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Thursday’s Mini-Report

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Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Wall Street “abruptly ended an earnings-driven rally and closed sharply lower Thursday after a steeper-than-expected decline in existing home sales and worries about the financial sector chilled the market’s recent optimism. The major indexes fell about 2 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which lost more than 275 points.”

* How bad were the housing numbers? “Sales of existing homes fell more sharply than expected in June as the housing industry continued to be bruised by the worst slump in more than two decades. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales dropped by 2.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.86 million units. That was more than double the decline that had been expected and left sales 15.5 percent below where they were a year ago. The downward slide in sales depressed prices, too.”

* On a related note, first-time unemployment claims rose last week to the highest level in nearly four months. The jobless numbers were worse than economists’ predicted.

* Bloodshed in Baghdad: “Iraqi police say at least eight people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a checkpoint manned by U.S.-allied Sunni guards northeast of Baghdad. A police officer says…. at least eight guards were killed and 24 other people were wounded. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.”

* He’s a very poor choice, given the task at hand: “Former CIA Director Porter Goss has been appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) as co-chairman of the new Office of Congressional Ethics.”

* If journalists would stop letting Drudge dictate their lives, I’m sure the rest of us would appreciate it.

* Oh dear: “The major Sunni sheik who John McCain said was protected by the surge and subsequently helped lead the Anbar Awakening, was actually assassinated by an al-Qaeda led group in midst of the surge.”

* On a related note, Karl Rove is willing to acknowledge that McCain screwed up the surge timeline, but he’d prefer that none of us notice. When Alan Colmes brought it up last night on Fox News, Rove said, “Look, let’s not get into this,” and adding, “[D]on’t make a big deal of it.”

* The right is raising a fuss about Obama’s decision not to use campaign funds to visit U.S. troops stationed in Germany. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs explained, “During his trip as part of the CODEL to Afghanistan and Iraq, Senator Obama visited the combat support hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad and had a number of other visits with the troops. For the second part of his trip, the senator wanted to visit the men and women at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice. The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign.”

* McCain’s principal talking point today was that he doesn’t think presidential candidates should give foreign speeches until after they’re in office. This, of course, contradicts McCain’s own record.

* Obama was in Germany. McCain was in a German restaurant.

* You’ve got to be kidding: “The Justice Department in 2002 told the CIA that its interrogators would be safe from prosecution for violations of anti-torture laws if they believed ‘in good faith’ that harsh techniques used to break the will of prisoners, including waterboarding, would not cause ‘prolonged mental harm.'”

* An increasingly regional disease? “AIDS specialists are calling for a fundamental rethinking of HIV policy after a new report showed that infection with the virus was rising dramatically in the South even as it dropped everywhere else in the country.”

* Don’t be too surprised if sometime soon, Randy Scheunemann, John McCain’s top foreign policy adviser, announces his desire to spend more time with his family.

* Attorney General Michael Mukasey thinks the Vice President is part of the executive branch. Will wonders never cease.

* How many Democratic Senate candidate support net neutrality this year? All of them.

* When Dems say McCain seems to have forgotten about the war in Afghanistan, we mean that literally.

* The questions in Fox News polls are always so darn amusing.

* And finally, Color of Change and MoveOn.org launched an initiative to bring attention to racism on Fox News. Stephen Colbert devoted half his show last night to bringing attention to the project. Good for him.

Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

Comments

  • zeitgeist

    says:

    * McCain’s principal talking point today was that he doesn’t think presidential candidates should give foreign speeches until after they’re in office. This, of course, contradicts McCain’s own record.

    That’s wonderful of First Read to point out to all 27 of its readers. . . any bets on whether O’Donnell actually points it out on the interview to be broadcast when millions are tuned in?

    * Obama was in Germany. McCain was in a German restaurant.

    Are there any adults involved in running the McCain campaign? Really? Schmidt’s Sausage Haus and weird meaninless attempted shots about waiting until one is President to speak in Germany? Honest?

  • MW

    says:

    The right is raising a fuss about Obama’s decision not to use campaign funds to visit U.S. troops stationed in Germany.

    And ig he had used campaign funds, the right would have screamed about him campaigning overseas and on a military base.

  • Dee Loralei

    says:

    Oh, and Josh Marshall pointed out that there’s a pick of McCain and Lindsay Graham in front of a German Chocolate store, not too far from the German Sausauge restaurant where they dined. Josh mentioned something about German Chocoalte Sausages. Damn, some days the jokes just write themselves.

  • MW

    says:

    The right is raising a fuss about Obama’s decision not to use campaign funds to visit U.S. troops stationed in Germany.

    And if he had used campaign funds, the right would have screamed about him campaigning overseas and on a military base.

  • Dee Loralei

    says:

    And what in the hell was Nancy thinking??? Porter ” Mr Corruption” Goss heading anything like the congressional ethics office???? Didn’t he have to resign in shame from the CIA because he and his immediate underlings where ethically challenged??? Didn’t several of them go to jail???

  • zeitgeist

    says:

    in the open-thread vein, some items from PoliticalWire that posted too late to made CB today are of interest.

    first, they have some new Research 2000 polls that are particularly interesting in light of the polls that were making Steve nervous earlier today. I think the only possible conclusion is that at this stage of the campaign, polls are highly unreliable. this morning we have 4 polls showing McCain rapidly closing (or eliminating) the gap in swing states. Now R2000 shows Obama closing the gap to a competitive level in red states (and this comparison includes neighbors Minnesota – where McCain is allegedly suddenly competitive – and North Dakota where Obama is allegedly competitive. this obviously makes virtually zero sense.)

    second, it appears that Team Clinton now fully accepts that Clinton will not be VP: McAuliffe has come out in support of Tim Kaine to be Obama’s choice.

  • Lance

    says:

    ““The major Sunni sheik who John McCain said was protected by the surge and subsequently helped lead the Anbar Awakening, was actually assassinated by an al-Qaeda led group in midst of the surge.”

    Do you read your own blog CB? I wrote that yesterday!

    Jeez!

    “McCain’s principal talking point today was that he doesn’t think presidential candidates should give foreign speeches until after they’re in office. This, of course, contradicts McCain’s own record.”

    I was wondering what he was doing in Columbia and Mexico. Notice, he didn’t try to travel around the world through different time zones. Apparently, being 71, he doesn’t adjust too well to time changes (or anything else 😉

  • scott_m

    says:

    Someone should tell Speaker Pelosi that hers is the majority party and is likely to continue that way through at least the next two years. She should be able to tell Boehner that the co-chairs will be, oh, I don’t know– Melanie Sloan and Ross Perot– and if Boehner doesn’t like it, he can sit on it and spin.

    If she wants an effective ethics office, that is.

  • Dale

    says:

    Pelosi is one of the Dems who sighed a relief at the FISA immunity agreement since she was privy to torture info.

  • Dale

    says:

    I guess I needn’t worry whether Obama can fill that stadium in Denver. He could fill it with Germans if he had to.

  • Steve

    says:

    Schmidt’s is a freaking tour-bus stop, for crying out loud—and McCain was probably humming the Horst Wessel between bites of sauerbraten.

    Porter Goss—overseeing ethics? Sounds to me like Pelosi’s got something to hide—which would explain impeachment being off the table.

    McCain’s seeing ghosts now—declaring that a dead guy managed to start the Anbar Awakening. I’m surprised the Sunni clerics haven’t labeled him a blasphemous heretic yet….

  • TCG

    says:

    “Former CIA Director Porter Goss has been appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) as co-chairman of the new Office of Congressional Ethics.”

    Whaaaat ? ? ?

  • olo

    says:

    My all time fave comment:

    12. On July 24th, 2008 at 6:27 pm, JakeE said:
    Congrats. JakeD has been banned.

  • angry young man

    says:

    bbc world news did a report tonight on small town white male american support for john mccain. the location: berlin, pa. now that’s genius.

  • beep52

    says:

    Isn’t it interesting how American voters don’t know enough about Obama to give him more than a single-digit lead over McCain — but in Europe they’re confident enough in him to give him a 60 point lead?

  • tomj

    says:

    Okay bloggers, NBC has not committed the same offense as CBS: they dropped the big story, which is that McCain now thinks the surge started with the Anbar Awakening, it includes anything the Iraqis accomplished.

    The problem is that this is exactly what Obama has defined as contributing to lower violence. But the goal was still a crystallized political situation. If the situation is stablized then there is no need to stay, if it isn’t stabilized, then the surge hasn’t succeeded. How can you succeed when you still need to do anything to keep from losing?

  • libra

    says:

    * McCain’s principal talking point today was that he doesn’t think presidential candidates should give foreign speeches until after they’re in office. — CB

    Once the campaign is over and he has a bit more spare time, Senator McGaffe should write a primer on the subject of presidential candidates etiquette. I’d especially like for him to weigh in on the matter of holding well-publicised fundraisers — attended mostly by foreigners — in London. He should also have something to contribute on the related issue of when to — and when not to — use campaign funds.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    [Josh mentioned something about] German Chocolate Sausages. — Dee Lorelei, @4

    Same vendor that sells “Obama’s Chocolate Nuts” and “McCain’s Dried Papaya Sticks”?

  • libra

    says:

    In the open vein thread (or open thread vein. Whichever)…

    The Women for John McCain:
    http://www.womenforjohnmccain.com/
    which has become a stop I make daily, are going strong again tonight. Among today’s gems:

    After wrapping his hungry lips around mouthful after tempting mouthful of old world sausage from a menu of enticing beef and pork sausage stuffed in an extra large natural casing and made moist with sauce, served with a side of wurst balls coated with batter and an inviting split top bun, our next president […]

    And that’s before you look at the *photos* which accompany the article. Sigh… Much as I love the Intertubes, I’m always a bit sad about the anonymity of the “scene”. I’d love to meet, in “real time”, the people who write that site (s well as some of the commenters here).

  • burro

    says:

    “Former CIA Director Porter Goss has been appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) as co-chairman of the new Office of Congressional Ethics.”

    If I were walking down the street and a Gardenia began communicating with me telepathically in Gardeniaish I would be no more baffled and wonderstruck than I am in attempting to understand why these microbrained pods are permitted to do anything more complicated than scratch their ass.

    Worthless.

  • rege

    says:

    John McCain wasn’t just in a German restuerant, he was in the Germantown section of Columbus, OH. This had to be deliberate. To make things worse, after he came under fire all day yesterday and today for fudging on the surge he selected as his backdrop for his presser-I kid you not-Schmidt’s Fudge Haus. Now perhaps he thought it was some sort of sly jab at Obama, but I’m thinking he is subconsciously sabotaging his campaign.

  • Dennis-SGMM

    says:

    To make things worse, after he came under fire all day yesterday and today for fudging on the surge he selected as his backdrop for his presser-I kid you not-Schmidt’s Fudge Haus.
    Republicans appreciate well-packed fudge.

  • Dale

    says:

    I asked: Where’s Obama’s withdrawal timetable from Afghanistan?

    MsJoanne said: Dale, how do you draw a timetable for Afghanistan when we (Obama) is working with a murky slate. Should he provide a timetable – at this point in time – it would be completely arbitrary and, to me, pointless and misguided.

    This is something I missed a couple of days ago. I would say that I’d like to see some kind of exit strategy in general terms at least. Things were muddled in Iraq and we sure as heck wanted a timetable for withdrawal there. I don’t think it’s to early to be asking Obama about his intentions in Afghanistan and how he’s going to get us out of there, do you?

  • rege

    says:

    WASHINGTON – Three ballistic missile crew members in North Dakota fell asleep while holding classified launch code devices this month, triggering an investigation by military and National Security Agency experts, the Air Force said Thursday.

    The probe found that the missile launch codes were outdated and remained secure at all times. But the July 12 incident comes on the heels of a series of missteps by the Air Force that had already put the service under intense scrutiny.

    I wonder if this has anything to do with the problems the Air Force is having?

    The Air Force is investigating whether a two-star general violated military regulations by urging fellow Air Force Academy graduates to make campaign contributions to a Republican candidate for Congress in Colorado, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

    Maj. Gen. Jack J. Catton Jr., who is on active duty at Langley Air Force Base, sent the fundraising appeal on Thursday from his official e-mail account to more than 200 fellow members of the academy’s class of 1976, many of whom are also on active duty.

    “We are certainly in need of Christian men with integrity and military experience in Congress,” Catton wrote

    Or maybe this?

    A private missionary group has assigned a pair of full-time Christian ministers to the U.S. Air Force Academy, where they are training cadets to evangelize among their peers, according to a confidential letter to supporters.

    The letter makes clear that the organized evangelization effort has continued this year despite an outcry over alleged proselytizing at the academy that has prompted a Pentagon investigation, congressional hearings, a civil lawsuit and new Air Force guidelines on religion.

  • Tom Cleaver

    says:

    An increasingly regional disease? “AIDS specialists are calling for a fundamental rethinking of HIV policy after a new report showed that infection with the virus was rising dramatically in the South even as it dropped everywhere else in the country.”

    And which part of the country is most likely to be teaching “abstinence-only” sex ed??? I’m sure these bible-beaters will understand “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

    Wall Street “abruptly ended an earnings-driven rally and closed sharply lower Thursday after a steeper-than-expected decline in existing home sales and worries about the financial sector chilled the market’s recent optimism. The major indexes fell about 2 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which lost more than 275 points.”

    I’ll be the report in the LA Times that the Justice Department has served subpeonas on Countrywide, New Century and IndyMac Bank – three of the major malign players in the subprime mess – in an investigation into fraud, abuse, and conspiracy, had absolutely nothing to do with this.

    When they tell you it’s not about the money, it’s about the money”. H.L. Mencken

  • beep52

    says:

    Not that everything has to be viewed through the prism of the US presidential election, but I have a feeling we’re going to hear about the futility of diplomacy tomorrow. From the AP, via RawStory:

    Iran signaled Thursday that it will no longer cooperate with U.N. experts probing for signs of clandestine nuclear weapons work, confirming the investigation is at a dead end a year after it began.

  • JS

    says:

    Friday morning – today is the day for the Kucinich impeachment hearings, I think, also for the Willie Nelson protest in Washington. Any bets on the MSM covering them.

  • Tim

    says:

    Re: #23: “PS it is not the Ronald Reagan that everyone is familiar with.”

    Hmmm…I thought he seemed a bit more not-dead than I remembered him…

    Also – no surprise the South is such a hotbed for STDs. When a people rise up as one and demand ignorance, the consequences DO manifest themselves.

  • Alex Hamilton

    says:

    Re: The walls must come down twixt us… line, which will be foisted upon us by Obama-philes as the Kennedyesque moment of Senator Obama’s euro-fest:

    After the after-glow has subsided, it will be interesting to see how hard President Obama pushes Ehud Ohlmert to lower the “Security Fence.”

    Once again, he recites one heck of a speech, but where the rubber meets the road… nothing.

  • DrBB

    says:

    And if he had used campaign funds, the right would have screamed about him campaigning overseas and on a military base.

    And rightly so, because of the basic principle all candidates have always adhered to except Obama: You shouldn’t campaign overseas. Which if he hadn’t, they could’ve nailed him as chicken-hearted for not taking up McCain’s challenge to visit Iraq.

    Or to put it another way, the only game the GOP knows how to play is Calvin Ball.

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    I meant to comment on this last night, and it will be repeated somewhere today. I have (and do) continue to defend Pelosi’s decision on impeachment, but…

    Porter Goss!!!! Yagottabekiddinme!

    It isn’t quite as bad as would be appointing Alberto Gonzalez Special Counsel in charge of investigating the Department of Justice, but it’s in the same league. I can just hope that. for once TPM got it wrong. This, if true, is a blunder of incredible proportions, and I’d want to know why — without the usual paranoid speculations I expect from some of our more nervous contributors.

  • Lisa

    says:

    Prup–This, if true, is a blunder of incredible proportions, and I’d want to know why — without the usual paranoid speculations I expect from some of our more nervous contributors.

    You simply can’t help yourself, can you?

  • MsJoanne

    says:

    Dale, Things were muddled in Iraq and we sure as heck wanted a timetable for withdrawal there. I don’t think it’s to early to be asking Obama about his intentions in Afghanistan and how he’s going to get us out of there, do you?

    Admittedly, I am not military and have no personal military training so I don’t know the first thing about war planning. What I would like to see are clear goals first. I don’t even know what we’re trying to accomplish there. Find bin Laden? I thought he was in Pak. Stop the Taliban. Yeah they suck, but was/is that our goal? What is our goal??

    Then we can talk exit strategy.

    Don’t get me wrong. I feel ya…I understand completely what your questions is about and I do agree. But I would like to see a couple of other things answered first.

    We have become the Soviet Union vis a vis Afghanistan.

  • Dale

    says:

    MsJoanne said: Don’t get me wrong. I feel ya…I understand completely what your questions is about and I do agree. But I would like to see a couple of other things answered first.

    We have become the Soviet Union vis a vis Afghanistan.

    Woo, now there’s s precedent. I also would like some answers from Barack beyond putting more troops in. Like you said what is their purpose exactly. And I guess a purpose is a sort of exit strategy.

    Someone drew the parallel with Lyndon Johnson, a well-meaning man, handed a war he got gung ho about.

  • Dale

    says:

    Preacher Prup said: and I’d want to know why — without the usual paranoid speculations I expect from some of our more nervous contributors.

    After 7 years of no one being paranoid enough to see the truth, why would you want to exclude them now?

  • MsJoanne

    says:

    Jeez, did I really type “questions is?”

    Oh, what I wouldn’t give for an Edit link!! (sigh)

    And I think we’re pretty much in agreement. 🙂