JUST over the wire!

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- The commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia's Force 47 told reporters in Bogota Monday -- a day after surrendering -- that "the solution is not through war. There must be dialogue."

On the heels of the primary FARC founding leader dying, this is even better news for peace in Colombia.

There's an "echo bubble" from the housing market, which reflects an equally reckless pattern of consumption by Americans and a reckless lack of policies by the government over the last number of years.

For some time, I've felt that personal SUV use is an ethical and even patriotic issue.

I personally think, given the geo-political situation, it's downright un-American to drive those things without a compelling personal reason.

Hey, I like appropriating right-wing memes for our use! It's fun. :)

I've been a seriously angry driver for some time over the huge collection of sport-utility vehicles on our nation's roads. Well now, finally, people are starting to get a clue.

We've just heard from McCain that Obama's foreign policy ideas are "reckless."

Hmmm.

This just came over the wire...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Senate Democrats accused President Bush Tuesday of withdrawing one of his Federal Elections Commission nominees to protect Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

The president revamped his list of nominees earlier Tuesday in an effort to break a long deadlock that has paralyzed the election watchdog in the middle of a contentious campaign year.

But instead of withdrawing the name of Republican Hans von Spakovsky — a former Justice Department Civil Rights section lawyer some Democrats believe promoted policies that harmed minority voters — Bush dropped commission chairman David Mason, a Republican who has blocked McCain's attempts to abandon the presidential public financing system.

Bush replaced Mason on his list with Republican Donald McGahn, the National Republican Congressional Committee's lead lawyer and a former attorney for Rep. Tom Delay, the former Republican House Majority Leader with connections to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. DeLay resigned from Congress after he was accused of corruption.

I believe there's a psychological subtext underlying Rev. Wright's (possibly successful) attempt to sabotage Barack Obama's presidential campaign. At this point, it obviously has nothing to do with salvaging his reputation, since that is now in irretrievable tatters.

The behavior Wright is exhibiting is clinically dysfunctional, in a very specific way.

Since last July, we've been treated to an unremitting series of massive subprime asset writeoffs by all of the major players in the American finance industry. As a result of the massive credit bubble and housing bubble, the two of which are closely intertwined, American financial institutions have lost virtually all credibility and American financial managers are now the butt of jokes the world over for their incompetence, their provinciality and most of all for their reckless greed.

Tomorrow is a big day.

It's time for us to turn the page on the past.

There is one candidate who can help us do it.

From Peter Wehner at the Washington Post:

This is strictly drive-by, not a lot of deep analysis. But someone has put numbers and real-world tabulations on Bush's lies.

The Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism  have just crawled up Bush's ass with a microscope regarding the Iraq War.

He's fought the good fight, but I think he needs to throw his support to Obama. (I am assuming, of course, that he has more political affinity with Obama than with Clinton.) I wouldn't be too surprised if word got out that the Obama camp is pinging Edwards about this very thing, in the classic gambit of political horse-trading and uniting against a common opponent. You know it has to be going through the minds of the Obama brain trust. If it's not, it should be.

But (bluntly stated), given his family situation, I think Edwards is nuts if he continues. No one would criticize him for lack of effort.

Anything to contest Hillary's "inevitability." I'd vote for her if she wins the nom, but I sure as shit won't work for her or contribute to her.

Here is what needs to happen:

(***EDIT***) If I recall correctly, this topic has already been diaried and made the rec list, by our friend gooderservice, but I strongly feel that this topic cannot be exposed enough.

Among the worst fears of every man is to find out their daughter has been forced to do something against their will; to be held against their will; to be overpowered and raped. Well, an extremely ugly story has emerged about a forcible gang rape and illegal imprisonment of the victim in the Green Zone, and what I consider to be (at least based on the evidence so far) to be a very courageous young woman who has gone public with her horrible story and its aftermath.

I apologize if you think this topic has been discussed enough for today. Tough. Below is my take on the matter.

In Dems Cave on War Funds, the San Francisco Chronicle reports from AP that Reid failed to overcome an effective Republican filibuster of a war spending bill that contained a deadline for withdrawal, coming seven votes short.

Very much a drive-by diary about a genuinely hypocritical, dissembling conservative Republican who really disgraces no one but himself by his behavior.

To wit: eight more men have come forward to state that they either had sexual relations with Larry Craig or received advances from him.The cohort of eight includes the man who fingered the former megachurch Evangelical Ted Haggard.

***UPDATE*** I feel kinda bad for the guy myself. I mean really. His head must be about to explode from the Mobius-like internal contradictions of his life. But the fact remains that he is a very public hypocrite. It's not the fact that he's gay that bothers some people; it's the fact that he persecutes gays in public through policy and invective while pursuing the very lifestyle he so vocally abhors.

That absolutely makes him a legitimate journalistic target in my view.

It's just coming across the wire that the EFF has won the speedy release of telecoms industry lobbying records from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (that's Mike McConnell, folks) pertaining to pending legislation about modification of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), part of which potentially includes something the telecom companies desperately want: retroactive immunity from prosecution for potentially illegal acts of domestic surveillance.

As Bonddad (here, here and here) and myself (here and here) have discussed before, the credit markets are in a state of near-panic. Despite extensive interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, and stubborn buoyancy in the stock markets, we are just beginning to sense the consequences of the out-of-control real-estate boom in this country, and particularly in California.

Follow me below for a brief discussion of what is happening now that the music has stopped in California's real estate market.

I'm just doing a drive-by here: this is a HUGE environmental issue.

Continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific Ocean

The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5 million tons, say oceanographers - floats where few people ever travel, in a no-man's land between San Francisco and Hawaii.

Just wanted to point this out; As decent a judge as Mukasey is, he still will waffle on key issues. Sheldon Whitehouse is doing a very good job, as you can see below:

Unfortunately, despite Richard Nixon's characterization of a young Fred Thompson during Watergate, "dumb but friendly" is no disqualification for the White House.

Exhibit A:

Blackwater's umbrella of legal immunity is being stripped away.

389-30. This means one thing: jam it down Bush's throat.

With prejudice.