Afternoon Clips

• Better pay for police and firefighters!
• Connolly sticks his foot in his mouth. That’s the way to get the $900 million Gerry!
• National polls do not matter in presidential primaries- Pollster.com has some very interesting blog posts on the issue:
  • Turnout
  • Timing

Morning News

• YES! Read this column.  And read this diary at RK.
• Watch what happens here tomorrow. This will determine a lot about the future of the internet, telecom, and technology in general. Go Google!
• Great profile of Elizabeth Edwards in the Washington Post.
• I had a blast at the White Stripes concert this weekend despite the fact that Jack White struggled with some audio foul-ups. Thanks Dan!
• In case you missed this over the weekend:Looks like the federal funding for the Dulles rail project won’t happen anyway. So what exactly was that rush about Gerry?
• Won’t be long now.

Afternoon Clips

• Hahahahaha, the pay-off is in the very last line, and it has a local flavor to it.
• YAY! The Circus is in town!
• Stock market tumbling. And as of this post the Dow is down again today by more than .5%.
• Maybe Larry Sabato should read Article IV of the Constitution, and maybe he should realize that Jefferson wasn’t part of the constitutional debate at all. They made it hard to amend the document for a reason.

Afternoon Clips

• College Chickenhawks- this is hilarious.
• Chap demonstrates yet again why he’s going to be such an awesome Senator.
• Governor Kaine- shouldn’t you take a vacation or something?
• Webb for VP, something all Virginia Democrats can agree on.

Afternoon Clips

• Making Metro work – the conflict between form and function.
• Obama’s campaign reports on their historic haul (though less than I had anticipated).
• This should be interesting- can Hillary follow her Sopranos ad with more viral video success?
• John McClane finishes second to a rat?
• The President.

No modern president has experienced such a sustained rejection by the American public. Bush’s approval rating slipped below 50 percent in Washington Post-ABC News polls in January 2005 and has not topped that level in the 30 months since. The last president mired under 50 percent so long was Harry S. Truman. Even Richard M. Nixon did not fall below 50 percent until April 1973, 16 months before he resigned.

• Bob Brink nails the real difference between Democrats who voted for the transportation bill and the Republicans who designed the damned ugly thing.
• The Massachussetts universal health care plan has begun to take effect. I hope Virginia legislators will be closely examining their efforts to figure out what works and what doesn’t. At a pricetag of $1.6 billion it’s clear Virginia can’t afford an identical program, but there will be much to learn for sure.

Afternoon Clips

• If I were a betting man…
• The best NoVA political event of the summer.
• This transportation package looks more and more like a rotten onion. This week we’ve peeled back another layer.
• This is the real tax situation we never talk about – via Waldo. I’ll be (hopefully) publishing a policy article related to this issue in the next year.
• Edwards clings to an Iowa lead - latest poll is from a Republican outfit. I think that if Edwards hangs on to a statistical tie he wins it in the end because he has a superior organization there. On the Republican side, Romney’s leading. But Thompson looks strong.
• As I’ve said before regarding the presidential horserace- it’s all about expectations.
• Apparently both Jill and I are going to be in a primary battle with Mark Sickles soon – my bet is also on Jill.

Afternoon Clips

• The continuing review of mental health in Virginia.
• Kenton’s Hail Mary on the tunnel is intercepted and they’re running down the field with the clock winding down. (Think I stretched the metaphor out enough?)
• The tip of the iceberg of a whole new era in voter contact and mobilization. My guess though is that a lot of the really good stuff won’t come together till the 2012 or 2016 cycle.
• Hilarious dust-up involving Cooch and a not-so-subtle Democratic activist.

Hey Ken- I signed up for your Cuccinelli Compass after this just to get some of your funny emails. I’m telling you upfront that I’m a Democrat (no spying going on here, hahaha) and I wouldn’t vote for you if it was a choice between you and the lint in my pocket. But you ARE a funny guy.

• Then good ‘ol Chris returns to right-wing parrot. It’s so interesting that you believe this embryo is life but yet you don’t want to ban all use of them- just stop federal funding. That’s like saying you don’t want the government to fund murder, but it’s okay if it’s privately funded. Utter gibberish cynical political nonsense.
  My position: No, an embryo is not the moral equivalent of a living, breathing human being.
• Perfect summary of why national polls are meaningless in the presidential race.
• The Congressional District where I was born and raised is so red now that we couldn’t even get a great candidate in a field full of crazy lunatics into the runoff. What a sad state of affairs.

Afternoon Clips

• First- The Story of the Week – Democratic Party Leader Outed As Vulgar Webb Basher
• Boo Dale Jr., going to the Yankees of Nascar is yet another reason for me to not like you. Go Denny!
• Kenton’s very optimistic Senate outlook. I’d probably scoot Northam up one and Barker and Pollard down into top of the second tier, but that’s just me.
• Now this is a pretty cool feature. Wish it could zoom in and get more detailed.

Afternoon Clips

• Galligan-Barker in the DC Post- pretty basic article.
• The worst Senator.
• And Gerry Connolly marches on to certain defeat at the polls in the Summer of 2008.
• Fascinating piece of history.
• The Virginia Tech memorial.
• Pugnacious Tribbett.
• Hillary has ZERO expectation in Iowa.

Afternoon Clips

• Fox News to Chairman Conyers: Sorry, You All Look the Same.
• I like this process of picking a replacement for a deceased Senator.
• That’s what you get for trusting a Gator. Go DAWGS!
• Where are all those outraged Barker people now? Weren’t they insistent on a positive campaign? Oops, guess they didn’t like the way things were looking.
• So sorry for not following up with this very important story earlier.