McCain aid, Mark Saller: “We have all become familiar with Senator Obama’s new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is.“

He would know….

Here’s the thing for all those who would argue that “playing the age card” is no better than racism or sexism when selecting the next president: BUNK!

Every day John McCain will get a little older, a bit more weary, a toll that saps the life out of everyone who ever took the job will work on debilitating McCain.

Barack Obama ain’t getting any blacker, nor is Hillary getting more female for that matter. Indeed, once the numskulls get used to the idea, the racial and/or sexist attitudes will soften. With McCain, his age as a limiting factor on his ability to do the job will grow with each birthday.

No, it’s not fair, and hardly a “liberal” attitude. And yes, many people — including John McCain’s mother — remain vital and productive well into their 90’s. But his advanced years are indeed a legitimate consideration on picking him for the job. A far better factor to weigh, in fact, than anyone’s association with a wacky pastor, homophobic minister, or voodoo witch doctor for that matter.

However, close association with voodoo economists is quite the other thing.

[You can read more of Mark Adams’ work at his blog, Dispassionate Liberal]

I’m not even going to get into any sort of discussion about the steaming load of horse hockey that this spokesweasel gets into in order to try and justify yet another example of Republican’t politicians going back on their word. Let’s just say that the Funny Farm Economic Evaluation Department thinks that it is a lot of deflect and smear tap dancing that tries to justify most of the standard arguments of the Norquist ‘drown the gubmint in the bathtub’ stategery. We’ve seen this (badly directed, written, and produced) movie non-stop for the past seven years. Funny, that…

Again, I don’t really want to rehash all of the glaring propaganda that this Republican’t operative is slinging in this article. I would like to point out that, once again, here is a Republican’t media maven giving ‘helpful’ advice to the Democratic party. Would you consult Charles Manson about how to co-exist peacefully with those you disagree with? Would you ask AnnThraxx CoulterBeast about the positive aspects of liberal philosophy? Or Rush Limbaugh about how to make a marriage work? Thanks, but no thanks, Republican’t hack, for the ‘friendly’ advice.

It is also interesting to note the characterization of the leadership of the Democratic Party as a bunch of drunken chickenshits who want everyone else to make their minds up for them. Funny - I don’t notice that at all - I noticed that a lot of citizens who vote Democratic are excited about the political process again, have a bunch of varied interests and philosophies about how a campaign should be run, and the leadership of the Democratic Party has been utilizing this to energize its’ constituents. For a herd of cats, they have been amazingly well-organized and united in their distaste for the current cabal. Funny how the Republican’t media has sent a different message to the american people about the situation…

I did notice that Peggy Noonan has called some Democratic Party officals racists and sexists, though. While completely ignoring the many racist and sexist comments coming from her fellow Republican’t sycophants. [rhetorical question - this has been going on quite a while] Is this type of hypocrisy worthy of the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal?

For a while now, Your Humble Narrator has been engaging in efforts to avoid blowing a gasket about the constant disconnect between reality and the Republican’t media that has covered for this junta’s high crimes and misdemeanors, its’ effect on the sheeple I have to interact with on a daily basis, and the real stories that slip through the cracks because a bunch of frelling Republican’t propaganda catapultists control the dissemination of information in this country. Some days my efforts are more successful than others…

* - By an amazing coincidence (cough), they’ve both been published today by that bastion of even-handed, impartial, objective reporting, the Whore Wall Street Journal. And American Enterprise Institute fellow Andrew G. Biggs and noted Ray-Gun fluffer Peggy Noonan have been given carte blanche by a major news media outlet to spew their partisan hate in public.

** - as usual, emphasis of all kinds and / or off color commentary courtesy of the Funny Farm Editorial Staff

Yes, they can. They can go on record against honoring Moms.

But even with that, I think it wise to heed the cautions Krugman’s providing.

With 6 months to go till Election Day, the last thing we need are early victory celebrations. What we should refocus our attention on is the downticket races: Senators and US reps, governors and Secretaries of State. The Netroots are far more effective building greater foundations, not just for six months from now but well into the future.

Let’s get to it.

The last time Lebanese fought street battles on this scale was during the 1975-90 civil war, when Muslims and Christians fought in a variety of combinations. But never did Lebanese Sunnis and Shiites directly clash, making this a dangerous new development, both for Lebanon and for a region rife with Sunni-Shiite fault lines.

Standing behind the factions are their respective patrons, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in the case of the pro-government forces, and Iran and Syria on the Shiite side. As long as Iran and the U.S. are not talking, it is unlikely their clients elsewhere will see fit to compromise, said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Endowment’s Middle East Center in Beirut.

“This is a very serious deterioration,” he said. “There’s already a Sunni-Shiite war in Iraq. and if this continues there could be a third one in Bahrain, a fourth in Kuwait, a fifth in Saudi Arabia and so on. These are oil-producing areas. You’re already talking about $120-a-barrel oil now, and wars in these countries are really going to get people’s attention.”

In addition to the potential for a Middle East-wide war (with its potential to involve the entire oil dependent world) between now and Labor Day, the odds of a massive oil price spike that pushes gasoline to $5/gallon is extraordinarily high.

And just when Republicans thought things couldn’t get any worse for them … and for our exhausted troops … and for the majority of the citizens of the Middle East caught in the middle of the war zone created by extremists in their governments and the terror orgs … and for all of us who’ll foot the bills.

After the housing bubble, we’ll get our oil bubble and maybe even a war bubble. And the only bright side to all of it is that bubbles soon collapse.