his vorpal sword: Global Notwarming Tanks Rumble Across Tundra

The Sardonic Sideshow: Obama: The Flame War President

Stinque: Talibunny laundering PAC money through PAC-sponsored book buys

Brilliant at Breakfast: A few words about the Edwards debacle

Vagabond Scholar: Health Care reform and football

Groundswell Blog: Responding to Republican Diggs Brown: A smart, realistic foreign policy

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(h/t CSPANjunkie)

Donna Edwards tells her story of being a young mother without health insurance and how she is paying America back with her vote for health care reform.

Edwards: I collapsed and was taken to an emergency room. Without health care I was treated as one of those uncompensated and now it's time for me to pay the American people back with a vote for comprehensive health care reform. This bill will take the burden off of providers and Americans for paying the costs of uncompensated care and safeguards for the health of all Americans.

She's been a solid progressive voice in Congress. We need more like her. I watched the endless insanity of the Republicans in the House on full display all day and night Saturday. It made me sick, watching them line up like replicants, making sure they used the same talking points over and over again. When they talk about "freedom," all they do is smear what that word means to the world. C&L Annette emailed me and said we should start calling them the Republick Party. I like that.

You won't read much about their behavior during a crucial time in our history because the media shields the nuts who are loose in the halls of Congress.

Howie Klein writes:

I love Donna Edwards. Her short speech about why she was voting for health care reform made me cry last night-- and not fake Glenn Beck tears. Like Donna, there was a time in my life when I couldn't afford health insurance-- or health care-- either. Americans deserve better than predatory insurance companies thriving on misery. This is why America needs more members of Congress like Donna Edwards and less like Paul Ryan, Suzanne Kosmas and John Barrow

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Up until December of 2007, most on Edwards' staff didn't believe rumors about the affair.

But by late December, early January of last year, several people in his inner circle began to think the rumors were true.

Several of them had gotten together and devised a "doomsday" strategy of sorts.

Basically, if it looked like Edwards was going to win the Democratic Party nomination, they were going to sabotage his campaign, several former Edwards' staffers have told me.

They said they were Democrats first, and if it looked like Edwards was going to become the nominee, they were going to bring down the campaign.

Dang. While I remain uninterested in the extramarital goings-on of anyone, it was ridiculously shortsighted and stupid for Edwards to not think there would be repercussions from his thinking with Little John. I guess we should be grateful to not have reached the point of hitting the nuclear option--that could have very likely hurt the Democrats for several election cycles.

Meanwhile, may I express some exasperation at the investigation of the money paid to Rielle Hunter by the Edwards campaign for videotaping as something critical to our democracy and yet we've known that the Bush administration lost NINE BILLION dollars in Iraq and there has been not one investigation? It's not an either/or proposition, but c'mon, there has to be some economies of scale working here when a $100K paycheck takes precedence over $9 billion.

Unfogged: McCain has done the same thing Edwards did. At least Edwards isn't running for president anymore.

Chris Floyd: Marching through Georgia ll: The Kremlin Surge

Improvisations: This is our friend Blue Gal's favorite Olympic story

A Tiny Revolution: In NPR inbterview, Suskind says Bush jeopardized an airline terror case and deceived the British for political advantage.

Seeing the Forest: Trying to get conservative and corporate groups to obey the law.

The Opinion Mill's Sunday Bookchat: A dynamite week for progressive books! Thomas Frank shows why conservative governance is one long perp walk into history! Ron Suskind exposes forgeries and lies from the White House! Jane Mayer wonders: Where have all the wingers gone? Conservatives may try to bulk-order their books into heaven, but when it comes to ideas and substance, they're strictly sub-basement.

Beggars Can Be Choosers: $10 billion Pentagon program fails to defeat IED threat in Iraq

Immigration Prof Blog: Business is fighting tough measures on immigration. Who didn't see this coming?

Ice Station Tango: If Karl Rove isn't in prison by then, he and John Edwards will have a debate at the University of Buffalo on on September 26.

The KC Blue Blog: Looks like the ol' Southern Strategy is alive and well in Missouri

Calculated Risk: More trouble in bank paradise

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: The Media brought me donuts...A sterling example of why Mr. Sheri Annis is such an important 4th Estate Lawn Jockey...ABC: Agent Backs Cheney...Fighting the shock-jocks...The Atlantic Monthly continues to decline...Journalism without journalists...The ubiquity of inanity...At Last! A good, issue-driven Health Care Story...And NPR did one, too!...Taken for a ride in Miami...Fox moves from eccentric to weird...This explains a lot...CBS aired a portion of Floyd Brown's attack ad, failed to report Obama is not a Muslim...

I just got a tip that Obama and Hillary are appearing with Stephen Cobert tonight. And for some bonus fun---John Edwards is going to show up too. It should be a very interesting show...

Dude, what's up? He said this on live radio and I wonder if John Edwards really said that about Obama?

Halperin later apologizes.

I’m sorry. In a live radio interview this week, I used a word I shouldn’t have. The fact that I was conveying other people’s words is no excuse for my lapse in judgment. It won’t happen again. — Mark Halperin

I'm surprised he didn't blame his dirty little potty mouth on liberal blogs somehow.

Media Bloodhound:

The media may have treated Hilary Clinton unfairly at times over the course of this campaign (though nothing came close to the silent treatment it afforded John Edwards). But aside from her Iraq War vote (and even that's almost never discussed with the complexity and precision it demands), the biggest flaw in her press coverage has been the media's failure to effectively explore the kind of president she might be based upon her record, which includes her vote against banning cluster bombs in civilian areas. Knowledge of that vote, as well as other relevant actions in the Senate, both positive and negative, would give the American people a more solid foundation on which to cast their vote.

But these things get lost in a horse race.

Download | play Download | play (h/t Heather)

I was a little hesitant to do this post at first because I'm sure I'll be accused of doing a pro-Hillary post. But stay with me here. Looking at this strictly on the level of media bias--and irrespective of the actual candidates--Dan Abrams asks if the media is creating a horse race that does not really exist by downplaying the lead of one candidate and playing up the rise of another just to create a media narrative. And again, irrespective to the actual candidates, there is some truth to what Abrams says (and Rachel Maddow's point that Obama is gaining as well, if you look at the trajectory of the polling data), and we can see it in many other ways, such as the death knell of McCain's campaign four months ago and the presumptive lead of Rudy Giuliani at the same time. Now that actual votes are being counted, who has the delegates and who has gotten out of the race? And let us not forget the media blackout on Edwards and how that impacted his ability to gain traction nor the pundit-declared victory for Obama in New Hampshire before a single vote was counted. Huffington Post's Roy Sekoff, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell chime in as well.

So what do you think? Is the media deciding the terms of the race for us? Tom Tomorrow thinks so.

Jim Booth at Scholars & Rogues takes a slightly different--but related--look at it as it relates to Edwards leaving the race.

Reporting 15%

Hillary Clinton 40%
Barack Obama 36%
John Edwards 17%

The Villagers are in shock. Huge voting numbers for the Democratic Party vs Republicans: roughly 2-1