Even Bush is sick of the Iraq fiasco...he has been mumbling about pulling out troops and about a "time horizon"...yes, "HORIZON," not a timeline, for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Don't know about you, but I have never heard anyone talk about "time horizons" before. Makes me think of an event horizon around a black hole...which is an ominous comparison.

Remember, though, Bush's shifting to withdrawal is not by any choice of his. The Iraq government has told him in no uncertain terms that we have outlived our welcome and they do not want us there permanently.

In a month where all the know-nothing pundits were speculating on a speculative report that claimed Illinois Senator Barack Obama "only" raised $30M or so in the month of June, turns out they were once again completely, utterly and pathetically wrong.

Please try to contain your shock.

Looks like Obama has had quite a haul this month. A $52,000,000 haul, to be exact. Only $3M shy of his record-shattering donation total in February of this year.

For all that has been said on the subject of the recent New Yorker cover, and there has been plenty, it seems that an essential point has somehow been missed even though the respective positions have been clearly and repeatedly stated.  As a long time reader and regular subscriber of the New Yorker, and living in Australia that is no mean feat, I find the arguments, never mind the considerable angst and hand-wringing over them, faintly amusing on several counts.  The cover is perfectly in keeping with the it's long-standing editorial role on the New Yorker as a cultural commentary on American infelicities, urban mythology and frivolousness and in some ways it would seem an abrogation of their unstated duty to have shirked from featuring it in all it's unadulterated ridicule.  I expect nothing less of them.

Firstly, the muted outrage from the left seems more reflexive than reflective, which exposes one of the flaws of that faction which the blogosphere has done nothing to temper.  Sure, we are all committed to redoubling our efforts to counter the historically real threat to progressive values represented by the popular calumnies of the Republican Right but seriously folks, doesn't our disapprobation of this incident expose a fear of the Right-wing message which imbues it with just a wee bit too much validity as a substantial threat to our political process?:

What's that they say about repeating a rumor?

Presumably the New Yorker readership is sophisticated enough to get the joke, but still: this is going to upset a lot of people, probably for the same reason it's going to delight a lot of other people, namely those on the right: Because it's got all the scare tactics and misinformation that has so far been used to derail Barack Obama's campaign -- all in one handy illustration. Anyone who's tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who's tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism -- well, here's your image.

Rachel Sklar - Yikes! Controversial New Yorker Cover Shows Muslim, Flag-Burning, Osama-Loving, Fist-Bumping Obama Huffington Post 13 July 08

Really?  This is the cultural evidence and rallying point for the whispered campaign of fear-mongering and character assassination emanating from under the rotten woodwork of our political process?  One was hoping vainly it would be so and that at least a few would walk out onto this thin ice when, lo and behold, some Republicans actually embraced it as just such a thing.  And that's the second point, the response from the Right is positively ludicrous, exposing them as the self-parodied caricature we always tended to suspect they were.  No amount of mirth over the original cover can compare with the deliciously ironic humour one enjoys at responses such as this, emphasis added:

"Sum Of Our Fears?" asks one conservative website, approvingly re-printing the controversial New Yorker cover of the Obamas. "I chuckled upon first glance and thought, 'Yup, that about sums up how I feel about the Obamessiah and his ilk.' ...Evidently the artist did the drawing to sum up all 'conservative' fears of this man. The artist is correct. But I don't call them fears.  They are concerns.  The picture shows all things we now [know] to be true about them - except the picture above the fireplace."

Jake Tapper - Obama Opponents Seize New Yorker Cover ABC 14 Jul 08

The 'picture shows all things we now know to be true about them?'  Surely this is an indefensibly ridiculous position which would be laughed off the stage by any remotely sane audience, political affiliation notwithstanding.  A 'bridge too far' for the ideologically challenged Republican noise machine?  One can only assume so.  For Republicans to seize on this as evidence in support of some of their more flabbergastingly ridiculous narratives about a sober nominee for the US presidency and his good wife strikes one as the kind of manoeuvre which precedes a complete and embarrassing collapse of the entire edifice.  We'll see.  I tend to think the editors of the New Yorker have unwittingly set a more tender trap for the most egregious purveyors of this nonsense than they may have originally intended.

My defence of the New Yorker rests on the twin pillars of faith in the good sense of the American public to know the lampooning of an absurd tautology when they see it, and perhaps we tend to underestimate them somewhat with our reflexive and unflinching advocacy, and a belief in the necessity of having some cultural artefacts to inform future archaeologists that, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, we really didn't take seriously some of the more pitifully stupid notions that seem to preoccupy the greater part of our national debates when far greater issues, which are no laughing matter whatsoever, loom ominously before us.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Jacob saw his first real fireworks display and loved it at first. We were watching from the 12th floor of a building right on the waterfront, so it was spectacular. Unfortunately, he was coming down with a fever and by the end was pretty unhappy. He is fine again now.

This was a big week, both locally where my friend qualified for the ballot for NYC's Sept. 9th primary election, and nationally where Obama's surge continued even as the Democrats once again showed less spine than we would like them to. More below.

This is nothing but a blathering rant, but then hey, so are half the diaries here now.  The place is crawling with Republican trollers and their sock puppets, who I suspect account for half the diaries now and three-quarters of the comments.  
So it's hard to sort out the smoke and horsecrap from the genuine concerns, but even the genuine concerns are off the rails.  

To start, thank God Obama is "drifting towards the center" because, um, that's where the majority of voters are.  I for one want to see the guy elected, even if that means he doesn't meet my standards of ideological purity.  Some might call this behavior "pandering" or "flip-flipping", especially if they are most interested in seeing another four years of Republican rule.  

Yet there are still must be authentic hand wringing on the far Left (I know because CNN told me so) and oh how I wish the Left could wake the hell up.  You don't win elections on an ideologically pure far Left agenda, instead you tend to go down in flames.  Ask George McGovern.

It is difficult to feel good this 4th of July given the mess the Bush/McCain Republicans have led this nation into. This year alone 438,000 people who lost their jobs. We are well into the Bush's SECOND recession (first president ever to preside over two recessions) with almost no recovery between them. We are officially in a bear market. Food prices are rising worldwide. Oil is at record highs suggesting Americans will have a very, very tough winter. The deficit is WAY above where it has ever been before and no end in sight. And I am not even going into the inept, idiotic and completely useless Bush/McCain Iraq war.

(Proudly cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama and Democratic PartyBuilder)

OK, OK, so I've been "HOUNDing" on this for a while now. Even though Hillary Clinton herself has been calling on all Democrats to unite in support for Barack Obama, we've seen these few "PUMAs" troll around the internets. They're dishonoring Hillary, trashing barack, and doing the right wing's work in mocking Democrats.

So what can we now do to get out the real progressive message that Hillary wants us to listen to? Follow me after the flip to find out...

(Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

Hey, everyone! We have just over 24 hours left to make a HUGE impact in this election by making sure our Democrats have enough resources to kick some Rethug behind this fall. So what can we all do to help Obama win the White House and Democrats win more seats in Congress?

Follow me after the flip for more...