This campaign is "Paid for by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and Families USA".

Maria is the Junior Senator from Washington State, and a Democrat.

Patty Murray, also a Democrat, is up for re-election in 2010, but doesn't seem to be getting this big "isn't she wonderful" campaign funding.

"Discovered" Neil Diamond.

Co wrote:

Leader of the Pack

And Then He Kissed Me

Chapel of Love

Etc. etc.

Homeland Security officials have been required for three years to credit "Almighty God" in their official reports and post a plaque with similar language at the state's Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort.

State Rep. Tom Riner, D-Louisville, a Southern Baptist minister, placed the "Almighty God" language into a homeland security bill without much notice.

"The Republican national party has mailed a fundraising appeal that suggests Democrats might use an overhaul of the health care system to deny medical treatment to Republicans.

A questionnaire accompanying the appeal says the government could check voting registration records, "prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system."

The FEC voted 4-2 to advise the Club for Growth -- a conservative group tied to Specter's main GOP rival -- that it was within its legal rights to contact Specter donors and remind them of his pledge to provide refunds to any contributors unhappy with his party switch. When Specter announced he was leaving the GOP earlier this year, he promised to return campaign contributions from the 2010 cycle "upon request."

[...]

The FEC, which keeps tight restrictions on the use of donor lists, ruled that the Club for Growth can send one letter or make one telephone call to each donor, but the group cannot sell their names, addresses and telephone numbers to others, or request contributions.  Open Left

cool sculpture

Obama's position was that public financing is unnecessary because his campaign showed that so much money can be gotten from small donors that it lessens the influence of the corporate donors. But that assumes someone like Max Baucus can excite small donors enough to finance a campaign for the Senate. Highly doubtful.

If Obama supports a public option, and even his army of small donors can't defeat Baucus, Inc. and get it passed, I hope Obama reconsiders his position.

We had planned on noting the official anniversary of our latest Long National Nightmare tomorrow, but that's a lousy way to start a weekend, and the contrast with Camelot Revival coverage is too much for even us to contemplate.

But upon reflection, we like it better this way: the first anniversary of the last day that America was free of Sarah Palin.

A US policeman was reportedly caught breaking into a zoo to feed gorillas Pop-Tarts.

The unnamed officer is being investigated over claims he snuck into Como Zoo in St. Pauls, Minneapolis to feed the three animals - named Schroeder, Gordy and Togo - the Kellogg's breakfast treat.

Two security guards reportedly found the officer amongst a large group of people on the zoos grounds and spotted him feeding the animals on their CCTV (closed circuit television) cameras.

The zoo says the animals have not suffered any ill-effects from the experience, but have never eaten the sugary treat before.

Gives new meaning to the Pop-Tart slogan about them being "crazy good."

Earlier, we saw Kirsten Gillibrand unseat the noxious Congressman John Sweeney, W's 'Congressman Kicka$$' from the 2000 Florida "Brooks Brothers Riot" while Sweeney struggled to come back from spousal abuse charges and repeated drunk driving arrests.

Now Judge Thomas Spargo, another Republican noted as an election law expert, involved in the Bush effort in Florida in 2000 has been convicted in U.S. District Court of attempted bribery and extortion.

According to the Albany Times Union, the home town paper for this trial:

By January 2002, Spargo faced allegations of ethical violations -- unrelated to his future bench removal and criminal case -- from the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. Court papers showed that by September 2003, Spargo's legal bills had "outstripped his ability to pay them." The bills would eventually exceed $140,000.

At the federal trial, the government proved Spargo tried to extort attorneys to offset his legal costs, including Bruce Blatchly, an Ulster County lawyer with more than 32 years of experience, who had eight cases before the judge. Spargo solicited a $10,000 bribe from Blatchly on Nov. 13, 2003. But when the attorney declined to pay up, Spargo pressured him again through a friend, identified as attorney Sanford Rosenblum, in the coat room of a Kingston restaurant, the government said in court papers.

Blatchly testified Monday that Spargo then called him on his cellphone on Dec. 19, 2003. He said the judge boasted he would be returning to Ulster County in 2004 and would handle Blatchly's cases. In addition, he testified, the judge revealed that Spargo's close friend, Albany County Surrogate's Court Judge Cathryn Doyle, was expected to preside over Blatchly's divorce from his now ex-wife.

According to Blatchly, Spargo said "it looked like a nice Christmas for him."

When a federal prosecutor, Senior Trial Attorney Richard C. Pilger, asked Blatchly how that remark made him feel, the lawyer replied, ''Pretty much the opposite,'' saying, ''Now that my divorce was in his control, or the control his friend ... scr..wed.'' The Spargo case was also prosecuted by Trial Attorney M. Kendall Day of the public integrity section of the U.S. attorney's office.