Guide to voter ID laws.

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Roy Zimmerman with Sandy Riccardi: The Wedding of Church and State:

Thom: The Good, the Bad and The Very, Very Ugly.

Ed: Democrats Rebound in Senate Races For 2012

Mark Fiore: Why do they hate us?

President Obama on Letterman.

Young Turks: Rush Limbaugh blames “Feminazis” for his small penis.

Thom and Pap: GOP says “lazy people shouldn’t vote.

Obama v. Romney in Patriot Games:

Ann Telnaes: Testing your free speech limits.

White House: West Wing Week.

WILLARD!!!

• Homer votes for Mitt:
• Sam Seder: “Poor me…I inherited nothing!”
• Ann Telnaes: Romney offers his opinion on the 47%.
• Young Turks: GOP Abandoning Mitt Romney.
• Mitt taken out of context.
• SlateTV: Romney on the ropes
• Sam Seder: “Poor me, I’m not Latino.”
• Obama ad features Mitt Romney!
• SNL on 47%
• Jon: The 47% meltdown.
• SlateTV: Ann Romney damage control.
• Maddow: Paul Ryan has trouble at the AARP.
• Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: The 47%
• Sam Seder: Paul Ryan at the AARP.
• Thom: Does Mitt think he’s Jesus?
• Liberal Viewer: SNL predicts Romney 47 Percent Scandal
• Sam Seder: Mitt’s tax return.
• Jon: Romney Magic:
• Young Turks: Mitt Romney flip-flop videos
• Maddow: Mitt plays tax games with 2011 return.
• Sam Seder: Ann Romney to GOP, “STFU!”
• Umm…Booooo!
• SlateTV: Tim Pawlenty quits Mitt.
• Obama (and his anger translator) on the 47%
• Thom: Romneyhood!
• Tweety: Romney Wobbles
• Lawrence O’Donnell: ‘equestrian’ Ann Romney to critics, ‘Stop it. This is hard!’
• Young Turks: Ann lashes out
• Mitt Romeny: Outside the circle.
• Maddow: Big name Republicans thinking past Mitt.
• Leaked! Missing footage from Mitt’s explanatory remarks.
• Conan’s new Romney attack ad: Barack Obama doesn’t exist.
• Paul Ryan repeatedly gets booed at AARP speech

Ann Telnaes: Justice Scalia vents.

Thom: More Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Jon: Jesus’ wife.

Sarah Silverman does a Voter ID PSA:

Sam Seder: Florida makes it almost impossible to register to vote.

Young Turks: ON that Sarah Silverman video.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Mitt Romney has a blunder problem.

It started years ago, but it really seem to take off with Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom’s, “It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch” comment. Since then, we’ve had “7-11 cookie gate,” Mitt dissing the Olympics host country’s preparedness for the games, mentioning the head of MI-6, and so on.

Until recently, most of the blunders haven’t been substantively rich. (A couple of exceptions: “Corporations are people too, my friend!” and an old Op-Ed with the title, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt!”.)

But the two most recent blunders are really different—they are likely to leave a lasting and meaningfully negative impression of Romney in the minds of many Americans.

The botched statement following the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens in Libya was factually wrong, repulsively insensitive, and wholly unpresidential. It was a sign of a campaign in desperation, trying anything to the exclusion of taste, good judgement, dignity, and statesmanship.

Mitt’s Blunder of the Week this week reveals Mitt Romney to be a duplicitous asshole. He was caught dissing 47% of Americans—saying things he would never say out in the open—to an elite group of wealthy donors at a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser.

Romney’s statement removed all doubt that he has contempt for less fortunate Americans and views their circumstance not even with indifference, but as some sort of blight on the rest of America.

We now have a couple of polls to assess the negative effect of Romney’s statement on people:

Reuters/Ipsos: The statement makes 43% of voters viewed Mitt Romney less favorably.
Reuters/Ipsos: 59% felt Romney was unfairly dismissing a big chunk of Americans as victims.
Gallup poll: The statement makes 36% less likely to vote for him.
Gallup poll: The statement makes 20% more likely to vote for him.

The effect on the race? Although the latest blunders will not be fully captured in aggregate state head-to-head polling for a couple of weeks, we can look at other more immediate indicators.

The average of national polls has moved in Obama’s favor over the past week. The Real Clear Politics average has moved up from a tie two weeks ago to about a +3% advantage for Obama. Likewise, Intrade Prediction Market has seen Obama’s share price surge to its highest median price ever.

Mitt Romney just pulled a reverse Etch-A-Sketch. He has been tacking back to the center from his “severely conservative” (a.k.a. Teabaggy) position he needed to get him through the G.O.P. primary. He has now “reset” himself to a position that is far to the right of most Americans.

He’s no longer viable.

What remains to be seen, is how much down-ballot damage he can cause….

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics and conversation over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Tonight, bring along you own Secret Tape to share!

(As Mitt requested, the full video is now available, here.)

Can’t make it to Seattle’s DL tonight? There are lots of other Washington state chapters of DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter meets. The Longview and South Seattle chapters meet on Wednesday. The Spokane chapter and Drinking Liberally Tacoma meet this Thursday. And on Monday, the Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.

With 228 chapters of Living Liberally, including thirteen in Washington state four in Oregon and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Thom: Why the G.O.P. doesn’t want the Fed to help.

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News bias in editing Warren video.

Ed and Pap: Cheney’s incompetence killed 3,000 Americans.

Ellen makes ‘nice’ political ads for Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.

Sam Seder: Rand Paul is SCHOOLED on government jobs under Obama.

Bill Maher: It’s a Significantly Less Wonderful Life.

Let’s talk about values.

Daily Show: How to spin doctor a story.

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Buzz60: Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Pat Boone indicate that the Birfer movement is over.

Young Turks: Snoop Dog, “Bush Fucked up for 8 years, vote Obama.

Jonathan Mann: Bearhug the President.

Sam Seder and Glenn Greenwald: Getting away with torture.

Greenman: An interview with Mauri Pelto about retreating glaciers in the Pacific Northwest:

Lawrence O’Donnell: NBC battleground poll shows big leads for President Obama.

Chris Mathews plays FDR clip that perfectly describes Republicans.

Willard!

• Ann Telnaes: Romney tries another strategy to get a bounce in the polls
• Slate TV: Democrats turn Tables and question Romney’s national security competence.
• Top five reasons why Mitt won’t release his tax returns.
• Tagg and Craig with Romney Rock!
• Buzz60: Swing states are swinging to Obama.
• Slate TV: Romney spoiler—Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson on ballot in 47 states.
• Thom and Pap: Media ignores Romney lies in favor of politicization
• Maddow: War on Women in VA could cost Romney the race.
• Young Turks: Conservatives defending Romney’s erroneous statement on Libya.
• Zina Saunders: The Romney Identi-Kit.
• Young Turks: Romney’s “embassy” comments backfire.
• The Cheeters.
• The three branches of Mitt Romney’s ‘Neo-CON’ foreign policy
• Slate TV: Romney’s attack backfires.
• Sharpton: Romney campaign hands out ‘Talking Points’ on Libya
• Maddow: Ryan shares billing with “former Terrorist” at fringe conference.
• Buzz60: Kanye West new song takes on Mitt Romney’s taxes.
• Thom: Romney finds a new way to lie.
• Slate TV: Kanye West, “Mitt Romney Don’t Pay No Tax”
• Ann Telnaes: Mittstep.

Maddow: Judge says Walker’s union-stripping law is unconstitution.

Young Turks: Bachmann or Palin…who’s CRAZIER???

Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

“Obama Style”: a hit video that simply destroys Obama.

Sam Seder: Bush’s 9/11 fail is far worse than you thought!

G.O.P. Voter Suppression Efforts

• Pap and Thom: G.O.P. steps up voter suppression efforts.
• Sam Seder: G.O.P. makes it difficult to register in Florida.
• Thom: Voter ID goes to PA Supreme Court.
• Maddow: Exposing the G.O.P. voter suppression effort.

White House: West Wing Week.

Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.

Young Turks: Poll shows some Republicans think Mitt Romney killed bin Laden.

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News suggests Obama hates God.

Thom: more Good, Bad and Very, Very Ugly.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics and conversation over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters meet, and Thursday night Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets.

With 227 chapters of Living Liberally, including thirteen in Washington state four in Oregon and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

White House: West Wing Week.

Roy Zimmerman: Citizens United:

Thom: Are Americans better off than 30 years ago when the the Reaganomics experiment started?

The Democratic National Convention:

• SlateTV: Clinton brings it home for Obama.
• Young Turks: Analysis of Pres. Clinton’s speech
• Fallon: Clinton Speaks:
• Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Clinton and the Crazies
• Jon: Clinton had more stats than RNC did in entire week (via Crooks and Liars).
• Young Turks: Analysis of Michelle Obama’s speech
• Cory Booker’s DNC Speech
• Stephen: Democrats’ “God gaffe.”
• The Coultergiest tries to outdo Rush on Sandra Fluke.
• Thom and Pap on GOP trying to make Obama fail.
• Young Turks: Looking at Obama’s speech.
• Sam Seder chats with Obamabot Andy Kindler on his thoughts on Barack Obama’s DNC speech!.
• Maddow: Presidential campaign may hinge on VA candidate.
• John Lewis Crooks and Liars).
• Young Turks: Sen. Kerry has best line of the DNC.
• Ann Telnaes: The ups and downs of Bill Clinton.
• Jenn breaks down D v. R’s us v. me.
• Deval Patrick slams Mitt Romney.
• Maddow: Rocky Balboa secret Romney advisor?
• Young Turks: Analysis of Biden’s speech
• James Taylor performs at DNC (after empty chair joke):
• Gov. Granholm’s DNC Address.
• Young Turks: Analysis of Jenn Granholm’s

Indicision’s attack ad against FOX News.

Thom with more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Rob McKenna’s supersleuths uncover a secret video of Jay Inslee bulldozing. Oh…that smarts!

Willard!

• Mark Fiore: The Love-Me-Mitt doll
• Sam Seder: Clint beats Mitt.
• Romney and Rep. Steve King: Partners in extremism.

Ann Telnaes: Are Democrats the new G.O.P.?

Obama’s beer recipes revealed.

Red State Update: Jackie talks to Obama’s chair:

Pharmaceutical Ad: “Legitimate Rape”.

Palin Around With Terrorists:

• Sarah complains (via Crooks and Liars).
• Slate TV: Sarah Palin doesn’t want the attention. Really!

Thom with The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Ann Telnaes: A conservative view of the American Worker.

Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican, West Virginia edition.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

The DNC has just wrapped up their convention. The actual news: Both President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have accepted their Party’s nomination.

(I note that, despite some “excellent”, “well-intentioned” and “perfectly sound” advice from the our friends to the right, it wasn’t Hillary Clinton accepting the VP nomination…)

But the conventions were so much more than nomination machines. They provided Americans with a well-packaged set of arguments for why their candidates should be elected.

I listened to some of the content from both conventions, and man, what a difference! First, the Republicans sounded angrier. During the previous decade they peddled fear during their conventions. This decade they seemed to be peddling some bizarre moralistic hate. But the biggest difference is that the Republicans were selling us yesterday—a world without concerns for the environment, a world lacking equality for most non-Caucasian-hetersexual-male humans, a world lacking humanity and compassion. To me, it comes off as social and economic Darwinism—petty, selfish, greedy, primative thinking.

In contrast, the DNC was filled with thoughts of a better America—a future based on the future instead of clinging to a distant (and largely illusory) past. It was hopeful; it was optimistic; it was long term; it was about creating a better world together. It was a vision that embodies and embraces the single most distinctive trait of Homo sapiens: Our hyper-social nature that has empowered us to take collective action on huge scales to benefit whole societies. America is a shining example of this uniquely human trait.

Of course another huge difference between the two conventions was the use and abuse of Truth. Sure…some factual mistakes were made by speakers at both conventions. But there are elements at the very foundations of Romney’s argument to be President that are based on fabrications, distortions, or taking words out of context. As you can tell, I’m not buying hate, but peddling hate using lies, distortions, and out-of-context sound bites isn’t a winning strategy. Politically, you are what you eat, and too many people are smart enough to walk when being fed a constant diet of bullshit.

There were a number of inspiring speeches at the DNC. I’ll just cover the four biggies (and without suggestion that there were no other top-notch speeches at the convention):

• I though President Obama had a solid speech, despite sounding rather horse and, maybe, a little tired. His arguments were coherent, convincing and, at times, inspiring. But, speaking as someone who sat in Mile High stadium as Sen. Obama delivered his first acceptance speech, it wasn’t his best address ever. Let’s give it a B+. It did the job quite nicely.
• Michelle Obama gave a solid performance. I am constantly impressed by her ability to “play” First Lady, given the high power Type-A professional position she gave up to become FLOTUS. She is a most impressive human being.
• Joe Biden was incredible. This speech was on par with the one he gave to the NAACP this year. Wingnuts have a strong tendency to underestimate Joe Biden. And, empirically, it hasn’t served them well.
• Clearly, the top prize goes to Bill Clinton, who can serve it up like no other. Yes, my wingnut friends, Clinton definitely blows Reagan away in oratorical prowess. I challenge anyone to find a speech by Reagan that even came close to this one. Bill was on fire.

Ultimately, the DNC seemed like a celebration of the future. I liked the vision.

Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama are the last two speakers at the DNC.

Watch the livestream here. (I’ll convert the speeches to videos later.)

I talk to nurses and programmers, salespeople and firefighters—people who bust their tails every day. Not one of them—not one—stashes their money in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

(Full text.)

In Tampa, the Republican argument against the president’s re-election was actually pretty simple—pretty snappy. It went something like this: We left him a total mess. He hasn’t cleaned it up fast enough. So fire him and put us back in.

Now, there were two other attacks on the president in Tampa I think deserve an answer. First, both Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan attacked the president for allegedly robbing Medicare of $716 billion. That’s the same attack they leveled against the Congress in 2010, and they got a lot of votes on it. But it’s not true.

Here’s what really happened. There were no cuts to benefits at all. None. What the president did was to save money by taking the recommendations of a commission of professionals to cut unwarranted subsidies to providers and insurance companies that were not making people healthier and were not necessary to get the providers to provide the service.

And instead of raiding Medicare, he used the savings to close the doughnut hole in the Medicare drug program and—you all got to listen carefully to this; this is really important—and to add eight years to the life of the Medicare trust fund so it is solvent till 2024.

So President Obama and the Democrats didn’t weaken Medicare; they strengthened Medicare. Now, when Congressman Ryan looked into that TV camera and attacked President Obama’s Medicare savings as, quote, the biggest, coldest power play, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry because that $716 billion is exactly, to the dollar, the same amount of Medicare savings that he has in his own budget. You got to get one thing—it takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.

(Full text).

“With a Republican Congress sitting shotgun, Mitt Romney will put the middle class on the roof and take us for a long, painful ride”

(Full text.)