Great column.

It just ticks me off to no end everytime I see in print what I already know is happening. One of the reasons I supported John Edwards in the Primary was because of his position on fighting lobbyists. This revolving door BS and lobbyist control in D.C. must stop.

I watched Ralph Nader this morning and I have to say that listening to Nader I have to admit that I am in agreement with him on the issues. It's actually painful that I'm too afraid to support him because I don't want to hand the election to McCain. After Nader I then watched Richard Viguerrie talk about what's wrong with both Democrats and Republicans. While I'm much closer to Nader on the issues than I am to Viguerrie I must say that even he made more sense than John McCain. Watching both these men got me thinking about the Fall campaign.

I'd really like to see the Green Party & Libertarian Party included in the Fall debates. They both have a lot of good positions and I think their inclusion in the debates would actually force the Democrats and Republicans to debate ISSUES that they might otherwise ignore. I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this because they are even more fearful than I am about having a third party candidate gum up the works. They don't even want to hear them speak much less vote for them.

We all talk about Bush and the Republicans playing the terrorist fear card and they do, but aren't all of us also guilty of playing the third Party candidate fear card? Why are we doing this to ourselves? How can we ever expect things to change if we allow our own fears to prevent discussions that can lead to meaningful change?

I'd love to see some of the blogs talk about why we are all so fearful of hearing different points of view in the debates because I think until we stop being afraid of third party candidates that we will continue to find our choices limited to electing corporate Democrats or corporate Republicans. I think until we have some Green Party and Libertarian Congressional representatives challenging the Democrats and Republicans that we will never be able to break the grip of the lobbyists.

Yesterday I watched Gregory on MSNBC pathetically defend the reporting leading up to the war. He doesn't get it and never will as Glenn has so ably documented.

What a shame that cable viewers rely on people like Gregory when they should be hearing from people like Greenwald.

It's this has already been posted, my apologies.

Politico.com is reporting:

UPDATE: TVNewser reports that Jessica Yellin is going to post a blog item shortly on CNN.com that will clarify her remarks. From what I'm hearing, she'll write that it was MSNBC execs, not ABC that she was referring to last night. Yellin worked at MSNBC during the run-up to war, but then moved on to ABC that summer, where she stayed for four years.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0508/CNNs_Yellin_Network_execs_killed_critical_White_House_stories_.html

Wow. It's pretty clear by this huge McCain flip-flop that the radical elements that control the Bush White house are still in control of the Republican Party. If McCain was ever a different kind of Republican, as his fans in the media claim, his alignment with the most extreme Bush administration policies should shatter that myth for good.

Cestmoi123

PRESS RELEASE: AT&T Launches Encryption Services to Help Businesses Secure E-mail and Data

PRICELESS! They obviously have no shame.

I noticed that the McCain speech was widely panned on some of the right-wing blogs. Some of them even wanted to take up a collection to get him a speech coach. They also compared his small audience with the raucus crowd that Obama drew. LOL

I just received a call from a woman identifying herself as Holly Berry. She said she was from the Democratic Party and that "when we get a nominee" we need to support ($) them so that we can beat McCain. It struck me as odd that she said when we get a nominee so I told her that we already had a nominee. She then told me that the Super delegates could change their minds. I told her that we have a nominee and that the supers will not change their minds and that I found it disturbing that I was receiving such a call. I asked her if she was calling from Democratic Headquarters here in Louisville, KY and she said she was calling from Minnesota? I don't know if this person is off the reservation or this is an organized effort by a group off the reservation or if it is organized by the Hillary campaign or it's Republicans posing as Democrats. All I know is that it gave me a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Needless to say I made no contribution to Ms. Berry but instead I referred her to an wonderful article I just read on the Huffington Post. It was an excellent overview of the three Tuesday night speeches. I would encourage everyone to read it.

What Voters Saw Tuesday Night

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

I read the Savage piece this morning. I hadn't heard that Savage was joining the NYT but it's certainly welcome news. Charlie Savage will make a great addition to the Times.

I was also happy to see that the Obama campaign was quoted in the Savage piece. With the Bond Telecom immunity bill making it's way through Congress we certainly need Obama's leadership in order to defeat this bill.