The latest New Yorker cover has sparked a lot of justifiable outrage. Obama spokesman Bill Burton said:

“The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

Andrew Sullivan writes:

[T]here is no denying that our liberties have been seriously eroded by the last few years in this respect. I just understand that some loss is defensible in the war we now fight, and wire-tapping, if monitored by the Congress, a FISA court, as well as the executive is a price we may have to pay to keep our intelligence accurate [How does Sully know this?].

Louis Brandeis wrote:

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

(Emphasis supplied.) Brandeis was pretty smart, wasn't he?

I stopped in at the Apple store around 12:45 pm today. There were over 100 people in line. Those just getting in the store had been in line since 8:30 am. They weren't giving out numbers (so I could get a number, go to the jail and return afterwards) so I left. They did say they had plenty and would not run out.

On my way back from the jail around 3:30 pm, I stopped at the AT&T store. There was no line. They also had no more iPhones. They were expecting 70 more tomorrow. 70? That's a joke. [More...]

I've been in court all day so I'm ready for a new segment of America's Best Dance Crew on MTV tonight -- especially since Bachelorette Deanna and her snowboarder fiancee Jesse will be on. It starts at 8pm MT and repeats.

What are you watching tonight?

Kevin Drum discusses Andrew Sullivan' reaction to the Obama kids doing an Access Hollywood interview. Personally, I have a hard enough time being a father to my own girls without taking time off to critique how anyone else is raising their own. But I was struck how Sullivan rates this and others issues in terms of importance:

A few things have unsettled me these past couple of weeks about the Obama campaign. It is not the small adjustments to previously-held positions - FISA, the Second Amendment, Iraq. It's a sense that Obama's ample self-regard is lapsing into hubris. The signs of this are pretty trivial on the surface, but they are troubling nonetheless.

That simulated faux-presidential seal was both tacky, silly and presumptive - a small version of "Mission Accomplished" Obama could well do without. The decision to give his acceptance speech in a stadium, rather than the traditional convention hall is also an unnecessary over-reach. . . . Lastly, I was gob-smacked by the Obamas' decision to include their children in a soft-focus TV interview.

(Emphasis supplied.) More . .

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson....

....Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon.
Going to the candidate's debate.
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at this you lose.

This is an open thread. [Hat tip to jawbone in the FISA comments]

In case you weren't one of the 7 million people who watched the Bachelorette finale last night, Deanna picked my favorite, Colorado Snowboarder Jesse Csincsak.

As I predicted, more than 1,000 fans signed up on Jesse's MySpace page today (which overnight became a joint page for him and Deanna). But, more than 2,000 fans signed onto Jason's page today.

I was on the media conference call with them today -- two segments, one with Deanna and Jesse and the other with Jason. (Summary here.) Jason will be just fine and he's a class act. Congrats to Deanna and Jesse.

This is an open thread... and my last post on the Bachelorette -- at least until winter when they move back to Colorado. Apologies to all for the lame 80's bubblegum song but it just seemed to fit.

Fred Hiatt gives the Left a lesson on how to keep your eye on the issues you care about and not fully focus on the fate of the candidates. There is nothing Hiatt cares about more than continuing the Iraq Debacle. Nothing. Barack Obama's weeks of "moving to the middle" coupled with his inartful use of the word "refine" in reference to his Iraq policy has given Hiatt his opening. Writing for the WaPo Ed Board, Hiatt states:

BARACK OBAMA has taken a small but important step toward adjusting his outdated position on Iraq to the military and strategic realities of the war he may inherit. . . . Mr. Obama's shift came when he was asked last week about his withdrawal plan, which he first proposed in late 2006, a time when Iraq appeared to be sliding into a sectarian civil war. . . . As we see it, [Obama's shift is] a modest but real step toward a responsible position on a conflict that, like it or not, involves vital U.S. interests.

Maybe this is what Obama intends - a wink towards the Hiatts of the world on Iraq. Maybe not. In either event, Hiatt saw his opportunity and he took it. And the debate on Iraq policy has shifted. More . . .

I can tell this is going to be one of those threads where no one cares to discuss my topic. That's okay, it has nothing to do with politics or crime. But I'm writing about it anyway.

Tonight is the final episode of The Bachelorette where Deanna picks between Colorado snowboarder Jesse Csincsak and Seattle single dad Jason Mesnick. (A pretty good synopsis is here.)

The two hour finale was filmed during the first ten days in May, in Georgia where Deanna's family lives and in the Bahamas where she makes her final choice after both propose.

We don't know who she chooses, only that sometime between that final day of shooting in May and last week, she got engaged.

As to who I think will win: [More...]

Who'da thunk it? In the Washington Post today, Peter Beinart echoes my thoughts:

When Democrats worry about the backlash that awaits Barack Obama if he defends civil liberties, or endorses withdrawal from Iraq, or proposes unconditional negotiations with Iran, they are seeing ghosts. Fundamentally, the politics of foreign policy have changed.

. . . Because Americans are less afraid and because Republicans have abandoned the foreign policy center, Democrats need not worry that Obama will suffer the fate of George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale or John Kerry. He won't lose because he looks weak. The greater danger is that he will change positions in a bid to look strong -- as he recently did on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- and come across as inauthentic and insincere. As Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin have noted, the Democrats' biggest political liability is not that Americans believe they are too liberal but rather that they believe that Democrats don't stand for anything at all. . .

(Emphasis supplied.) It is scary to me that Peter Beinart gets it but some of the Left blogs do not. Which is funny, because the Left blogs were first to recognize this. But now in Obama adoration mode, they forget their original raison d'etre.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Saying this was not outrageous at one time:

[Fox's Mort Kondracke said] "It does not qualify you to be the commander in chief of all the Armed Forces because you were a Swift boat commander." And Kathleen Parker: "[M]ilitary service neither qualifies nor disqualifies one for political office."

This year it is. Read Jamison Foser's whole post. Get a feel for what political cowards Dems are and what they take from the Media and the GOP.

And a note. In my threads, asking how people will vote is a deletable offense. Do not do it anymore.

This is an Open Thread.

I watched Gonzo yesterday -- twice. (Make that three times, once to be able to write this post.) Details of the film about Hunter S. Thompson that opened nationally on July 4th are in my earlier post here.

The first time I watched it on a personal level. The second time I watched it for some political and historical comparisons to today. My thoughts on both are below. [More...]