from cnn.com:

""ST. PAUL (CNN) - Bristol Palin, the 17 year old daughter of Sarah Palin, is pregnant and will keep the baby and marry the father, a senior McCain aide confirmed to CNN Monday.

Bristol Palin, a senior in high school, is about 5 months along, in
her second trimester, according to the aide.""

I've been having some interesting discussions today about whether this subject is inbounds or out of bounds.  Sarah Palin, the GOP vp candidate, is a right wing born again christian who opposes the right to abortion, birth control, condoms and believes kids should practice abstinence.  Now it comes out she has a seventeen year old daughter who is five months pregnant, who may not have used contraceptives because her morally upright parents told her it was wrong.  In my mind, if a parent has a sexually active daughter and does not give them the number for planned parenthood or get them or tell them where to get pills or condoms, it is poor parenting.  You always hear these right wing evangelicals preach abstinence, as if any seventeen year old girl with a boyfriend is really going to be abstinent.  Please.

This week is the Democratic Party's convention in Denver.  I expect this to be quite memorable for a number of reasons.  Thirty five years ago to the day of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King's 'I have a Dream" speech, Barack Obama is set to become the first african american to accept the nomination of one of the major political parties to be President of the United States.  It is an unbelievable case of historical coincidence.  I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the first words out of Barack's mouth when he takes the stage at Mile High Stadium (I refuse to refer to it by its new sponsor name), are "I have a Dream..."

There are stories in the papers today to the effect that Mayor Bloomberg and members of the City Council may be working on a plan to extend term limits through legislation by the end of the year. This way Bloomberg could run for a third term and council members about to be term limited next year might get a shot at an extra term or two. They seem to think this can be done without a public referendum to amend the city charter. I guess the thinking is that while you'd need a referendum to eliminate term limits altogether, that they could be extended through legislation.

Here are the links:

There's an interesting piece over at the nytimes web site:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/gores-second-act/

This article points out that the lineups for the Democratic Convention in Denver are now pretty much set and the top speakers have been announced. We know on which nights the party's biggest stars will be speaking. With one glaring exception. Nobody has said a word about Al Gore. Nobody has said a word about his role in Denver. You would think Gore would obviously be going to Denver and they'd be insane not to have him up at the podium in prime time.

From abcnews.com:

"John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

News reports out yesterday indicate that Barack Obama has been in meetings with his VP search committee, and that Virginia governor Tim Kaine is on the shortlist to be Barack Obama's runningmate.  Kaine has an impressive resume, he was a city councilman in Richmond, Virginia, and later Mayor of Richmond, Lt. Governor of Virginia, and now is the Governor.  He's a progressive reformer who for years had a law practice representing minorities discriminated by housing laws.  Kaine was born in Minnesota, a key state.  He grew up in Missourri, a key swing state, and Virginia is also a key swing state.  He helps in all those states. 

Email from Obama's website today:

[bold]At the Democratic National Convention next month, we're going to kick off the general election with an event that opens up the political process the same way we've opened it up throughout this campaign.

Barack has made it clear that this is your convention, not his.

On Thursday, August 28th, he's scheduled to formally accept the Democratic nomination in a speech at the convention hall in front of the assembled delegates.

Instead, Barack will leave the convention hall and join more than 75,000 people for a huge, free, open-air event where he will deliver his acceptance speech to the American people.

It's going to be an amazing event, and Barack would like you to join him. Free tickets will become available as the date approaches, but we've reserved a special place for a few of the people who brought us this far and who continue to drive this campaign. [/bold]

It has been reported that Obama's vp short list has twenty names on it, and one version of the list being circulated is (in no particular order):

1. Sen. Hillary Clinton

2. Former Sen. John Edwards

3. Gov. Bill Richardson

4. Gov. Kathleen Sibelius

5. Sen. Joe Biden

6. Sen. Chris Dodd

7. Gov. Ted Strickland

8. General Wesley Clarke

9. Former Sen. Sam Nunn

10. Gov. Ed Rendell

11. Sen. Chuck Hagel

12. General James Jones (Marines)

13. Sen. Evan Bayh

14. Sen. Jim Webb

15. Gen. Tony McPeak (Air Force)

16. Former Secretary of Navy Richard Danzig

On August 28th, when Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination for President, it will be forty five years *to the day* from that summer afternoon back in 1963 when civil rights riots were going on and the March on Washington took place. Forty five years from the day that Martin Luther King gave his "I have a Dream" speech.

The Obama campaign should not miss the symbolic opportunity here. What I suggest is that the day before, on March 27th, that Obama lead another march. Start on an indian reservation outside Denver somewhere and have people from all over America come there and march with Obama, down the highways and through neighborhoods, and straight into downtown Denver. As the roll call of states is going on nominating Obama, the scene is juxtaposed with Obama leading hundreds of thousands of people of all colors straight into Denver and right up to the arena.

Murdoch made critical comments about the number of journalists involved in editing at the Wall Street Journal, which became part of the News Corp empire when he bought parent company Dow Jones in December, saying that every story seemed to be edited by "8.3 people".

There are stories of formal or informal talks going on between Obama and Clinton camps. Hillary's camp supposedly wants to discuss exit strategy. But at this point the only exit strategy she would seem to find acceptable is a guarantee of the vice presidency.

Even if Obama may not particularly want Hillary as his runningmate, he may have no choice. Hillary could well tell Obama that unless he offers her the vp spot up front, she will take her campaign all the way to the convention, and if he gets the presidential nomination, she will have her name placed in nomination for vice president whether he likes it or not. Hillary has more than enough delegates, and probably enough of her super delegate friends, to prevent anyone else but her from getting the vp nomination.

Staten Island congressman Vito Fossella is under heavy pressure to resign because he has admitted to having a long term mistress and that they had a three year old love child. Is this worse than Eliot Spitzer hiring prostitutes? Is the private life of any public official really more important than the job they do? I think Fossella has been a lousy congressman, but is his having a second family any of our business? If Spitzer was a good governor, did it matter if on his own time he was paying for sex?

Are we requiring public officials to be morally perfect now? It is not like Fossella is the only person in his district who has kept a mistress or had a child with a woman who was not his wife. Or gotten a dui.

Sean Bell, an innocent man walking out of a nightclub was shot fifty times by cops. Not one or twice, but fifty shots. In front of numerous eyewitnesses. The cops were all found not guilty today.

Sean Bell was a black man. If he was white, you know it is much more likely those cops would be in jail now. Of course when was the last time you ever heard of a white man being shot fifty times on the street.

I have served on jury duty three times and can tell you firsthand that justice isn't color blind. Defendants charged with the same crimes get acquitted more often when they are white than if they are black. Fact. This is the big reason I am against the death penalty. Many jurors simply do not avoid making pre-judgements based on the race of the defendants.

New York State is deeply in debt and constantly trying to avoid a fiscal crisis. Which means the state budget needs to be monitored very closely, and even the smallest items state money is spent on need to be questioned. Here is one that made the news last week and should outrage people if they think about it:

Lawmakers in albany have included $1.4 million to fund the Lt. Governor's office and staff for the next year. The problem is that as of last month, there is no Lt. Governor *or* staff. When David Paterson became Governor, he took his staff with him. Under state law there will be no Lt. Governor at all until 2010. So why are the lawmakers budgeting $1.2 million for salaries of a non-existent staff and $104,000 travel budget for an office that is vacant?!

Air America's Randi Rhodes, an Obama supporter, called Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro and "whores" Air America has now suspended indefinitely. Here's the statement:

[quote]

STATEMENT OF AIR AMERICA RADIO, FROM CHAIRMAN CHARLIE KIREKER:

NEW YORK — Air America has suspended on-air host Randi Rhodes for making inappropriate statements about prominent figures, including Sen. Hillary Clinton, at a recent public appearance on behalf of Air America in San Francisco which was sponsored by an Air America affiliate station.

[/quote]