[UPDATE: Made the Rec List! Thank You everyone!]

John McCain's campaign is becoming a "target rich environment."

The latest attack levelled by the Three Stooges John McCain's crack campaign staff is that Barack Obama is soft and hypocritical on genocide. [More after the jump]

that is how moved I am right now.  I have just finished reading a column that is affirming of life, insistent on moral clarity, and totally appropriate to the incident which occasions its writing, the arrest of Radovan Karadzic.  It is by Roger Cohen of the New York Times, and is entitled Karadzic and War’s Lessons.  

Perhaps it will not move you as it did me.  But you should read it.  It should not be excerpted, which is all I can do without violating copyright.  So I am going to ask a favor.   Please read the column.  If you do nothing else this morning, I think you will find my request reasonable.  After you've done that, if you want, we can talk further.  And anything I have to add will be below the fold.  But don't feel obligated to do anything - except read Cohen's column

The Boston Globe reports today on the tragic case of Carlene Balderrama, a middle-class homeowner in Taunton, MA.  At 2:30 on Tuesday afternoon, just two and half hours before the scheduled foreclosure of her family home -- where she lived with her husband and adult son -- Mrs. Balderrama faxed a note to her mortgage company.  The note said "by the time they foreclosed on the house today she'd be dead."

For some reason, police did not get to the house until 3:30, and sure enough they found Balderrama's body.  She had shot herself with her husband's high-powered rifle.

More on the flip.

Barack Obama has arrived in Berlin and is greated with the most astonishing amount of excitement since the fall of the Berlin wall. My guess is that the demonstration today will be in the range of the 200.000 people who came together on September 14, 2001 to show their solidarity after the attacks of 9/11.

I myself will jump on the train in a few hours to go to Berlin. I am really excited about watching the speech and as a German, I am interested to hear what he has to say and I am going to write an update later.

In any case, German media is going nuts: all news channels are having a constant coverage.

For some impressions of Barack Obama in Berlin, check the FAZ Please note the modern art in the chancellery. I think it is nice

And the frontpages of German Newspapers: here My favorite one is the taz (image nr.3).

So what do you expect?

Yeah, she keeps making blatant sexual references in the title of her diaries; we all recognize those titles for what they are:  naked attempts to pimp her work.  

The truth is, she could just as well eliminate the tit-elation; her diaries would stand up of their own accord.  The are infused with intellectual Viagra.

But all of that is beside the point.

I'm writing because there is a side to OrangeClouds that you very well may not know.

She's a risk-taker, and for all the right reasons.

Follow me over the flip for the true dirt.

Update [2008-7-24 0:37:9 by Mike Stark]:  This diary will be effective only if you 1) read the whole thing; and 2) click on the rec button.  Do it for OC115.

A press conference was held today at offices of Fox News in New York. The purpose of the gathering was to deliver a petition with over 600,000 names to network executives calling for an end to the racist attacks against black Americans including Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle. The petition is the work of Color of Change and MoveOn and asks Fox News CEO Roger Ailes to respond to the allegation that...

"Fox has developed a pattern of airing racially offensive attacks, then apologizing only after controversy erupts. Forced, half-hearted apologies do not demonstrate good faith when the larger pattern of offensive rhetoric continues."

I'm taking my title from an article I read earlier today - How Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine Lost His Progressive Mojo. The author looks at "Kaine’s deft transition from ultra-liberal to solid moderate without blinking an eye."

It's an interesting analysis and points to a ubiquitous, ever-serious problem for progressive voters.

  We Shall Keep the Faith  

      Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
      Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
      We caught the torch you threw
      And holding high, we keep the Faith
      With All who died.

      We cherish, too, the poppy red
      That grows on fields where valor led;
      It seems to signal to the skies
      That blood of heroes never dies,
      But lends a lustre to the red
      Of the flower that blooms above the dead
      In Flanders Fields.

      And now the Torch and Poppy Red
      We wear in honor of our dead.
      Fear not that ye have died for naught;
      We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
      In Flanders Fields.

   by Moina Michael, November 1918

Tonight we remember a marine who was killed in Iraq and a soldier who was killed in Afghanistan

Content removed for copyright violation. People might want to unrecommend - MissLaura

This story caught by Mark Nickolas over at Political Base deserves a lot more attention than it has received.  It turns out that not only is McCain getting killed by the traditional media, his advertising campaigns just aren't working, either.  Voters seem to be immune to the appeals of an angry, befuddled septuagenarian looking to preside over Bush's 3rd term.

This is a diary about how to run a voter registration drive. Specifically, it’s about how I run the all-volunteer voter registration drive for the Travis County Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaign. It is intended to help all of you set up your own voter registration efforts, whether it’s you and a friend on a street corner, or a group of eager individuals at a community event. Read it, print out the text, email the link, however you think it can help. The key is for everyone to start registering voters.

To conduct a voter registration drive, you need three things:

• Volunteers
• Locations
• Supplies

I’m going to cover each of these three aspects below. In the coming weeks, my fellow voter registration all-star casperr and I will post a few more diaries to help you all get involved with voter registration.

This is good timing, because today marks a major milestone in our Austin Vote for Change efforts: tonight we will register our 1000th voter. More on that, too.

Poor John McCain can't seem to catch a break. He had planned to counter Barack Obama's historic Berlin speech on Thursday with a visit to a Louisiana oil rig to highlight his support of offshore drilling.

As Jonathan Martin at the Politico had reported:

While Barack Obama is speaking about international affairs in Germany before thousands of fans tomorrow, John McCain will be talking about a pressing domestic issue with an equally striking if very different backdrop.

Weather permitting, McCain will helicopter from Louisiana to an oil rig in the Gulf Coast to make the case for expanded off-shore drilling, says a McCain aide.

Now, Drudge is reporting that his oil rig photo op has been canceled due to weather....and it's been confirmed by MSNBC. McCain will travel to Ohio instead.

► With Defense Minster, Ehud Barak

*

BOOOO-YAHH!!  Let the smackdown begin.

► Whiner!!

► Too Old!!

► Too Angry!!

► Smear Merchant!!

The Village™ elders dropped an anvil on his head.

► Update: He's Losing it.
*

► First up: Jack Cafferty knee-caps McWhiner.

Believe it or not, the McCain Campaign, as reported by MSNBC, has just released a statement claiming that John McCain's timeline on the Iraq Surge vs the Sunni Awakening is the correct one.

"McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said late Tuesday, ‘Democrats can debate whether the awakening would have survived without the surge ... but that is nothing more than a transparent effort to minimize the role of our commanders and our troops in defeating the enemy, because to credit them would be to disparage the judgment of Barack Obama and praise the leadership of John McCain.’"

Are you kidding me?  It doesn't minimize our troops, McCain is minimizing the efforts and success of the Iraqis, because if they're remain "incompetent" he can have his glorious 100 Year Occupation. Problem is, they aren't incompetent and the everyone has started to realize that would be Emperor McCain isn't wearing a stitch.

Politico is reporting that Novak ran down a pedestrian (who was in the crosswalk and had the right of way) and then took off, only to be chased down by a cyclist. His bright, shiny Corvette was blockaded by the bicyclist until the cops showed up.

A Politico reporter saw Novak in the front of a police car with a citation in his hand; a WJLA-TV crew and reporter saw Novak as well. The pedestrian, a male in his 60s, was hospitalized at George Washington University Hospital with minor injuries according to the Metro Fire Department. Novak was later released by police and drove away from the scene.

The Gaffe-a-thon machine that has become John McCain just cancelled it's Press availability today and it's been noted by Politico with a nice detailed run down of just why...

He hasn't explained what he meant by juggling the timeline on the surge and Awakening; whether he meant that Obama was deliberately selling out the country; whether he shares his campaign's grievance with the press; or what he thinks of his staff's genocide-themed attack.

So while Barack Obama has the guts to go into Ramallah to discuss Isreal/Palestine, McCain can't stand a few hot questions from the press in Pennsylvania....

Remind me again whose the Brave War Hero?  Looks like a Chickenhawk to me!  Then again maybe there was fear that only 2 reporters would show up.

So, I'm taking all these foot pix.  And out at the Howard Dean bus launch, Thursday, I see George Lakoff.  "Can I photograph your feet?"  Done, but he says "You better photograph her feet, too."  Pretty woman in a dress?  Sure, why not?  "What's your name?"  Debbie Cook!  OK.  I like candidates as subjects.  And whups!

Turning to move on, a voice behind me says, "Hey!  Aren't you gonna photograph my feet?"  If ya wanna know who it was, you're gonna hafta click again...