Barack Obama has been made to denounce Ludacris, and several other rappers. Mind you, these people don't work for Obama and do not speak for him. And not all of rap is 'ganster', or negative. You have Common, The Roots, and Talib Kweli to name a few, who do conscience rap.

So when I see that a 'rapper' has endorsed McCain by the name of Daddy Yankee. And that the media hasn't made him DENOUNCE, and REJECT his misogynistic, demeaning lyrics shows a continuing hypocrisy in the traditional media.

I know I'm asking the world......but MSM....please be consistent. This is just blatant. The traditional media will try and sell it as McCain making inroads into the youth vote....riiiight. And this endorsement happening while all the news coverage is on the Democratic Convention hasn't escape me either.

I've got news that is going to shock you so hard your spleen will evaporate. It's going to make Michael Phelps's 8 gold medals look as stale as an 80's cereal commercial and eradicate the remaining follicles of Joe Biden's hair. You WILL REMEMBER where you were when you heard this window shattering, firmament shaking, oceanic tidal wave of an announcement. You will feel tingles all over your body like you haven't since the last time you slept sitting up on a greyhound bus. No... this is it folks.

H/T to the commenters in Setrak's diary, especially Paul Anderson

[Promoted by DHinMI]

SoonerG already has a good diary that points out aptly and astutely that John McCain's latest web attack ad is really a not too subtle code to the Christian Right Wing that Barack Obama is the literal Anti-Christ as foretold in the Book of Revelations and popularized in "non-fiction" books like "The Late Great Planet Earth" and Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind" novels.

Well, as if we needed confirmation that this is the violent, dangerous meme the McCain is attempting to spread, WorldNetDaily has published a screed by Hal Lindsey, entitled "How Obama Prepped World for Anti-Christ".

Who is Hal Lindsey? In right-wing Christian Evangelical and Dominionist Circles Hal Lindsey is a Big Deal. In the late Seventies Lindsey helped popularize the modern, Fundamentalist Christian interpretation of  the Book of Revelations and the Apocalypse with his book "The Late Great Planet Earth". This is the grand-daddy of the violent, homophobic, racist apocalyptic fiction of Lim LaHaye's "Left Behind" books and scores of other works attempting to interpret  The Book of Revelations for our times.

Hal Lindsey is largely responsible for the modern Fundamentalist Christian view of the Anti-Christ as a world leader who can unite the world and bring a temporary peace before the End of the World. The very same imagery and sophistry that McCain's The One ad plays up.

So I sincerely doubt it is mere coincidence that the same day McCain's Campaign puts out an ad with images of Barack Obama as a messianic figure Hal Lindsey writes:

Obama's world tour provided a foretaste of the reception he can expect to receive.

He will probably also stand in some European capital, addressing the people of the world and telling them that he is the one that they have been waiting for. And he can expect as wildly enthusiastic a greeting as Obama got in Berlin.

The Bible calls that leader the Antichrist. And it seems apparent that the world is now ready to make his acquaintance.

The lifetime Agnostics and Atheists, even the sane Christians, among us may find it easy to write this off as pure silliness, but no one should be quick to dismiss this new line of smear attack. Why? Because what seems silly nonsense to the rational is deadly serious to the true believers and the un-balanced. Having grown up in the Evangelical Church I can tell you that the Dominionist view of the Book of Revelation is real. Real to them as surely as the laptop you are reading this diary on and means nothing short of the End of the World.  

So put yourself in their heads, and ask what would you do to stop The End of the World?

The chill that just went up your spin is what makes the McCain Campaign's hamfisted attempt at smear something more than smear, something more than a attempt to rally his base. This is something incredibly dangerous. To compare Obama to the Anti-Christ, whether by implication as in McCain's Ad, or by direct accusation as with Lindsey's screed, is to invite violence against Barack Obama and incite every nutcase with a God Complex to take matters into his own hands.

Think it can't happen? Today the FBI released the name of a Doctor at Fort Dietrich, Bruce Ivins, who is possibly if not probably, responsible for the 2001 Anthrax attacks, who was both mentally unstable and a strict Catholic with Christian Dominionist predilections.

For the sake of decency McCain should pull his "One" Ad, and decline anymore attempts to prey on the End of Times delusions propagated by the Christian Fundamentalist movement. But, given McCain's current campaign, decency seems to be among the things found lacking.

Naturally, with Obama cantering to a modest leads in the polls now, with very strong fundamentals presaging a comfortable win, the conventional wisdom is very clear on what each candidate needs to do.

Obama's campaign is focused on getting back to local issues, town-hall meetings, while simultaneously organizing, registering and getting voters to the polls.

McCain seems to have a more uphill road - go populist and co-opt Obama's message, go negative and tear down Barack as a contradictory effete idealist and a radical ideologue, while striking a clear distinction with himself as a pragmatic populist.

The game could very will swing on the practical strategy and execution of each team, against a backdrop of electorate seeking change from Bush.

Or maybe not. Read on if you don't mind going a bit tin-foily once in a while.

Let me start off by saying this is not a conspiracy theory diary. It is simply me introducing some questions into the debate that I feel are worth asking.

It seems like every morning these days I wake up to some storm or other hitting our lovely little virtual home. See, I live in a time zone at least 12 hours ahead of most of you. By the time I turn on my computer, there are already well over 300 comments in every recommended diary.

So I arrive late to a lot of the arguments and I always find myself watching both sides and thinking "if only someone had offered a third option."  Something in-between. Maybe we could have turned the storm landward. Dissipated its strength. At times, I try to do this myself but in general the damage has already been done.

(Cross posted at E Pluribus Unum)

Jim Brown posted a diary over at Daily Kingfish wherein he lays out the case that Bobby Jindal's chances for the VP spot are alive and well.

That might be, but I think that's bad news for the Republicans. Here's why:

These are dark days to be a liberal blogger.

If you're not pissed off about FISA or any other of the numerous controversies that have been swirling, than you're pissed off over the uproar. You know things are getting bad when you find yourself nostalgic for the primary campaign or at least the one week window where unity not only seemed possible but actually seemed to be occuring.

Senator Obama is in a bit of a hole right now, some of it of his own digging. There is no quick, easy fix for his problems with the progressive wing of the party but there is something he can do as a gesture, a symbolic tip of the hat in their direction

Follow me below the jump.

Comment from a New Jersey blog on convicted GOP felon, Allen Raymond,  author of "How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative."

"As for his three months in a Pennsylvania prison, he wrote: 'After 10 full years inside the GOP, 90 days among honest criminals wasn't really any great ordeal.' "

Diarist Mark Adams makes some pretty good points about Obama's rightward move in a post over at E Pluribus Unum. This one jogged my memory:

Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you.

You're talking to a friend and they casually mention that they saw your significant other talking to another man/woman at a restaurant the other day. Your friend didn't get a good luck and wasn't really sure if it was them or not but they thought they'd tell you anyway. You calmly tell your friend that they must be mistaken because you were both at home at the time and forget about the whole thing. But then on your way home, you start thinking. You go through your memory of the last week and start cataloguing all the hours of the day that the two of you weren't together. Then suddenly you get a call on your cell phone. It's your SO saying they'll be home work from late today. Hey it's nothing new, in fact it happens pretty often, but as you hang up the phone your mind is racing. Scenarios run through your head and you start thinking "Hey, he/she's late a lot, but they've never been late on a TUESDAY before. What gives."

I apologize in advance for the length of this diary. I don't usually have time to write long entries so when I do it kind of bubbles out.

First, in case you haven't yet seen John McCain saying "I really didn't love America until I was deprived of her company", here's video from Dan Abrams' show:

For several days, I put off reading this article at the Huffington Post, Why Do We Stick With Her?. In the heat of the endgame, I couldn't imagine an answer to that question that wouldn't give me a headache. When I finally read it this morning, I did, indeed, get a bit of a headache, but it was worth it.

This is the second of a two (maybe three, maybe four) part diary on "sleeper issues" that could be important and useful to the Democratic nominee in he General Election. My first diary on this subject  is here:

Sleeper Issues I

I've added a few more potential sleeper issues to this poll, based on peoples' comments and suggestions from the first one. If more ideas come in, I'll consider another round.

Bogus character issues aside, the General Election dialog will be dominated by two broadly defined issues: the economy and national security. Specifically, we will hear about: gas prices, jobs, trade policy, health insurance, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the "War on Terror", and the nature of US diplomacy. On these issues, we naturally believe the Democratic nominee will have the upper hand. In fact, hard evidence abounds indicating that this is so. Still, bogus character issues are definitely not "aside", and this year we can throw in some other, similar factors: racism, ageism (in both directions), and possibly the resentment of Clinton supporters. So, for that reason, and because better policy is better policy, I think our candidate should take at least some time to articulate innovative approaches to some "sleeper issues". What should they be?

When public figures screw up, behave badly, or make general fools of themselves, it's music to my ears!! You can hear people talk about the latest events all day, but wouldn't you rather hear them sing about it!? I hope you enjoy my collection of parodies. And remember, everyone has a right to their own opinion. And I reserve the right to make musical fun of it!!
In today's installment, we take a look at the Democratic primaries with a parody that asks the musical question, "How the hell is Hillary gonna pull this one off!?!?!" It's a comical commentary with a little bi-partisan bashing for everyone. Stay tuned for more...

"Done, Done, Done"

(You can see all my parodies at myparodypage.blogspot.com)