelation sent her husband into political exile, Elizabeth Edwards isn't getting the steady sympathy usually afforded to a woman scorned.

Instead, she's faced criticism from dedicated Democrats who think she was too willing to keep the affair a secret to help John Edwards' political ambitions, as well as her own.

At a time when she was expected to hold a prominent role in pushing an agenda of improved health care for Americans, she stands silent. While fellow Democrats converge in Denver, Colorado, to nominate Barack Obama for president, Edwards remains in seclusion in North Carolina.

It seems an odd way to treat a woman with incurable cancer wronged by a cheating husband, the latest in a series of deep hardships in life that includes the death of a teenage son.

But some former followers have questioned the recklessness of keeping the affair under wraps even though her husband -- a former U.S. senator, two-time presidential candidate and the 2004 vice presidential nominee -- said he confessed the affair in 2006, before the campaign began in earnest the next year.

"I think she's complicit," said Brad Crone, a Raleigh-based Democratic consultant. "Obviously, she knew. While she's the victim, she clearly didn't stand in the way of the cover-up."

Of course it's an odd way to treat a woman with incurable cancer. But let's use her to attack the Democrats during their convention anyway. After all, she brought this upon herself, right?

Look, no matter how you feel about John Edwards and Elizabeth, they're not at the convention. They're not the nominee and spouse. They have pretty much nothing to do with the deal because Edwards long ago released his delegates (unlike Hillary).

But hey, talking about them not being at the convention and trying to bring them up in order to attack said convention is par for the course from the Village.

It Smacks Of Desperation, It Does

Amanda Marcotte over at Pandagon argues that the wingnuts are so completely out of ammunition that they are resorting to (and I kid you not) going to the Planned Parenthood clinics in the Denver area and having protests proclaiming Democrats are genocidal racists for trying to convince women of color to have abortions, thus killing off all their race.

Mostly, it’s a distraction. One thread that’s interesting is how they’re picking their targets for abuse. The African-American Caucus was targeted for disruption, as was the interfaith prayer service. In other words, they’re targeting black delegates and religious delegates for abuse, though I have little doubt that they think they’re “educating” people by yelling at them. As if there’s a single person in America who is unaware of the parameters of this discussion. Which goes to show that the targets of anti-choice protests are assumed to be especially stupid by anti-choicers. Why black people and religious people especially? There’s a host of complex reasons, but it boils down to this---anti-choicers feel like they are entitled to dominate and control those two groups of people, as well as women. (Yes, I’m aware there’s significant overlap between these three groups, but that just makes it worse. If you’re a black Christian woman, they probably think they get to set your alarm clock for you and monitor your underwear purchases.)

Michelle Malkin especially thinks that you are stupid. Her entire career is built on exploiting racist anxieties in white people and she trucks with white supremacists, but all of a sudden she expects you to think she’s a great spokeswoman for racial harmony. She’s so against abortion she sucked up her nerve and spoke to actual non-white anti-choice protesters to bolster the bizarre claims of anti-choicers that reproductive rights especially hurt women of color. Considering that black and Hispanic women use abortion just like white women, I’m hard-pressed to understand why it would somehow be better for these women would be better off being sent to back alley butchers. The slim bit of evidence that anti-choicers cling to in these assertions is the fact that black women have a disproportionate number of abortions---so the conclusion is that Planned Parenthood is out to get black people.

Because as we all know, the modern GOP has a long history of helping people of color over the last 50 years.

This kind of thing really bothers me. I'm strongly against abortion personally, but it's my choice to be against it. Your choice may differ and I may not agree with it. But you still have the choice because the law says you do, and quite frankly we have enough bad laws on the books over the years that have told one group or another "you don't have a choice." Would the world be a better place without as many abortions? Sure. Would it be better to make them illegal in every single case? That's equally barbaric.

To use that as a weapon against the Democrats accusing them of mass genocide when the same wingnuts gleefully spread the gospel of purging the country of Hispanics and purging the world of Muslims? Not going to work.

Rove Jujitsu 101

This just in, the neocons think Joe Biden's foreign policy expertise is actually his biggest problem and he's a complete pussy because he hasn't nuked Iran yet.

As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden is well versed in policy debates and carefully choreographed trips. But his record on the Islamic Republic of Iran -- perhaps the chief national security threat facing the next president -- suggests a persistent and dangerous judgment deficit. Biden's unyielding pursuit of "engagement" with Iran for more than a decade has made it easier for Tehran to pursue its nuclear program, while his partisan obsession with thwarting the Bush administration has led him to oppose tough sanctions against hard-liners in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Pay attention class, this is classic Karl Rove Jujitsu 101: A Democrat's biggest strength is their actual weakness, and a Republican's biggest weakness is their most powerful asset.

In this case, Joe Biden will be equated to all of George Bush's foreign policy failures and blamed for them because he was unable to stop Bush from making the mistakes in the first place, while John McSame will represent a bold new direction of repeating all of Bush's mistakes and finding a way to make to make them much, much worse.

David Brooks Is Helping Like A Big Boy

...helping himself to the back o' my hand.

Some sages are saying that Obama needs to get specific. He needs to lay out concrete plans and legislative agendas. Apparently, having nominated Obama, they really want a replay of the Dukakis campaign.

Others say he needs to describe his experience in government better, to make Americans comfortable with him as chief executive. Apparently, having nominated Obama, they want him to run as Chris Dodd.

Still others say he needs to be a scrappy class warrior defending the middle class against the depredations of the rich overlords with their multiple homes. Apparently, for these people it wasn’t enough that they got to live through Al Gore’s “people versus the powerful” campaign just once. They want to relive the joy again and again.

And yet there are still others who say Obama needs to get bare-knuckled. He needs to hammer McCain above the belt and below. Apparently, these people have decided that having nominated Obama, the party needs to be led by Michael Moore.

The words fly, the quotes are given, campaign aides are pulled aside. It’s like a Greatest Misses compilation of every Democratic campaign idea ever conceived.

Obama should just remain as a cheerful smile, a faceless cipher. Specifics are too complicated for American voters, and so is conflict. Just vote for the face, stupid!

At the core, Obama’s best message has always been this: He is unconnected with the tired old fights that constrict our politics. He is in tune with a new era. He has very little experience but a lot of potential. He does not have big achievements, but he is authentically the sort of person who emerges in a multicultural, globalized age. He is therefore naturally in step with the problems that will confront us in the years to come.

So as I’m trying to measure the effectiveness of this convention, I’ll be jotting down a little minus mark every time I hear a theme that muddies that image. I’ll jot down a minus every time I hear the old class conflict, and the old culture war themes. I’ll jot down a minus when I see the old Bush obsession rearing its head, which is not part of his natural persona. I’ll write a demerit every time I hear the rich played off against the poor, undercutting Obama’s One America dream.

I’ll put a plus down every time a speaker says that McCain is a good man who happens to be out of step with the times. I’ll put a plus down every time a speaker says that a multipolar world demands a softer international touch. I’ll put a plus down when a speaker says the old free market policies worked fine in the 20th century, but no longer seem to be working today. These are arguments that reinforce Obama’s identity as a 21st-century man.

It's odd how while Brooks complains about the Democrats trying to infect Obama with their old fight and old battles, the version of Obama he wants to see is the same spineless jelly blob of passive bipartisan bullshit he's been pushing on the Dems since Bush got into office: Stop picking on Bush and his lawbreaking! Stop causing conflicts and let the GOP have their way! Roll over on anything the GOP wants you to do!

Brooks is wrong. He wants Obama to be somebody else: Jimmy Carter. Demerits all around.

About That Plot Against Obama...

Yeah, you knew I was going to spend some more time on this story today.

A law-enforcement official familiar with the investigation has told NEWSWEEK that three men are now under arrest in connection with an inquiry into a possible plot to kill Barack Obama. The official, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, said the three men presently face firearms and drug charges filed by police and prosecutors in Arapahoe County, in the Denver suburbs. The FBI and the Secret Service are deeply involved in the investigation, although no federal charges have been filed to date. The official added that it was unclear at present how real the plot was; further investigation could prove that it was an empty threat, or that the suspects were flakes or loudmouths.

News of the alleged plot was first reported by the local CBS affiliate in Denver and the Rocky Mountain News. The local reports said the investigation was opened after local police in Aurora, Colo., which is located in Arapahoe County, made a traffic stop and discovered two rifles and methamphetamine. Authorities subsequently went to the Cherry Creek Hotel and knocked at the door of a guest in the middle of the night; the guest jumped out of his sixth-floor window but was subsequently recaptured. The man allegedly said something about Obama to authorities, but it could not be ascertained what comments were made, the reports said. Earlier today, I asked federal authorities about the FBI presence at the hotel last night, but officials declined to comment. Tonight, authorities in Aurora and Arapahoe County also couldn't be reached for comment.

Monday evening, the U. S. Attorney's office in Denver issued the following statement confirming an unspecified number of arrests. "This is a methamphetamine and firearms case that arose from a traffic stop made by an Aurora Police officer," the statement read. "Firearms and methamphetamine were seized, and a number of individuals are in state custody. The matter continues to be under investigation. We'll provide more information as it becomes available." A law enforcement source said that prosecutors plan to file federal drug and gun charges against the suspects on Tuesday.

Wednesday evening, the FBI confirmed the identity of one of the suspects: Tharin Robert Gartrell. A source familiar with the investigation said that Gartrell and the other two suspects were believed to be white supremacists. The real question now is whether the men were in position to carry out any kind of threats against the candidate—or whether they were trying to impress girlfriends, the source said. The Obama campaign declined comment, referring reporters to the U.S. attorney's statement.

Steven D at BooMan Tribune notes that a CBS affiliate in Denver has investigated this further and come up with some pretty shocking stuff.

One of those suspects spoke exclusively to CBS4 investigative reporter Brian Maass from inside the Denver City Jail late Monday night and said his friends had discussed killing Obama.

"So your friends were saying threatening things about Obama?" Maass asked.

"Yeah," Nathan Johnson replied.

"It sounded like they didn't want him to be president?"

"Yeah," Johnson said.

Maass reported earlier Monday that one of the suspects told authorities they were "going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a ... rifle ... sighted at 750 yards."

Law enforcement sources told Maass that one of the suspects "was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative."

The story began emerging Sunday morning when Aurora police arrested Tharin Gartrell, 28. He was driving a rented pickup truck in an erratic manner, according to sources.

Sources told CBS4 police found two high-powered, scoped rifles in the car along with camouflage clothing, walkie-talkies, wigs, a bulletproof vest, a spotting scope, licenses in the names of other people and 44 grams of methamphetamine. One of the rifles is listed as stolen from Kansas.

Well, honestly, is anyone surprised at this? Do you think that this will be the last time it happens? How many other crackpots out there, fueled by hate radio's open racism and violent rhetoric, are waiting to become famous by taking out America's Uppity Next President?

This story's getting almost no play in the media this morning. But of course there's plenty of news about all those dirty f'ckin hippies running around getting maced in Denver.

But irrelevant is not how the protesters will be portrayed by a media that has been salivating over the possible disruption of the Democratic convention -- by angry, broom-riding succubi! -- for weeks. Never mind that there were probably no more than 50 shouting PUMAs. Never mind that every national political convention in modern history becomes a locus for vocal agitators. Never mind that over the weekend, antiwar protests had been larger. Never mind that in three days in Denver I had not spotted a single PUMA or Hillary protester until I found where Chris Matthews was broadcasting. Never mind the guy in the toilet outfit. To hear Matthews, and the talking heads at CNN tell it, these demonstrators were "ground zero" in a rift that could potentially destroy the Democratic Party and ruin its national convention.

This scene was pretty much the worst nightmare of the women I had spoken to earlier in the morning at the Unconventional Women program, devoted to exploring the current climate for women in politics. At the Buell theater, mentions of Hillary Clinton, as well as a clip from her stirring concession speech, were met with enthusiastic applause and some light cheering, but nothing resembling disruptive anger. In truth, most of the current or former Clinton loyalists could not be more different from the afternoon's demonstrators, but they will likely be tarred with the same hysterical brush.

"There is such a fear of women coming into power, that when they protest, they are given more weight," said Marie Wilson, head of the White House Project, before speaking as part of the Unconventional Women's programming, acknowledging the likelihood of protest. "Just the fact of women saying they support their candidate and want to make their voices heard sounds more scary than it would be if it were guys. That's just part of backlash. But come on. When women gather around a water fountain, men get scared. People oughta just chill."

And now some perspective: when you talk about fear of a woman leading the country, it's not leading to people being arrested with rifles and plans to kill Hillary. Just sayin'.

It's wonderful that the discussion on gender and politics can lead to a frank and powerful dialogue that advances the rights of women across the country, and Hillary has been a beneficial part of it. We need to have that same discussion on race.

All it's going to take is one of these douchebags getting lucky once.

StupidiNews!

• Michelle Obama and Teddy Kennedy kicked off the DNC with a pair of rousing speeches...
• ...as Newsweek reports three white supremacists in Denver were arrested for an alleged plot to kill Barack Obama.
• South Ossetia's Russian-recognized independence is making news, but Abkhazia (that other breakaway province in Georgia) may be strategically and politically more important.
• Local officials across the country are eager to use that $4 billion approved to buy and fix up foreclosed homes.
• Fixing the government's terror watch list may -- surprise! -- make the situation much worse!

It's Too Obvious For Them

It's a bit disconcerting to see Taylor Marsh, one of Hillary's strongest blogging allies, and Big Tent Democrat (another solid Hillblogger) over at Talk Left, discuss the events of the last 48 hours. It's clear Taylor smells an obvious rat in Denver.

Once HRC endorsed Obama, the Clinton camp immediately worked to help me get access to Obama's people. Meanwhile, the Obama team reached out to me at the same time, through the Clinton camp. As most know, I was the first to do hard reports on Obama, with many tough posts all primary season. The Obama team has been nothing but accessible and worked to give me everything I've asked for so far.

So, Big Tent Democrat, whose writing I appreciate very much, is off the mark on this one. The truth is that some HRC supporters wouldn't listen if Obama showed up on their doorsteps carrying an equivalent to the political clearing house check. The other truth is that Obama has a larger field to convince than the remaining HRC supporters who are willing to cut off Lady Liberty's nose to spite democracy's face.

So this "tensions boil" baloney is only managing to do one thing: help John McCain, who continues to put out ad after ad targeting the junior high division of HRC's former supporters.

And yet both of them magically fail to miss the point: There are plenty of voters who are going to vote McCain regardless of what Hillary says, they wanted a woman in the White House. But it's the Clinton surrogates who should know better who are making the most egregious attacks. This are people Hillary can certainly control, people like Howard Wolfson and Paul Begala.

And Clinton's not making any effort to stop them. The point is that the attacks against Obama and the Democrats by the Village and the GOP are being fed by Hillary's own people while Hillary merely denies any involvement.

Hillary: Live And Let Die

Yesterday I talked about how Clinton's surrogates were pressing the attack on Obama over being "snubbed" for Veep and McSame's boys and the Village Idiots were following suit.

Today as the convention opens the attacks from Clinton surrogates are officially getting worse. Howard Wolfson brings the Big Dog into the fight.

There is still work to do on the Bill Clinton front. He feels like the Obama campaign ran against and systematically dismissed his administration's accomplishments. And he feels like he was painted as a racist during the primary process.

Senator Obama would go a long way towards healing these wounds if he were to specifically praise the accomplishments of the Clinton presidency in a line or two during his speech on Thursday. That should be painless---he isn't running against the Clinton legacy anymore, and it would probably be a good idea to remind voters that the last time Democrats were in charge of the White House, we had peace and prosperity. Similarly, he could thank President Clinton for all of the work he did throughout his life to bridge the divides in our country. This is a cause near and dear to the president's heart.

President Clinton has his part to play as well. He needs to offer a strong argument in favor of Barack Obama's candidacy on Wednesday night, and remind everyone why he is one of the most gifted campaigners in our generation between now and November.

What both Clintons say about Senator Obama--and what Senator Obama says about both of them during this week--can go a long way towards tamping down whatever disunity still exists between the two camps and their supporters. And more importantly, it will encourage Senator Clinton's supporters to vote for Senator Obama.

The Clinton versus Obama storyline is irresistible to the press corps--and the McCain campaign. It is incumbent on both sides in Denver to do what they can to tamp that down.

Of course, it hasn't occured to Wolfson in the least that his column (in The New Republic no less) is feeding the press corps and McCain exactly what they want to hear, and he's saying that the fault lies not with the Clintons but with Obama.

Obama hurt the Big Dog's feelings. Bill's not a racist, Obama needs to take that back and soon or the message is clear: Hillary voters won't back him. The Clintons have chosen Live And Let Die.

The Clinton camp continues to officially deny the story, but they are saying and doing nothing to contain Clinton insiders from spreading tales that the Clintons are secretly pissed at Obama.

The irony of Howard Wolfson saying that both camps need to "tamp down" the fight he himself is goading on is rich indeed. But this has been par for the course since the announcement of Biden this weekend. The press is indeed "eating it up".

As Democrats arrived here Sunday for a convention intended to promote party unity, mistrust and resentments continued to boil among top associates of presumptive nominee Barack Obama and his defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

One flashpoint is the assigned speech topic for former president Bill Clinton, who is scheduled to speak Wednesday night, when the convention theme is "Securing America's Future." The night's speakers will argue that Obama would be a more effective commander in chief than his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

The former president is disappointed, associates said, because he is eager to speak about the economy and more broadly about Democratic ideas -- emphasizing the contrast between the Bush years and his own record in the 1990s.

This is an especially sore point for Bill Clinton, people close to him say, because among many grievances he has about the campaign Obama waged against his wife is a belief that the candidate poor-mouthed the political and policy successes of his two terms.

Some senior Democrats close to Obama, meanwhile, made clear in not-for-attribution comments that they were equally irked at the Clinton operation. Nearly three months after Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the nomination contest, these Obama partisans complained, her team continues to act like she and Bill Clinton hold leverage.

Make no mistake, the Village will make sure the message from Denver is all about Bill and Hillary, not Obama's positive message. The Clinton camp is doing nothing...NOTHING...to stop the damage here that will continue long after the last balloon drops in Denver.

The Village too is quick to blame Obama for the rift as well, and goes straight back to the whole nature of the Obama camp being uppity and presumptuous. "How DARE that boy go after Bill!"

The Clintons are playing us for fools. Plan 2012 is in full effect right now, and unless Obama stands up to the Clintons and calls them out, he will lose in November. The neglect to round up Clinton surrogates and to stop the "voters on behalf of Hillary" on the attack is a conscious choice on the part of Bill and Hillary. They could stop them if they wanted to. They refuse to do so at every turn, proclaiming only unity.

They will continue to proclaim unity right up until McSame ends up in the White House. Then the campaign for 2012 begins in earnest as the Clinton folks turn on Obama like a pack of animals.

When will Obama call the Clintons out, before or after America is saddled with a McSame presidency?

Cross posted at BooMan Tribune.

Well Here's A Possible Sign Of The Village's Intentions

Every now and then they let you see their poker hand while they are reaching for the Cheetos. Guess who Bill Kristol is pimping for McSame's Veep from his NY Times column? Go on, guess.

So what’s to be done? McCain could well decide the obstacles to Pawlenty and Romney aren’t insuperable, and pick one of them. He could choose a different Republican governor or ex-governor, senator or congressman. Or he could decide that Obama’s conventional pick of Biden allows him to seize the moment by making a bold choice. He could select the person he would really like to have by his side in the White House — but whose selection would cause palpitations among many of his staffers and supporters: the independent Democratic senator from Connecticut, Joe Lieberman.

Now, picture every neo-con wingnut crackpot in America simultaneously doing THIS.

"Joe Lieberman? ARE YOU MAD?!?"

Oh, but it gets better.

Now as a matter of governance, there’s no reason to think this would much matter. McCain has made clear his will be a pro-life administration. And as a one-off, quasi-national-unity ticket, with Lieberman renouncing any further ambition to run for the presidency, a McCain-Lieberman administration wouldn’t threaten the continuance of the G.O.P. as a pro-life party. In other areas, no one seriously thinks the policies of a McCain-Lieberman administration would be appreciably different from those, say, of a McCain-Pawlenty administration.

Would McCain-Lieberman have a better prospect of winning than the more conventional alternatives? If they could get over the early hurdles of a messy convention and an awful lot of conservative angst and anger, I’ve come to think so.

"Joe Lieberman IS A DEMOCRAT YOU IDIOT!"

Obama and Biden will try to frame the presidential race as a normal Democratic-Republican choice. If they can do that, they should win. That would be far more difficult against a McCain-Lieberman ticket. The charge that McCain would merely mean a third Bush term would also tend to fall flat. And an unorthodox “country first” Lieberman selection would reinforce what has been attractive about McCain, and what has allowed him to run ahead of — though not yet enough ahead of — the generic Republican ballot.

A Lieberman pick should help with ticket splitters. But can such a ticket hold the support of pro-lifers, conservatives and Republicans? If you’re conscientiously pro-life, you will have reservations about a pro-abortion-rights V.P. If you’re a proud conservative, Lieberman hasn’t been one. If you’re a loyal Republican, you’d much prefer someone from within the ranks.

"Joe Lieberman IS STILL A DEMOCRAT YOU FLAMING MORONIC IDIOT!"

But if you’re pro-life, conservative and/or Republican, you certainly don’t want Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid running the country. If a McCain-Lieberman ticket is the best way to thwart that prospect, you could probably learn to live with it — even perhaps to like it.

And Hillary supporters could protest Obama’s glass ceiling by voting for John McCain and the Democratic Party’s 2000 vice presidential nominee.

"Oh. Well why didn't you SAY SO EARLIER!?!?"

"...we are watching you, you liberal New York Times Pinko Commie."

(Man, that was a four prairie dogger. Damn you Bill Kristol.)

Obiden Party!

Courtesy of Cincinnati Blog, those of you in the Cincy area, there's an Obama watch party for Thursday's big speech. In NKY the party's at DownUnder in Covington (underneath the Obama campaign office there) and in Cincy the party's on Fountain Square where you can watch the speech on the big screen.

Party starts at 8. You may even find a Zandar there.

Half To Full

Lost in the shuffle of this weekend came this story that the Democrats have restored full voting rights to Florida and Michigan ahead of the convention today, at Obama's request.

After all the party threats of punishment for Florida and Michigan for holding primary elections before the rules permitted them, the Democratic convention credentials committee today voted unanimously to restore full voting rights to the Florida and Michigan delegations.

The party's rules committee already had gone half-way, agreeing to give the delegates from the unruly states half-votes at the convention. But with this vote today, all the delegates will get full votes.

"The only way we will be successful is if we are unified as a party and all Democrats know we are full partners," said Chris Edley Jr., a credentials committee member from California.

The move does, however, raise the question of how the party might enforce its primary calendar going forward. Michigan, with its Jan. 15 primary, and Florida, with its Jan. 29 primary, violated a ban against pre-Feb. 5 primaries for most states.

Sen. Barack Obama, who will accept the party's presidential nomination here this week, has called on the party to reexamine how its primaries are conducted.

This is a good thing, because Obama's going to need all the help he can get having fallen into a dead heat with McSame.

Legolas! What Do Your Blog Eyes See?

"I see the David Neiwart of the Tribe of the Lake of the Firey Hound is mobilizing for war against the Village Scribe Ron Fournier, good friend Zandar."

Before I joined the ranks of dirty foulmouthed hippie bloggers, I was your basic mainstream journalist. I started in newspapers in 1978 at small towns in the Northwest, where the rule of thumb is that most everyone in the newsroom is a jack of all trades. I was a news reporter, a photographer, a music and movie critic -- but more than any other job, I was a news editor.

I started out ripping newswires back when it was fed to us by ticker tape, and by the early '80s was pulling news from the wires by computers. In those days, there were two competing news services -- United Press International and the Associated Press. But about the same time UPI was in serious decline, and most of the newsrooms where I worked did not carry their services. By the 1990s UPI for all intents and purposes was nearly dead (and when Rev. Sun Myung Moon bought them up in 2000, it was a fait accompli) leaving the field to the AP.

In all those years ripping wires, I and the editors I worked with operated with at least a modicum of confidence that the AP was providing them with balanced, evenhanded and reasonably accurate news. Sure, it was bland work, and far too often relied on simplistic "he said/she said" journalism as a means of achieving a facsimile of balance. There wasn't a lot of great investigative work, but there was some. Mostly, we counted on AP to provide us with the news like a basic meat-and-potatoes diet.

Which is why Ron Fournier's unimstakable bias in his reportage on the 2008 presidential campaign is such a profound betrayal of the AP's mission. As a monopoly -- every single daily newspaper in the country now relies on the AP for its basic news services -- the AP has a profound and unmistakable duty to avoid even the appearance of bias. Fournier's reportage some time ago began reeking of bias, made worse by his dalliance with the McCain campaign last year and his footsie-playing with Karl Rove. And his recent work attacking Barack Obama makes the stink worse than meth lab's.

Our protest of Fournier's work, and our demand that he be removed from the presidential campaign, isn't simply a matter of crying because our ox has been gored. Rather, it's about recognizing the profound impact that biased reporting like Fournier's has on the nation's political discourse -- and how seriously it damages the AP's reputation as a reliable source of solid reportage.

Nerdy Tolkien stuff aside, it's important to note that Fournier probably deserves the smackdown this time. Then again, he and colleague Nedra Pickler are usually in trouble with one side or the other, always being accused of bias either for or against the GOP, depending on which side is mad at them at the time.

Still, the Village is the Village, and it's good to see people taking them on. At times they are very much part of the problem.

Or It's Robert Ludlum's Latest, One Of The Two

The son of an infamous Nazi doctor wants his father declared dead.

A son of notorious Nazi doctor Aribert Heim was quoted as saying Sunday that he wants his father declared legally dead so he can take control of his money and donate some of it to help document the suffering that occurred at a former concentration camp.

Ruediger Heim told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that his father -- dubbed "Dr. Death" and atop the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most-wanted suspected Nazi war criminals -- should officially be declared missing and then dead.

He reiterated he has not had any contact with his father since he fled Germany in 1962, save two short notes in his family's mailbox.

"Between 1962 and 1967, two notes appeared in our mailbox. There was a single sentence written on them, 'I am doing fine.' But if those letters were really from my father, I do not know," the paper quoted him as saying.

Heim also said that he has no idea if his father, who would be 94, is alive or dead.

Of course, there's always the possibility he's just trying to get his father declared dead to get access to a safe deposit box or two (possibly filled with the lost notes for Project Albatross, maybe.)

StupidiNews!

• The Dems' four-day infomercial begins today in Denver, but the real sell is marketing O-biden to the Clinton voters.
• Pakistan's coalition government is falling apart over reinstated judges and Musharraf's replacement.
• The Redeem Team indeed redeemed themselves beating Spain 118-107 for the gold, but China took the gold medal count in a rout in the most watched Olympics ever.
• Even Denmark is having bank failure issues tied to subprime loans.
• Those missing White House emails may not be recovered until well into 2009.