As I was driving and listening to CNN on Sirius earlier this afternoon, they replayed segments of John McCain and Barack Obama's latest energy speeches.

McCain said members of Congress should interrupt their vacations and recess and return to Washington to pass an energy bill.

"Congress should come back into session, and I'm willing to come off the campaign trail. I call on Senator Obama to call on Congress to... Come off their vacation and address this energy challenge to America and don't leave until we do, Republican and Democrat joining together," the four-term senator said.

Other Republicans are joining the call. Is this just a ploy for the Republicans to reconvene Congress during Obama's scheduled vacation to Hawaii? He leaves Friday. Vacations before a convention can be hazardous to a campaign, remember John Kerry's winsurfing fiasco?

Who will campaign for Obama in his absence? You guessed it -- Hillary Clinton.

I'm gone for the rest of the afternoon. Here's an open thread for you to take over the discussion. All topics welcome, please be civil.

Update: No bail for Gotti.

Looks like I'll be wearing my "Free John Gotti" t-shirt to bed tonight. The Government just can't get enough bites at the apple when it comes to the son of the notorius, deceased mobster.

John A. Gotti has been charged with conspiracy for his role in a sprawling cocaine trafficking operation and in three mob-related killings in 1980s and ’90s, the United States attorney’s office in Tampa, Fla., announced on Tuesday....Mr. Gotti has been prosecuted four times before on charges related to organized crime; he pleaded guilty in the first case but contested the later charges, resulting in three mistrials.

More...

John McCain made the rounds at the annual Sturgis, South Dakota motorcycle rally yesterday.

Standing on the main stage at a world famous motorcycle rally in rural South Dakota on Monday, John McCain looked out on a sea of denim-wearing bikers and told them he enjoyed their company much more than that of the 200,000 Germans who turned out to see Barack Obama last month.

“As you may know,” he told the tens of thousands gathered at the 68th annual Sturgis Rally at Buffalo Chip campground, “not long ago, a couple of hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I’ll take the roar of fifty thousand Harleys any day.”

The bikers roared their approval by revving their engines. [More...]

Chris Bowers discusses Obama new ad against McCain:

Chris writes:

If used with the proper level of rhetoric, the "McCain has been in D.C." for too long, could change the narrative, and start directing the balance of attacks toward McCain. . . .It is better than the "McCain is a flip-flopper" attack, which doesn't make any sense if you want to tie McCain to Bush.

Chris' critique makes sense but does not go far enough imo. McCain's 26 years in Congress is not the issue - Bush's 7 years as President and McCain's embrace of it is. In short, I think every Obama ad or discussion of McCain should be about George Bush and McCain's ties to him - that McCain will be Bush's third term.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Digby highlighted Bob Somerby's piece about how the race issue is cutting against Obama. I was struck by Somerby's quote of Bob Herbert:

HERBERT (8/2/08): Whatever you think about Barack Obama, he does not want the race issue to be front and center in this campaign. Every day that the campaign is about race is a good day for John McCain. So I guess we understand Mr. McCain’s motivation [in saying Obama “played the race card.”]

We’ll stay away from definitive judgments about McCain’s motivation. But we agree, whole-heartedly, that race is dangerous for Candidate Obama . . .

It is obvious of course but Somerby and Digby and frankly, all commenters have decided to forget what happened in January 2008 in the Democratic Party, when "everyday the campaign was about race" was GOOD for Obama. As we know, Bill Clinton has not forgotten. On February 14, 2008, I wrote a post titled Turning Obama Into The Black Candidate:

Digby writes about poblano's piece in the LATimes and questions one of his premises. Poblano wrote:

The GOP will nominate a candidate who is widely perceived as being to the left of the party's conservative base, whereas the Democratic Party will again pick a standard-bearer more authentically liberal than centrist.

Digby responds:

I agree that McCain was chosen because he wasn't perceived as a doctrinaire Republican, but is it true that Obama was chosen because he's more authentically liberal than centrist? I thought he was running as someone who was beyond labels --- a post-partisan whose vision was to transcend partisanship altogether. The problem is that these Independent voters still see McCain as a moderate while they see Obama as a raging liberal. The post-partisanship hasn't sold to them the way it was supposed to, at least not yet.

More . . .

In an earlier post about the rumor that Sen. Barack Obama will pick Evan Bayh as his running mate, I said I didn't have a problem with it. I may or may not be rethinking this. Bayh is not entirely consistent on crime issues, although he seems to have improved a bit in recent years (except for FISA and since I opposed any remake of FISA, even one without telecom immunity, I'm leaving that alone for the moment):

In 1996, Sen. Bayh spoke at the Democratic National Convention when Bill Clinton was nominated for a second term. We all know how bad Clinton was for Defendants' rights. (To his credit, he's come around quite a bit since being President -- maybe Bayh has too.) Anyway, Here's what Bayh said at the convention in 1996:

But a shadow threatens to spread over this new opportunity: Crime and violence. They prey upon our children and on our parents. Violence must be stopped. Violent criminals must be severely punished. And under President Clinton, they are.

Thanks to him, dangerous repeat offenders are going to jail for life - with no chance for parole. He is putting 100,000 more police on our streets. And that adds up. For each crime that's prevented - a victim is spared.

More...

SUSA's Florida poll has McCain up 6, 50-44. Again, the SUSA demos are where the action is. McCain leads among whites (73% of the electorate) 57-38, Obama among Latinos (13%) 48-42 and A-As (11%) 84-16 (obviously too low, SUSA has consistently underpolled Obama's A-A support). Making the adjustment to Obama 95-5 among African Americans, still leaves McCain up 5.

Here is why Obama is losing and likely will lose Florida, McCain leads among women 51-44 and voters 65+ (30% of the electorate) 54-41. Obama has one chance to win in Florida, pick Hillary Clinton as his VP. If he does not, then there is no point to wasting resources in Florida.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Westword is Denver's award-winning, alternative, free weekly paper. It has a section devoted to the Democratic Convention, called Demver. Today's irreverent orientation video is by its "resident fake drunk cowboy" and friends at Wrist Deep Productions.

Given all the anger in the comments here today on serious subjects, hopefully it will make everyone lighten up a bit. This is an open thread.

Denver officials announced today that the protest zone for Invesco Field where Sen. Barack Obama will deliver his nomination acceptance speech will be in the parking lot. The lot will be fenced.

The fenced-in area will be about 53,000 square feet in Lot J. Delegates entering the convention will pass by the area from between 200 and 400 feet away after they are dropped off for the night's speech by Sen. Barack Obama.

Protesters will be allowed to use bullhorns, and the city will provide a stage, amplification equipment, and at least two speakers that will be located outside the zone and pointing toward Invesco Field at Mile High.

Here's the map (pdf) showing Lot J.

In related news, the protesters are offering Denver a "doo doo accord" (pdf copy here) and yes, it's just what it sound like -- it's in reponse to the City Council's upcoming final consideration of a law banning protesters from carrying buckets of the human stuff.

Sen. Evan Bayh is going to introduce Sen. Barack Obama at an event in Bayh's home town of Indiana on Wednesday.

Is that any reason to cancel a baseball game the night before?

Bayh's team was scheduled to play "the One-Hitters", which is the team of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. Team captain and SSDP executive director Kris Krane and SSDP's Government Relations Director Tom Angell think something is up and there could be a big announcement Wednesday by Obama and Bayh.

Since Tom thought it important enough to e-mail me about it, which he only does with big news, I'm thinking there may be something to this.

For the record, I'm fine with Sen. Bayh as the Vice Presidential candidate.