Hey Mydd,

I have flipped my Republican dad and am working on flipping my Republican mom into supporting Obama in the fall.  They live in central Ohio and are therefore very important electorally.

Unfortunately, the Republican offshore oil talking points have taken root in their house.  Below is the e-mail I want to send them to win them back on the oil issue.

I would love any advice on editing, more talking points, more sources (they love nonpartisan sources, i.e. MSM).  Do I have any factual errors because I don't want to get trapped in a partisan lie.  

Please help me win Ohio!!!

Yes it's true.  Only one and a half months ago, The National Enquirer published a story entitled "Clinton Mistress Revealed," that gave the name and photograph of Bill Clinton's most recent illicit lover:
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrit y/64991

With Obama having sewn up the Democratic Presidential Nomination, this was obviously an attempt to sabotage Hillary Clinton's chances for the Vice-Presidential nomination.  After all, revelations of Bill Clinton continuing to cavort with mistresses would make anyone weary of bringing the Clintons back into the White House.

Now, was this a secret campaign to bring down Obama, by removing one Vice Presidential candidate that could help him get elected President?  Or was it really a secret attack on John Edwards, by first clearing the field and then setting up Edwards for a subsequent attack?

What's going on here?  Enquiring minds want to know!!

UPDATE And I even forgot to mention the National Enquirer Cover Story of July 30, 2000 -- a year after Clinton supporter Altman acquired controlling interest -- titled "Hillary's Gay Affairs: The Shocking Truth" http://tinyurl.com/5ztw8e

...instead of continuing the show of irrational exuberance here in our echo chamber.  Let me say, it's completely understandable why we would be excited about our chances in an election season whose fundamentals are so overwhelmingly in our favor.

But more than a few recommended diaries here make it overwhelmingly clear to me that we are deluding ourselves.

Read on for the simple explanation why.
   

h/t C&L

According to The Havana Note the Junior Senator from Connecticut has promised to seek a pardon for terrorist Eduardo Arocena. http://thehavananote.com/2008/07/lieberm an_to_seek_pardon_for_m.html

"Before addressing a pro-McCain event in Florida on July 20, 2008, Senator Joe Lieberman was recorded on video telling Miriam Arocena, wife of Eduardo Arocena, the Federally-convicted leader of the Cuban-American terrorist group Omega 7, that he will carry back to Washington her request for a Presidential pardon for her husband. Arocena is serving a mandatory life sentence and was convicted on 25 Federal counts in New York and 24 counts in New York."

I urge you to read the entire piece in The Havana Note.

See Author's Credibility Rating (ACR) in the endnotes.

Please place the widget at your blog now.

I don't like to make a big deal out of my military service.  I mention it from time to time, of course.  I'm not ashamed of it.  I spent six years in the US Navy as an electriction - four years on board the USS Saipan.  I made two extended deployments - the first ended with OPERATION: Sharp Edge and the second was a part of the wrap-up of OPERATION: Desert Storm.  Among the awards I received for my service are the Kuwait Liberation Medal and the Southwest Asia Service Medal.

I mention it now because I have become part of the news-cycle in the race for New Jersey's Third Congressional District.  It began last Tuesday when GOP candidate Chris Meyers blasted Democratic State Senator John Adler for describing bloggers as "citizen-soldiers".  

Crossposted from Clintonsitas For Obama and Obama--Criticism and Support

When I went to the pharmacy yesterday, I noticed a petition to the Governor and the CA State legislature trying to prevent a 10% cut in funding of the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act.   This enraged me, as California is only spending an average of 2 months medication costs per patient per year.  Moreover, a large chunk of the funding goes to the hardest hit urban areas.  In short, the LA and SF metros get over 50% of the funding, and the rest of the state is relegated to fight over the rest.  While I'm all for money going where it's needed, the earmark needs to be expanded to truly serve the population living with HIV and AIDS.

Now I know that the Ryan White CARE Act has long been a target of the GOP and fiscal conservatives, but the current funding levels are shameful.  While the total amount that is earmarked for the fund seems large at $255,305,160 (FY2006 as reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation in partnership with US Dept. of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration), when you take into account there are 92,560 reported cases in the State of California (31 May, 2008, California Dept of Public Health, Office of AIDS), it boils down to an average $2758.27 per patient per year.  An average month's medication cost for someone who is taking Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HIV Meds) is around $1400.00.  With the proposed 10% cutback, the average amount spent per reported case would drop to an average of $2482.44 per year.

In 2005, there was a compromise measure enacted by Congress (when reauthorizing the Ryan White CARE Act) that limited how the monies are allocated.  Title's I and II of the act are limited to spending 75% on a core set of medical services, including the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), and places like the Center for AIDS Research, Education, and Services (CARES), and the other 25% used for "Wrap Around Services" such as housing assistance and food / meal assistance.  Those levels are good for places like Sacramento, but don't work for places like San Francisco, where donors have taken the financial burden off the clinics and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation's medical outreach programs.  In San Francisco, the SF AIDS Foundation reports that they only use an average of 60% out of the 75% medical allocation, but cannot reallocate those surplus monies to bolster their ailing non-medical assistance programs.  Other agencies, such as CARES in Sacramento, are fighting to keep every dollar they get for medical care as they are severely under-funded, and are the only such agency in the California central valley.  

So, in short, when I go to the Democratic Platform meeting next week, this is the issue I will bring.  This is one of the many issues that need to be addressed by Congress under the Obama Administration, and one that will be kept silent as it's not a big newsmaker.  But thankfully for myself (and the 92,559 other reported cases of HIV and AIDS in California), I've got a big mouth ... and am willing to use it to effect change.

Just my 2 Cents - comments and suggestions always welcome.

Dizzy

Okay this issue with the National Enquirer - the one of bigfoot and space alien stories - and the Edwards "love" child has got me wondering is true or false?

Let's just look at the "reporting" on this.

The enquirer has not one single named source except it's own reporters and its own editor.  They say they filed a criminal complaint against the Beverly Hilton (not Edwards not a named security guard) - so what?  Anyone can file a criminal complaint.

Fox"news" claims to have found a security guard who was there.  A couple of weird things about this: 1) the guard again is unnamed and 2) there is NO REPORTER listed for the story only placement on their webpage.  Don't reporters want credit?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,3914 26,00.html

maybe I'm nuts but why isn't a Fox "reporter" listed as contributing this story?

In the end this is easy enough to confirm with a DNA test, but in the mean time everyone hears this story and if there ever was even a dim chance of Edwards as VP this ought to kill it.

The cynical side of me wonders whether Roger Altman a treasury secretary under Bill Clinton and longtime HillRaiser did this back in October of 2007 and now just to help out the Clintons...

http://www.observer.com/2005/theyve-star ted-clinton-ii-crew-lines-early

To make it even weirder, another blogger says that the very same night in question was the TV Media Critics meeting at the same hotel and that the hospitality suite for their meeting was right next to the room in question...

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20080725_Tattle___Enquirer__links_John_Edwards__Rielle_Hunter.html?submit=Vote&oid=2&mr=1&25897604=Y&cid=8500281&pid=25897604

As Daily News TV critic Ellen Gray informed us from the Television Critics Association summer press tour, what makes the Beverly Hilton choice even more bizarre is that the place was crawling with reporters Monday night for the TCA, including newspaper people from the New York Times, USA Today the New York Daily News, the Washington Post, and us. But no one but the National Enquirer seemed to spot John Edwards. Ah, it's a big hotel, you say. True, but the Enquirer says Hunter/Edwards friend Bob McGovern reserved rooms 246 and 252 at the Hilton. The TCA hospitality suite was down the hall in Room 234. Tattle's not saying it's not true - and Edwards may soon be issuing tearful mea culpas - we're just saying that if Edwards chose to have a liaison in a hotel hosting a press event, he's an idiot.

wouldn't someone else more credible than the National Enquirer have seen this?

Note: for those who are comprehension challenged this posting does not claim any involvement of the Clintons in this