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It's been an insanely busy day here in Washington today. All the news folks have been focused on health care reform, and there are Tea Partiers up at the Capitol chanting, "Kill the Bill!" I'll have video from them tomorrow -- hell of a day for my laptop to up and die on me, isn't it? And I'll be trying to cover the vote from the House floor tonight too.

But all this was a tiny scene compared to what was really happening on the National Mall today: the massive crowd of over 100,000 people who showed up today to demand comprehensive immigration reform.

Let there be no doubt about this: Once health-care reform is accomplished, immigration reform is going to be the next big issue on the national plate. The huge crowd -- one estimate placed it at 500,000 -- sent a powerful signal that they will not be content to let Congress shuffle off this massive responsibility for yet another year, as we're already hearing that many of them want to do.

There was an impressive array of speakers -- I managed to catch snippets from Jesse Jackson and Geraldo Rivera here, and you can go to America's Voice for a fuller lineup (I spent a lot of time observing some of the nutcases who showed up; I'll have that video tomorrow too). You can see for yourself just how massive it was.

Indeed, this crowd was significantly larger than the much-promoted "9/12 March on Washington" last September, even though that event was endlessly promoted for over a month by Fox News (I know, I know; they like to claim they had 1.2 million people there, but the reality was that it was actually about 70,000).

Yet, strangely enough, there was only ONE Fox News crew on hand to cover the immigration march today. I spoke with the reporter for this crew, and he told me Fox News had several other crews on hand today -- but they were all up covering the Tea Partiers and the health-care vote.

And in case you're wondering, there were exactly ZERO stories on Fox News reporting on this march in advance. ZERO. I couldn't find any at CNN or MSNBC either.

But then, when people genuinely care about real issues that affect real lives, instead of imaginary descents into "socialism," they don't have to be ginned up by right-wing propaganda organs.

Update: Michael Duvall has resigned. h/t commenter vorhese.

I've said for years that most politicians are in bed with lobbyists, but in the case of California Republican Michael Duvall, he's actually getting his freak on with one. Duvall gets the Jesse Jackson treatment, getting caught with an open microphone, bragging about making love and spanking his much younger mistress:

"And we had made love Wednesday. A lot."

"So I am getting into spanking her...yeah, I like it."

"I like spanking her. She goes, I know you like spanking me."

This bit of gotcha journalism wouldn't interest me much, but for the fact that Duvall considers himself to be one of those family values Republicans -- who just happens to be having kinky sex outside of his marriage.

When asked for his opinion on the whole Jesse Jackson/Barack Obama dust up, Dan Rather talks about his admiration for the legendary civil rights activists, and says Osama bin Laden wouldn't be possible without him. Say what?

Download | play Download | play (h/t Bill W)

I can understand accidentally mixing up Obama and Osama. It happens. What I don't understand is how Dan Rather could make the mistake of actually calling him the full Osama bin Laden. More astonishingly, how can the entire"Morning Joe" cast sit there and not correct him? Stupefying.

• Want to help send Karl Rove to jail? Well watch this and sign the petition.

• Take the Pew News IQ Test and post your score. Also notice that while 84% know Oprah campaigned for Obama, only 28% know that over 4000 American soldiers have died in Iraq. Good job, media!

• Yesterdays fundraising appeal for Sean Tevis was a great success. He reached his goal in just 37 hours...and it's still going.

• Pathetic excuse for a human being Michael Savage on autism: "A fraud, a racket. ... In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out."

• Remember all the fauxtrage from the McCain campaign after Gramm's "Americans are whiners" comments? Well, it look like McCain has gotten over it, because he's keeping Gramm around.

• Netroots Nation tries to label FOX as "opinion news."

• McCain's Media™ withholds favorable Obama polls.

• After word magically "leaks" out that Jesse Jackson said more than "nuts," O'Reilly threatens to waterboard his staff to get to the "truth."

• Even though McCain thinks Social Security is a "disgrace," that's not gonna stop him from cashin' in those checks.

• Michael Chertoff has a message for you: I'm trying my best, but you still may die.

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

Barack Obama may be our first post-racial politics candidate, but it's clear the media has not caught up to that paradigm, especially any show that includes John McLaughlin and Pat Buchanan amongst its panel. Kudos to Media Matters, who caught it first:

On the edition of the syndicated program The McLaughlin Group that aired the weekend of July 11-13, while discussing recent comments made by the Rev. Jesse Jackson about Sen. Barack Obama, host John McLaughlin said: "Question: Does it frost Jackson, Jesse Jackson, that someone like Obama, who fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo -- a black on the outside, a white on the inside -- that an Oreo should be the beneficiary of the long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fighting for?"

If I had been a guest on that panel, I think my jaw would have dropped right then. Oreo? Really, that's the best place to take this conversation? To his credit, Peter Beinart does tell McLaughlin that it's an unfair depiction, but McLaughlin perseveres, thinking he's caught Beinart in a rhetorical trap when Beinart dismisses the notion that Obama should give as much weight to issues of discrimination in incarceration.

BEINART: But...Barack Obama doesn't talk about jobs and healthcare? He talks about it all the time. If he wanted to talk about the fact that there are too many people in prison, then you're asking him to do something that will lose him the election. That is politically...no serious political strategist...
MCLAUGHLIN: Oh...oh...oh...[crosstalk]
BEINART: He is a man trying to win the presidency, John.
MCLAUGHLIN: But then he's exactly what Jeremiah Wright says he is. He will do whatever is necessary to win.

So hold up here, McLaughlin. That he doesn't talk about prison rates in the black community but encourages fathers (on Father's Day, mind you) to be present in their children's lives, he's doing whatever is necessary to win? And then you had to give the floor to Pat Buchanan:

MCLAUGHLIN: Does Jackson have a legitimate point?
BUCHANAN: No, he doesn't. I'll tell you why, John. Here's why. What Barack Obama is saying is the message that needs to be heard. It's the Bill Cosby message. It is "Look, this is our responsibility. These are our families. White society is not responsible for our kids dropping out of schools or using drugs or going on welfare. We are." What Jesse Jackson says, is the white community's responsible and they've got to solve our problems.

Oh help me. Stereotype much, Pat? This is what passes as elevated public television political debate in this country. The omnipresent Michelle Bernard tries to get this back on track and get the old guard to catch up on post-race politics:

BERNARD: I want to go back to the point you made about whether or not Barack Obama is an Oreo, because if Barack Obama is an Oreo, then every member of this generation of African Americans is an Oreo, because we stand on the shoulders of the people who fought for our rights and all of us say that you cannot blame "The Man" or white racism for everything that ails the black community.

Pam's House Blend looks at that "nugget of truth"...

UPDATE: Media Matters is circulating a petition to ask John McLaughlin to apologize on air.

Transcripts below the fold:

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Zaius Nation: A brief preview of the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Corrente: ICE Raid in Iowa: We ARE the Terrorists Now

The Agitator: War Crimes

Seeing the Forest: Latest wingnut/unaccountable BUSHCO meme: Insolvency and heedless regulators are not the cause of bank failure. It's Chuck Schumer's fault.

Discourse.net: Miami wakes up to political reality

The Opinion Mill's Sunday Bookchat: Get a look at the new blockbuster from Thomas Frank, author of What's the Matter with Kansas? Get an earful from Naomi Klein about the latest uses of the "shock doctrine." Get a load of the jailbird who did a book review for the New York Sun. Get a boost from the success of a book about prosecuting Bush. And get a chance to compare the verse of Mao Zedong with the prose stylings of Bill O'Reilly. All this and more...

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: Broderella channels Nooners...Leader writing...The Pentagon wants you to get the 'full story'...Bugliosi is selling a lotta books, but the MSM won't touch him...MoDo goes to Fantasy Camp...FOIA Is Bushed...This is the last post of longtime LA Times reporter, Ken Reich...Arlington Cemetery whistleblower fired for trying to grant media access to Military funerals...Primetime Ad Rates fall 11%...Matt Drudge rules the 'journo' political world....Your press thinks killing people is funny...And That's The Way It Is... Journalisms...Hysterical controversy about Jesse Jackson's remarks...Fourth Estate or Fifth Column?

Halfway There: The executive direction of the DCCC wants me to believe that passage of continued funding for the lraq war is a great Democratic victory and I should send a contribution to encourage the Democratic majority in Congress.

Facing South: What happened to Haley Barbour's "Mississippi Miracle"?

At the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, I heard Jesse Jackson warn America to "Stay Out The Bushes." America didn't listen and most people don't realize how far off the road and into the Bushes we have been dragged.

DaddyBlogger: Are states abducting senior citizens for profit?

The Heretik: Welcome to the world of unlimited power from the people supposedly in favor of limited government. George Orwell says hello.

HOLY CRAP: A scheduled three-day celebration of the US Air Force's 60th anniversary will sponsored in part by evangelical Christian organizations...Among religious groups, Jewish Americans most strongly oppose the Iraq war...Huckabee in trouble with the Southern Baptist Convention...Bolt of lightning strikes a 33-foot statue of Jesus...The true meaning of Mitt's Mormonism...Spotlight on Christian terrorism...Radical Right irony watch...Rules are rules...Unloving behavior routinely displayed provides a clue that Christians are a minority in the US...Another Christian Science Fair embarrasses itself...To be a good Republican, you must believe...Orrin Hatch's song for Reverend Moon. Where are the leaders of America's vaunted Christian community, who should condemning this charlatan?...In the Age of Bush, it's nearly impossible to tell the difference between satire and some people's actual beliefs but neither political leadership or our pathetic press corps have noticed ...The Interfaith Alliance's State of Belief radio show...Morality: 2012...

Keith Olbermann on Watching Ohio/ Voter Irregularities Part VI

Jesse Jackson takes the stage, and an interview with Kenneth Blackwell

are featured.

Video

It's a very big file.

Keith Olbermann on Watching Ohio/ Voter Irregularities Part VII

Jesse Jackson replies to Blackwell's charges!

Video

Schiavo Autopsy Shows No Sign of Trauma/Will the Right apologize to Michael?

Terri Shciavo did not suffer any trauma prior to her 1990 collapse and her brain was about half of normal size when she died, according to results released Wednesday of an autopsy conducted on the severely brain-damaged woman. Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin concluded that there was no evidence of strangulation or other trauma leading to her collapse."The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain. ... This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."

Well the evidence is in. Poor Terri was in PVS and had no hope of recovery. Violence by her husband Michael Schiavo was also ruled out as the cause for her injury. I hope this closes the book on this case, except of course for Mark Furman's, but how will all those who called Michael a murderer feel? Will Sean Hannity and Joe Scarborough go on the air today and concede they were wrong while embarrassing themselves in the process? Bill Frist's ability to diagose patients by video now has got to be called into question.<snark> Tom Delay's actions to have a bill passed for political gain becomes an even greater humiliation for him. Will the extreme religious right come out in full force and admit Terri's fate should have been left up to the courts? Will the Church that excommunicated Judge Greer allow him to return? ( although if I was he, I wouldn't go back there.) Will the sycophants return all the money they made off of Terri, including the infamous donation list? And remember all those ballon video tapes? That wasn't happening either. This also proves how screwed our media is. ( like we didn't already) All the isane people that braved their way across our TV screens for thirteen days, proclaiming the "truth" and never having their credentials questioned. Randle Terry and others were presented as normal, rational people.

: Gee What a surprise.. Remember, her father actually said that if she only had the right therapy she'd be a productive member of society. Then there was Dr. Frist and Dr. DeLay's diagnoses. Oops.

Atrios says: Fristed Again: "I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office,” he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. “She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli.” Schiavo, it turns out, was completely blind.'

John Cole says: The usual supects will try to spin this that the results are inconclusive, but they should be ignored. And keep in mind, when they try to spin their nonsense- these are the same folks that want to take over the science curriculum and infuse it with 'divine design' and other ascientific garbge. But hey- Tony Perkins and Randall Terry got some camera time and jammed a lot of money in their pockets, didn't they? So it wasn't a total loss.

Daily Kos says: Frist is a terrible doctor: Not that wingers have any respect to "science" and "reality", but Michael Schiavo has more ammunition to use against the hordes of idiots who viciously slandered him during the emotional battle. I still hope he sues all their asses.

Kevin Drum says: I JUST PLAY ONE IN THE SENATE....Yes, Terri Schiavo really was in a persistent vegetative state. No, she never would have recovered. Just like the doctors who actually examined her said.

Think Progress says:Frist’s Fraudulent Diagnosis: Which makes Dr. Frist’s expert “diagnosis” all the more outrageous.

All Spin Zone: No word yet on whether James Dobson is pressuring Frist to introduce the Corpse Reanimation Act of 2005

BlondeSense says: Vultures Do It Too: I couldn’t help but think of the vultures as the press moved in. Once the press had spotted the report and the facts, and the physicians had left, they felt safe to drag the report away.

Fablog says: An Even MORE Persistent Vegetative State: But as we now learn, Frist, Didion, the Schindlers (Terri's parents and brother), Randall Terry, Jesse Jackson the Bush Administration, both houses of Congress and the Catholic Church were, uh. . . mistaken Not that mere truth has ever stood in the way of anyone who refused to dealwith it:

Talk Left says: Schiavo Autopsy: The autopsy results on Terri Schiavo are in: No abuse was shown. She was blind. No evidence of an eating disorder was shown.

The un-equivocal Notion says: I Bet You All Feel Stupid Now...

Majikthise says: Schiavo autopsy vindicates husband, impugns Frist: No surprises here. Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state, Michael Schiavo didn't beat her, Nat Hentoff is a crackpot, and Bill Frist is a demagogic quack.

Republic of T.: Called it: In a post at LeanLeft, on the Schiavo autopsy, I gave the following comment in response to the question of how the Schindlers would “spin” the autopsy finding. Spin? It’s science. And we already know that ideology trumps science. They’ll wave it aside with “God can still work miracles,” and not miss a step. I’m saying here and now that I basically called it, upon reading reports on the Schindlers’ reaction.

There's not much from the right yet. Didn't mean to put John Cole with the left

Blogs for Terr says:Will Autopsy Report Make 'Outlandish' Claims? What I am most interested to see is whether or not, as Michael Schiavo and his attorney George Felos hope, the M.E. purports to draw any conclusions regarding whether Terri was in a PVS (Persistent Vegetative State).