How does it feel
To be Without a Home
Like a Complete Unknown
Like a Rolling Stone

To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone ?

Ryan/Romney FAIL!

Congratulations, President Obama. You just got the vote of the boomers and Seniors. [More...]

Is anyone waiting with breathless excitement? USA Today reports:

Mitt Romney will announce his vice presidential choice on Saturday, the campaign announced late Friday night. The announcement is scheduled to take place during an event at the U.S.S. Wisconsin, a retired U.S. battleship.

Busy work day today, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Link.

Converse civilly please.

Update (TL): I wrote the following last night forgot to post it: [More...]

Now pull the other one:

Donald Trump has declined an offer to deliver a prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention, sources with knowledge of convention plans tell Newsmax. But Newsmax has learned that the billionaire businessman has been asked to give a big “surprise” at the convention in Tampa, Fla., which begins on Aug. 27.

Is the surprise that he is going to pull the squirrel off of his head? Of course this is all complete nonsense. The GOP offered Trump a speaking role if he agreed to not accept it. But I think it was worth pressing Romney on this point - did you offer Trump a spot at the GOP convention? Cuz, we'd like to hear that answer.

I'll be on Daily Kos Radio with Jesse LaGreca at 11 Eastern. Listen here.

Why we are Democrats, FDR's Second Inaugural Address:

But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens—a substantial part of its whole population—who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life.

I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day.

I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions labeled indecent by a so-called polite society half a century ago.

I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children.

I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and by their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions.

I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

But it is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope—because the nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out. We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country’s interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

Open Thread.

Remember this? Look what's happening now - U.S. and Gulf Allies Pursue a Missile Shield Against Iranian Attack:

The United States and its Arab allies are knitting together a regional missile defense system across the Persian Gulf to protect cities, oil refineries, pipelines and military bases from an Iranian attack, according to government officials and public documents.

When Hillary Clinton proposed this idea in 2008, I wrote:

This is excellent strategic thinking, providing a great alternative to armed intervention in Iran and allowing for hard headed and rational diplomacy with Iran on the question of nuclear weapons. Personally, I would LOVE to get a reaction from Barack Obama to this statement from Hillary Clinton.

President Obama has now reacted as he certainly must approve of this policy. Anyone want to revisit their thinking from 2008?

Matt Yglesiais writes:

Broadening the tax base to finance big cuts in tax rates is the heart of Mitt Romney’s economic plan. Obama made the elimination of deductions the centerpiece of his plan to raise more revenue from the corporate income tax, and Senate Democrats are counting on broad tax reform as a key element in Democratic budget policy if Obama wins in 2012. But in specific terms, Washington remains hooked on the allure of tax breaks. ... [E]ven if major tax reform somehow does occur, the lesson of the Olympic Tax Elimination Act is that Congress is likely to undermine reform at world-record speed.

Uh, duh? Regular readers know that I have argued that elimination of tax loopholes rarely survive the "reform." There is always a good reason to give a "tax break," especially for "job creators." Maybe liberal wonks will understand this now. We can not cut tax rates, period.

Meet the Domain Awareness System, unveiled today by Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. It was developed by Microsoft.

The Domain Awareness System... aggregates and analyzes information from cameras, license-plate readers, sensors and law enforcement database.

3,000 closed-circuit television cameras are connected to the system, mostly in mid and lower Manahttan.

The system allows investigators to instantly see information including arrest records, 911 calls associated with a suspect and related crimes occurring in a particular area.... It also allows investigators to map crimes to reveal patterns and track where a car associated with a suspect is located and has been in the past.

John Campbell of Campbell Live at TV3 News in New Zealand aired this 10 minute segment last night with footage from the Kim Dotcom raid played in court and live clips of Kim Dotcom's testimony describing his arrest and mistreatment.

CCTV footage showed two helicopters landing in quick succession at the sprawling home, formerly known as the Chrisco mansion, north of Auckland, in January. Five armed men exited each helicopter and then three vans and a car quickly arrived disgorging more armed men, some with dogs.

One New Zealand police officer said he had questioned the threat assessment at the time as being "over the top" for a fraud case, according to a document introduced in hearings this week.[More...]

I'll be on Daily Kos Radio with Jesse LaGreca at 11 Eastern. Listen here.

Open Thread.

Update: This has just been postponed to a later date.

If you are a Colorado lawyer and support Amendment 64, the November ballot initiative that will legalize personal adult use of marijuana state-wide, take note: Thursday there will be a "Lawyers for Amendment 64" Press Conference.

• What: "Lawyers for Amendment 64" press conference featuring Judge Jim Gray
• When: Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012 at 11:45a
• Where: Denver City and County Building (1437 Bannock St., Denver 80202)
  
• What else: Please wear professional attire!

Via Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol . [More...]