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• KY-Sen: The Rand Paul campaign is so freaked out by today’s moneybomb for Jack Conway, that they had a paid staffer troll this site’s comments, begging us to take Conway off Orange to Blue. Make Paul’s campaign cry and chip in your (or more)?

  The goal is 0,000 or so. I’d check in to see where they are on that goal (Conway Fight Fund), but they are crashing from the load. Last I saw, they were at around 0,000.

• Michael Lewis’ brilliant Vanity Fair piece on Greece’s economy has sucked up half my morning.
• Like Islamic Jihadists, the American Taliban always resort to violence to deal with disagreements.
• NV-Sen: Sharrrrron Angle still refuses to name names.
  

  On the day she announced her candidacy in 2009, Angle clearly and unequivocally agreed with a conservative radio host who claimed that there are “domestic enemies” and homegrown enemies” within the Senate and the Congress.

  She has now been given three chances to disavow this claim or to state clearly that she doesn’t agree with it. In all three cases, she’s refused.

  I’m seriously confused as to why she won’t publicly reveal her list. Shouldn’t all good patriotic Americans know who our domestic enemies are?

  Other than Sharron Angle, I mean.

• Reid attacks:
  

  Extreme Ideas That Will Make Things Worse

• Rahm’s next gig.
  

  Mayor Daley announced today that he is not seeking another term.

  A public official has to know when it’s time to move on, Daley said during a press conference at City Hall. “For me that time is now.”

  Daley said he’s thought about the decision for weeks.

  “I’ve done my all,” Daley said. “I’ve done my best. Now, I’m ready with my family to begin the new phase of our lives.”

• The right-wing sure loves communist China!
  

  National Review recently ran an item arguing that China is setting a fine economic model to be emulated. And that came on the heelsof disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich telling the Young Americans for Freedom, “You want to create jobs as rapidly as China? The Chinese pay zero capital-gains tax. If we had zero capital-gains tax in the United States … we’d be dramatically better off.”

  As Jon Stewart recently explained, “So that’s the Republican plan — to fight socialism, we must become communists.”

• Torture is funny and makes me want to buy cellphones! Actually, not really.
• The Iraq War: The worst spent trillion ever.

  And what Digby said.

• Very cool, MTV will air the documentary 9500 Liberty this fall. The movie tracks the rise and fall of a SB 1070-style ordinance in Prince Williams County, Virginia. From their press release:
  

  The cable debut of 9500 LIBERTY will be on Sunday, September 26th at 8pm (ET/PT) on MTV2, mtvU (MTV’s 24-hour college network), and Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más (formerly MTV Tr3s) as part of Hispanic Heritage Month.  

  “The decisions our elected representatives make on immigration reform now will impact our audience for generations,” said Stephen Friedman, EVP & GM of MTV Networks. “As the national debate rages, MTV is committed to engaging America’s youth as informed and active participants – and sharing this powerful film is a great way to start that process.”

  And if you’re in NYC, the filmmakers will also be screening the movie and doing a panel tonight on the subject of immigration:

  9500 LIBERTY
  screening, panel discussion, cocktail reception

  NY Times Building
  620 8th Avenue (Entrance on 41 street), Time Square}
  5:30 to 8:00 pm

  John Quinones, ABC Primetime Anchor
  Annabel Park, 9500 Liberty co-director and Coffee Party founder
  Corey Stewart, Prince William County BOCS Chairman
  Chuck Wexler, E.D. of the Police Executives Research Forum
  Maria Kumar, Voto Latino Co-founder
  Paul Rodriguez, Comedian
  moderated by New York Times reporter Fernanda Santos

All summer long, Republicans have been flooding the media with positive internal polling. Meanwhile, the corresponding silence from Democrats has only added to the rapidly darkening conventional wisdom about November.

That’s what makes what you will read below such a pleasant surprise:

House race polls conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner on behalf of the DCCC. Conducted on differing dates between August 23 and September 2. Likely voters. MoE 4.9%

AL-02: Rep. Bobby Bright (D) 52%, Martha Roby (R) 43%
NY-24: Rep. Michael Arcuri (D) 50%, Richard Hanna (R) 37%
NC-08: Rep. Larry Kissell (D) 48%, Harold Johnson (R) 36%*
SD-AL: Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (D) 50%, Kristi Noem (R) 39%*
VA-05: Rob Hurt (R) 44%, Rep. Tom Perriello (D) 42%*

(*)–Indicates third-party candidate drawing 4-6% of the vote.

The DCCC had hung onto these polls for a week, and their release appears to have been inspired by a particularly brutal story run over the weekend by the New York Times. Over the weekend, the Times released one of the bleakest assessments of the electoral landscape, arguing that the DCCC had already thrown several incumbents over the side, in order to put their resources in more winnable environments.

This story was the catalyst for an immediate and forceful rebuttal from DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen, in which he referred to the allegation that Democrats had already specified certain races as lost causes as “erroneous.”

Given that the NYT story had specifically cited Perriello as one of those races that the DCCC was planning to toss under the bus, the inclusion of numbers from the Virginia 5th appeared to be a deliberate counterweight to the NYT’s allegations.

Whatever the genesis of this polling dump might have been, it is most welcome to see that the DCCC is working hard at trying to counter what is becoming a rapidly hardening narrative about the state of play in the House.

The president of a Montana tea party group has been kicked out of the organization for an exchange on his Facebook page that appeared to condone violence against homosexuals.

As you probably know, there’s a moneybomb underway to raise money for Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway’s campaign challenging Rand Paul for U.S. Senate.

Well, it turns out that at least one member of Rand Paul’s paid campaign staff has been posing as a progressive member of the Daily Kos community in an effort to dampen enthusiasm for Conway’s campaign and moneybomb. The staffer, Thomas Kubica, is a paid intern in Paul’s Bowling Green office. Paul campaign’s front desk confirmed Kubica’s status as a paid intern on Tuesday morning.

Kubica registered at Daily Kos under the pseudonym “Huey Long” and has repeatedly posed as a progressive Democrat who opposes Paul but does not believe Conway is worthy of support.

But despite his claim to be a progressive Democrat, look at how Kubica describes himself on his Linkedin page:

Thomas Kubica at Rand Paul for US Senate 2010
Political Organization | Greater Nashville Area
Current: Independent Contractor at Rand Paul for US Senate 2010 Past: Perishables Lab Analyst/Conservation Lab Analyst at Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute Education: Mercyhurst College

Compare that to this example of Kubica’s concern trolling:

* [new] Nobody said Rand Paul was better (3+ / 0-)
Of course we want Rand Paul to lose, but does that mean we spend limited national resources on a candidate far behind in the polls who is a conservative democrat who opposes the most pressing progressive ideals?

by Huey Long on Mon Sep 06, 2010 at 12:54:34 PM CDT

And another from Kubica, aka Huey Long:

Can we take Jack Conway off ActBlue now? (1+ / 0-)

I’ve been following Jack for a long time now and I tried to warn you all that he was no good (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Hbp_LjKq4).

I can think of a million better places for progressives to send money than Jack Conway, starting with Democrats who OPPOSE Bush’s tax cuts.

by Huey Long on Thu Sep 02, 2010 at 04:08:37 PM CDT

And another one delivered just this morning:

Funny

That’s one hilarious accusation. I’ve been accused of being a far-left purist plenty of times, but never a Paultard!

I’m sorry if trying to hold Democrats accountable irritates you.

But I believe someone who claims to represent progressives and comes here to collect our money should at least answer for the anti-progressive stances he has taken.

Believe it or not, I’m not a purist. John Kerry supported the Iraq war, but he later admitted it was a mistake and turned out to be a good choice for progressives. I worked hard on his campaign.

But Jack Conway has taken far too many positions that align him more with Mitch McConnell than any other Democrat. I don’t think he offers progressives anything worthwhile besides not being Rand Paul.

by Huey Long on Tue Sep 07, 2010 at 11:20:24 AM CDT

Kubica has also penned diaries criticizing Conway from the left (here and here), each of them transparent attempts to dampen progressive enthusiasm for Conway.

It goes without saying that Kubica, as a concern troll, is unwelcome at Daily Kos. Daily Kos is a progressive community and its community membership are united by the goal of electing more and better Democrats to public office. While we are tolerant of a wide range of views within the “Big Blue Tent,” make no mistake: this site is every bit as blue as it is orange. If Kubica had identified his role with his campaign, he would not have been welcome in the community, so he resorted to deception. Now that we know who he is, he’s been banned, per community guidelines.

Moreover, we decided to take the unusual step of unmasking his identify because he attempted to conceal his identity not for the sake of protecting his personal privacy, but rather he did so for the purpose of manipulating opinion about a campaign for which he is a paid staffer, no matter how junior his role might be.

As stated in the Daily Kos FAQ:

Registered users working in paid (or unpaid positions of authority) for political campaigns must disclose their affiliation when it is relevant to the conversation.
Admin Moderation: Warning, suspension, banning and, in an exception to the outing rule, exposure of the paid person’s real name.

Fortunately, Kubica’s lame attempt at “psyops” was so transparent it was easy to catch him in the act. The only person more out of touch than a progressive who  would support Rand Paul over Jack Conway is a Paultard who believes a “true progressive” would ever support Paul over Conway.

But what does it say about the Paul campaign that they would hire someone engaging in an attempted dirty trick like this? Everybody knows campaigns are tough business, but a gambit that involves attempting to manipulate the views and behaviors of your political opponents by posing as a like-minded ally is a gambit that goes too far. It’s just plain wrong.

But it’s not just wrong: Kubica clearly hoped to put a wet blanket on Conway’s moneybomb today. He knows this community, when it gets engaged, and can move mountains. So let’s step up to the plate and show what we can do: Let’s support Jack Conway by contributing to his Fight Fund during today’s moneybomb!

:::

Join Jack Conway himself in his campaign’s recommended diary, Support our moneybomb today! [UPDATE: Over 0k!].

###

Update: Now this is what we’re talking about!

Hey Markos, will you please email Mr. Kubica to (17+ / 0-)
let him know that, because of his dickheadedness, I just donated another to Mr. Conway’s campaign?

Thanks!
Granny

“All that’s changed is that they don’t wear their white hoods in public anymore. They wear white teabags instead.” – DallasDoc

by GrannyOPhilly on Tue Sep 07, 2010 at 10:41:48 AM PDT

From The New Republic’s Editor-in-Chief Martin Peretz:

But, frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. And among those Muslims led by the Imam Rauf there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood. So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.

Way to paint the 1.2 billion Muslims in the world with a bigoted brush, Mr. Peretz. Not to mention the astounding arrogance in naming yourself the arbiter of which Americans deserve Constitutional protections.

And by the way, the First Amendment is a right, not a privilege.

Politico – After the debate, Maloney literally fled from reporters and her Democratic challenger Saujani said she may not vote in the general election if she loses, although her spokesman later walked that claim back.

Sarah Palin’s not-quite-a-word “refudiate” was the one most often searched by users of the Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary over the summer.

President Obama summed up how he’s been treated by the political opposition in this unscripted comment in his Labor Day speech yesterday in Milwaukee:

And over the last two years, that’s meant taking on some powerful interests — some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time.  And they’re not always happy with me.  They talk about me like a dog.  (Applause.)  That’s not in my prepared remarks, it’s just — but it’s true.

But as fiery as that was, the thing that has really got President Obama fired up isn’t how he’s been treated — it’s how Republicans want to treat the American economy if they get their hands back on the wheel. If you haven’t seen it yet, this is the second must-see segment of his speech:

These are the folks whose policies helped devastate our middle class.  They drove our economy into a ditch.  And we got in there and put on our boots and we pushed and we shoved.  And we were sweating and these guys were standing, watching us and sipping on a Slurpee.  (Laughter.)  And they were pointing at us saying, how come you’re not pushing harder, how come you’re not pushing faster?  And then when we finally got the car up — and it’s got a few dings and a few dents, it’s got some mud on it, we’re going to have to do some work on it — they point to everybody and say, look what these guys did to your car. (Laughter.)  After we got it out of the ditch!  And then they got the nerve to ask for the keys back!  (Laughter and applause.)  I don’t want to give them the keys back.  They don’t know how to drive.  (Applause.)  

I mean, I want everything to think about it here.  When you want to go forward in your car, what do you do?

AUDIENCE: D!

THE PRESIDENT:  You put it in D.  They’re going to pop it in reverse. They’d have those special interests riding shotgun, then they’d hit the gas and we’d be right back in the ditch.  (Laughter.)

As good as it was seeing President Obama demonstrate his enthusiasm for the upcoming choice in November’s election, his speech yesterday wasn’t just red meat to pump up the base: he also delivered a concrete proposal for infrastructure jobs spending that won’t increase the deficit over the long-term. And that proposal is part of a series of proposals he’s putting on the table this week to accelerate the economic recovery. (And don’t forget about the looming debate over extending Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy.)

No doubt pundits will try to argue that this is all too little, too late to save the Democratic majority in Congress. But we’ve still got two months until election day, and outside of the rabid right, most Americans haven’t been paying that much attention to the campaign. Now we’ve got the leader of the Democratic Party paving the way in the final stretch of the campaign, and he’s doing it by showing why the election matters. And maybe just maybe, in the end John Boehner will have made a mistake by measuring the drapes before the first ballots have even been cast.

You can watch the full video here. Transcript below the fold.

During a heated town hall meeting last summer, Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank said debating one attendee was “like arguing with a dining room table.” Now she’s running for his congressional seat.

President Barack Obama will mark the ninth anniversary of the attacks at the Pentagon, the same location where he observed the date last year.