Midday Open Thread

by BarbinMD [courtesy of Daily Kos]

• James at Swing State Project looks at the second quarter fundraising reports from various congressional candidates.
• Kit Bond (R-MO) joins the long line of Republicans who are lying about oil spills during Hurricane Katrina.
• Thank you:

  Can I just note that I seem to live in some kind of mirror universe where the fact that Barack Obama has, for months, maintained a modest lead over John McCain in every public poll constitutes bad news for Obama and that the specific reason it constitutes bad news for Obama is that the larger political climate is favorable to Obama.

• John McCain decided it was time to address the NAACP. Apparently the applause was polite.
• George Bush is negotiating with "radicals and terrorists." John Cole sees three possible reactions to this story:

  Option #1 is a pure freak out by the wingnut crowd (if I had to bet money, either someone from Malkin’s enterprise or Commentary will lead the charge), who claim it is more evidence Bush is not a true conservative, all the while claiming McCain would never do something like this. Option #2 is to deny they are actually, you know, negotiating, and Burns is just along for the ride. Option #3 is the tried and true "BUT THE DEMOCRATS ARE WORSE." And the final option is to simply pretend this didn’t happen.

• From the Jesus' General, some advertising advice for Washington state's groping Commissioner of Public Lands.
• It took 15 innings for the National League to lose another All-Star game.