The Political Dogfight

Obama Short List Not So Short

Sen. Barack Obama's vice presidential vetting process "has moved into a new stage in which a larger than previously reported group of candidates is being exposed to a 'deeper dig' into their backgrounds," according to the Washington Post.

"The hard vetting involves follow-ups to lingering questions about candidates' backgrounds and clarifications of their stands on issues. While the process is intensifying, the fact that the number of potential candidates still being considered is larger than generally believed, suggests that no decision is imminent, just 26 days before the opening of the Democratic National Convention."
h/t Political Wire

As I started to say yesterday and deleted the post, I thought all this talk about a truly 'short' list was an exercise in mis-direction.

The Political Dogfight is off Hiatus...we're baaaaaaaaaaack!

Look for new posts, many of them also posted at The Democratic Daily, to reenergize The Poitical Dogfight. For those who have visited so faithfully hoping for most content, please spread the word that The Dogfight is back in business.
Also to make it easier on you please sign up for the RSS feed.

Political Dogfight Talk Radio?

With the advent of Blog Talk Radio, there's a possiblity that The Political Dogfight may start it's own show combining commentary on political news of the day and political interviews. The Big Dog has also been approached about sharing time with another more famous blog as a commentator. It may open a new front for communication.

Any thoughts on the topic would be greatly accepted.   TBD

Quick Notice to Dogfight Readers: Political Interviews Coming Here!

The Big Dog has had a new blog, Political Interviews, that has great content but simply hasn't taken off in terms of readership/listernership. I am going to be folding those interviews into Dogfight in the next 30 days. Many are from Candidates. One that hasn't been published yet is with the Director of the Sunlight Fundation which dedicated to literally shedding more light into Washington's process.....certainly a good idea. That will be up later today.

But look for more video and audio content here on The Political Dogfight. Both are the future of the Net and The Big Dog doesn't run in second place. The view is just terrible. And it smells.

Sage words we can learn from...

Quote of the Day:

"Few men who have liberated themselves from the fear of God and the fear of death are yet able to liberate themselves from the fear of man."

Lin Yutang

I truly fear the acts of the collective 'Man' much more than I like to admit.  TBD

AG Gonzales Shows Some Balls...prepared to screw Bush on Principle

Believe it or not, I'm glad to see not every Federal official is gutless.

Gonzales Was Prepared to Resign

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and senior officials "were prepared to quit if the White House directed them to relinquish evidence seized in a bitterly disputed search of a House member's office, government officials said Friday,” reports the New York Times.

However, “the potential showdown was averted Thursday when President Bush ordered the evidence to be sealed for 45 days to give Congress and the Justice Department a chance to work out a deal."

While I don't agree with the 45 day waiting period, at least Gonzales was ready to do the right thing if necessary. I'll give credit where credit is due if the NYT got this right.

Hat Tip Political Wire

Internet Population Hits New High...

From a PEW Internet and American Life Project we find today that the online population has hit an all time hit:

A:  73% or 147 Million have Internet access at home.

B: Of that number 84 Million have some sort of high-speed connection.

We have a long way to go.

Hero's to Criminals: You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up

Seldom at a loss for words and consumed with gales of laughter...but this did it. TBD

Border Patrol -- Two supervisory U.S. Border Patrol agents who helped establish a successful cross-border anti-smuggling program have been charged with smuggling migrants for a Mexican trafficking organization. Richard Marosi in the Los Angeles Times-- 3/10/06

Hat tip to Rough & Tumble

Do Blog Readers Just Blow Hot Air?

From Daily Kos by Kos:

This Atrios nag is spot on:

Kos gets about 750,000 visits per day and this site gets about 140,000 or so. I don't know how many unique pairs of eyeballs that translates to, but you can make a guess.

Of those, 805 have donated to Ciro through Kos's link and 319 have donated through mine.

That post was written at 2:26 p.m. ET. Now, 7 1/2 hours later, the numbers are 862 and 355. So the nag appears to have worked to some degree. But really, this is why I roll my eyes when people, outraged at the latest party "betrayal", claim that the party will never see another dime from them. Chances are, they've never given a dime to begin with. The vast majority of people who frequent blogs don't do anything additional to help out -- be it volunteer or contribute.

There are over a dozen Ciro Rodriguez ActBlue pages, and at the time of this post, only 1,434 people have contributed. Yet that small number of people, with their average donations of $40 or so, have raised nearly $70K. It doesn't take many people to make a serious difference.

While it makes me nuts...Kos is right. 750,000 visitors a day on Kos, Atrios another 140,000 or so and Ciro Rodriguez after Kos, The Big Dog on DailyKos, MyDD and lots of other people and places nearly begging to for help to defeat that goddamn Republican in disguise Cuellar there's....1434 as of that publishing! (Now over 1700)
Out of over 1 Million a day for 5 days?

Press Banned from New Orleans

Exactly as received from Bob Brigham who is on-site:

No Accountability: Bush Locks Press Out of NOLA

September 7th, 2005

We are in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans. At the National Guard checkpoint, they are under orders to turn away all media. All of the reporters are turning they're TV trucks around.

Things are so bad, Bush is now censoring all reporting from NOLA. The First Amendment sank with the city.
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My God....what's next?