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MSNBC's announcement that it is replacing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews with David Gregory as anchors for its main political events (the upcoming presidential debates and election) vividly illustrates several long-obvious facts. First, nothing changes the behavior of our media corporations more easily than vocal demands and complaints from the Right, which petrify media executives and cause them to snap into line.

Here is the link for this morning's rally in Lee's Summit, MO which is scheduled to start at 10:30 CST: http://www.johnmccain.com/McCainTV/live.htm

Are vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's rimless eyeglasses the new Hillary Clinton pantsuit? Veep candidate's rimless glasses are suddenly in high demand. More PhotosThe glasses, created by Japanese designer Kazuo Kawasaki, are becoming a bipartisan must-have fashion accessory. The company that manufacturers Palin's eyeglasses says its phones have been ringing off the hook. "We began hearing from our authorized dealers and they wanted to stock multiple pairs of the exact same frame and style and color that she had," said Amy Hahn, the vice president of Italee Optics, Inc. The Palin look is "smart, sophisticated and put together," said one...

Folks, I just found out they have moved my appearance on "Fox and Friends" tomorrow to the 8:30-9:00 slot. Many of you will be at work, but if you have a Tivo, great. If not, I'll post a follow up.

This morning in Kissimmee, Florida, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, will discuss the economy at a town hall meeting, after which she will visit a convention of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Lake Buena Vista. Her day ends in Tampa with a rally. How strongly will she take on Sen. John McCain's new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin? "She's going to continue to do what she's been doing, as recently as yesterday," a Clinton aide told me Sunday, forwarding a Saturday story with the headline, "Clinton Brushes Aside Questions About Palin." At New York City's annual...

Wow. It was not what I expected. Not from anyone. I didn’t expect what Peggy Noonan described, on the record, as a hail Mary pass from John McCain in a race that was essentially tied. I didn’t expect my liberal friends, feminists prominent among them, after years of arguing that personal choices should be personal, that having a family should not disqualify a woman (as it frankly so often does) from having it all, to turn on a dime and go after the second woman in history to be chosen for a major party ticket because of her own personal...

Just a heads up for those interested, and have the time: USANetwork is running a NCIS marathon all day today, until 7 pm EDT. To clarify, the last episode *ends* at 7pm.

Russia’s Restless Muslim Republics By Uwe Klussmann Although Russia is celebrating the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it still has its own problems in the region as its Muslim republics are drifting toward a partisan war. Last Monday, an eerie funeral procession passed through the center of Nazran in the Russian republic of Ingushetia. Hundreds of people silently crowded around the coffin of Magomed Yevloyev. The 37-year-old lawyer and founder of a Web site ( www.ingushetiya.ru) that was critical of the government was killed in police custody. The authorities said that he was shot in a police car “inadvertently”...

John McCain’s announcement that his vice-presidential choice was Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a surprise. As usual, whenever the networks and pundits come up with their own short list of candidates, they fall short. No one saw this one coming. The networks and pundits seem offended that they were wrong once again. They immediately launched attacks on Gov. Palin for her “inexperience,” and proclaimed that Sen. McCain had now disarmed himself by no longer being able to criticize Sen. Barack Obama for not having the experience necessary to be commander-in-chief. At least, that’s how biased media pundits and anchors see...

"All I ever really needed to know I learned on the basketball court." That's Sarah Palin, circa 2004, when she was merely, as the Obama campaign would say, "the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience." More than once on her way to becoming a national political phenom as John McCain's running mate, Palin has said she owes it all to playing hoops. But she's not just talking about basketball. She's talking about girls' basketball. In Alaska. In the seventies. It was a time and a place before identity politics. Before feminists made young female...

Washington D.C.’s schools chancellor, Michelle Rhee is taking a stab at the big prize. She wants to offer teachers the option of higher pay — as much as $20,000 extra, pushing some salaries well over $100,000 — if they give up their absolute job protections and their seniority-based pay scale...

New York Fashion Week witnessed its first scandal, and it occurred during Donna Karan’s DKNY twentieth anniversary show. Shouts of “D-K-N-Y! How many animals have to die!” and “Stop the insanity! No blood for vanity!” rang out at the Tent doors, as members of PETA protested the proceedings, reports Fashinologie.

They must think you’re stupid. — Barack Obama, Aug. 6, on the GOP’s new theme of “change” If there are any Republicans reading this, you might as well stop. Your party leaders have made the guidelines clear. I am someone who believes Barack Obama would make a better president than would John McCain. Therefore, you’ve nothing to find here but a waste of your valuable time, enlightened mind and huge, compassionate heart. I’m just another American deserving only of your mockery and scorn. Why people like me are not rounded up and put on the next boat to Gitmo...

Barack Obama has said he considered joining the United States military when he left school but decided not to because the Vietnam war was over and "we weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point". The statement is thought to be the first time during the 19-month-long presidential campaign that the Democraticnominee for the White House has indicated he once wanted to serve in uniform. The aspiration was not mentioned in either of his two volumes of memoirs.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has tried to cut state worker pay to the federal minimum wage until a state budget is done. He's tried laying off more than 10,000 part-time and temporary state workers. He's tried calling on voters to demand action from their legislators. He's tried calling for bipartisan cooperation. He's tried suggesting that lawmakers are cowards. He's tried abandoning his determination not to raise taxes. He's tried threatening to veto all bills. Still, California is officially in uncharted budget territory, without a spending plan for the 2008-09 fiscal year that began July 1. In search of a way to...

On This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., expressed regret at his answer on abortion at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church a couple weekends ago. "At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?" Warren asked. "I think that, whether you’re looking at it from the theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade," Obama said -- an answer that offended some people. "Was that phrase too flip?" Stephanopoulos asked Obama today. "Probably," Obama said. "Yes. I mean, what I intended to say is that, as...

This article is not the first to note the cultural contradiction in American liberalism, but just now the point bears restating. The election may turn on it. Democrats speak up for the less prosperous; they have well-intentioned policies to help them; they are disturbed by inequality, and want to do something about it. Their concern is real and admirable. The trouble is, they lack respect for the objects of their solicitude. Their sympathy comes mixed with disdain, and even contempt. Democrats regard their policies as self-evidently in the interests of the US working and middle classes. Yet those wide segments...

Barely a year ago, illegal immigration was Topic A on America's agenda. It turned CNN's Lou Dobbs into a household name. This newspaper, recognizing the issue's importance, selected the illegal immigrant as our Texan of the Year – not because we approved of illegal immigration but because of the huge political and social impact the phenomenon was having on our state. Boy, did we touch a nerve. So imagine our outrage that neither Republicans nor Democrats addressed it substantively during their recent national conventions. It was as if Barack Obama and John McCain regarded the entire topic as radioactive. When...

There's little doubt that these are tough economic times for most Americans. But of all the people affected by such a downturn, perhaps no one suffers more than low-wage workers who struggle even in good times to make ends meet. Their challenge in acquiring and maintaining assets – a house, a business or even a savings account – makes them even more vulnerable when times get tough. Millions of American households have no checking or savings account of any kind. The "unbanked" typically don't know if they qualify, how to open accounts or even if they should. Without bank accounts,...

Our good old Uncle Bob apparently made some comment to producer before going on about about Sarah Palin being a "dog that will self destruct". Bill Hemmer called him out on it. Bob totally comes unglued and shoots himself in the foot.

My son's fatalism amazes me, but he's not alone in worrying that time is running out. Recently, one of my friends told me that her son can't sleep because he is so anxious about global warming. Other friends try to shield their children from watching storms on the evening news. Was it so long ago that weather was the safe subject for conversations? For our children the forecast evokes the horsemen of the apocalypse: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. It's not clear to me that global warming causes every natural disaster, but in a child's mind, climate change and horrific...

I was just browsing Barnes & Noble.com and ran across a children's book titled- "Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope." WHAT A CROCK! The hype supporting the Obamamessiah is truly unlike anything I have ever seen. He is being raised to a god-like status! Stuff like this really frightens me!

There were 2,031 rotary rigs working in the US the week ended Aug. 29, up 33 from the previous week and the first time the count has topped 2,000 since Mar. 8, 1985, when 2,011 units were drilling, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. This week's count is the largest since Mar. 1, 1985, when there were 2,143 rotary rigs working. The latest count is up from 1,829 during the same period a year ago. Land operations accounted for the bulk of this week's count, up by 34 to 1,938 active units. Offshore drilling increased by 2 rigs to 65 in the...

A few notes to add to Byron's excellent article on Barack Obama's years as a community organizer. First, clearly the Obama campaign does feel this is a key part of Obama's qualifications to be president, as it shows up in Obama's nomination acceptance speech, Michelle Obama's speech, Biden's speech, several of Obama's ads, etc. Second, note that Obama and his supporters speak a great deal about Obama's choice to be a community organizer, and not so much on what he actually did. We're continually expected to applaud the decision to try instead of asking about the results. We never hear,...

(CNN) -- With the race for the White House nearly tied, the presidential contenders and their running mates are kicking off the first week of post-convention campaigning in battleground states. Barack Obama's lead over John McCain has shrunk to just one point -- 44 percent to 43 percent, according to CNN's poll of polls released Sunday. Obama held a three-point lead in Saturday's poll of polls. CNN's most recent poll of polls consists of three surveys: CBS (September 1-3), Gallup (September 4-6), and Diageo/Hotline (September 2-4). The poll of polls does not have a sampling error.

THIRTEEN years after his acquittal in one of the most publicised murder cases in US history, OJ Simpson returns to court later today for a robbery and kidnapping case that could see him jailed for life. Legal experts say the outcome of the case is far from clear as Simpson, 61, faces a dozen charges that stem from a confrontation in a hotel room last September after which he and a gang of gun-toting cohorts left with pillow cases stuffed full of sports memorabilia. The charges against Simpson and one of those men, Clarence Stewart, include kidnapping and armed robbery,...

CNN started it, the rest of the media is following suit as report after report discuss the charges that the GOP and McCain/Palin ticket have reignited the culture wars. The Huffington Post and Daily Kos have gone so far as to blame McCain and Palin for starting class and racial warfare. But behind the headlines, is their any truth to the charges? Who's really to blame for the culture wars? Who's responsible for "reigniting" them? First, understand that to some extent ... ...Although Bush, Gore and Kerry re-established the map, they did re-establish the McGovern 'Culture War. The DNC and...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - September 8 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "From me is thy fruit found." - Hosea 14:8 Our fruit is found from our God as to union. The fruit of the branch is directly traceable to the root. Sever the connection, the branch dies, and no fruit is produced. By virtue of our union with Christ we bring forth fruit. Every bunch of grapes have been first in the root, it has passed through the stem, and flowed through the sap vessels, and fashioned itself externally into fruit, but it was first in the stem; so also every...

Thanks to Sarah Palin, the culture war has now become a civil war—on the left. Mika Brzezinski bravely opened a new front in the conflict during today's Morning Joe, repeatedly going after two women MSMers for their column suggesting Palin is taking the working-mom thing too far. And, mirabile dictu, Mika even admitted to sensing MSM unfairness to Republicans. View video here.

MSNBC is removing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors of live political events, bowing to growing criticism that they are too opinionated to be seen as neutral in the heat of the presidential campaign. David Gregory, the NBC newsman and White House correspondent who also hosts a program on MSNBC, will take over during such events as this fall's presidential and vice presidential debates and election night. The move, confirmed by spokesmen for both networks, follows increasingly loud complaints about Olbermann's anchor role at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Olbermann, who regularly assails President Bush and GOP nominee...

Putin set to bait US with nuclear aid for Tehran Times Online, UK - Sep 6, 2008 Russia is considering increasing its assistance to Iran’s nuclear programme in response to America’s calls for Nato expansion eastwards and the presence of US Navy vessels in the Black Sea delivering aid to Georgia. The Kremlin is discussing sending teams of Russian nuclear experts to Tehran and inviting Iranian nuclear scientists to Moscow for training, according to sources close to the Russian military. Moscow has been angered by Washington’s promise to give Georgia £564m in aid following the Russian invasion of parts of...

Look at the Intrade numbers that have been holding at roughtly 60/40 for Obama until two nights ago. Last night they took a 10 point shift. This is one of the most predictive indicators of anything. People put their money where their polling is.

CHICAGO -- Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules. The effort by the Arizona-based legal consortium is designed to trigger an IRS investigation that ADF lawyers would then challenge in federal court. The ultimate goal is to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship. "For so long, there has been this cloud of intimidation over the...

Chevron agreed to a 99 percent increase in the daily lease rate for a Transocean rig used to drill oil wells off the coast of Angola. Chevron will pay $195,000 a day for the Trident XIV rig under the terms of a one-year contract extension that begins in May, Houston-based Transocean said last week. Chevron has been renting the vessel since June 2006 for $98,000 a day. Chevron has $6.3 billion in ongoing projects in Angola, including the offshore Tombua Landana development, which is scheduled to begin pumping oil next year. The West African nation was Chevron's third-largest source of...

The battle lines have been drawn, and the battle between the culture of death and those who celebrate life is ready to begin anew. I speak not of the legalities of abortion or of the obvious unconstitutionality of the Roe v. Wade decision but of the choices we make as people and of those we elect to lead us. In the Saddleback Civil Forum held by Pastor Rick Warren when asked the question, “At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?” John McCain answered without hesitation, “At the moment of conception.” Barack Obama’s now infamous answer...

1 Thessalonians 5:21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good. (Read 1 Thessalonians 5:19-23.) On July 20, 2001 FBI agent Kenneth Williams e-mailed FBI headquarters in New York. Mr. Williams had discovered a potential threat to Amerian security: several men with ties to Osama bin Laden were attending flight training schools in Arizona. Mr. Williams' memo expressed his concern that bin Laden could be using American flight schools to train terrorists, he urged FBI officials to further investigate and check the visas of foreigners enrolled in other aviation academies in the United States. The memo was...

Howard Dean might have been ahead of his time when he ran for election in 2004... [Interviewer:] What is your take on Palin...? "I think she's a divisive person." [Interviewer:] When you said actual troops themselves are heavily in favor of Obama, how did you reach that conclusion? "I don’t think there have been many polls of the troops, but their donations are 6-to-1 in favor of Obama. And I think that’s because the Bush-McCain view of the military is treat them great when they’re over there and then forget about them when they come home. … And I think...

CHICAGO - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama held his daughters' hands when he escorted them to their first day of school. The girls arrived at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools Monday in a five-SUV motorcade after a short drive from their South Side home.

“Let me be clear: While we will fully comply with the law, we would continue to evaluate units and administrators on their ability to achieve diversity,” Perlman said. “We would continue to devote resources to compensate for the disadvantages placed upon us by this initiative.” If race- and gender-based affirmative action is banned, Perlman said, UNL will respond by redoubling its efforts, ensuring its applicant pools reflect diversity and stepping up recruitment in more racially diverse cities outside Nebraska. A new Multicultural Center on campus — groundbreaking is scheduled for later this month — also will serve as a visible...

Baseball Physics: Anatomy of a Home Run In less time than it takes to blink an eye, pro hitters routinely achieve the extraordinary. By Davin Coburn Illustrations by Intoaroute Photograph by Getty Images Published in the June 2007 issue. When Ryan Zimmerman stands at the plate, there’s no time to analyze physics. “I’m thinking about what the pitcher might throw in that situation,” says the 22-year-old rising star with the Washington Nationals. “I have to eliminate as many options as I can before he releases the ball.” Twenty times last season, Zimmerman pounded a pitch into the seats. Now PM...

There is too much crude on global oil markets, senior oil officials from Iran and Libya said today, and added that OPEC was reviewing supply levels. Energy officials representing members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries arrived in Vienna where they will discuss production levels and global demand. Oil prices have fallen 26 percent from their highs of $147 a barrel and Iran, the group's No. 2 producer, has become one of the most vocal proponent of tightening the oil spigots. "We believe the market is oversupplied," Gholam Hossein Nozari, Iran's oil minister, told reporters, adding the ministers...

Two new action dolls have gone on sale of Sarah Palin, the Alaska Governor who John McCain has chosen to be his Republican presidential running mate. The dolls are the latest in a line of American political candidates who have been immortalised including John McCain and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Two variations of the doll are on sale - Sarah Palin the Executive and Sarah Palin the Super Hero - available from toy company http://www.herobuilders.com at $27.95 (about £16) for the executive doll and two dollars more for the super hero version. It is designed to capitalise on Sarah...

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Prosecutors in Russia want to ban the award-winning satirical U.S. cartoon South Park, calling the series "extremist" after receiving viewer complaints, a spokeswoman said on Monday. South Park, a cartoon aimed at adults and featuring a group of nine-year olds in a Colorado ski town, has courted controversy from its 1997 debut, parodying celebrities, politicians, religion, gay marriage and Saddam Hussein.

It is a terrible mental and emotional disease first diagnosed by Charles Krauthammer, conservative commentator and Harvard-educated psychiatrist who has identified psychiatric syndromes in the past. It has been observed and discussed extensively, and increasingly, over the past five years. It has spread from anti-social college tree-huggers, to left-wing bloggers, to liberal columnists, and on to Democratic politicians. There is a Wikipedia entry for it. And unfortunately, it has even infected the Democratic presidential nominee himself. It is Bush Derangement Syndrome. Krauthammer defines BDS as follows: “The acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies,...

This video is dedicated to all the lady FReepers and strong women around the world - I salute you!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OCofbNqRJY Let me tell you a bit about LisaMei She is a singer/songwriterand has served in the USAF for 20 years. She toured with the Air Force's Elite Entertainment Troupe, "Tops in Blue" (www.topsinblue.com) as a vocalist/dancer in 1990-91 performing in 144 shows at 137 locations around the world for military members and their families (very much like a USO show). LisaMei is one of my heros no doubt. Sarah Palin inspired Lisa to make this video an I was so...

; host Russell Brand promotes Obama, bashes America, Bush, and Christians; viewer backlash; transcript added Some people, I think they’re called racists, say that America is not ready for a black president. But I know America to be a forward-thinking country, right. Because, otherwise, you know, would you have let that retarded cowboy fellow be president for eight years? We were very impressed. It was nice of you to let him have a go. Because in England, George Bush wouldn’t be trusted with a pair of scissors. I am obliged by broadcasting law to show some balance in this situation,...

McCain -Palin Rally in Lee's Summit, Missouri Begins at 10:00 AM CDT - WATCH LIVE VIDEO "Here's a USTREAM Feed provided by the McCain Campaign. It will show the McCain - Palin Rally in Lee's Summit, Missouri (KC Area) today beginning at 10:00 AM CDT. Until it goes live for the rally, the USTREAM will be showing McCain - Palin videos."

WASHINGTON -- Sources say Alaska Governor and Republican Vice-Presidential nominee persists in breastfeeding her youngest child, Trig Palin, in spite of the fact the scientists and economists agree that the practice will do nothing to drive down elevated milk prices or alleviate child hunger on a global scale. Palin, who declared October 2007 as Breastfeeding Awareness Month in Alaska, admitted earlier this year that she has been providing an unspecified amount of breast milk to her 4-month-old son. Dr. Michel Fromage, spokesman for Médecins Sans Intégrité, lashed out at the mother of five on Monday. "This woman's do-nothing 'solution' is...

Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom to campaign against Prop. 8 San Francisco, Sep 6, 2008 / 08:04 am (CNA).- Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco and a self-described Catholic, will join a political campaign against Proposition 8, a California initiative that both would overturn the May 15 California Supreme Court decision mandating same-sex marriage and would reinstate marriage between only a man and a woman. Newsom will help launch the “No on 8 – Equality for All Campaign” today at the old Tower Records building in San Francisco, the California Catholic Daily reports. In 2004, Newsom provoked a constitutional...