Cross-Posted on DailyKos

I don't usually have the luxury of watching morning Joe on a workday, and I know many of you don't either, so I'd like to share how Andrew Card just got ridiculed for his mealy-mouthed defense of Bush's/McCain's "Time Horizon." His shilling was actually going quite well  until the words "Time Horizon" escaped Andy's mouth. The result was a loud guffaw courtesy of Joe Scarborough followed by the following, unusually non-anti-Obama conversation (paraphrased, but not loosely):

"The SEC's mission to protect investors, maintain orderly markets, and promote capital formation is more important now than it has ever been," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. "Today's Commission action aims to stop unlawful manipulation through 'naked' short selling that threatens the stability of financial institutions. We will continue our vigorous commitment to investors by working within the SEC and in close cooperation with our regulatory counterparts to promote the continued health and vibrancy of our markets."

- excerpt from a press release by SEC Chairman, Christopher Cox

The test: Are you better off than you were eight years ago?

Isn't it amazing how Republicans react when they're called out for blindly voting in line with and pursuing the policies of the president of their own party?

Yesterday I shared with you our new ad and website that the Courage Campaign has launched to expose David Dreier (CA-26) as the Bush rubber stamp that he is. The story got picked up by the LA Times blog, which got a statement from a Dreier spokeswoman who called the ad a "smear." First of all, I love that they were compelled to respond to it but what's funny about that is that all the ad does is rattle off 4 of his worst votes and tie him to the sitting president of his own party. That's a smear? Really?

And I've written before how remarkably on-message Democrats have been this year with the whole "McCain = Bush's third term" meme and while McCain likes to laugh it off, it's clearly gotten under team McCain's skin as well. Check out how they reacted when a woman holding a "McCain = Bush" sign was hanging out outside of a McCain event in Denver recently.

In other words, in ousting her, McCain acted exactly like Bush. Classic, but again, the very fact that the sign "McCain = Bush" is perceived to be so offensive and potentially damaging that they have to escort an old woman off the premises speaks volumes. As ousted librarian Carol Kreck said

Why is that offensive? Why would Republicans who voted for Bush find it offensive that the sign says McCain = Bush?

Because Bush is toxic and they all know it.

The reason for this, of course, is not exactly hard to divine. The guy hits new lows in popularity seemingly every week and his stewardship of the economy and the war are, well, pathetic. But it's not every day that a Republican admits as much.

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) cannot win the presidency if the election becomes a referendum on President Bush, a prominent Republican lawmaker, Rep. Tom Davis (Va.), declared Wednesday.

"If this is a referendum on Bush, then this race is over," Davis said on a conference call with reporters.

Davis acknowledged the political environment is tough for Republicans because Bush's numbers have been "in the trash can."

And by the way, it's not just Republicans being tied to Bush. Howie Klein brings us the latest attack on GA-12's Blue Dog John Barrow, whose progressive primary challenger, Regina Thomas, is using the Bush Rubber Stamp meme against him as well. Barrow's response:

"Apparently the only way to persuade some people that I'm not a rubber stamp for George Bush is to become a rubber stamp for Nancy Pelosi."

How not to win a Democratic primary 101.

Bush gave Osama Bin Laden more then he ever hoped for. How many are aware that Osama wanted the price of oil to sky rocket?

http://www.plp.org/misc/exxonwtc100101.h tml

From the U.S. imperialist viewpoint, "chaos" means loss of the Saudi oil fields. Bin Laden admits that they are the ultimate prize he hopes to win for his faction of bosses. In a 1998 interview, he "claimed that the United States has carried out `the biggest theft in history' by buying oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. According to bin Laden, a barrel of oil today should cost $144. Based on that calculation, he said, the Americans have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims..." (Associated Press, 9/28)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht ml?res=9401E2DC123FF937A25753C1A9679C8B6 3

'If bin Laden takes over and becomes king of Saudi Arabia, he'd turn off the tap,'' said Roger Diwan, a managing director of the Petroleum Finance Company, a consulting firm in Washington. ''He said at one point that he wants oil to be $144 a barrel'' -- about six times what it sells for now.

I'm not as interested in Obama the politician, as I am interested in the movement that is forming around him. He's a politician who has astutely tapped into a tremendous amount of political discontent. He's done a lot of things that I'm not happy about. But, I see his candidacy as just another stepping stone towards a resurgent 50 state Democratic Party. That renaissance is bigger than any one candidate.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino at today's briefing, in response to the blockbuster New York Times report about the stalled hunt for bin Laden:

"The president has been looking for Osama bin Laden since September 12th. That effort has never let up. And we are dealing with very dangerous terrain, difficult physical environment, very secretive people hiding in caves, an enemy that respects no uniform, respects no civilians, just absolutely wants destruction."

September 12th?

Richard Clarke, from 2004:

"There's a lot of blame to go around, and I probably deserve some blame, too. But on January 24th, 2001, I wrote a memo to Condoleezza Rice asking for, urgently -- underlined urgently -- a Cabinet-level meeting to deal with the impending al Qaeda attack. And that urgent memo-- wasn't acted on.

"I blame the entire Bush leadership for continuing to work on Cold War issues when they back in power in 2001. It was as though they were preserved in amber from when they left office eight years earlier. They came back. They wanted to work on the same issues right away: Iraq, Star Wars. Not new issues, the new threats that had developed over the preceding eight years."

Clarke finally got his meeting about al Qaeda in April, three months after his urgent request. But it wasn't with the president or cabinet. It was with the second-in-command in each relevant department.

For the Pentagon, it was Paul Wolfowitz.

Clarke relates, "I began saying, 'We have to deal with bin Laden; we have to deal with al Qaeda.' Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, said, 'No, no, no. We don't have to deal with al Qaeda. Why are we talking about that little guy? We have to talk about Iraqi terrorism against the United States.'
...
Clarke says Mr. Clinton ordered his Cabinet to go to battle stations-- meaning, they went on high alert, holding meetings nearly every day.

That, Clarke says, helped thwart a major attack on Los Angeles International Airport, when an al Qaeda operative was stopped at the border with Canada, driving a car full of explosives.

Clarke harshly criticizes President Bush for not going to battle stations when the CIA warned him of a comparable threat in the months before Sept. 11: "He never thought it was important enough for him to hold a meeting on the subject, or for him to order his National Security Adviser to hold a Cabinet-level meeting on the subject."

And remember the August 6th, 2001 PDB Bush received:

   
BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6 PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB [President's Daily Brief]?

RICE: I believe the title was, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."

According to Perino, Bush got the memo one month and six days before he started "looking" for bin Laden.

Perhaps a good reminder that Democrats should never, ever run from a fight on national security.

Surprise visit from The Dude: the real one, who inspired The Big Lebowski (Jeff Dowd) www.jeffdowd.com. He's a big fan of Left, Right & Center and dropped by to do KCRW's Guest DJ Project http://www.kcrw.com/music/kcrw-guest-dj- project. Meantime, on today's show we talk about Guns and SCOTUS; North Korea Nukes; Oil; Democratic Unity and Obamacons. Visit our new blog for links to articles mentioned http://leftrightandcenter.vox.com/; special guest right is Jim Antle, associate editor of the conservative mag, The American Spectator. Listen to today's show here: http://www.kcrw.com/media-player/mediaPl ayer2.html?type=audio&id=lr080627sco tus_on_gunsn_kore