In this day and age, it can be awful hard defending your allegiance to today's Republican Party. For Rep. Chris Shays, it proved so difficult that he's now masquerading as some Obamaesque Democratic/Republican hybrid. Witness:

That's right, lifelong Republican Chris Shays is leading his ads with an image of the Democratic presidential nominee.

Shays is a co-chair of McCain's campaign, of course.

And as for his apparent claims to transcend partisanship and other cool stuff like that...well, the campaign of Orange to Blue candidate Jim Himes would beg to differ. For it seems Shays, despite his bluster, in fact votes with his Republican brethren nine out of ten times - on the closest and most critical of votes.

Some examples:

- Voting against tax cuts for the middle class, including voting against extending credits for college tuition and voting against exempting middle class families from the Alternative Minimum Tax (HR 3996) - Voting against a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq (HR 1591) - Voting to allow torture by CIA interrogators (HR 2082)

He inflates his "bipartisan credentials" in other words, by siding with Democrats when he isn't needed.

On the web:
Jim Himes for Congress
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

News from tonight's primaries:

In Connecticut's Fourth District, Orange to Blue candidate Jim Himes administered a severe electoral beating to his primary opponent, Lee Whitnum.

How severe?

Himes won 87% to 13%. Granted, Whitnum was an exceptionally weak opponent, but still, a 74-point win is not bad.

In Colorado's Second District - perhaps the one of most interest to Democrats, as the Democratic primary here will determine the next Representative from a safe Democratic district - Jared Polis leads Joan Fitz-Gerald by just under 1,400 votes, with just 30% of the vote counted. Polis has 43% of the vote, to Fitz-Gerald's 39%.

The third candidate, Will Shafroth, trails with 18% and is pretty much done.

In the Fifth District, widely loathed GOP incumbent Doug Lamborn has apparently lived to fight another year. Lamborn picked up 46% of the vote in his reelection bid (it's an R+16 district, so the Republican primary usually is the election here).

His two rivals, Jeff Crank and Bentley Rayburn, have 29% and 26%, respectively, with 58% of the vote in.

Meanwhile in the Sixth District, Tom Tancredo's old stomping grounds, 93% of the vote is in, and it appears that Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman has fended off fellow Republican Wil Armstrong (son of former Sen. Bill Armstrong) to win the nomination (and almost certainly win election).

This has two side effects. First, the next Colorado Secretary of State will be a Democrat, appointed by Democratic Governor Bill Ritter.

Second, Coffman has been mentioned as a potential U.S. Senate candidate for 2010, against Democratic incumbent Sen. Ken Salazar. A loss here would have neatly ended such talk, but Coffman's victory makes a future Senate run a bit more likely. With a statewide electoral pedigree, it would seem the GOP could come up with worse candidates than Coffman.

At 10:35 pm with more than 60% of precincts reporting in the Democratic primary for Connecticut's 4th Congressional District, OrangetoBlue candidate Jim Himes appears well on his way to a resounding victory with 90% of the vote in this primary election.

Jim Himes will now set his sights on the general election race for the 4th C.D. seat currently held by Rep. Christopher Shays.

Congressman Shays, a 20-year incumbent, is the last remaining Republican U.S. House member from New England.

Just a quick glimpse of dedicated people working hard for the Himes campaign  in Connecticut ~

Do we look worried?

In CT-04, we're lucky. We get to vote for a great candidate twice. The More half the equation is November 4th; the Better half is today, August 12th, primary day.

I'd be proud to support Jim Himes no matter where he was running (or against whom), but against Loony Lee Whitnum in this primary (and Both Ways Shays in the general!), it's twice as nice and twice as important. Two years ago we helped put Ned Lamont over the top; now let's give his good friend and one of his earliest supporters as resounding a victory as possible.

Jim would certainly be More--here's why he's Better. He left Wall Street to work for a non-profit foundation that builds affordable and green housing, has been an active Democrat (including Town Chair), and is running a people-centric campaign, the kind we've argued Dems should run. Most recently, he showed his true colors in soundly condemning the FISA "compromise" and would have made Connecticut's House delegation unanimous in opposition.

More below the fold...

(Jim, Mary, Emma, and Linley Himes voting this morning in CT-04.)

It's finally here: primary day in CT-04! Orange to Blue candidate Jim Himes is taking on "Hedge Fund Mistress" author Lee Whitnum in what is shaping up to be a very low-turnout contest for the Democratic nomination to take on Chris Shays in November.

Remember this, from two years ago today?

We beat Joe Lieberman two years ago today and in the process changed how we talked about the Iraq War and the entire narrative for the 2006 elections. More than anything, Ned Lamont's win over Joe Lieberman on August 8, 2006 proved the value of primaries.

It isolated and marginalized Joe Lieberman. Sure, he snowed the people of Connecticut into voting for him one last time by telling them he'd seen the light, that he was ready to get us out of Iraq. And you can bet that the people of Connecticut won't be making the same mistake again. But we succeeded in driving him from the party, and in the process, showed what a committed progressive grassroots and netroots community could do to shape an election.

It's also the promise of what we will do in 2010. But in the meantime, here's a little reminder of what was.

We're doing it LIVE at NY Milkshake Company at 342 E 47th St!  clammyc, kath25, DemocraticLuntz, and MORE are here having a great time!  Reflections of Netroots Nation (I'm doing next year!), enjoying a cool NY night with a nice breeze, and having great food, and of course, MILKSHAKES!  If you're in the area, will you join us??

Birds such as the red-tailed hawk pictured here are not an uncommon sight.  They come in great varieties; the ones we saw in New Mexico were very different in appearance from the Eastern variety, and this can be confusing for birders.  They do, however, have a fairly consistent field mark in all their morphs.  The dark lines visible on the birds "shoulders' (this is technically the patagium) are a definitive marker for the red-tailed hawk and can help birders differentiate them from other bird varieties.  In this post, I'm going to examine different species of predatory birds and talk a little bit about my experience with them.  I'm going to focus this diary on the birds you can find in the Northeast, though a few of the photos are from New Mexico.  

I'm going to start below the fold with the American Kestrel, the smallest falcon we have in the United States.  

Let us take a peek at last year, shall we?

Bill O'Reilly Says He Will "Destroy" Daily Kos Today Hotlist

Today, Father Coughlin -- er, sorry, frog in my throat -- Bill O'Reilly is planning another in his ongoing attacks against Daily Kos and YearlyKos. Fox News has apparently been emailing the Democratic campaigns asking them for "comment" on Bill's ongoing Jihad of Jackassery: the following email was sent on to us from one of those Democratic campaigns:

 

From: Mitchell, Ron [mailto:xxxxxxx@FOXNEWS.COM]
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007
To: xxxxxxx
Subject: Fox News Request

 

This is Ron Mitchell with Bill O'Reilly at the Fox News Channel.

 

The O'Reilly Factor plans an update on issues involving DailyKos website the story for Monday.

 

There are some disturbing images on the DailyKos depicting Sen. Joe Lieberman and others along with some very offensive language.

Much More Below...

Here in Middletown, Connecticut, Matt Lesser, a Democratic candidate for State Representative, is making his mark as a young fresh voice, effective leader and very strong campaigner.  The energy and excitement of national politics has become apparent even on the local level here in Connecticut's 100th district.  This campaign has seen unprecedented levels of excitement and enthusiasm by people who have never been involved in campaigns before.

On Saturday, the Matt Lesser campaign held a wildly successful and well-attended event, which served as a testament to the energy and enthusiasm behind his campaign.  Matt addressed dozens of supporters before introducing a door-to-door petition drive urging Governor Rell to join Democrats in the legislature in addressing the state's imminent home heating oil crisis.

Over 20 volunteers showed up to go door-to-door with the petition.  In several hours work, the volunteers collected a whopping 220 petition signatures.

See below the fold for the footage from the event and more information on the race.

Progresssive columnist Sarah Littman, whose essays are carried in Greenwich Time and Stamford Advocate (both publicatins owned by Hearst Newspapers), was fired by publisher John Dunster on Thursday for having written a column critical of Loony Lee Whitnum while having held a "meet-and-greet" for Jim Himes last year.  According to Littman, Dunster maintains that criticizing Loony Lee while having held a "meet-and-greet" for Jim Himes last year "compromises the integrity of the paper".  

What's the truth?  This is a right-wing rag that has been shilling for Whitnum for months.  In virtually every article about Jim Himes, Greenwich Time's political reporter Neil Vigdor has been boosting Whitnum's candidacy, covering up her whacky utterances and essentially portraying Whitnum as a courageous fighter against the Democratic machine.

But this appears to have been nothing but a pretext.  

Republican congressman Chris Shays (CT-04) has been permitted to host the annual picinic of the Connecticut Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Association (CT RPCV) at his house in Bridgeport next weekend, a politicization of the Peace Corps that I believe is blatantly wrong.  The RPVC organization is an official affiliate of the national organization, which is in turn a non-profit, non-political 501(c)3.  CT RPCV president Maureen Shanley has stated that official Peace Corps business will be conducted at Shays' house during the picnic.  Peace Corps recruiters have been invited to come from New York, and prospective Peace Corps volunteers have also been invited.  Holding an official Peace Corps meeting at the home of a partisan  elected politician, even when it is a  meeting of returned Peace Corps Volunteers, especially just a few short weeks before that politician stands for re-election, constitues a blatant, ompletely unacceptable politicization of the Peace Corps.  

Trolls on your marks.  Get Set.  Counting down: 3, 2, 1.  Go.

John Ashcroft thinks it's okay to torture members of the United States Armed Forces.  However, Mr. Ashcroft sometimes has problems with facts and reality.  It seems unlikely that he would approve of the use of waterboarding on his own person.  Perhaps waterboarding would help change his mind.

A special shout out to Michael Savage.  The "brats" aren't faking autism.  In Michael's case I'd say he's not faking stupidity either.

Just for the record, in case anyone gets confused, I'm voting for the candidate who works out (That's bad, Nutz?).  He's a strong man, both physically and of character.  You may have heard of him.  His name is Barack.

Number of times I wanted Ron Paul to run the show: -1000
Number of insane things Congress has done:  I lost count.
Keep your head down, this bazooka has a hair trigger.
Onward.

This today from PSN's Adam Thompson on the right wing plan to "reform" health care by forcing folks into indivudal plans with high out-of-pocket costs:

As with John McCain's health care reform proposals, the Florida and Georgia plans are indicative of the Right's allegiance to "consumer-driven health care" - the idea that Americans will use less care if they must pay more out-of-pocket.  As the New York Times reports, Sen. McCain wants Americans to purchase their insurance in the volatile and costly individual market, eschewing the stronger bargaining power and better consumer protections found in employer-based and large group coverage.  The problem with this approach is that high out of pocket costs - which are the result of high deductible and limited benefit plans - lead consumers to avoid necessary care, resulting in worse outcomes and higher system-wide costs in the long run.  

Faux moderate and Bush Neocon Chris Shays (Rep-CT's 4th district) will appear on John Dankosky's "Where We Live" live call-in show tomorrow morning (Friday, July 11) on Connecticut public radio's WNPR.  In Fairfield County, it is carried on 88.5 FM.  Please call in or email your questions for Both Ways Shays.  If you live or are travelling outside Connecticut, please send in your pointed questions by email.

Call during the Show:

(860) 275-7266

Or email questions and comments to:

wherewelive@wnpr.org

You have to get on the phone early, because Dankosky actually doesn't take many calls from listeners.  Shays is opposed by a great progressive Democrat- former Rhodes Scholar and Harvard grad Jim Himes.

Much has been written the last few days about abortion.  I guess I started the newest wave with Obama Swings Right on Abortion.  John Campanelli wrote a well-reasoned Response to "Obama swings right on abortion".  Then it was off to the races, with "Clinton swung right on abortion!," "Obama's faith-based mental abortion of FISA's women," and more. [links make the intro too long. Look for the "abortion" tag.]

Then the conversation changed from Obama to abortion laws in general, with Obama Does the Right Thing on Abortion, Mercy Abortions: Let me preach to the choir,abortion and democrats, The Most Radioactive of Topics - Abortion, Debunking The Abortion Reduction Plank Proposal, Pro-Choice Leaders Refuse to Work With Pro-Life Democrats.

Every single diary contributed something to the conversation.  Unfortunately, every single diary also missed the essential truth of abortion laws- they function in real life, not theory, and they are intended to chill all abortions, not merely define some as unlawful.

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

In the aftermath of the presidential primaries, stories of unprecedented voter registration and turnout are drifting to the back burner. But with an exceedingly imbalanced electorate, the fight to create access to the voting rolls and enforce the voting rights of all Americans continues. With historic voter registration drives underway and a preview of the types of problems that could occur in November, the focus of the media is beginning to shift towards the less sexy, but crucial elements that work to maximize voter participation while ensuring eligible voters can cast their ballots and have them counted. In Project Vote’s view, this is a welcome development since many of the potential issues require more time to sort out than is available if problems are noted only weeks in advance of the election. This week, election officials, advocates and a presidential candidate worked to assist in or restore voting rights for hospitalized veterans in Connecticut, minority citizens in Georgia, and former felons in Tennessee.