By his own definition of the term, McSame is one heck of an appeaser.
Full Lineup and other goodies below...

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are Avila, jlms qkw, joyful, shayera, vcmvo2, YatPundit, with srkp23 as editor.

• Deep Harm alerts us to the great difficulties that whistleblowers encounter in The court where whistleblowers win 1% of the time. (vcmvo2)
• dogemperor gives us the grim context of Mike Huckabee's recent comments, in Huck's "jokes" about Obama's death are no shocker to some of us. (jlms qkw)
• Timbuk3 reminds us that the Cheney/Rumsfeld show started long before 2001 in The Past Warns The Future: Iran/Contra. (jlms qkw)
• tullyccro's first diary examines parallels between the fall of the Roman Empire, destruction of Republican government and citizens' rights, and present neocon doctrine, in National Emergency, Elections, Privatization, and The Law. (Avila)
• artmartin reminds us of the "heavy lifting" required, in Getting a Democrat in the White House is the Easy Part. (jlms qkw)
• ShawnGBR reminds us that 'Appeasement' - just a Fright-wing misdirect... (shayera)
• iampunha brings us a bit of history, both personal and political, in May 17, 1954 and 1958: Brown v. Board, and my father's birthday. (joyful)
• leevank highlights some more disgraceful behavior by the Department of Homeland Security, in OUTRAGEOUS: Saving lives is less important than stopping illegal immigration. (shayera)
• Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse chalks up a win for the good guys, in Court Rejects Bush's New Dump-Waste-In-Waterways Rule. (vcmvo2)
• Asinus Asinum Fricat brings some good news on the world hunger front, in A Ray of Hope: G8 to Start Tackling Global Food Crisis. (YatPundit)
• xrepub thoroughly analyzes our economic state of the union and identifies several problem areas, in Meanwhile NOT in the world of politics... (vcmvo2)
• patrickz writes about how A Walk to Beautiful: A Documentary about Ethiopian women and obstetric fistula opened his eyes to this particular women's health issue and much more. (vcmvo2)
• njhoo offers A neurologist's perspective on Sen. Kennedy's seizure. (YatPundit)
• Dragon5616 applies Bush's favorite education policy to sports, in No Child Left Behind--The football version (snark). (jlms qkw)

jotter serves up High Impact Diaries - May 16, 2008.

carolita brings Top Comments 5-17-08 -- Lightning Edition.

Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread.

On Saturday the LA Times' Dan Morain produced what charitably can be described as a hit piece on Barack Obama. The ostensible point was summed up in the article's title, "Obama's wealth has skyrocketed". Here is the lede:

Barack Obama's wealth has more than doubled during his presidential campaign -- and has shot up tenfold since he entered the U.S. Senate three years ago, his financial disclosure filed Friday shows.

No doubt true - but hardly surprising given that he's sold many books since 2004 and no longer draws a modest Illinois Senate salary. Why not just say how much Obama is worth and leave aside the nearly meaningless rate of increase since 2004? Because the McCains' and Clintons' vastly higher wealth, both in 2004 and now, would make Obama's look pretty modest by comparison. In fact, the reader can't interpret the rate of increase for Obama because Morain doesn't indicate the rate at which the McCains', Clintons', or other Senators' assets increased.

The point of the exercise is to help portray Obama as an "elitist" who's getting above his station. Here's how the article concludes:

Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney said that although there were no questions of conflict related to Obama's writings, his wealth could present him with a political problem "because of the issue of elitism," a charge he has sought to fend off during his campaign.

"With millions in the bank, it is a little easier to make that charge stick," Pitney said. But, citing Cindy McCain's wealth, he added, "John McCain is probably not the best messenger."

Indeed, since Obama is the least wealthy of the three leading candidates, the charge actually is preposterous. Morain doesn't care to dwell upon that, however. Neither does he tell us that Pitney, the only person quoted in the article, is a Republican political analyst.

I wrote to Morain asking why he quoted only a Republican on Obama's wealth, and why he failed to identify him as a Republican. Here's the sum total of Morain's response:

Thanks for your note. I thought Pitney's comment was even-handed and thoughtful.

Republicans and their mouthpieces in the traditional media will give us many more hatchet jobs on Obama's alleged "elitism". They've already been trained to frame the candidate as an elitist. No need to take my word for it. Check out the photo-montage used by Time in its one-sentence link to the Morain article. There's nothing subtle about that, is there?

Amidst the uproar over George Bush politicizing the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence, the media has been strangely silent about the revelation that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, by George Bush and John McCain's own definition, is guilty of "foolish delusion," and lacks "the knowledge, the experience, the background to make the kind of judgments that are necessary to preserve this nation's security."  

Just one day before Bush declared that "some," also known as Barack Obama, is an appeaser to terrorists, the likes of which have not been seen since Hitler invaded Poland, and before John McCain chimed in by saying Obama wanted to enhance "the prestige of a nation that's a sponsor of terrorists and is directly responsible for the deaths of brave young Americans," Robert Gates said:

We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage with respect to the Iranians and then sit down and talk with them. If there's going to be a discussion, then they need something, too. We can't go to a discussion and be completely the demander with them not feeling that they need anything from us.

And while there has been plenty of coverage of Bush's remarks, McCain's parroting of Bush's remarks and Obama's smackdown of both of them, no one seems to be covering Gates' policy of terrorist-enabling appeasement.  Or as Jamison Foser at Media Matters put it:

Naturally, then, a media firestorm erupted, with the Bush administration and its political allies questioned all day about whether Bush has any idea what he is talking about, whether he has lost control over the Pentagon, whether Gates will be fired, what Gates thinks about Bush's comparison of those (like Gates) who advocate dialogue between the United States and Iran to appeasers of Adolf Hitler, and whether the fiasco will remind voters that the Bush administration's foreign policy has been marked by incompetence and dishonesty, thus doing irreparable electoral damage to John McCain and other Republican candidates.

Sorry -- what was I thinking? That didn't happen.

Foser points out that ABC, CBS, the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Time and ABC's The Note, have all extensively covered the "appeasement controversy," but have made no mention of Gates' comments.  Given that Dana Perino claimed that Bush's remarks simply reflected "long-established United States policy," why is the fact that Bush's own Secretary of Defense opposes this policy not news?  

Tom Davis is one of the few Republican office holders whose strategic analyses I respect as being largely free of ideology.  He's a past chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and one of the few Republicans who has voted against his party even when he was pressured to go along with the crowd.  He's not a bipartisan nice guy.  As chair of the Oversight committee, he blocked any serious investigations of the Bush administration, and since Democrats gained control of Congress he's been an obstructionist on many issues that could be politically damaging to the GOP or the Bush administration.  He's an adversary, not someone I like, but as a political strategist, he's someone to take seriously.  

Thus, it's noteworthy that Davis has written a 21 page memo to his colleagues with suggestions for what they must do to prevent disaster.  (Davis himself is not running for reelection.)  The entire memo(pdf) is worth a read.  But there are two pieces worth highlighting.  

I point this out because Obama’s appeal is to the liberal cultural base of the Democratic Party, not to its liberal economic base.  His connection to high income suburbs, the granola belt and college towns, is strong, but his connection to poorer whites, rural voters and other voters who may be susceptible to the Democrats’ message on the economy is not yet demonstrated.  Conservative value voters are a long way from being sold on Obama, even while they feel pinched by global trade, a soft housing market and high gas prices.  But Republicans have to hold these voters to have any chance in 2008.  

The Bush campaign focused like a laser on these voters, whether it was mailing the subscription list to "Guns and Ammo" magazine, to advertising on Christian Radio, to voter registration drives at conservative churches.  In 2004, it was all about "the base’ and driving turnout.

2008 is different.  Demographically, the nation is more diverse and more urbanized than in 2004.  The Iraq war has proved to be the ultimate cultural issue, fueling and giving oxygen to the cultural left, as well as planting doubts in many swing voters minds about the direction of the country.  The economy is softening and gas prices are skyrocketing, giving Obama an opening to court conservative value voters who are hurting economically.  Fortunately, Hillary Clinton has driven a wedge between these competing constituencies, keeping them in play at the Presidential level.  It begs the question of how these voters will vote in Congressional races.

One can take this analysis too far—and I think Davis does—but he's on solid footing in pointing out that the zeal for Obama doesn't emanate from the more economically populist factions within the Democratic primary electorate.  I think it's with populist independents that he needs to do the most immediate work solidifying voters who should be his.  Based on the results in Mississippi, these voters don't appear to be overly hostile to Obama, because using Obama against Travis Childers didn't work.  

However, I think Davis is correct that Hillary Clinton has created a bit of a problem by her divisive attempt to attack Obama as an elitist.  It's damage that can be repaired, but it will be require some serious work by both Hillary and Bill Clinton to fix things up.  

Davis also recognizes that the Republican "brand" has been grievously damaged and in dire need of a retooling:

It is clear from Congressional voting in special elections, in once safe districts in Illinois and Louisiana, that voters at the Congressional level, when given a choice, do not want more of the same.  Our attacks on Democrats for taxes do not ring true.  Our message is stale.  Without a clear change in direction, Congressional Republicans can count on more Louisiana’s and Illinois’s.  If we were a business that had been losing market share, would we simply wait for our competition’s product to blow up?  Or, would we re-tool, innovate and make the appropriate changes.  They don’t like our dog food.  They may not like the Democrat’s either, but for now, and through November, they appear to be buying it.  

My suggestion?  Don’t just put a new wrapper on the product and hire a new sales crew.  Let’s revamp, consistent with our principles and remember that this election is about independent voters.  Even if we get every Republican out to vote, we lose without Independents.  Forget the Democrats.  They’ve been waiting to get back since the Florida recount.  It’s all about the Independents, or we drop to a 170-180 seat permanent minority.  Yes, we’ll be comfortable in our caucus, but we’ll be irrelevant for the next decade.

But here's the problem for Republicans (and the opportunity for Democrats): there's no evidence to suggest that the Republicans will change their approach.  As Davis admitted in an interview:

I mean, things change hard and when your base, by the way, when there is seepage and your brand name is going down and your party registration is going down, the people that are left tend to be the hard core.   And it makes it harder and harder to change.

Since the 1990's, the Republicans have been willing hostages to their base.  Republican office holders are unwilling to go against their base, because they know they will be attacked by their base, and quite possibly targeted by fundie groups and Club for Growth, and most likely draw an extremist primary opponent (like the ones who've defeated Republican incumbent moderates Wayne Gilchrest and Joe Schwarz, and who blocked Davis' own path to the Republican nomination for Senate in Virginia).  

I don't have any sympathy for the Republicans.  But I do believe it must be horrible knowing that if they don't eschew the extreme right positions they've adopted over the years, they will get slaughtered in the general election, but breaking from the extreme right means they will not make it through party primaries.  

It couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of people.  

Coming Up on Sunday Kos ....

• DarkSyde will review Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life, a fascinating new book from best-selling science writer Carl Zimmer about lifestyles of the slimy and infectious.
• brownsox will conduct an autopsy on the vaunted Permanent Republican Majority, now reduced to a regional minority.
• DHinMI will suggest a candidate to be Barack Obama's running mate.
• Devilstower will explain why your prejudice is worse than my prejudice: race, sex, and the presidency.
• DavidNYC will ask, "Could Barack Obama really win... Mississippi?" The answer may surprise you.

This is good news:

A spokeswoman for Sen. Edward Kennedy says he is conscious and talking to family after he suffered a seizure in his Cape Cod home and was flown to a Boston hospital.   [...]

Spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said he is "conscious, talking, joking with family."

His wife, children and niece Caroline Kennedy are among those with him at the hospital.

Here's to hoping that Ted is back soon, raising hell!

If the potential consequences for our Constitutional rights and national security weren't so dire, the level of incompetence displayed by our government might actually be funny. But this is just pathetic. Wired's Ryan Singel reports on the latest slip-up from the FBI:

Once again, supposedly sensitive information blacked out from a government report turns out to be visible by computer experts armed with the Ctrl-C keys -- and that information turns out to be not very sensitive after all.

This time around, University of Pennsylvania professor Matt Blaze discovered that the Justice Department's Inspector General's office had failed to adequately obfuscate data in a March report (.pdf) about FBI payments to telecoms to make their legacy phone switches comply with 1995 wiretapping rules. That report detailed how the FBI had finished spending its allotted $500 million to help telephone companies retrofit their old switches to make them compliant with the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act or CALEA-- even as federal wiretaps target cell phones more than 90 percent of the time.

This isn't the first time the Justice Department has made such an error. In 2007, a U.S. attorney referred to THREAT LEVEL's own David Kravets (then at the AP) as a hacker for discovering similar hidden information in a BALCO steriod case filing. As far back as 2003, a report on minorities in the Justice Department was also vulnerable. The gaffes may seem humorous, but tell that to confidential informants, for whom such a slip-up could be fatal.

Blaze was attempting to copy a table from the PDFed report to send to a student by e-mail. A simple copy and paste of the table into his e-mail program revealed the supposedly redacted material. That's pretty high level security you got there, FBI. To make matters even more ridiculous, the information they were trying to keep secret was ridiculously unimportant.

The FBI paid Verizon $2500 a piece to upgrade 1,140 old telephone switches. Oddly the report didn't redact the total amount paid to the telecom -- slightly more than $2.9 million dollars -- but somehow the bad guys will win if they knew the number of switches and the cost paid....

Other nuggets? Hidden info in a blacked out screenshot of the FBI's wiretapping help line complaint management software reveals that even wiretappers have IT problems.

Cops in Montgomery County, Maryland had trouble right after Christmas in 2007 getting wiretap info delivered. Not far away in Baltimore (the honorary wiretap capital of the U.S.), cops had problems just before Christmas using the FBI's database of cell towers, which help cops figure out target's location and movements. Kenner, Louisiana cops just wanted a user name and password to chat in the Law Enforcement forum on ASKCalea.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, one is sure to see a crime wave across the country.

These are the people we're supposed to trust with our safety.

When they're hurting in Idaho, you know they're hurting everywhere. We've already seen the grassroots revolt in the works on the part of Paul supporters. But the fissures in the Idaho party run deeper. At the core of the party split is a fight over Idaho's primary system between the state central committee and many elected officials.

The battle came to a head this week, causing one Idaho observer to take note of the strong contrast between a united Democratic party in Idaho, and the Republican infighting [sub. required]:

With Obama at the top of the ticket, Democrats head into what promises to be a very good year for their party in congressional and state races across the nation with reason for hope.

Meanwhile, Republicans are still feuding. Their state central committee, comprising people elected locally, finally succeeded in forcing the party to sue a state government dominated by Republicans to require voters to go on record as Republicans before voting in party primaries. Statewide elected officials, GOP Chairman Kirk Sullivan and legislators had resisted both closed primaries and the lawsuit.

Monday, it appeared that resistance had not been fully overcome. Although the suit was filed a month earlier, it turned out state government had yet to be served with the paperwork, which would begin actual legal maneuvering. Worse, party officials gave differing reasons for the delay....

Is this conflict surprising? Not really. When any party has as large a majority as the Gem State GOP currently has, factions are bound to emerge, and eventually to collide. But this year in Idaho, Democrats have reason to give thanks that their own unity is not reflected in the party whose hold on power they intend to weaken.

The Democratic party is unified in Idaho, with a slate of legislative candidates that could be larger, but is still respectable. More importantly, they have two serious federal candidates in Walt Minnick (ID-01) and Larry LaRocco (ID-Sen), both of whom have been busy over the last few months criss-crossing the state to reach out to voters. There's also the Obama factor--Idahoans turned out in historic numbers to give Obama nearly 80% of the caucus vote. With him at the top of the ticket in November, you'd think even Idaho Republicans would start paying a bit of attention to the mood of the populace.

Instead, the state's leading candidates for federal office are displaying a degree of arrogance that would be surprising if it were coming anywhere but from Idaho Republicans. That arrogance has the potential to bite them with their own base. Both incumbent Rep. Bill Sali and leading Senate candidate Jim Risch are refusing to participate in primary debates.

Sali has backed out of tomorrow's debate sponsored by the League of Women voters on Idaho Public Television--the only one broadcast statewide--because he "just couldn't make it work in the schedule." Likewise, front-running Senate candidate Jim Risch refused to participate in the primary debate on IPTV, because he "didn't like the format, which allows for interplay between candidates that he fears could become negative."

Instead, Risch chose to participate in a debate by the most favorable of Idaho's media outlets, the NBC affiliate. Not only did they promise a format that was more to his liking--he wouldn't be challenged by his challengers--they controlled the audience, keeping out other political reporters.

Among those barred were the Associated Press, an Idaho Statesman reporter and independent candidate Rex Rammell, who parked a campaign bus outside the 1,500-seat Swayne Auditorium.

Quary said KTVB News Director Jim Gilchriest told him to exclude from auditorium access anyone not the list. Quary said Gilchriest told him he was too busy to talk to a Statesman reporter, who arrived a half-hour early about covering the only scheduled debate featuring front-running Lt. Gov. Jim Risch.

So let's review. The Republican party apparatus is at war with Republican elected officials. There's a grassroots movement by Ron Paul supporters who feel shut out of the party to take over precinct committee seats. The two leading federal candidates have blown off their responsibility to their base constituents by refusing to debate their primary. For the icing on the cake, Jim Risch has made some powerful enemies by shutting out key Idaho political reporters.

The national Republican party in a microcosm, arrogant and out of touch. That's a deadly combination in the face of a energized Democratic party and an electorate that's demanding change. Even in Idaho.

Race tracker wiki: ID-Sen ID-01

On a slow news day -- aside from hoping to hear more positive news about Senator Kennedy's condition -- let's check in with Obama's latest announced superdelegate:

CHICAGO, IL—Maryland superdelegate Greg Pecoraro endorsed Senator Barack Obama today, pledging to support Obama at this summer’s Democratic National Convention. Pecoraro’s endorsement brings Obama’s superdelegate total to 295.5. Obama is now 119.5 total delegates from the nomination.

Pecoraro is a city councilmember in Westminster, Maryland, where he serves as chairman of the Committee on Economic Development and Community Affairs, vice chair of the Finance Committee, and co-chair of the Special Committee on Growth and Annexation. He has also served as an assistant to U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes and Maryland State Treasurer Lucille Maurer.

Update: And as readers point out, Kid from Vegas has a diary pointing to an Inside Nevada Politics showing a Nevada delegate gain for Obama:

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama succeeded in driving more supporters to the Nevada state convention than his opponent U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who had won the state in the Jan. 19 caucuses. Obama essentially reversed Clinton's lead from the caucuses, capturing 55 percent of the state delegates to Clinton's 45 percent.

The heavy turnout earned Obama one more delegate to the national convention, than previously expected based on the caucus results.

• Another earthquake, this time, 6.1 in strength, has rocked the Sichuan province.
• Cindy McCain's riches are causing more problems for John McCain:

  McCain, whose wife has come under fire for refusing to disclose her tax return documents, fielded tough questions about her investment in a mutual fund that deals in Sudan, as well as about the resignation of two McCain aides over their involvement in lobbying deals with the Myanmar junta.

  The Arizona senator said that he was not aware of his wife's investment in two mutual funds that include holdings in Oil & Natural Gas Corp., which in turn does business in the genocide-ridden African nation.

  "I didn't know anything about it, until I saw the story, obviously, because I don't have anything to do with her finances," McCain said.

  According to the Associated Press, Cindy McCain sold more than $2 million of investment in the two firms today after the connection to Sudan was disclosed. "We found out about it," McCain said today. "They found out about it and fixed the problem."

• So desperate to break the McCain-Bush connection, Republicans are now claiming that McCain is like . . . Lincoln?

  STEVENS POINT, Wis. - Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan says like Abraham Lincoln, president candidate John McCain understands the importance of the struggle during wartime.

  Duncan likened McCain to Lincoln during a speech at Saturday's Wisconsin Republican convention.

  Square peg, meet round hole.

• 4,078 American troops have died in Iraq.  At least 29,978 have been wounded.  And still, with our troops being killed or injured every day, John McCain refuses to say how long he'll keep American troops there under these conditions.
• Democratic candidate in IL-10 on the skyrocketing costs of higher education:

  According to Seals, higher education costs have gone up 40 percent in the past five years. He said a year at a community college costs an average $13,000, the average cost for one year at a public, four year college is $17,000, and the average cost for a private four-year college is $32,000.

  "It's no surprise that two-thirds of students who graduate [college] are graduating in debt," Seals said. "And studies have shown that the average graduate is carrying about $19,000 of debt or more ... This really is shutting off opportunity for people to better their lives." [...]

  Seals told the teen journalists he's behind a plan first drafted by U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-5th, of Chicago, called the "Universal Higher Education and Lifetime Learning Act." The act would collapse the various college tax credit options into one $3,000 tax credit available to single tax payers with an annual income up to $80,000 and married couples with an annual income up to $160,000 who are paying for community college, four-year college or graduate school.

• Mike Huckabee apologizes for his joke about Barack Obama being shot at:

  "Friday night, Huckabee took to his blog to apologize for the quip. "During my speech at the NRA a loud noise backstage, that sounded like a chair falling, distracted the crowd and interrupted my speech. I made an off hand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama," he wrote. "I apologize that my comments were offensive, that was never my intention.""

  - BarbinMD

• Many readers have wondered about the cell phone impact on polls. Mark Blumenthal at pollster.com interviewed Jeff Jones about a supplemental non-landline phone survey Gallup is conducting.

  Without cell phone interviews, and weighted using Gallup's usual likely voter model, McCain would get 49% to Obama's 46% (clarification: this result combines six Gallup/USAToday surveys conducted so far during 2008). With the cell-phone interviews included, the result is Obama 48%, McCain 47%.

  It's part of an interview series with pollsters from the AAPOR meetings. Check out the link for more pollster interviews. - DemfromCT

A brief recap on the ongoing story of Ted Kennedy's hospitalization:

U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy was airlifted to a Boston hospital Saturday morning after falling ill at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, the Cape Cod Times reported.

He was first rushed to Cape Cod Hospital, and after being in the emergency room for two hours he was transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital, according to the Times.  [...]

Hyannis fire responded to the compound after a call was made around 8:30 a.m. It's unclear what Kennedy's medical condition is, but after he spent almost two hours in the emergency room a decision was made to transfer him to Mass General Hospital in Boston.

While it has been reported that Kennedy was suffering from "stroke-like symptoms," CNN's Ed Henry had some encouraging news when he reported that a Kennedy family source told him that Senator Kennedy himself made a phone call to cancel a luncheon nearly two hours after the initial 911 call. Sources also say that family members are "guardedly optimistic," which is good news.

A hospital spokesman will be coming out with an update on the Senator's condition soon.

Statements from the presidential campaign trail:

Barack Obama:  "I know a lot of you are interested in the situation with Senator Kennedy. I have been in contact with the family. Obviously they are in our thoughts and prayers – they I am sure will be releasing some sort of statement when they have a better assessment of what the situation is. You know, as I have said many times before, Ted Kennedy is a giant in American political history  –  he has done more for the health care of others than just about anybody in history and so we are going to be rooting for him and I insist on being optimistic about how it's going to turn out."

Hillary Clinton:  "My thoughts and prayers are with Ted Kennedy and his family today. We all wish him well and a quick recovery."

John McCain:  "I was very sorry to hear that Senator Kennedy has taken ill, and like millions of Americans, Cindy and I anxiously await word of his condition. Senator Kennedy's role in the U.S. Senate cannot be overstated. He is a legendary lawmaker, and I have the highest respect for him. When we have worked together, he has been a skillful, fair and generous partner. I consider it a great privilege to call him my friend. Cindy and I are praying for our friend, his wife, Vicki, and the Kennedy family."

Ed Henry now reporting that two family members told him they "expect the Senator to have a full recovery," and that he is doing much better.

Update:  The Associated Press is reporting that Senator Kennedy suffered a seizure.  Apparently seizures can be caused by any number of things, from a change in medication to a stroke, so we will continue to await an update from the hospital.  

Updates will follow as information becomes available:

U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy was airlifted to a Boston hospital Saturday morning after falling ill at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, the Cape Cod Times reported.

He was first rushed to Cape Cod Hospital, and after being in the emergency room for two hours he was transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital, according to the Times.

It's unknown what the 76-year-old senator's medical condition is.

Update:  Hat tip to Kossack jazzmen8 for pointing us to the Cape Cod Times:

Hyannis fire responded to the compound after a call was made around 8:30 a.m. It's unclear what Kennedy's medical condition is, but after he spent almost two hours in the emergency room a decision was made to transfer him to Mass General Hospital in Boston.

Kennedy, 76, was placed on a stretcher and wheeled out to the MedFlight helicopter around 10:15 a.m. where it took off from Barnstable Municipal Airport.

CNN and MSNBC reporting it was due to possible stroke-like symptoms.

Update II:  According to the Boston Globe:

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts has suffered a stroke in Hyannis Port and is being transported by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital, according to a leading poltical source.

Family members have been summoned to Boston, the source said.

Update III:  Official statement from the Senator's office:

Senator Kennedy went to Cape Cod Hospital this morning after feeling ill at his home. After discussion with his doctors in Boston, Senator Kennedy was sent to Massachusetts General Hospital for further examination.  He is currently under under evaluation and information will be released as it becomes available.

Update IV:  Some encouraging news:  On CNN, Ed Henry is reporting that a Kennedy source says that the Senator himself at about 10:30 a.m. called someone to say he couldn't host a luncheon. That would have been more than two hours after the originial 911 call.

Were my wife running for public office, you can be sure I'd make a donation to her campaign - if only to show my support and encouragement. It's the natural thing for a husband or wife to do, I think most people would agree.

What about the presidential candidates' spouses? The answer to that question is especially revealing in light of the charges of "elitism" directed so often against the least wealthy of the candidates, Barack Obama. I was not surprised to find, upon searching the FEC database, that Michelle Obama has given a modest donation to her husband's campaign (she gave $399 last year, to be precise).

Cindy McCain, however, has donated nothing to John's campaign through March of 2008 - not even once so far as FEC filings reveal. That fact reveals a good deal about the McCains.

Cindy McCain, who still refuses to release her tax returns, is operating at a whole different level than most of us. You may recall that the former CEO of Halliburton, Dick Cheney, had neglected for years to vote in Texas before he was nominated as a candidate for vice president in 2000. Like Cheney, Cindy McCain knows that her great personal wealth and business connections give her hidden ways to exercise political influence out of all proportion to what most ordinary citizens could ever hope to achieve. By comparison, the $2300 she'd be permitted by law to donate directly would be chicken feed in this family that owns eight houses. Cindy McCain just doesn't need to bother donating small sums to her husband's campaign.

For example as the NY Times revealed last month, Cindy McCain has donated the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars to her husband's campaign by giving him her corporate jet to use at cut-rate prices.

Given Senator John McCain’s signature stance on campaign finance reform, it was not surprising that he backed legislation last year requiring presidential candidates to pay the actual cost of flying on corporate jets. The law, which requires campaigns to pay charter rates when using such jets rather than cheaper first-class fares, was intended to reduce the influence of lobbyists and create a level financial playing field.

But over a seven-month period beginning last summer, Mr. McCain’s cash-short campaign gave itself an advantage by using a corporate jet owned by a company headed by his wife, Cindy McCain, according to public records. For five of those months, the plane was used almost exclusively for campaign-related purposes, those records show.

Mr. McCain’s campaign paid a total of $241,149 for the use of that plane from last August through February, records show. That amount is approximately the cost of chartering a similar jet for a month or two, according to industry estimates.

The senator was able to fly so inexpensively because the law specifically exempts aircraft owned by a candidate or his family or by a privately held company they control.

Funny thing about that, it's McCain's own legislation that permits his wife to donate to his campaign the corporate jet service worth about $1 million. And according to the NY Times McCain continues to this day to use his wife's corporate jet. Clearly John McCain is unashamed to have had his hypocrisy on campaign-finance "reform" exposed so starkly. The McCains are well beyond the ordinary ethics that the rest of us bring to civic life.

That helps to explain why Cindy hasn't bothered to donate directly to her husband's campaign. Real elitism means never having to concern yourself about a few hundred bucks here or there.

While the rising price of oil is quickly reflected in the dollars flowing into your gas tank, there's another energy source that's going up even faster than oil.  In fact, the price has gone is up 100% in less than a year.

Benchmark prices for some grades of electricity-generating steam coal are more than $100 for a metric ton, double September’s price. Metallurgical coal, the type used in steel making, has tripled in some contracts.

Only a year ago, it was eye-opening to see met coal contracts coming in above $100, but to see steam coal at this rate is astounding.  Little wonder that investors are ecstatic about the coal industry.

Year to date, shares of Arch Coal Inc. are up 41%. The biggie of the industry, Peabody Energy Corp., has waxed 24% -- and 94% from its August trough. ... Kohler rates Massey Energy Co. a buy for its concentration in metallurgical coal, the sweet spot of the market.

You may remember Massey Energy from the number of mine deaths, from their toxic flood 25x the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster, and for having the CEO take a supreme court judge on vacation to the Rivera while his company was waiting for a decision on a $76 million judgment.  Regardless, as far as the investment community is concerned, Massey is a "buy."

Nothing like that disconnect between dollars and damage.

But while the cost to the consumer hasn't been as obvious as the cost of oil, sooner or later (probably sooner) that cost is going to show up in your electric bill.  And, like oil, it'll show up in the cost of everything manufactured using electricity, which is... pretty much everything.  

And of course, when it comes to coal, the cost isn't all in the bill.  

What we are paying up for is the dirtiest fossil fuel in the ground, infamous for wielding a heavy hand in the planet’s warming. In Beijing they wear surgical masks to ward off the soot from coal-fired plants, which then drifts across the Pacific to further foul the air over Los Angeles. That’s not all. Black lung disease, mercury and sulfur emissions and the ravaging of Appalachian mountaintops are part of the legacy that keeps our lights on.

The only good thing about prices this high is that it should help to encourage the rapid expansion of solar and wind.

Arguments by authority are one of the most common rhetorical arrows plucked from the quiver of logical fallacies. They're particularly effective among authoritarian groups. For years Einstein's opinion on supernatural phenomena has been used and misused and outright fabricated to prop up various metaphysical claims. A new letter reportedly written by the world's most famous scientist was recently found and auctioned off in which Einstein wrote in part:

TeleUK -- The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.

Arrgh, religion! Nothing get's me heav'n heathen masses on the Great and Powerful Orange Satan comment'n like religion-n-science. Well, Einstein was a great physicist. But he has religious opinions just like anyone else, and his judgment on other matters, say for example his choice in hairstylists, was not always impressive. So I'm not clear and never have been on why someone would form their own beliefs, pro or con, based on what Einstein thought about God or Shiva or Peter Griffin's Ghost That Never Lies.

• I link to PZ so I won't have to link directly to the interview, in which Ben Stein whines that evolution doesn't explain gravity and this therefore, means, something bad ... about evolution ...? Yeah, we can't figure it out either.
• I'll be discussing Carl Zimmer's new book Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life tomorrow on Sunday Kos. In the meantime, feel free to tell us your favorite E. coli related tale.
• NASA finds evidence of global warming impacting thousands of species. The weird thing is, if you search on Google News there's lots of foreign media outlets carrying the story and only one or two US outlets. It is still our NASA, right?
• Speaking of Einstein, logical fallacies, and religion, this just in: The Vatican now says "Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God" ... More ...

I've been a big fan of Harper's Index since forever. Footnoted statistics, often grouped in pairs, triplets or foursomes, guaranteed to spark a chuckle or a discussion. Like, for instance, this item from back in January:

Percentage of NYU students who say they would "permanently forfeit" their vote for $1 million: 50

Or from March 1994:

Chances that a fatal accident involving a Corvette will involve no other vehicle: 4 in 5

Or from June 1986:

Amount the Reagan Administration has budgeted for military bands in 1987: $154,200,000

Amount it has budgeted for the National Endowment for the Arts:$144,900,000

The current (June) issue has this relevant grouping:

Portion of Barack Obama supporters who said in April they would not vote for Hillary Clinton if she became the nominee: 1 in 5

Portion of Clinton supporters who said this about Obama: 1/4

Percentage of John McCain supporters in March 2000 who said they would not vote for George W. Bush: 51

Percentage who still said this in October 2000: 39

The Overnight News Digest is posted and includes this item from Eric Schmitt and Tim Golden in Saturday's The New York Times: U.S. Planning Big New Prison in Afghanistan.