[Video added by TL]

So I am tired of the guessing game and the advice (so yeah, I am tired of my posts too), just announce it already! We know he is appearing with his VP choice on Saturday in Springfield, Illinois. So sometime between now and Saturday, Obama will announce his pick. So here is the new game - WHEN will Obama send the famous text message? This afternoon? Tonight? Tomorrow morning? Tomorrow night? SATURDAY?

This is an Open Thread.

The world is a dangerous place:

More than 60 people were killed Thursday when two suicide bombers attacked Pakistan’s largest weapons manufacturing complex, just north of the capital, the deadliest attack by the Taliban in their escalating campaign against the government.

The attack came just days after the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf left two rival political parties in the governing coalition haggling over the question of succession and added a new layer of turbulence to an unstable, nuclear-armed nation. Neither party has been eager to take on the campaign against the militants, which is seen here as an American conflict foisted on Pakistan.

Some "Serious People" think we do not have enough issues in the world and need to take on Russia by expanding NATO to Georgia and the Ukraine. I disagree.

The New York Times reports some members of Congress were briefed earlier this month on a Department of Justice proposal for new FBI guidelines that loosen surveillance restrictions and that a few Senators lodged objections.

The senators said the new guidelines would allow the F.B.I. to open an investigation of an American, conduct surveillance, pry into private records and take other investigative steps “without any basis for suspicion.”

The plan “might permit an innocent American to be subjected to such intrusive surveillance based in part on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or on protected First Amendment activities,” the letter said. It was signed by Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey gave this unreassuring description of the plan: [More...]

Want to put the election away, Barack Obama? Yep, one more time, with feeling, pick Hillary Clinton as your VP. The most compelling reason? Obama is underperforming with Clinton supporters, the most persuadable group for him. Picking Hillary Clinton is the most powerful action Obama can take to persuade them. It is that simple.

Some people have additional arguments. David Gergen writes:

I won't be around to hear the news of who Obama picks as his Vice-Presidential candidate if today is the day he chooses to text it to the world.

Here's a place for you to keep each other updated on what happens -- or doesn't happen.

I really hope it is not Joe Biden. But since everyone else seems convinced it is, I've got my i-Pod set to play Don Henley's "The Heart of the Matter" which begins:

I got the call today I didn't want to hear
but I knew that it would come.

Next up: B.B. King and The Thrill is Gone.

My earlier post on the mountain of material Biden will provide McCain for ads belittling both Biden and Obama, is here.

It may be that Sen. Barack Obama texts out his VP choice today. The pundits think it's Joe Biden. Clearly, I hope it's not.

But, what does Biden do for Obama? He gives McCain a wealth of tv commericals to use against him.

Can you just see them now? Biden, saying Obama wasn't ready to be President and the job is "not something that lends itself to on-the-job training."

Or this 20 year old Biden campaign commercial:[More...]

It's busy around here. My Flip Mino video recorder arrived today and I'm setting it up. The e-mails related to the convention are multiplying hourly, now well in excess of 100 a day, bringing my overall e-mail count to more than 300 daily.

The logistics are a bit overwhelming. Denver is just not a walking town and while everyone keeps talking about Downtown, not everything is in what we think of as downtown, including the Pepsi Center, Invesco, and a lot of venues where events are being held. So figuring out how to travel light with equipment is a challenge. [More...]

Bump and Update: Stephanie Tubbs Jones died about 6:12 pm ET.

***

Initial media information was incorrect. She is still alive but in critical condition. Contrary to media reports earlier, she did not die this morning. She suffered an anuerism while driving in Cleveland last night.

A 2007 profile of Rep. Jones is here.

My condolences go out to her family. She was 58 years old.

Update [2008-8-20 19:52:7 by Big Tent Democrat]: CBS poll also has it 45-42 Obama.

The NBC/WSJ poll has Obama leading 45-42, but Obama still having trouble with Clinton supporters:

[P]erhaps the biggest factor keeping the presidential race close has been Obama’s inability to close the deal with some of Hillary Clinton’s supporters. According to the poll, 52 percent of them say they will vote for Obama, but 21 percent are backing McCain, with an additional 27 percent who are undecided or want to vote for someone else. . . . For these reasons, Hart believes that Clinton’s speech on the Tuesday night of the Democratic convention will be a significant event. “The Democratic convention is more than a coronation,” he says. “It is an event where the words of Hillary Clinton are probably going to be exceptionally important.”

Oh, and Clinton would lead McCain by 6 49-43, in a hypothetical contest. But hypotheticals do not matter. And yep, picking Clinton for VP would solve Obama's problems to a great extent imo.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Who knew what they were thinking when they built the makeshift warehouse jail cells for those arrested during the Democratic National Convention, but at least they've scrapped one bad idea.

The razor wire covering the cells is being removed. Chain link fence coverings will be used instead. Also:

Sixty people an hour can be processed at the building, where cameras are set up to take mug shots alongside computerized fingerprinting stations.

A table holds six telephones, and two portable air-conditioning units each the size of a small truck pump cool air into the building. Each cell will contain 20 chairs. A sign posted on a steel column warns: "Electric stun devices used in this facility."

Anyone arrested in East Denver, not just protesters, will be transported to "Gitmo on the Platte."

Matt Yglesias jokingly proposes the Adlai Stevenson 1956 model for choosing the VP:

[H]ow about this — Obama could pull an Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and throw the selection open to the Convention delegates. The problem with that move, of course, is that you don’t get to fine-tune the pick. But it turns out to be the case that there seem to be substantial problems with all the possible picks. And opening the selection to the field would ensure huge media coverage of the convention and perhaps a bigger-than-usual convention bump.

Yeah, like that would not be a disaster with pro- and anti-Hillary force arraying. And the last thing Obama would need would be to be compared to Adlai Stevenson right now. It would be fun though to see that food fight. Let's makes this is an Open Thread.

By Big Tent Democrat