The Republican Party has a huge problem on their hands. They are quickly being taken over by the most extreme, paranoid, fringe elements in our society and this case is just another glaring example of the path they are on:

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho Republican Party leader who helped oust the state GOP chairman in 2008 faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after an altercation escalated while he photographed a home with a delinquent mortgage.

Challis McAffee, 33, the GOP chairman from the Boise suburb of Garden City and one of 231 voting members of the Idaho Republican Central Committee, was in Ada County jail after being accused of pointing a gun at the homeowner.

McAffee, a backer of libertarian-leaning former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul and an activist in this year's anti-big-government "Tea Party" protests, helped organize Paul backers who aligned at last June's Idaho State Republican Convention in Sandpoint with other foes of then-state GOP Chairman Kirk Sullivan. Sullivan was voted from office in favor of Norm Semanko.

According to police in the Boise suburb of Meridian, resident Robert Lutes called officers just before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to report McAffee had pointed a .357 Magnum handgun at him during a verbal confrontation. McAffee acknowledged he pointed the gun at Lutes, according to the police account.

"I'm unarmed, I'm an old man," Lutes, 51, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I'm trying to find out why he's taking pictures of my house. I said, 'Knock on my door, let me know what you want.' Then, I think he's reaching for his business card and he pulls out a concealed weapon and I think he's going to blow my head off." Read on...

A group calling itself Idahoans for Liberty is trying to raise bond money for McAffee, but their version doesn't line up with the police account.

    Charges are being dropped against over two dozen journalists, including Amy Goodman and her two producers, arrested during the crackdown on protests at the Republican convention in St. Paul. Goodman's charge of "obstructing the legal process" has been dropped, as have felony riot charges against her colleagues Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Other dropped charges are mainly for "unlawful assembly".

The city's mayor had a truly gag-worthy Orwellian statement on the subject:

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said Friday that the city attorney's office recommended against prosecuting reporters for the misdemeanor charge.

"This decision reflects the values we have in St. Paul to protect and promote our First Amendment rights to freedom of the press," Coleman said in a statement.

He added, "At the scene, the police did their duty in protecting public safety. In this decision, we are serving the public's interest to maintain the integrity of our democracy, system of justice and freedom of the press."

One has to wonder if this was the plan all along, and the real intention was simply to inhibit reporting of abuses against protestors. Or maybe they're hoping that with the reporters out of court, the media won't be so interested in covering the 800 or so other arrests. With over forty journalists arrested, there should surely be at least some investigation of police officers involved for trumping up charges too:

Upon learning of the news, Democracy Now! Host, Amy Goodman said, “It’s good that these false charges have finally been dropped, but we never should have been arrested to begin with. These violent and unlawful arrests disrupted our work and had a chilling effect on the reporting of dissent. Freedom of the press is also about the public’s right to know what is happening on their streets. There needs to be a full investigation of law enforcement activities during the convention.”

But I'll bet that won't happen.

Brilliant. The only thing missing is the 4,528 POW references.

Open thread below....

Apparently Kelly has been held captive for five years, too. There simply is no other explanation.

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"Well I want to tell you in about nine months of traveling with John McCain and hearing hundreds of speeches I have never heard him talk in such great detail about his own personal story with respect to his time as a P.O.W. He has been resistant to do that over time."

That was a joke, right?

RELATED:

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MediaMatters has more.

  In the most biting of satire, Stephen laughs along with Rudy Giuliani as he disparages Barack Obama's historic campaign, and agrees with Sarah Plain that Barack Obama is a nobody who's only popular for giving great speeches (or in her case, a single speech.)

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Palin: What exactly is our opponent's plan?

Colbert: Exactly! We know nothing about Barack Obama. Only that he can give a great speech... and that is not enough. By the way, Governor Palin, great speech last night.

I think Jeff and I are on the same page here.

"I thought it was the worst speech by a nominee that I've heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980. I thought it was disorganized, I thought it was it was themeless, I thought it was very, very boring [...] I personally cannot remember a single policy proposal that he made because they had nothing connecting them. I found it shockingly bad."

Not only was the speech poorly delivered and mind-numbingly boring, it was without substance. Obama's speech was a generational call to arms to disaffected Americans who are sick and tired of the paralyzing partisanship and unacceptable status quo. Mccain's was boilerplate

While he tried his damndest tonight to distance himself from the past eight years, at the end of the day, John McCain has voted with George W. Bush more than 90% of the time. Hell, we have him on tape bragging about it.

It remains to be seen if the GOP can successfully convince a majority of Americans that John McCain is not responsible for the Bush/McCain legacy.

AP reporter Jim Kuhnhenn tears apart piece by piece all the lies told by the Republicans at last night's convention. In other words, every word spoken is debunked.

HuffPo:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

Make sure to read the whole thing.

CNN's Jeffrey Toobin does a little demolition of his own.

And Will Bunch calls it Sarah Palin's Speech to Nowhere.

I hope America wakes up tomorrow and realizes that Sarah Palin's words were rousing -- and completely empty, that they offered no road map (let alone bridge) for America other than more of the bogus partisan name-calling that has gotten us into the mess that we're in now. 

Very aggressive speech by Sarah Palin. Perhaps because it was written for her by the McCain campaign before she was even chosen (or vetted, for that matter.)

Putting Words in Palin's Mouth

There was a flutter of attention when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told a group of Post reporters and editors yesterday that his team was having to rework the vice presidential acceptance speech because the original draft, prepared before Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen, was too "masculine." While we all wondered to ourselves what might make a speech masculine or feminine, no one batted an eye at the underlying revelation: that the campaign was writing the nominee's speech before knowing who the nominee would be.

Interesting choice on her part to repeat rank falsehoods that have already been debunked ten times over. A sample:

I suspended the state fuel tax, and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. Strike One.

I told the Congress "thanks, but no thanks," for that Bridge to Nowhere.  Strike Two.

If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves. When oil and gas prices went up dramatically, and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged - directly to the people of Alaska. Strike Three.

Obama Campaign Spokesman Bill Burton responds:

“The speech that Governor Palin was well delivered, but it was written by George Bush’s speechwriter and sounds exactly like the same divisive, partisan attacks we’ve heard from George Bush for the last eight years. If Governor Palin and John McCain want to define ‘change’ as voting with George Bush 90% of the time, that’s their choice, but we don’t think the American people are ready to take a 10% chance on change.”

Full transcript below the fold:

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  I don't know what scares me more: That Ann Davidson doesn't realize she screwed up, or the thought of a hybrid Republican VP candidate.

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"We are holding a convention that will nominate a Republican woman governor, Sarah Pawlenty, as our next Vice-President."

Nicole adds: Yeah, she's well known in her party.

  Wow. A rare moment of candor from Joe Lieberman. When asked by Andrea Mitchell whether or not Sarah Palin is qualified to be President should something happen to John McCain, Lieberman offers perhaps the least convincing "endorsement" imaginable.

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Mitchell: Do you feel Sarah Palin is qualified to be commander-in-chief if, God forbid, something should happen to John McCain?

Lieberman: Well, you know....let’s assume the best.  John’s in great shape, he’s gonna be the president and let’s assume that nothing bad will happen. Why should we? But if it does…yes, she’ll be ready.

Let's assume McCain's health hold up, because if not, we're pretty much screwed when a person who admits they haven't really focused on the Iraq War (or virtually any other national issue) takes over.

This really goes to the heart of Palin's lack of qualifications to be Vice President. Putting aside her short and mediocre career as "hockey mom" and mayor of a town of 6,000 in Alaska, Palin has no documented opinions on any substantive matter. That alone should disqualify her. Couple that with her completely fabricated selling points -- like how she's a reformer who was against the bridge to nowhere, when in reality she's a former board member of indicted Sen. Ted Stevens' corporate 527 who was for the bridge before she was against it -- and her nomination ought to be laughed out of the national discourse. The funniest part of it all is that the GOP truly sees her as the future of the party. As a Democrat, I welcome that kind of future.

Why does Joe Lieberman keep referring to himself as a Democrat? Probably because the Republican base is dumb enough to believe him.

UPDATE: John Amato: Lieberman attacked Obama so much that David Gergen said---even though he knows Joe for forty years---he was shocked by that, just shocked and Joe won't bring in many votes. Donna Brazile bored me to death on her response to her former VP pick. She said Joe had a little more energy this time around. And of course Joe just loves Palin even though he probably just met Sarah and virtually has nothing in common with her.You can't trust a word out of his mouth...

Digby:

God how I loathe and despise this sanctimonious jackass. How dare he call himself a Democrat and presume to LECTURE and harangue us to vote for a rightwing nutcase for president.

And what's the first thing out of Wolf Blitzer's mouth? "Anyone who knows Joe Lieberman, knows that he speaks from the heart." Sure he does --- he's always been a pr*&k, even when he was a Democrat and he is even more of one today. He is a perfect Republican --- hypocritical, bloodthirsty and completely full of shit. Enjoy GOPers, he's all yours.

Full transcript below the fold:

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So much for the well-publicized promises to "set aside partisan politics and festivities planned for the convention opening" and adopt "a more a subdued business-only tone in deference to Gulf Coast residents" due to the hurricane.

ABC's Blotter: As NOLA Residents Flee, Republican Party Officials Don Pink Boas and Swig Vodka Shots

As residents of New Orleans were fleeing Hurricane Gustav, top Republican party officials donned pink boas and swigged vodka shots at a wild whirl of corporate and lobbyist-paid parties this weekend in Minneapolis-St. Paul. [...]

[T]he National Rifle Association, Lockheed Martin and the American Trucking Association put on a raucus six-hour party at a downtown bar featuring music by the band "Hookers and Blow." There was no evidence of any actual prostitutes or cocaine.

h/t Wonkette

What a shame. I was really looking forward to all those gratuitous 9/11 references.

Republicans revamped their convention plans for a second day, dropping former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as keynote speaker Tuesday night while trying to determine President Bush's role in the political pageantry celebrating John McCain's candidacy for president.

In Giuliani's speaking slot were former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, one of McCain's rivals for the Republican nomination, and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate in 2000 and now a McCain supporter. Republicans say the two will talk about McCain's life and their friendship with him.

In other convention-related news, President Bush will address his fellow Republicans tonight. Jon Perr takes a look back at Bush's (broken) promises to the nation from eight years ago at his own convention.

Glenn Greenwald reports:

Beginning last night, St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be, even more so than Manhattan in the week of 9/11 -- with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas canisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations. Humvees and law enforcement officers with rifles were posted on various buildings and balconies. Numerous protesters and observers were tear gassed and injured.

... Perhaps most extraordinarily, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now -- the radio and TV broadcaster who has been a working journalist for close to 20 years -- was arrested on the street and charged with "conspiracy to riot." Audio of her arrest, which truly shocked and angered the crowd of observers, is here. I just attended a Press Conference with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief John M. Harrington and -- after they boasted of how "restrained" their police actions were -- asked about the journalists and lawyers who had been detained and/or arrested both today and over the weekend. They said they wouldn't give any information about journalists who had been arrested today, though they said they believed that "one journalist" had been, and that she "was a participant in the riots, not simply a non-participant."

Tear gas has also been used.

Do you think maybe that events in St. Paul would have gotten more attention already if we weren't all distracted by the Palin circus show?

Update: Amy has been released, but her two producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, are still being held.

"I was down on the convention floor interviewing delegates when I heard that two of our producers had been arrested," said Goodman. "I ran down to Jackson and 7th Street, where the police had moved in."

Goodman said that when she ran up to find out what was going on, she was also arrested.

"They seriously manhandled me and handcuffed my hands behind my back. The top ID [at the convention] is to get on the floor and the Secret Service ripped that off me. I had my Democracy Now! ID too. I was clearly a reporter."

Goodman, who was released after being charged with a misdemeanor, said that Salazar had been hurt in the face, while Kouddous had been thrown up against a wall and hurt his elbow.

"Nicole told me that as they moved in on three sides, she asked them 'How do I get away from this?' and they jumped on her."

Both Kouddous and Salazar could be held for up to 36 hours.

"One of the police kept shouting at me 'Shut up, shut up," she said. "It was extremely threatening."

Update 2: Democracy Now! reports that both Kouddous and Salazar have now been released too. (H/t Kat)

Continue reading »

  Notorious cross-dresser and miserable failure of a Presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, has been chosen to give the keynote speech in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sept. 2. For a good idea of what 9iu11ani will say, see: here.

[Newsday]

UPDATE: It looks like Rudy's first gig as GOP keynote speaker, a conference call with the press today, didn't go so well. Politico's Ben Smith is reporting that McCain goons cut the line of Jewish Telegraphic Agency reporter Ron Kampeas after he began pressing 9Iu11ani on some of his shady business dealings.

Rudy Giuliani's appearance on a McCain conference call got off to a rocky start when Ron Kampeas, the Washington, D.C. of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, compared an Obama advisor's trip to Syria -- the subject of the call -- to Giuliani's and McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann's paid work on behalf of Georgia (in Scheunemann's case) and Venezuela's Citgo and the Saudi government (in the case of Giuliani's law firm).

"You're making an issue of him taking a hotel room?" Kampeas asked -- and then dropped off the call mid-sentence.

"I think they cut me off," he said in an email just now.

Scheunemann noted that his lobbying contract, unlike Obama advisor Daniel Kurtzer's trip to Syria, was publicly disclosed and not "covert." Giuliani said that Citgo, which is owned by the Venezuelan government, is an "American company."

"I never represented Saudi Arabia," he said.

The Associated Press reported that Bracewell & Giuliani, a Texas-based energy firm, has represented Saudi Arabia.