USA Today reports:

Days, perhaps hours, before an expected announcement of his running mate, Barack Obama offered some clues Tuesday as to what he's looking for, suggesting that his pick might be an independent-minded person with a strong populist streak.
"I won't hand over my energy policy to my vice president without knowing necessarily what he's doing," the presumptive Democratic nominee said.

Obama dropped the masculine pronoun several times in an answer to a supporter's question here about his plans for his running mate. It was not clear whether it was a generic "he," or a signal that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius are no longer under consideration.

With a slew of new polls coming out that have not been good for Obama, I wonder if his camp is rethinking their strategy for selecting a VP?

Check out this CBS/NY Times poll:

Senator Hillary Clinton is by far the favorite choice for the number two spot on the Democratic ticket, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll of delegates to the Democratic convention. When asked who they would like Barack Obama to select, 28 percent volunteer her as their top choice for Vice Presidential nominee.

What's even more fascinating about this poll is that even Obama delegates like Hillary:

Thirty-five percent of Obama's pledged delegates think having Clinton's name on the ticket would help Obama win in November, 23 percent of them say choosing her would hurt.

I've made my thoughts known a while back that I thought she should be the VP.

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Osama bin Laden's alleged driver, Salim Hamdan, has just been convicted on five counts of supporting a terror organization. Considering that the Pentagon planned on holding him indefinitely regardless of the verdict, does it really matter all that much?

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CNN:

A U.S. military jury found Osama Bin Laden's former driver guilty of five counts of material support to a terror organization in the September 11, 2001, attacks.

In a split verdict, jurors found Salim Hamdan not guilty of conspiracy to aid a terror organization, in this case al Qaeda.

The trial is being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility where he is being held.

Prosecutors allege that Hamdan, who was picked up in November 2001 in Afghanistan, overheard conversations about 9/11 and had other information that showed he was part of Osama bin Laden's inner circle and aided and abetted the attacks.

Hamdan faces life in prison and his lawyers are already planning to appeal.

The National Security Network weighs in:

HAMDAN VERIDCT: We Waited Seven Years For This?

"Today’s verdict does little if anything to advance American security. The entire process raises fundamental questions about the administration’s disregard for our constitutional values and may well do America more harm than good in the court of world opinion. It took seven years for the Bush administration’s military commissions system to get its first conviction for a crime that is regularly prosecuted in federal court. And when it did, it was a driver who even the administration acknowledges did not participate in the planning or execution of any terrorist attacks. Surely there is a better way to protect America and bring terrorists to justice while adhering to the constitutional values that have kept us safe and strong for 200 years."

How else to explain the Campaign 2000 footage? And Cindy's hair.

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Also in this clip:

Political hacks Glenn Beck and Ben Stein are frightened that Obama draws large crowds, and liken his appeal to, you guessed it, Hitler and Mussolini. So you're telling me if John McCain could get more than three people to listen to him speak he would pass? Doubtful.

Karl Rove tells Alan Colmes that McCain's distortion of the Anbar Awakening time line is a "nit-nat mistake." He's right. Who cares if there's a contradiction when McCain claims he has the judgment to lead on Iraq and he can't even get the basic facts straight? I sure don't.

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You knew it was going to happen. For all his big talk about being happy to talk to the House Judiciary Committee looking into the conviction and incarceration of Don Siegelman, when push came to shove, you had to know that Karl Rove would never, ever freely respond to the HJC subpoena. CQPolitics:

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, cited executive privilege as the reason that the former White House adviser would not appear before the Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee on July 10.[..]

"Mr. Rove will respectfully decline to appear before the Subcommittee on July 10 on the grounds that Executive Privilege confers upon him immunity from process to respond to a subpoena directed to this subject," Luskin wrote.

Luskin renewed an offer that would have Rove submit to an off-the-record, untranscribed interview or answer written questions about the Siegelman case, but not the broader issue of the politicization of the Justice Department.

Not even man enough to stand up for his actions. Hear that, Karl? Not even man enough. Dan Abrams brings NYU Law School Professor Michael Waldman and former HJC counsel Julian Epstein to discuss the latest in Bush League (In)Justice:

Abrams: Okay, Michael, let me start with you: it is clear, Karl Rove is not coming. I mean, the House Judiciary Committee can say as much as they want, we're still hoping, we're still encouraging him to come, we're still insisting that he come, he's not coming. So what do they do now?

Waldman: Well, it's really quite remarkable, as you say, you can just say no to a lawful subpoena from Congress. Congress has a bunch of tools they can use. They can, of course, throw him in jail. There's a jail in the basement of the Capitol. That's probably the extreme remedy. There's all kinds of other things. They can cut off funding, they can hold up nominations, they can bring a lawsuit as has been the case in the Miers...the Harriet Miers contempt case. But what Congress has to have when it looks in its toolbox is not any of these tools but some backbone. Congress is a co-equal branch of government and it needs to stand up for its rights in this.

Backbone in Congress? What's that? I'll believe it when I see the perp walk.

(h/t Heather)

On Verdict with Dan Abrams, Newsweek reporter Jonathan Alter was fed up with the ridiculousness of the continued smear of Michelle Obama over her "proud of her country" statement and accuses conservative talk show host Lars Larson of promoting an agenda that tries to paint Michelle Obama as an angry, black woman, noting that there was no such outrage for John McCain's repeated statement that he "didn't love America until (he) was deprived of her company".

ALTER: Yeah, you're saying...you're just talking trash and nonsense. And it's a slur, and it's really, it's frankly kind of appalling that you and others would stoop to this level, because it's not true. You don't know Michelle Obama; you haven't spoken to her as I have. To many of her friends: black, white, many different people...let me just quickly try to dispense with this. You're taking her out of context intentionally. You're trying to twist her words for your own political purposes. It's low and it's borderline racist.

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Former Press Secretary Scott McClellan appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to hawk his book, What Happened. Once again, Letterman proved that late night comedians have more testicular fortitude than any of the pundit class or corporate media for voicing what is overwhelmingly the public pulse on the Bush administration.

LETTERMAN: My feeling about Cheney--and also Bush, but especially Cheney—is he just couldn't care less about Americans. And that the same is true of George Bush. And all they really want to do is somehow kiss up to the oil people so they can get some great annuity when they're out of office. "There you go, Dick, nice job. There’s a couple of billion for your troubles." ( applause ) I mean, he pretty much put Halliburton in business, and the outsourcing of the military resources to private mercenary groups, and so forth. Is there any humanity in either of these guys?

McCLELLAN: Look, I still have personal affection for the President. I can't speak to the Vice President's thinking that well because he's someone that keeps things to himself and he believes in doing it his way, and he doesn't care what anybody else thinks. He is going to do the way he feels is best—and that’s not always in the best interest of this country, as we’ve seen.

LETTERMAN: You told me backstage you thought he was a goon.

Full transcripts below the fold:

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Bloomberg:

June 7 (Bloomberg) -- Taser International Inc., the largest stun-gun maker, lost a $6.2 million jury verdict over the death of a California man who died after police shot him multiple times with the weapon. The defeat is the first for Taser in a product- liability claim.

A San Jose, California, jury yesterday said Taser had failed to warn police in Salinas, California, that prolonged exposure to electric shock from the device could cause a risk of cardiac arrest. The jury awarded $1 million in compensatory damages and $5.2 million in punitive damages to the estate of Robert Heston, 40, and his parents. The jury cleared the police officers of any liability.

His parents sued Taser, alleging failure to warn of the dangers of the weapon, and Salinas police officers, claiming excessive force. The jury ``exonerated the police because they said the police didn't know repeated exposures could kill someone,'' Burton said. Read on...

I understand that law enforcement officials have difficult jobs and often find themselves in life or death situations. There are times where the use of these alternative weapons can save lives, but it seems, as in this case, as with others, if improperly used or in the wrong circumstances, they are deadly. Amnesty International has laid out some recommendations for the use of tasers, which I quite agree with; law enforcement agencies should treat them as deadly weapons:

Amnesty International calls on all governments and law enforcement agencies to either cease using TASERs and similar devices pending the results of thorough, independent studies, or restrict their use to situations where officers would otherwise be justified in resorting to deadly force where no lesser alternatives are available. Read on...

We've done posts on Don Siegelman before. The former Alabama governor was convicted of corruption on shaky grounds and imprisoned and kept from speaking out or appealing the verdict in an unbelievable story of Republican cronyism and amoral partisanship. Now it looks like the strong arming continues...all the way to the corporate offices of CBS. After all, it worked so well with Dan Rather...

at Largely:

Well folks, seems that 60 Minutes is postponing (read "killing") its Siegelman story. The excuse I am told for this lapse in ethics is that the network needs more time to vet the whistle-blower, Dana Jill Simpson. You see, the reason the network suddenly needs more time to vet Simpson is that the White House has launched a direct campaign inside CBS to discredit her and just to make sure the dirt sticks, they have called in some favors too. I am told that Senator Jeff Sessions has been instructed to help the White House discredit Simpson as part of his "Senatorial" duties. Nice system of government we have here, eh?

So, two things are going to happen now. The first is, we will be including what 60 Minutes did not report as part of the Raw Story series on the case. Instead of 5 installments, we will now have 6. Second, all of you as citizens of this nation must voice your concerns about this situation to CBS. You want a free press? Then fight for it!

ADDRESS:
60 Minutes
524 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019

EMAIL: 60m@cbsnews.com
PHONE: (212) 975-3247

UPDATE: Don Siegelman's birthday is coming up. Mark Crispin Miller has been in contact with him and says his spirits are low. You can send him a card of support via the address here. (h/t MBH)

The man who has his insane family and followers show up at the funerals of our fallen soldiers says that CNN's Rick Sanchez is the person that's brainwashed. He's certifiable, but not too many people have ever heard him talk before so I'm posting this very deranged religious zealot. The loss of the cash can't compensate the added torture he inflicts on grieving families.

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PHELPS: ... believe the truth, doesn't want to hear the truth. You're just a hysterical nincompoop, like all the rest of the them.

This is the 1st -- what you ought to be worried about is the loss of First Amendment rights in the United States, for which those guys claim they're over there fighting. With me now on the phone is the leader of the protests at the funerals of U.S. service men and women, judgment passed against him today in a court, almost $11 million, Reverend Fred Phelps. (full transcript below the fold)

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I'm jet lagged badly right now so I forgot to post about SD's rejected abortion ban. Take that!--you Salem revisionist.

Digby:

So I keep hearing that the conservatives really won yesterday, and yet:

From the country's heartland, voters sent messages that altered America's culture wars and dismayed the religious right � defending abortion rights in South Dakota, endorsing stem cell research in Missouri, and, in a national first, rejecting a same-sex marriage ban in Arizona.

Conservative leaders were jolted by the setbacks and looked for an explanation Wednesday. Gay-rights and abortion-rights activists celebrated.

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