ProgressOhio

They took this one down in a hurry, but we have the mirror here.

 Most obvious 'surprise' is that he expected to face Hillary.

Most interesting? Even McCain's own ad has him losing Ohio.

McCain's victory came by winning the "red" states that supported President Bush in 2004, while also winning independents to capture the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

There are a couple other noteworthy "landing pages" still up as of this writing, including this grade school-worthy pun and this weird veiled threat.

From the Colbert Report:

While Barack Obama delivers a speech to thousands of fans in Germany, John McCain eats lunch at Schmidt's Sausage Haus

Watch It:

Time Magazine:

James has also matured. Nike-clad icons like Tiger Woods and Jordan resist politics at all costs. In 1990, when Jordan refused to back a black candidate running against Jesse Helms for a Senate seat, he famously noted that Republicans buy sneakers too.

James, however, is diving in. "I'm at the point in my life where I should really start paying attention," he says.

He recently met Michelle Obama at a fund raiser, and he told TIME he plans to campaign for her husband, a well-known hoophead.

(Call him, Senator Obama. You need Ohio for the White House, and LeBron knows how to score in the Buckeye State.)

Obama's Prayer Excavated from Cracks of Western Wall and Published in Newspaper

After Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, left a written prayer in the cracks of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a Jewish seminary student dug it out and the newspaper Ma'ariv published it (assuming of course that the note is the correct one).

The note Ma'ariv published -- written on stationery from the King David Hotel, where Obama stayed -- states: "Lord - Protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will."

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitz, the rabbi of the Wall who accompanied Obama on his visit there told Israeli Army Radio, per the AP, that "the notes placed between the stones of the Western Wall are between a person and his maker. It is forbidden to read them or make any use of them." Ma'ariv's decision to publish the note "damages the Western Wall and damages the personal, deep part of every one of us that we keep to ourselves," he said.

On his plane Thursday morning Obama declined to tell reporters what he had asked of the Lord in his note.

Union Chinese Wal-Mart employees will get an 8% raise this year and next.

Non-union American Wal-Mart employees have averaged a 3% annual raise over the last 3.5 years.

From his one-on-one yesterday with The Dispatch:

If Sen. Obama had had his way, we'd have been out of Iraq militarily, all our troops would have been withdrawn by last March.

Gov. Ted Strickland continues to work toward brokering a compromise that will keep a proposed mandatory sick day issue off of the Nov. 4 ballot, but supporters on Thursday issued a call for help in the "final push" for petition signatures.

Gov. Strickland said in a list of guiding principles distributed to stakeholders on both sides of the issue that a sick leave polity "must be written and implemented in a way that effectively balances employees' interest in the availability of paid time which can be used when they are sick with employers' need to efficiently manage their workforce."

Business groups are gearing up a multi-million dollar campaign to defeat the proposal, which would among other things require that employees be able to earn seven days of paid sick leave each year.

Dale Butland, spokesman for the Sick Days Ohio campaign, said supporters of the citizen-initiated legislation (HB 536*) have no problem with the principles Gov. Strickland has laid out, and believe the bill already conforms to them.

"Right now I don't see any way we're not going to the ballot. That's why we're continuing our push for signatures," Mr. Butland said in an interview. "We have always thought we'd have a ballot fight. We still do."

"The problem is the business people we talked to ... opposed paid sick days in principle, and said they would not agree to mandated paid sick days of any kind. That's not something we can agree with or go along with," he said.

The Governor:

More Images Here

There is one more John McCain gaffe that the media missed from the now famous CBS interview with Katie Couric.

This is the same interview in which McCain claimed the surge led to the Anbar Awakening, which is demonstrably false. But watch below for another gaffe when McCain says Iraq was the first major conflict after 9/11.

Watch it:

 Young Turks on You Tube

Free Our Oil Now, Congressman Boehner!

With Gas Prices Hovering Above $4 a Gallon, Boehner Stands with Bush / Big Oil and Stands in the Way of Immediate Relief for Ohio Families

Follow the Money: Boehner Took $185,000 from the Oil & Gas Industry
[Source: OpenSecrets.org]

Washington D.C. – With gas prices above $4, Americans United for Change, the progressive issue-advocacy group that recently launched its national Bush Legacy Bus tour, blasted House Republican Leader John Boehner today for standing in the way of lower gas prices for Ohio families by voting against meaningful legislation to release 70 million barrels of light, sweet crude oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve into the open market and replace it with heavy, sour oil that is tougher to refine – a move that has historically brought down gas prices and strengthened our national security. 

The SPR has been tapped or suspended before by the current President Bush, President Clinton, and the first President Bush and each time oil has been released the impact on prices has been dramatic and immediate.  For example, in 1991, oil prices immediately dropped by 33 percent. The 2000 exchange drove oil prices down by 19 percent. And the release by President Bush in 2005 resulted in a 9 percent drop. 

“With gas prices hovering above $4 a gallon, House Republican Leader Boehner was given a chance today bring real relief now to Ohio families forced to make incredible sacrifices choosing between bills, gas, and food,” said Caren Benjamin, for Americans United for Change. "But without apology or question, Congressman Boehner chose to put his loyalty to Bush and his addiction to big oil cash ahead of relief for struggling Ohioans.

“Bush's allies in Congress like John Boehner are not offering actual solutions for the pressing problem of high energy costs.  Their best answer to out-of-control oil prices is offshore drilling that wouldn’t yield a drop of new oil for 10 years.  That’s not a solution – that's a distraction adcocated by the same big oil companies making record profits and that have given Rep. Boehner $185,000 dollars in contributions over the years.  The new Democratic-led Congress are offering real prescripions to the pain Americans are feeling at the pump – but with Bush and his friends in Congress dutifully siding with the oil industry every step of the way, what chance do struggling families have?” added Benjamin.

From The Local: Germany's News In English

Over 200,000 jubilant Barack Obama supporters shut down the centre of Berlin on Thursday evening to listen to the US presidential candidate give an impassioned speech on the global challenges of the 21st century.

People from all walks of life streamed to the German capital’s Victory Column memorial at the heart of the city’s Tiergarten park hoping to glimpse of the popular US senator from Illinois.

“Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany,” Obama told the crowd to wild applause. "Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for president, but as a citizen – a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.”

As the sun set on the German capital, the predominately younger audience of Berliners listened intently to Obama speak of the common problems facing Europe and America.

“As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya,” Obama said.

“Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.”

German television broadcast the speech live, as some 1,000 police officers, US Secret Service and private security guards were mobilized for the visit.

Prior to his address, Berliners gave the event a festival atmosphere, grilling sausages and selling beer near the site of the speech, which has frequently been used for large public gatherings.

The massive show of support underscored how deeply dissatisfied many Germans are with the leadership of US President George W. Bush, who remains unpopular in Europe for his decision to invade Iraq and his apparent reluctance to tackle issues like global warming.

While Barack Obama was giving his speech today in Berlin, John McCain visited Columbus, Ohio's German Village where he had lunch at the Famous Schmidt's Sausage Haus.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Republican John McCain pushed back on Wednesday against Democratic criticism that he misstated when the troop buildup ordered by President Bush began, saying elements were put in place before Bush announced the strategy in early 2007.

He told reporters during an unscheduled stop in a super market that, what the Bush administration calls "the surge" was actually "made up of a number of components," some of which began before the president's order for more troops.

It's all a matter of semantics, he suggested.

McCain said Army Col. Sean MacFarland started carrying out elements of a new counterinsurgency strategy as early as December 2006.

Yes . . . it was "McCain's Secret Surge" that began before what we all call "the Surge".

As you will see in this video from Countdown with Keith Olbermann, McCain's counter insurgency strategy is to lead the media into his "death trap" by making sure no one can figure out what he his saying and so will be totally incapable of reporting it.

Watch it:

By the way, the McCain campaign canceled all the remaining press events of the day after this hastily arranged "cheese case" press availability.

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- It's official. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign will be among the TV sponsors of NBC Universal's Olympics coverage. In the first significant network-TV buy of any presidential candidate in at least 16 years, the Obama campaign has taken a $5 million package of Olympics spots that includes network TV as well as cable ads.

According to NBC's political file, the campaign had initially requested information about 500,000, $2 million and $4 million package of Olympics spots. The network also offered the candidate a $10 million package.

Here's part of the release "Bad Cop" ODP put out about the Republican nominee for the Ohio Attorney General Race:

Redfern: D. Michael Crites has all of the attributes you might expect to find in a third-tier Republican candidate

COLUMBUS - The Ohio Democratic Party responded today to the Ohio Republican Party's selection of attorney D. Michael Crites as their candidate for Ohio Attorney General.  After months of begging top-tier and second-tier candidates to enter the race, the Ohio Republican Party finally accepted rejection and settled on Mr. Crites.

In contrast to Ohio Treasurer and Democratic Attorney General candidate Richard Cordray, D. Michael Crites has never run for statewide office.  As a defense attorney, Crites stood up for a client who stole $10,000 from the Ohio Treasury by downplaying the crime as a 'one-time mistake.'  ("Theft gets supervisor one year in prison," Columbus Dispatch, January 2001)

"Michael Crites has all of the attributes that you might expect to find in a third-tier Republican candidate," said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern.  "Michael Crites chased headlines as prosecutor by going after baseball great Pete Rose, but he earned his paycheck as a defense attorney by standing up for an individual who stole $10,000 from the Ohio Treasury and downplaying the crime against Ohio taxpayers as a 'one-time mistake.'"

At least 12 potential candidates declined to seek the office under the Ohio Republican banner.  Excuses ranged from not wanting the job to not wanting to take a pay cut.  One would-be Republican candidate cited high gas prices as part of his excuse for not running.

And "Good Cop" Richard Cordray?

Here's what he had to say: 

"I have always considered my real opponent in this race to be the financial predators who are picking the pockets of hard-working Ohio families through unfair lending and business practices, companies who abandon jobs and workers in our home towns, and anyone who abuses power at a citizen's expense.

But I welcome my Republican opponent, too."

Now that's how you play as a team in politcal communications!

Both CBS News and John McCain have some 'splaning to do:

During a CBS interview on Tuesday, John McCain made a stone cold error on a subject about which he claims expert knowledge: the "surge" strategy in Iraq. In an interview with anchor Katie Couric, the Arizona Republican said, inaccurately, that the surge strategy was responsible for the much-touted "Anbar Awakening," in which Sunni sheiks turned against Al Qaeda, helping in turn to reduce violence in the country.

On the July 22 edition of the CBS Evening News, while airing portions of an interview she conducted that day with Sen. John McCain, anchor Katie Couric removed a part of his response in which he falsely asserted that the 2007 U.S. troop surge "began the Anbar awakening." In fact, the so-called Anbar awakening reportedly began in September 2006, months before the surge was even announced. Couric had asked McCain, "Senator [Barack] Obama says while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shia government going after militias, and says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?" But rather than airing McCain's direct reply, including the false claim that the surge "began the Anbar awakening" -- an agreement by some tribal leaders in western Iraq to accept U.S. aid and cooperate with anti-Al Qaeda operations -- Couric aired comments by McCain spliced together from three separate statements he gave during the interview, one of which responded to a different question. Couric gave no indication that these comments had been edited in any manner, nor did she otherwise note McCain's falsehood.

Keith Olbermann reported on the spliced McCain response on the July 22 edition of MSNBC's Countdown.

In a new sign of increasing inequality in the U.S., the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929, according to Internal Revenue Service data.

Meanwhile, the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years.

The group's share of the tax burden has risen, though not as quickly as its share of income.

The figures are from the IRS's income-statistics division and were posted on the agency's Web site last week. The 2006 data are the most recent available.

AP:

Robinson is now 106 - that's 35 years older than McCain - and she began using the Internet at 98.

Blogs have been buzzing recently over McCain's admission that when it comes to the Internet, "I'm an illiterate who has to rely on his wife for any assistance he can get."...

"About 3/4ths  of white, college-educated men age over 65 use the Internet," says Susannah Fox, director of the project. "John McCain is an outlier when you compare him to his peers,"

With our national security and economic growth so closely tied to computing, it's hard to imagine governing without having even the most basic grasp on the internet. 

Obama Shifts the Foreign Policy Debate

He was effusive in his praise of U.S. troops and diplomats, describing the "terrific" conversation he had with Ryan C. Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, who took him on a helicopter tour over the Iraqi capital. Obama said he understands that Petraeus would prefer leaving his options open rather than operating with a timeline, and said if he were in Petraeus's shoes, "I'd probably feel the same way."

But in an indirect dig at President Bush, who has repeatedly said he would base any withdrawal decisions on the advice of military commanders, Obama said his job would be to listen to the military but make decisions based on "a range of factors that I have to take into account as a commander in chief."

Those factors, he said, would include "the perceptions of the Iraqi people" and the statements of their leaders, as well as "the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan," which he called the "central front in the war against terrorism."

McCain's judgments are based on "what he thinks makes the most sense," Obama said. But his own judgments, "in speaking with Afghans and Iraqis, the U.S. military and civilians," he said, led him to conclude that there is a need to "seize this moment to make America more secure" by focusing on "broader challenges."

Chief among them, he said, are the "need to refocus attention on Afghanistan and to go after the Taliban, including putting more troops on the ground, and to put more pressure on Pakistan to deal with the safe havens of terrorists."

The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, in an interview last night with PBS's "NewsHour," said he shares Obama's assessment that the situation in Afghanistan is "precarious and urgent." The 10,000 additional troops needed there, he said, would not be available "in any significant manner" unless there are withdrawals from Iraq.

For now, he said, "my priorities . . . given to me by the commander in chief are: Focus on Iraq first. It's been that way for some time. Focus on Afghanistan second."