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Adam Lynch Is On the Ground in Oxford; Guard the Buffets!
That's supposed to make me feel better.
JFP reporter and curmudgeon Adam Lynch just called in from Oxford; he was standing next to the Fox News. I was worried that he was waiting for Sean Hannity (he had mentioned in passing earlier in the week that he'd like to punch him.) I asked if that was what he was up to, reminding him that he cannot violate the law while representing the JFP. No, he's not going to punch him, he assured me. "You kind of talked me out off it; chances are, he's not here anyhow," Adam said.
Kerry: Still Dull After All These Years
I don't know what I was expecting from Sen. John Kerrymaybe he'd found his groove after all these yearsbut when I caught up with him near the Music Building just now, I didn't manage to pull anything shocking out of him. So, who's gonna win?
Bush Ratings Fall Steady, Predictable?
In Salon this week, economist James K. Galbraith challenges the conventional notion that the relvelations of torture and prisoner abuse in Iraq have caused Bush's current record dip in the polls. He makes a case that the decline has been steady over some time: "The four-month decline is a bit higher on average than Bush's long-run downward trend. But it is not much higher. It is not enough higher to show that anything exceptional has happened. In particular, February's decline is not significantly greater than normal. And May's decline is within the normal range of 0.6 percent, give or take, around the standard minus 1.6 percent -- the 95 percent confidence interval. This suggests that Abu Ghraib has not had any special effect on public opinion. Not yet, anyway.
Black Angst
Every supporter of Barack Obama seems to be elbow-deep in anxiety over whether this election will be stolen. But for black Americans, it may be worse, writes Jonathan Capeheart in The Washington Post:
Why Won't Palin Release Her Medical Records?
The fact that Gov. Sarah Palin is stonewalling on releasing her medical records in any form is raising eyebrows. CNN Political Ticker:
‘Hot Democratic Women' Present the Oxford Debate Music Guide
Now we get around to the important stuff: music in Oxford this week. The advance word on the Obamarama at The Lyric. We'll see what the JFP's road team has to say; they rushed out this afternoon to get there in time. We await their reports.
What Will Barbour Say?
Gov. Haley Barbour is holding a press conference with Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat at 11 a.m. today on campus. This press event was already scheduled, but took on a new urgency after John McCain announced that he was standing Oxford up for the presidential debate this Friday. One wonders how the governor will handle being stuck between a frantic Oxford and supporting a candidate he doesn't like much of his own party.
The First Puppy?
Now that the 2008 presidential election is over, the burning political question is: What kind of puppy will the first family choose!?! What's your choice?
Crisis: Medicaid Games Come to a Head Today
Haley Barbour's phone numbers: 359-3150, 359-3150, 720-8733, 359-3150. Call now.
In an editorial today, The Clarion-Ledger writes: "The solution to the current Medicaid funding crisis is to take $200 million from the tobacco trust fund and approve a cigarette tax increase to replenish it. It's up to the Senate and Gov. Haley Barbour. While state representatives, senators and Gov. Haley Barbour continue to stare one another down on the state Medicaid funding, hoping the other will blink, there are a lot of scared Mississippians wondering what they will do without health care. The program is set to run out of money today."
Barbour Calls Special Session for Tort Reform, Voter ID
[Verbatim statement] Governor Haley Barbour is standing by his pledge to call lawmakers back to the Capitol since the House of Representatives failed to address lawsuit abuse during their Regular Session. Today he called a Special Session to address tort reform, which will convene at 1:00 p.m., Wednesday, May 19, 2004. Governor Barbour is also including the voter identification issue in the Special Session agenda. "I would have preferred for comprehensive tort reform to have been achieved during the Regular Session," Governor Barbour said. "Since it was not, this Special Session became necessary." While the Senate has been strongly supportive of tort reform, the House has not been allowed to vote on it.
Factcheck.org: An Avalanche of Misinformation
With election day approaching the tempo of ads is increasing, but not the level of factual accuracy. Both sides are making false or misleading claims in their ads.
Did Kerry Win the Debate?
A New York Times editorial today called Bush's performance "downright petulant": "George W. Bush is famous for fierce discipline when it comes to sticking to a carefully honed, simple message. Last night he reiterated this campaign message once again - that "the world is safer without Saddam Hussein" and that things are, on the whole, going well in Iraq. [...] But last night Mr. Bush sounded less convincing when he had to make his case in the face of Mr. Kerry's withering criticism, particularly his repeated insistence that the invasion had diverted attention from the true center of the war on terror in Afghanistan."
Delta Legislators Point Fingers at Barbour
The Delta-Democrat Times is reporting:
New GOP Ads to Target ‘Lawsuit Abuse,' Edwards
Time is reporting: "A new wave of Republican attack ads is coming this week, but this time their target is the No. 2 man on the Democratic ticket, John Edwards. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the November Fund, a new 527 group dedicated to attacking Edwards, a former plaintiffs' lawyer, and 'lawsuit abuse,' will this week launch an ad campaign that portrays him as a cause of the crisis in the medical system. [...] The November Fund, started in August by former GOP Senator Bill Brock and former Ronald Reagan White House aide Craig Fuller, begins running TV ads (which can't, by law, mention Edwards' name) and newspaper and direct-mail pieces (which can) in four states this week. [...] The Fund won't have to disclose its funding sources or how much it has raised until Friday, but Brock said the group had more than $5 million "last time I looked," starting with $500,000 from the Chamber.
Factcheck.org: $8 Million Worth Of Distortions
Two Bush ads full of misleading and false statements ran more than 9,000 times in 45 cities last week.
Songwriter to Bush: Stop Using my Song!
AP is reporting::
‘Rednecks for Obama': Two of ‘Em, Anyway
OXFORDTony Biessman, from Rollo, Mo., 74, co-founded Rednecks for Obama with his beer-drinking buddy Les Spencer. They like Obama so much that they went to Denver to the Democratic Convention and are now parked in chairs on the Ole Miss campus waiting for the debate. Why are these two rednecks for Obamanot the most obvious choice of the Redneck Nation, after all?
Ted Stevens ‘Rocks GOP'; Cochran to Take Spot
Politico is reporting that Sen. Thad Cochran will take the seat of Sen. Ted Stevens on the Appropriations Committee as Republicans decide what to do with him since his indictment for corruption today:
Can Dems Get Back on Track with Blacks?
In his column, Earl Ofari Hutchinson says yes, but only if they boldly speak out for issues that matter to African Americans: "Edwards potentially can ensure that blacks turn out in big numbers. But he must do more than take digs at the Confederate flag. He must use his vice presidential candidacy as a bully pulpit to speak out for affirmative action, tougher and expanded hate crimes laws, repeal of the mandatory drug laws that warehouse thousands of young blacks for mostly non-violent, non-serious crimes and attack the glaring race inequities in the death penalty and funding for mostly black and Latino schools."
Blacks unswayed by GOP social agenda
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting: "African-Americans often agree with Republicans on social issues: abortion, prayer in schools and --- most significant in this year's presidential race --- same-sex unions. But they vote for Democrats. Ninety percent of black voters supported Democrat Al Gore over George W. Bush four years ago. Those issues don't determine how blacks vote, said University of Maryland political scientist Ron Walters.