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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXBswFfh6AY Astonishing how Reagan could say many of the same things today and still be topical. Ryan copies Reagan's haircut, can he he deliver the same message tonight? If Ryan could that would be crucial as the next Presidential debate will be a townhall meeting where the importance (per Rove, whom I agree w/ on this issue) will be focused mostly on empathizing with the questioner rather than stating firm policy positions and articulating stark philosophical differences.

"Missouri Republicans, upset over charges of racism against Sen. John D. Ashcroft (R-Mo.), are circulating a 1960 photograph of Gov. Mel Carnahan (D) in blackface makeup performing a Kiwanis minstrel show." "Arvarh Strickland, the University of Missouri's first black professor, said Carnahan should be judged on his public service. 'It's not what he was doing or saying in 1960, but his record as governor of Missouri. . . . When you look at his record, you certainly would not expect to see Gov. Carnahan in blackface.'"

The Tampa, Fla., strip clubs are gearing up for the Republican National Convention next month. And none more so than Thee Dollhouse, reported the Miami New Times. This club “has pulled a trump card,” the newspaper said, by hiring a Sarah Palin look-alike. Lisa Ann, as she’s called, has appeared in several porn movies for Hustler. And she’ll be on stage at Thee Dollhouse for two nights just before the GOP convention starts. Tim Funk

Scientists are increasingly confident that the uptick in heat waves and heavier rainfall is linked to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, posing a heightened risk to the world’s population, according to two reports issued in the past week. On Wednesday, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a 594-page study suggesting that when it comes to weather observations since 1950 there has been a “change in some extremes,” which stem in part from global warming. [text excerpted] But the IPCC team projects that there is a 90 to 100 percent probability that sea level rise “will contribute to upward trends...

Sorry to bother ya'll, while contemplating Obama's eventual downfall my best friend and I were discussing music. He helped me find a song from "Faith No More" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN9ky04SOMk Now we are looking for a very much more obscure song. The band is called "Semper Fi," the song is from the very early 1980s, lyrics include "Oh Maria" and "you're a long way from home." Performed by a Vietnam Veteran in New Hampshire, played by WFNX in the New England region. Any help would be appreciated, thanks and have a great Friday night.

SFChron political reporter Joe Garafoli reports that at Willie Brown's annual pre-election breakfast he criticized the CA democrats' GOTV effort. Brown said, "I do not believe that Jerry Brown has a ground operation." Brown "also wonders if it is a good idea for the Dems to rely so heavily on labor for their ground operation." And dem political consultant Garry South "told the gathering that unless Jerry Brown has a lead of 7 or 8 points going into election day, 'we're in serious trouble.'" Video of Brown's remarks are embedded on the SFChro web site.

A $3 million campaign by doctors, scanner operators, manufacturers, and groups devoted to women’s health helped persuade lawmakers to overrule Medicare administrators this year and restore much of the reimbursement for osteoporosis tests. In a little-noticed provision buried deep in the sweeping new health care bill, Congress decreed that Medicare shall pay $97 for each test, instead of $50. It was a stark instance of a narrowly tailored, special-interest political victory in a law trumpeted by President Obama and Democrats as putting America on a path to a more rational health care system, where decisions are made on medical evidence...

"Martha Coakley’s comments to a New Bedford radio host about religious taboos sparked a media flap over abortion as the race for U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s seat hits the homestretch. "'If someone has been the victim of a rape, an assault, and she goes to an emergency room to get contraception, someone else should say, "Oh, no, I don’t believe in this, so I’m going to affect your constitutional rights?"' asked Coakley in a response to a question from WBSM-AM (1420) host Ken Pittman Thursday about whether ER workers should be required to follow the law regarding emergency contraception."...

"You may be a Scott Brown voter if: "■You’re in a union, and you’re going to have to pay a 40 percent tax on your “Cadillac” health-care plan if Martha Coakley gets a chance to vote for Obama’s health-care rationing bill. ■You’re still waiting for that property-tax relief that Deval Patrick promised you in 2006. ■You’re on kidney dialysis and you have to pay for your treatment . . . but illegal aliens don’t."

"State Republicans blasted interim U.S. Sen. Paul Kirk yesterday after he broke a legislative promise to stay out of the U.S. Senate election and endorsed Attorney General Martha Coakley over GOP candidate Sen. Scott Brown." [skip paragraph] "Kirk said he didn’t think twice before endorsing Coakley, even though the Legislature reversed Bay State laws and allowed Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint him based on the promise he would stay neutral." [pragraphs excerpted] MA lawmakers included "a resolution to the controversial bill blocking the appointee from 'endorsing any candidate in the special election.' The language is nonbinding because legislators can’t legally...

In the special election for US Senate, the Kennedy shadow is so long that it extends all the way into the Republican Party. Or so it would seem from the first television ad of the race, in which Scott Brown, the GOP candidate, employs an unlikely visage to make his case to voters: President John F. Kennedy,... [text excerpted] The new 30-second spot begins with grainy footage of Kennedy delivering a 1962 speech on using tax breaks to spur the economy. Halfway through, the image morphs into Brown, a state senator from Wrentham, finishing Kennedy’s sentence. “President Kennedy actually was...

Even as the Senate sleepwalks toward handing him a major victory on health care, President Obama isn't inspiring confidence among voters on his handling of the issue, or of the economy for that matter, according to a new poll. The Quinnipiac University survey released today found that 56 percent disapprove of Obama's performance on health care and 53 percent oppose the bill, which the Democratic-controlled Senate moved forward with another procedural vote this morning. [para excerpted] The poll also found that 51 percent of respondents don't like how the president is handling the economy and 56 percent disapprove of how...

During the healthcare debate "the Senate found itself tied in knots on Thursday over a bipartisan proposal to allow people to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and certain other countries. "Democratic leaders delayed a vote, in part, because they feared that the proposal would be approved, potentially blowing apart a deal negotiated by the White House and the pharmaceutical industry." [excerpted text] Sen. John McLame said: "'If it passes, as it should, it breaks the agreement that the White House made with PhRMA....the White House, as well as PhRMA, has been over here lobbying furiously.'"

Caught between a pivotal industry ally and the protests of Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration on Friday backed away from what drug industry lobbyists had said this week was a firm White House promise to exclude from a proposed health care overhaul the possibility of allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices under Medicare. [text excerpted] The full terms of the White House agreement with the drug makers, like a similar deal with the hospital industry, have never been disclosed.

At the Radio & TV Correspondents Dinner TOTUS gave a stumbling monologue that was supposed to be funny. One time it was funny was when he made some pointed jabs at st hillary. Everyone knows that Obama has effectively cordoned off Hillary from any substantive duties at the State Dept. by assigning various "special envoys" to key areas, like Amb. Holbrooke (Afghanistan/Pakistan) cited below. But, it seems to me TOTUS made a special point of noting how Hillary stumbled on her way to the WH, but "fortunately...Hillary's ready to settle." This seems to be a thinly veiled jab at Hillary's...

The WP is really pulling out the stops in attacking Palin after her recent appearance at a DC GOP fundraiser. In addition to WP hack Dan Balz' attack piece (including misquotes of Palin on Hannity): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268546/posts WP media correspondent Howard Kurtz writes: "For all the media bloviating, I gather that Sarah Palin's appearance at the big GOP shindig here was something of a bust." In his column Kurtz cites a number of complaints about Palin from leftists and unnamed "GOP" sources and states: "Palin gets the Republican base pumped up. But I found very little about her on conservative blogs...

In the debate about Hollywood pay scales, Hollywood actors argue they are being squeezed out of pay and health benefits. "Middle-class film and TV actors -- defined by SAG as those who earn enough to qualify for the union's health insurance but less than $100,000 a year -- are hardly representative: They account for less than 5% of the guild's 122,000 members. "Nonetheless, this sliver plays an outsize role within the union because the vast majority of members don't...earn a livelihood from acting. 'If we can't reverse the trends for working-class actors, we'll cease to exist,' said SAG President Alan...

Sorry for the vanity, I was just watching FOX News discuss possible McCAin VP choices. The likeliest: Romney; MN Gov Tim Pawlenty(global warming alarmist); FL Gov Charlie Crist (just as much as disappointing as Romney). I posit, if McCain wanted to consolidate conservative support, he should pick VP Cheney. Given: McCain if he won would be a one term regency, beating Obama because of largely historical trends (Dems get static vote of 48%, GOP gets 50%+ w/out strong independent candidate. No mandate, an old man achieving a goal and then passing along. If we're saddled w/ McCain I'd love to...

A State Department official this week issued a blistering critique of Foreign Service bureaucrats at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for undermining civilian stability efforts in Iraq. "After a year at the embassy, it is my general assessment that the State Department and the Foreign Service [are] not competent to do the job that they have undertaken in Iraq," said Manuel Miranda, a conservative former Senate staff member who is part of the office of legislative statecraft in Baghdad. Mr. Miranda's most stinging accusation is that the State Department is an "albatross around the neck of the coalition command." The...

Ah, it must be almost summer, for the annual tradition of holding press conferences at gas stations to call attention to the gobsmackingly high price of filling up the gas tank of one’s massive Suburban has begun. Democrats did just that on Wednesday, complaining that gas prices are nearing all-time highs and that only swift passage of Democratically-sponsored bills (natch) would set things straight. But the problem with the Democrats’ photo op — Members standing in front of the large sign advertising prices at the Exxon station on Massachusetts Avenue Northeast — is that gas prices actually have dipped a...