Boston police officials are trying to investigate a website, Badgewars.com, dedicated to complaints against and by officers of the Boston police department. Police officials have "launched an internal affairs investigation to find out who is behind the website."

They also want to know whether the bloggers have any evidence to support the allegations they make about Boston officers violating department rules, such as abusing construction details or claiming false injuries to get time off work.

Here's a better idea: investigate the misconduct complaints that appear on the website, not the identities of the website owners.

Speaking of misconduct, albeit in a different city:

Via Progress Now, which captured the video, Carole Kreck, a 61 year librarian was waiting in line this morning at the Denver Center for Performing Arts to attend the John McCain town hall meeting. She held a sign that said "McCain = Bush."

McCain's security detail told her to leave. The police were called. They issued her a ticket for trespassing and escorted her out.

The event was open to the public. They advised people to arrive a few hours early. How can you trespass on public property if you've been invited to the event being held on that property?

Despite John McCain's confessed inability to use the electronic tools of the modern economic age (a computer chief among them), McCain managed to enlist former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina to convince voters (or at least corporate leaders) "that he's the right choice for the high-tech industry."

McCain knows the importance of technology to the economy and has an economic plan to encourage the type of innovation the industry thrives on, Fiorina said this morning in Washington, D.C.

Of course, when sucking up to corporate leaders it doesn't hurt to mention, as Fiorina does, that McCain is opposed to network neutrality, a position that would advantage some internet content providers at the expense of others. [more ...]

Via digby, Clark sidelined:

“On a scale of 1 to 10, Clark’s words were a 10 in terms of unhelpfulness,” said one Democrat who has helped manage past presidential campaigns.

Bob Shrum? Bob Beckel? Donna Brazile? What a bunch of losers. Cowering and flinching is what Dems are known for. Looks like that ain't changing.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Sonja Henie's out. We'll take Danny Noonan.

-Ty Webb in Caddyshack

Jim Webb says no to VP:

"Under no circumstances will I be a candidate for vice president,” the Virginia Democrat said in a statement released to reporters. “Last week I communicated to Senator Obama and his presidential campaign my firm intention to remain in the United States Senate, where I believe I am best equipped to serve the people of Virginia and this country,” Webb said.

Allrighty then. So who's Obama's Danny Noonan?

By Big Tent Democrat

Sure, the flip flop attack probably won't cost Obama the election. But why not ask yourself this, why feed the line of attack in the first place? Maybe Obama is not really hurt by the flip flopper line, but please tell me how exactly it helps?

To me, the "it probably won't hurt him" line of defense misses the point. Explain to me instead, how the flip flops HELP Obama? Because, wrap it up in pretty packaging all you want, but Obama DID flip flop on FISA capitulation. Obama did change his position on public financing (I see all the upside to this one BTW, I just think he should have done it earlier), Obama has given strange and contradictory statements on choice. Given these mistakes, it was inevitable it seems to me to see the Media take Obama's use of "refine" on Iraq and make up a story - that Obama changed his position on Iraq withdrawal too. That one was flat out false, but the others were not. Obama created the opening, for no good reason. That is the point. It may not be potent, but it should not even exist.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

The DNCC sent out a press release this morning confirming that the final night of the Democratic Convention, including Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech, will take place as Invesco Field instead of the Pepsi Center.

When we said we wanted to 'bring down the walls,' open up this Convention like never before and truly speak to the American people, we meant it," said Leah D. Daughtry, CEO of the DNCC. "On August 28, we will offer grassroots Democrats, who have turned out in record numbers this year, the opportunity to witness history shoulder to shoulder with thousands of Americans standing up for the change our country desperately needs."

The stadium seats 76,000 people. With that size crowd, I think we can expect a pretty big-name rock band to open the event. I did some checking on who's available. Personally, I'd love to see Bon Jovi, but I think more likely possibilities include: Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Etheridge and Stevie Wonder. [More...]

Did you watch Nadal-Federer? This is an Open thread.

One unrelated note - Joe Gandleman, who runs The Moderate Voice, is a good guy so he should not be tarred when one of his writers uses sexist language ("the last thing Obama needs is this pack of doomsaying [formerly Hillary supporting] crows [Link] nipping at his ears and caw-cawing over every perceived slight") and falsely describes the posts of other bloggers, as was done to me. Somehow writing "absent a change in the dynamics of this election, Barack Obama will defeat John McCain for the Presidency in November" is "tak[ing] a masochistic delight in reporting on every poll showing problems for the Illinois Senator." To some, nothing short of fawning adulation will do.

By Big Tent Democrat

Every election in November will be important.

[T]he political handicapper Charlie Cook envisions Democratic gains of up to 20 House seats and 7 Senate seats, close to the 60-vote threshold in the Senate needed to break filibusters by the minority.

Frankly, it doesn't matter which presidential candidate has the best plan for health care or social security reform. Sausage gets made in the legislature. As long as a Democrat holds the presidency, a strong Democratic majority in the House and Senate will have a chance to repair some of the damage the Bush government has inflicted upon the nation. Perhaps it will even advance some planks of a progressive agenda.

Up and down the ticket, 2008 is the year to vote for Democrats. What do you think of Cook's prediction?

When John Kerry decided to contend that John McCain lacks the judgment to be president, he had to expect this:

If that's the case, then it's probably a good thing McCain rejected overtures from Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, to form a bipartisan ticket and run with Kerry as his candidate for vice president.

Putting aside the gratuitous smack, it's difficult to argue with Kerry's current assessment of McCain's judgment:

"John McCain ... has proven that he has been wrong about every judgment he's made about the war. Wrong about the Iraqis paying for the reconstruction, wrong about whether or not the oil would pay for it, wrong about Sunni and Shia violence through the years, wrong about the willingness of the Iraqis to stand up for themselves"

Kerry, who knows something about being accused of flip-flopping, argues that the new McCain isn't a recognizable version of the McCain he once knew: [more ...]

Yahoo is not the government. It has no obligation to respect your right to free speech. In fact, you give Yahoo the right to delete anything you upload if it contravenes Yahoo's difficult-to-discern standards. When Yahoo deletes publicly displayed content (or when TalkLeft does, for that matter) it is not playing a "governmental role," as this writer asserts. Substitute "managerial role," and the writer has a point.

Companies in charge of seemingly public spaces online wipe out content that's controversial but otherwise legal. Service providers write their own rules for users worldwide and set foreign policy when they cooperate with regimes like China. They serve as prosecutor, judge and jury in handling disputes behind closed doors.

The governmental role that companies play online is taking on greater importance as their services - from online hangouts to virtual repositories of photos and video - become more central to public discourse around the world.

Sometimes those judgments seem arbitrary: [more ...]

. . . in the dynamics of this election, Barack Obama will defeat John McCain for the Presidency in November. Obama leads by 6, roughly the margin for a month now. How can he lose it? By exposing a flank. The flip flopper flank, by listening to his inner Dick Morris. Speaking of Morris, he, not surprisingly, loves Obama's tack to the "middle":

For the past two weeks, Obama has moved quickly toward the center. He has reversed his previous positions for gun control, against using faith based institutions to deliver public services, against immunity for tele-communications companies that turn records over to the government in terror investigations, for raising Social Security taxes, for imposing the fairness doctrine on talk radio, and a host of other issues.

. . .[I]f McCain doesn't answer, or just replies with his own positive ad, he will let Obama move to the center, a key mistake from which he may never recover. If Obama can hold his 5-10 point lead until the conventions, he will have set in place a pattern that will be very hard to change. With his new ad, Obama could even elevate his lead to double digits.

More . . .