Need the help of you guys to follow this lead - since we are now taking a closer look at the un-vetted McCain's.  

stumbled across this:

Newsweek Magazine Covers Up McCain’s Mob Ties (McVelcro McMafia McSame)Newsweek Magazine Covers Up McCain’s Mob Ties (McVelcro McMafia McSame)

In this weeks NY Times, a article discussing the alarming increase in the prescription of methadone as a pain killer almost slipped past me, since like most of us here, I've been caught up with the election.
Methadone Rises as a Painkiller With Big Risks  

Suffering from excruciating spinal deterioration, Robby Garvin, 24, of South Carolina, tried many painkillers before his doctor prescribed methadone in June 2006, just before Mr. Garvin and his friend Joey Sutton set off for a weekend at an amusement park.
On Saturday night Mr. Garvin called his mother to say, "Mama, this is the first time I have been pain free, this medicine just might really help me." The next day, though, he felt bad. As directed, he took two more tablets and then he lay down for a nap. It was after 2 p.m. that Joey said he heard a strange sound that must have been Robby’s last breath.

I’m sitting here this morning thinking about last nights forum at Saddleback, and what hit me was something slimy John McCain pulled, and he hasn’t been called on it yet.  He named
Congressman John Lewis  as one of his 3 top "heroes" or person’s whose advice he would seek.  

I was stunned.  How dare a man who has done nothing to advance the cause of Civil Rights, has actively worked against it,who will support Supreme Court Justices who undermine Civil Rights wrap himself in the heroism of a movement – symbolized by one of the last living "leaders"?

This is not McCain's first use of John Lewis as a black mask of his true character.  

As the time draws near for the Saddleback Church showdown between Barack and McCain, the Matthew 25 Network has been quietly busy, airing an ad targeted at Christians in support of Obama.

Firefighters union backs Obama

(CNN) – A major firefighters union will throw its support behind Barack Obama during its annual convention in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Obama, who is on vacation with his family in Hawaii, taped a message that will be played in front of the 3,500 members of the International Association of Fire Fighters at around 2pm E.T.

The union chose to back Obama over John McCain because of the presumptive Democratic nominee’s support of collective bargaining, which gives workers the right to jointly work with their employers to negotiate hours, salaries, benefits and overall working conditions, IAFF spokesman Scott Treibitz said.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...

Though this has not gotten much coverage, I ran across this item early this morning:

Charlotte man accused of threatening Obama
Jerry M. Blanchard, 48, was being held Friday in the Mecklenburg County Jail on the charge of threatening to kill, kidnap or injure a major candidate for president on July 15 and July 28, according to a criminal complaint filed Aug. 1 by a U.S. Secret Service agent.

The affidavit attached to the complaint by Agent Sean Leddy and unsealed this week said that witnesses told federal authorities they overheard the 48-year-old Blanchard threatening to assassinate the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on two occasions in July.

One witness said he was eating breakfast at a Waffle House in Charlotte with a friend when Blanchard approached and started talking about Obama.

"Obama and his wife are never going to make it to the White House. He needs to be taken out and I can do it in a heartbeat," Leddy quoted Blanchard as saying. The witness also heard Blanchard discuss his intention to purchase a pistol from a gun shop and contacted federal authorities.

No wonder our "Xenophobe in Chief" Lou Dobbs is looking more worried each day. While we Democrats talk of turning red states blue, the demographic map  of the rainbow of people who make up the diverse population of the US is shifting, and in many areas of the US, "minorities" (a euphemism for people  of color; blacks, latinos, asians and Native Americans) are now the majority.

The US Census Bureau's  recent report shows interesting shifts in racial/ethnic demographics.

The NY Times reports:
Minorities Often a Majority of the Population Under 20

Foreshadowing the nation’s changing makeup, one in four American counties have passed or are approaching the tipping point where black, Hispanic and Asian children constitute a majority of the under-20 population, according to analyses of census figures released Thursday.

The Washington Post Reports:
Michelle Obama Covergirl

Next week's Ebony magazine features an 11-page spread about Mrs. Obama that includes interviews with her mother, brother and several close friends.

"I love to look glamorous when there's a wonderful, purposeful event that is appropriate. But when I'm in Iowa campaigning with the girls, I am in Gap shorts and a T-shirt," Mrs. Obama says of her fashion sense. "My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief," she later says of her family commitments. "We accessorize each other in many ways," she says of her marriage to the senator.

"She wanted to open the doors and let America see who she is. She invited Ebony into her inner circle," says the magazine's creative director Harriette Cole, who compiled more than 500 pages of notes for her report. The magazine has covered the senator's rise since before he ran for the Illinois state Senate, Cole said.

The latest set of smears now being hurled at Barack Obama, already labeled by the TM pundits and wingers as an: elitist, snob, presumptuous black man, radical, Muslim, wimp, arugula eating, black nationalist, celebrity, rock star, unpatriotic, un-American, Harvard intellectual are being spearheaded by Glenn Beck, at CNN Headline News.

Since I never watch Headline News, I didn't realize that they actually had "interview" programs.  I certainly had no idea that they could rival FOX for gutter politics passing as journalism.  

As much as I love to hate Maureen Dowd, I have to admit that she gave some solid hits to McLame in her column yesterday.

McCain’s Green-Eyed Monster

Now John McCain is pea-green with envy. That’s the only explanation for why a man who prides himself on honor, a man who vowed not to take the low road in the campaign, having been mugged by W. and Rove in South Carolina in 2000, is engaging in a festival of juvenilia.

The Arizona senator who built his reputation on being a brave proponent of big solutions is running a schoolyard campaign about tire gauges and Paris Hilton, childishly accusing his opponent of being too serious, too popular and not patriotic enough.

Even his own mother, the magical 96-year-old Roberta McCain, let slip that she thought the Paris Hilton-Britney Spears ad was "kinda stupid."

a quote from the immortal Louis Armstrong.

I was raised on jazz. My dad was from Chicago and grew up with Nat King Cole and Joe Williams.  My parents were in NY by the time I was born and my earliest memories are of my parents playing 78’s of tunes like Stompin’ at the Savoy, Caravan, and Caldonia, or Billie singing Strange Fruit.  

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

In a recent article McSexist,  McCain’s War on Women by Kate Sheppard in In These Times, the writer points out a host of reasons why women should not vote for John McCain.

She writes:

Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) campaign and the media would have us believe that herds of disaffected women voters will be stampeding to the Republicans this year because a woman candidate won’t be on the presidential ballot in November.

McCain’s campaign has been making a clear play for women voters in recent weeks, hosting conference calls with Republican women and touting that his policies on national security, the economy and healthcare appeal to women voters.

But the suggestion that women — and feminist women, at that — will be lining up behind him is a fairytale. At least, it should be. McCain’s record and policies on issues of importance to women are neither moderate nor maverick.

I'm not usually a hip-hop/ rap fan but I give rappers their props when they make a video/cd that carries a strong message.

"Sumthin' Gotta Give", the new video by Big Boi with Mary J Blige, which supports the Obama campaign, deals with the current state of the economy, health care, blacks in jail, gas prices, single mom's, bringing soldiers home.

Today is my birthday.  Not a turning point, last year’s 60 was a big deal, and I will probably do little today to celebrate, other than to mark the passing of another 365 days in my life, answer a few phone calls from friends, and  cut a cake later with my husband.  But I am reflective this morning about what makes this year different from the many that went before and so I’ll share my thoughts with you all as I drink my second cup of coffee.  

Okay - so this is not a political diary.  Or dealing with the heavy issues of the day.  But our gal Michelle has won the style wars against Cindy McCain.  So all I can say is "You go girl!"  Our sistah has style - and doesn't have to be a multi-millionairess to do it either.

The International Best-Dressed List

The Black AIDS Institute has just issued a major report entitled "Left Behind! Black America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS Epidemic"

The United States leads the global response to HIV/AIDS, but fails to mobilize the same commitment to address the large and growing epidemic within its own borders, finds a new report released today by the Black AIDS Institute. "Left Behind! Black America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS Epidemic" praises the United States for it vital efforts to address HIV worldwide, but criticizes the government's profoundly inadequate response to the epidemic within its own borders, where Black Americans are most severely affected by the disease.

In todays Politico article
The McCain-Latino disconnect one section stood out that I'd like to explore.

McCain’s problem looks to be most pronounced among Protestant Latinos, who had seemed to be the GOP’s doorway into the Hispanic population. From 2000 to 2004, Protestant Latinos increased their share of the total Hispanic electorate from 25 percent to 32 percent, in large part because of Bush’s evangelical outreach and strategic microtargeting of the community. Even as turnout increased, support for Bush among the group rose from 44 percent in 2000 to 56 percent in 2004.

The Pew poll, however, shows that only a third of Protestant or Evangelical Hispanics intend to vote for McCain, while 59 percent support Obama — who also enjoys a 50-percentage-point lead among Catholic Latinos, long a solid bloc of the Democratic coalition.

While McCain and Bush have similar views on most social issues, including abortion, McCain's candidacy may mark a return to an era of blue-blooded Republicans less vocal about their religious beliefs. Barack Obama, by contrast, speaks comfortably and frequently about his faith.

The Army has finally issued an apology to 28 black GI's wrongfully convicted of lynching an Italian prisoner of War in 1944.  Only two of those GI's convicted are still alive.  

Justice, 64 years later, 'Long-overdue vindication' comes for 28 black soldiers cleared in a 1944 lynching.

Despite their protests of innocence -- and the government's own secret investigation showing the prosecution's case was poisonously flawed -- the men were sentenced to hard labor and forfeiture of military pay and benefits, and were given dishonorable discharges.

Twenty-six of the men went to their graves with the stain of wartime dishonor still on their records. It wasn't until Saturday, in a low-key ceremony on a wide lawn at the Army base in Seattle, that history switched gears. A senior Army official handed out certificates setting aside the convictions and converting the discharges to honorable status, in recognition -- 64 years after the fact -- that prosecutors' "egregious error" had resulted in a trial that was "fundamentally unfair."