Friday's opinion page features at least two items of note.

Also in the A section, a well done piece on why the GOP has had to shift gears in dealing with the Obama campaign.

It does indeed seem we're seeing a shift in campaign coverage. On the part of, at least, NYT.

Here are some of the things that have been going on at my work lately... not exactly work related, but nothing nefarious or illegal.  Though certainly against company policy.

I would encourage everyone in a situation similar to mine to give some of these a try, its quite entertaining.

I agree with mcjoan that this wasn't the best compromise Democrats could get.  At the same time, the FISA compromise wasn't worth a quixiotic fight, either.  At the end of the day, below the fold is what this election is about:

Over the weekend, Senator McCain said, "this election is about trust and trusting people's word and, unfortunately, apparently on several items, Senator Obama's word cannot be trusted."

Ummmm..Johnny baby...are ya sitting down? Here's a few of your own words that lead all of us to distrust you overwhelmingly, every day! You're an embarrassment to yourself, McSame! This is the age of the "Internet(s)" and "the" Youtube using Bushian malaprops. We've got you on record, McFlip/Flop! Facts are just silly things that get in your way...ehhh, McSame?

Many, many, many thanks to one of my true media heroes and ever-present mentor..Keith Olbermann!

Iceberg Slim posted a diary For the Love of Money on this this morning, but I think it deserves more attention, and perhaps a front page post.  According to the Politico:

Their credit card bills peaked between January 2007 and May 2008, during which time Cindy McCain charged as much as $500,000 in a single month on one American Express card and $250,000 on another, while one of their two dependent children had an AmEx card with a monthly balance as large as $50,000.

In a related story, it was disclosed that Leona Helmsley left $5-8 billion for the benefit of dogs. see disclaimer below

Like the tax defaults on the McCain's home this is something that might just disgust the average person.

My name is Julie, and I confess: I'm a lifer in the Republican party. The only time I voted Democratic was my first election: 1980. I liked Jimmy Carter and didn't know Reagan. However, four years later, I was converted to evangelicalism and Reagan while attending UCLA. My parents' divorce drove me to look for rock solid moral values that would protect me from adultery, that would ensure that my children grew up in a healthy, nurturing environment, that would promote the traditional family, that would reignite pride in our country (after what felt like a decade of shame in the 1970s).

I was one of those young adults who found the memory of the 60s to be threatening and dangerously a-moral. I wanted something I could count on. Conservatism gave it to me.

But in the last couple of years, my entire worldview flipped and Barack Obama has had a significant hand in that changed perspective. Several dkos members here have suggested I write a diary about it, so this is it. More on the other side.

Darragh Murphy the founder of PUMA is a pretty hardcore Democrat, so hardcore that she donates to the McCain campaign. Hmmm, read the rest.

I'm not kidding... well at least many on the right aren't kidding.

Pixar's new animated hit WALL-E has caused outrage amongst some on the right. Glenn Beck said that it was teaching his kids terrible environmental messages. Jonah Goldberg describes it a "Malthusian fear mongering" and the list goes on and on... leading many reasonable people to think "what the ****? this is a kids movie about robots in the future."

Here is a clip of Lars Larson from last night's edition of Verdict with Dan Abrams who defends his fellow right wing colleagues and says that  Pixar's WALL-E is dangerous propaganda for our children. Not only that, but he says that believing this doesn't make him a 'radical right' guy or the equivalent of (gasp) Keith Olbermann. Watch the clip below and weigh in with your own thoughts and opinions:

Guys, one of my wingnut friends sent me an email today about how Muslims are generally intolerant wherever they live. His "proof" was some blog post or chain email (I’m guessing from Neal Boortz or somebody), and it included this "analysis":

When we started talking about all of the "Muslims Outraged" newspaper headlines we had seen over the years. Using the Yahoo search engine I looked for the number of hits on various versions of "Muslims Outraged." We put the phrase into quotation marks so that it would only show a hit where those words appear together. That particular grammatical usage would more often appear in headlines than in the body of a story where the phrase would more likely be "Muslims were outraged." So .. here are your results.

Muslims Outraged – 35,600 hits
Christians Outraged – 2990
Jews Outraged – 2060
Buddhists Outraged – 24
Catholics Outraged – 11,500
Democrats Outraged – 45,600
Republicans Outraged 13,800

Does military experience or experience as a P.O.W. qualify one to be President of the United States?

I dunno.  Maybe to a small degree.

Do impulse control and the ability to lead effective diplomacy qualify one to be President of the United States?

No.

But, if you don't have impulse control and can't be an effective diplomat, you're automatically disqualified from the office.

Senator McCain, you're not fit for office.

I am fired up about the Constitution, and perhaps my reverence for it qualifies as a secular religion, and as such might cast haze over my eyes when it comes to more immediate, pressing considerations in the realpolitik of American politics in general and advancing the progressive agenda in detail.

I have, sometimes nicely, received this hint from quite a few persons the past few weeks.

The short form: CSK, you need to look at the big picture.

I answered, not always nicely, that what was bigger than the Constitution?

Let me be up front and apologize for that belligerence. Sorry, guys.

So I took the advice and revisited my thoughts on this election for the past several months...and here is what I came up with.

    I'm sorry if what I am about to write here offends anyone personally, as that is certainly not my intent, but I have to chime in on this ongoing debate about whether or not to criticize Barack Obama over his recent apparent turn to the center. I should say first that I am at best a casual observer of the twists and turns of this debate, as I tend to be with most of these divisions among online communities that I belong to, so I am almost definitely going to be retreading over well-worn territory, and for all I know, I may well be so late to the party that this division is no longer as big a thing as it seems. That being said, the issues at hand (FISA and telecom immunity, gun control, etc) are as important to me as I'm sure they are to all of you, and I just need to get this off my chest before my head explodes.

Nancy Benac on HuffPo has a terrific story that on reported donations over $200 from military personnel Obama outdoes McCain:

That Obama attracts support from some in the military is evident in dollars and cents: Among people who have donated at least $200 to a presidential campaign this election cycle, Obama has collected more than $327,000 from those identifying themselves as military personnel, while McCain has collected $224,000, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by The Associated Press.

It's not all roses and sunshine as McCain will obviously garner military support. But the signs are there that is not going to be a cakewalk.

Tonight I and several others celebrated a friend's 82 birthday.  Now I know most people would consider it unlikely that at age 82 a person might still be out there making a difference, but this person is, and she serves as an inspiration for me.

I first met Rosa in early 2004.  At that time I was nearing age 44, nervously approaching public speaking in my first real community battle.  Some of that I have diaried about in the past, but essentially the community battle was one that pitted those of us fighting against the then Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush.  

My first introduction to Rosa was at a public meeting, where she went to the podium and literally gave a verbal tongue lashing to the same elected officials that I was still somewhat afraid of....

The Constitution is a framework for resolving domestic political contests in a peaceful, lawful and orderly fashion even among the most diametrically opposed of ideological factions.

In fact, the Constitution thrives in this circumstance.

The Constitution prevails when compromise is made strenuous and unjustifiable deviation from the wishes of one's constituents is made political perilous to the representative of the people who forgets his or her duty - to represent their will, not her or his own.

There is no intellectually, morally or political honest conflation of support for the Constitution and self-destructive ideological zeal.

Most Germans like Obama more than McCain. We usually prefer Democrats over Republicans, but conservative US presidents tend to be better for Germany, opines Thomas Speckmann, a regular op-ed contributor for various German newspapers and magazines. He also points out that greater German military involvement will be expected, regardless of who is elected. See his op-d in the Atlantic Community.

I am pretty certain that either I'm completely starting to lose it, or that I am in desperate need of a reality check by my fellow Kossacks.  Now, didn't Charlie Black get into some pretty serious hot water last week for inferring that it would be a 'good thing' for McCain if there were to be a terrorist attack on the United States prior to the election?  Yeah, I think this 'misstatement' was all over the news, and as I recall, there was a formal apology from Charlie Black regarding his statement.  I even recall watching Keith Olbermann talking about the fact that this continual fear mongering was now becoming a pattern by members of the McCain campaign and of course, the Republican party in general.  So regardless of Charlie Black's mea culpa....

As a loyal supporter, as a donor, as a (trying to, anyways) fundraiser, as someone who has been shooting down smears about you at work, amongst friends and family, and anywhere else I hear them, as all of these things, I am writing to you to tell you: You had it right the first time on FISA.