John McCain was right. No one has supported Bush more than McCain has on Iraq. TPM has a great timeline. Some of the highlights:

3/18/03, Fox, "O'Reilly Factor"

O'Reilly: "All right, Senator, if you were president, what would you have done differently in the run-up to this war?"

McCain: "Nothing."

O'Reilly: "Nothing?"

McCain: "The president has handled this, in my view, skillfully."

More . . .

Jerome Armstrong reports on the political landscape for the Fall congressional elections:

A 15 seat gain would be tremendous for Democrats in the House in 2008. Going into the 2006 election, there were 202 Democrats and 232 Republicans and 1 Independent. Democrats won 31 seats in '06, and then have won seats in 3 special elections, to now hold a 236-199 advantage heading into the 2008 election.

And my question is this, in terms of policy what will change because of this 15 seat gain? What do we expect from the current Democratic Party in terms of policy? Some things I suppose - federal funding of stem cell research, the renewal of S-Chip, the eventual wind down of the Iraq Debacle. These things matter. But will there be a renewal of progressivism in Washington with Obama as President and a padded Democratic majority? I doubt it. This election has been run by the Dem Party with a "We Are Not Bush Republicans On Everything, Just Some Things" platform. And that is what we will get.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

From WaPo, via Political Wire, McCain advisor Charlie Blakc signals that McCain has made his VP decision:

He's [McCain] in a position to make the decision on short notice if he wanted to."

It seems clear to me McCain has made his decision. From the Wapo article:

Two top aides to the presumptive Republican nominee said the decision is likely to be announced after Obama returns from Europe on Sunday and before the Beijing Olympics begin Aug. 8.

I think it is the Mittster. What's your guess?

Via Digby - the General returns:

TalkLeft has been following (here and here and here) the murder of Ronnie White in the Prince George's County jail after he ran over and killed a police officer. The Washington Post today takes a long look at the troubled jail and its troubled staff of jailers.

In the past seven months, jail officials have suspended at least six officers, some of whom were charged criminally. Two were suspended for allegedly smuggling cellphones into the jail for inmates; two more were accused of having sex with prisoners. One was suspended after he was charged with robbing two teenagers at gunpoint in Charles County, another after he allegedly assaulted his wife.

Another officer "was convicted of second-degree assault after he beat a woman, breaking her rib." Still another was ordered out of his house after he threatened to kill his wife. Then there's the officer who "was jailed this week after being convicted in Charles County of armed robbery." He's been suspended without pay.

Glenn Greenwald picks up and expands on my post on Cass Sunstein and egregious crimes, adding some very important information and analysis. Greenwald writes:

Jane [Hamsher] also asked [Bruce] Fein about Obama adviser Cass Sunstein's recent statements that Bush officials should not be prosecuted for their illegal detention, interrogation and spying programs. To get a sense for why this matters, National Journal this morning listed Sunstein as one of a small handful of likely Supreme Court appointees in an Obama administration. But -- similar to Fein's point regarding Jay Rockefeller, Jane Harman and comrades -- Sunstein has long been one of the most vocal enablers of Bush radicalism and lawlessness, having continuously offered himself up over the last seven years to play the legal version of the TNR role of "even-liberal-Cass-Sunstein-agrees-with-Bush."

More . . .

This editorial comments upon a hearing held Tuesday before a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee that examined the Army Medical Action Plan.

That’s the plan to prevent the kind of systematic neglect and mistreatment exposed by The Washington Post last year at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Despite promises of reform and statements of concern about wounded soldiers, this is what's happening: [more ...]

Eliot Spitzer's downfall was his involvement in a prostitution ring, but this allegation is much more troubling:

Four Spitzer administration officials violated the state’s ethics law when they used the State Police last summer to gather travel documents they hoped would tarnish Joseph L. Bruno, then the State Senate majority leader, according to a report released on Thursday by the State Commission on Public Integrity.

The report drew on 3,000 pages of testimony and thousands of internal documents, and depicts an administration on a war footing, with Gov. Eliot Spitzer seething over attacks from Mr. Bruno and eager to strike back.

Spitzer always postured himself as being all about law and order. His administration's misuse of the state police "to gather and publicize sensitive information about Senator Bruno’s travel" further tarnishes that image.

Long Beach police are investigating a claim that officers pulled Shalonica Michelle Patton off of a bus after she gave them the finger, "slammed" her down on the sidewalk (breaking four bones in her face), and knelt on her back while handcuffing her. Portions of the arrest were captured on what appears to be a cell phone video shown about three minutes into this YouTube post.

[Patton was] booked on a charge of criminal threats, battery on a police officer, using offensive words/gestures in public and causing a disturbance on public transit.

Security cameras on the bus apparently captured the initial interaction between Patton and the officers. The department has promised to make that tape available whenever it concludes its own internal investigation. Why not do it now?

In response to Byron York's peeve at an Obama phrasing ("The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil"), Meteor Blades writes:

York's take on this not only begrudges other countries their loss, but also renders that loss a provincial, American loss. Obama is attempting, years after the fact, to remind the world of the opposite, of the universal horror of that day and the way that people from every corner of the globe - from France to Iran - stood in solidarity with New York and Washington on September 11. And, of course, by implication, how attitudes like York's within the administration squandered that sense of solidarity.

Meteor Blades and Obama speak for me here. More . .

Bump and Update (TL): The "Spam King" Eddie Davidson is dead. His body as well as that of his wife and three year old daughter were found today. All died from gunshots. An eight month old son was unhurt and a teenage daughter was grazed by a bullet but is okay. Developing...

Further update (TChris): Good background on Davidson's mental health problems here.
******

By TChris

It isn't likely anyone will make a movie about this less-than-daring escape, and there's no need to fear that this former prisoner will terrorize the community. You might soon find your email box filled with even more spam, however, if he evades capture and returns to his former employment.[More...]

Mike Farrell, the actor who achieved a measure of fame in M*A*S*H, and Don McCartin, formerly known as "the hanging judge of Orange County," team up in this call for an end to California's death penalty. Hollywood actors are often liberal, but why is McCartin taking an anti-death stance?

Don McCartin, having sentenced nine men to death and then watched as the system examined, re-examined and finally overturned all of his convictions while executing none of them, now believes the death penalty is a hideously expensive fraud. It tortures the loved ones of murder victims by dragging them through the years of complex appeals required by the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to protect the innocent.

Farrell's point: [more ...]