(cross posted at kickin it with cg and Clintonistas for Obama)

Politico is reporting that a new conservative group has produced a television ad attacking Barack Obama for his relationship with former Weather Underground bomber Bill Ayers.

"How much do your really know about Barack Obama? What does he really believe?" asks the ad, which then cites the failed attack on the Capitol on 9/11, and links it to the Weather Underground attack on the Capitol decades earlier.

The group says it will spend $2.8 million airing the ad in Ohio and Michigan -- which would be the largest single third-party expenditure this cycle.

"Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it?" asks the narrator. "Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?"

The group, the American Issues Project, is part of a group that isn't required to disclose its donors and is a product of a coalition of conservative groups, including Iowans for Tax Relief. Its president is Ed Martin, a Missouri conservative. Another official, Ed Failor, Jr., is a former McCain aide in Iowa who left after the campaign's shakeup last summer.

The use of 9/11 imagery links Ayers, and Obama, to the American conflict Islamic terror, which is the subject of many viral emails attacking Obama.  The group's spokesman, Christian Pinkston, called the suggestion that the group is making any link with Islam "unfair."

"The idea here was to talk about the fact that his friends hate America, and that's who he's aligning himself with," he said.

It's spokesman, Christian Pinkston, is a former aide to presidential candidate Jack Kemp, and went on to run the conservative group Empower America.  Pinkston says the ad will launch later this afternoon.

Cross-posted at Project Vote's Voting Matters Blog

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

With little more than two months left before Election Day, prospective voters are rushing to get registered. And like the way that slugs thrive in moist weather, voter suppression attacks spring up around large-scale voter registration drives. Partisan attempts to shape the electorate, in effect choosing the voters rather than voters choosing their own representatives, seek to impose barriers to voter participation by eligible citizens rather than creating a system that works to facilitate the foundational right of American democracy. Voter ID laws are a particularly favorite weapon in the arsenal of partisans seeking to choose their own voters to the exclusion of other eligible citizens. More than 25 states introduced voter ID bills this year and at least nine have such laws in place for this November's election despite scant evidence of voter impersonation, the ill it is supposed to stop.

Here's a great attack ad mocking McSame's CELEBRITY lifestyle and Scrooge like heart.

Enjoy.

The Washington Post is today reporting that Obama is looking to change© the way the Democratic Nominee is selected.

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign will call next week for the creation of a commission to revise the rules for selecting a presidential nominee in 2012, with a goal of reducing the power of superdelegates, whose role became a major point of contention during the long battle for the Democratic nomination between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Cross-posted at Blue Jersey.

I'm Josh Zeitz, the Democratic candidate for Congress in New Jersey's Fourth District. I want to talk to you about my strong support for reproductive rights, but first I want to tell you about the person I'm running against. My opponent, Chris Smith, is the leader of the anti-choice caucus in the House of Representatives.

Chris Smith has introduced legislation to criminalize the common, everyday birth control pill and IUD on twenty-two separate occasions. He wants to put millions of American women in jail for using the pill. We have to say no to this kind of extremism.

My campaign has produced a video outlining Smith's attempt to criminalize birth control, and you can view it by clicking below.

I believe that access to basic birth control and family planning services is a fundamental right. By refusing to provide contraception and age appropriate sex education, Chris Smith's policies increase the number of unintended pregnancies.

By providing women with a full range of information and health care options, we can help them make informed decisions about their lives and bodies. Together we can continue to provide women the right to choose.

I know how important reproductive rights are to all of you, and I want to thank you for taking time to learn more about this crucial Congressional race.

If you are able, please make a contribution at my ActBlue page.

If you'd like to volunteer, please contact steve_at_joshzeitz_dot_com. Please visit the campaign at www.joshzeitz.com to learn more about what I believe.

Sincerely,

Josh Zeitz

Yeah.  All at once.  Out. of Contol.  In McMansion McCainville.  

You all know what happened.  McCain couldn't remember how many houses he owned.  Obama smacked him on it, with comments in a speech and a TV ad.  Now McCain's campaign literally is going nuts.  They know it's a game changer.

"We're delighted to have a real estate debate with Barack Obama," said spokesman Brian Rogers, adding that the press should focus on Obama's house. "It's a frickin' mansion. He doesn't tell people that. You have a mansion you bought in a shady deal with a convicted felon."

snip

That's fair game now," he said. "You are going to see more of that now that this issue has been joined. You'll see more of the Rezko matter from us."

snip

He also added: "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," referring to the prisoner of war camp that McCain was in during the Vietnam War.

snip

"In terms of who's an elitist, I think people have made a judgment that John McCain is not an arugula-eating, pointy headed professor-type based on his life story."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-tra il/2008/08/21/mccain_spokesmans_retort_o bama.html

I think they are losing it!!  

It's not McCain's number of houses we're questioning, just his judgment.  :-)

This is fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the only thing saving McCain is there's no video..

but still remember papa Bush not recognizing a grocery scanner?

there's the image of Bush senior and McCain at Kennebunkport wearing the $520 loafers in the golf cart.

Just use those images with McCain not knowing how many houses he owns...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/isabel-wilkinson/a-week-in-john-mccains-sh_b_115692.html?page=5

I'm definitely of the school of thought that thinks Joe Biden definitely is the frontrunner, and perhaps the already-chosen candidate for Vice President in our party. We'll know soon enough.

But, I've also been a big proponent that former Florida Senator and Governor Bob Graham is a natural and virtually perfect fit with Obama, as well.

When I've brought this up on these progressive blogs, people have pointed to Graham's age, 71, (which makes him younger than McCain) as perhaps the primary reason why he'd never be "the one." But, Biden's 65. So, I've got to think that the Obama campaign may have, actually, taken a closer look at Graham than many may think.