FOX News pundits, Democrats, conservatives and moderates alike gushed over Sarah Palin's convention speech without noting that she told a passel of lies, that she's involved in a corruption scandal, that she has radical viewpoints out of step with mainstream America and that she has a radical pastor to rival Jeremiah Wright.

And while the National Enquirer was a hero when it exposed John Edwards' affair, nobody mentioned that it is now reporting about an extramarital affair between Palin and her husband's business partner.

More at www.theuptake.org.

The system that cares for America's Veterans is strained and breaking. There's been an increase in the number of homeless veterans following the Desert Storm and Iraq wars. Normally homeless people are helped by State and County governments, but veterans are supposed to be helped by the Federal government through the Veterans Administration.

Over the last several budgets, the VA has been under funded. More than one-half of the VA facilities do not offer counseling for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A large majority of facilities that do offer PTSD counseling can't handle the caseload, which is unfortunate since many suicides among veterans have been attributed to untreated PTSD.

Against that backdrop, advocacy groups are meeting with politicians from both parties at the RNC and the DNC. In this video The UpTake's Noah Kunin reports that Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons came to the vets events, but refused to talk about what he is doing on veterans issues. Gibbons has been given low marks by many veterans advocacy groups.

Your Daily Politics Video Blog: Generational election? Political sea change? After a few days in St. Paul, TPMtv's David Kurtz is beginning to be convinced.

No one can make a documentary with as much political savvy, humor, and creativity as Michael Moore.  And no one is as willing to tackle our elected officials with the same tenacity.  After unleashing Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and SiCKO in recent years, Moore has set his sights on the Bush administration and our nation's voter turnout in his latest film, Slacker Uprising, which chronicles his 62-city swing state tour of college campuses just prior to the 2004 election. 

Here's the best part.  To maximize the reach of his message and as a thank you gift to his fans, Moore is adopting a novel approach to distributing this film.  He's teaming up with Brave New Films to distribute the movie online, completely free of charge.  Sign up now on http://slackeruprising.com and you will be notified when the film is available for free download on September 23.

You can also buy the DVD for $9.95, which will start shipping on September 23 and features extras like: Special Guest Joan Baez – America the Beautiful, Why People Like George Bush?, My Pet Goat, The O'Reilly Factor for Kids, Just Add Water and Heat - More Ramen and Clean Underwear, and more.  Or should I say, Moore!

And for even more Moore, check out his recent back-to-back appearances on Meet the Bloggers.  Then, tune into the show tomorrow at 1pm ET/10am PT.  Our guest host, punk rock icon Henry Rollins, will be joined by bloggers Jonathan Kim (FOX Attacks!), Liliana Segura (AlterNet.org) and Paul Waldman (Media Matters).  They'll discuss how the corporate media has favored the McCain campaign throughout this election, a bias that has only become more pronounced during the Republican National Convention.

Check out some of the material below and learn about the extent of the media's bias.  Then, go to Meet the Bloggers at 1pm ET/10am PT to join the conversation.

• Free Ride: John McCain and the Media — David Brock and Paul Waldman
• Is the McCain-Media Love Affair Souring? — Paul Waldman
• McCain's New Media Strategy: Blame the Media — Huffington Post
  
• In Study, Evidence of Liberal-Bias Bias — LA Times
• Infuriated About Tough CNN Interview, McCain Cancels Larry King Appearance — Think Progress
• Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy's Off-Air Attack of Palin for VP Pick. Who's Telling the Truth? — Crooks and Liars
• Digital Media: A Giveaway to Corporate Media — Black Agenda Report
• Scarborough, Buchanan Completely Reverse Positions on Palin in Just Five Days — Think Progress

From Judy Gumbo Albert:

Forty years ago this week I was in Chicago at the Democratic Convention– not as a delegate but as a member of the theatrical, countercultural, media-savvy  protest group known as the Yippies. Then, as now, the Democratic Party was severely internally divided -- about race rather than gender, but especially over the war in Vietnam. We – Yippie leaders Abbie and Anita Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Nancy Kurshan, my then boyfriend and later husband Stew Albert, the folksinger Phil Ochs and journalist Paul Krassner -- came to the Convention to hold a Festival of Life and nominate a pig for president. Our candidate, Pigasus, would, we believed, be infinitely more attractive to young people than the Democrat’s pro-war candidate Hubert Humphrey.   Abbie, Anita, Jerry, Phil and Stew are all gone now, and, although I don’t expect the events described here to occur in Denver, our country is, as in 1968, engaged in an immoral and illegal war overseas that has been used by our current elected officials to put more draconian restrictions on dissent and freedom of speech than I once faced confronting the Democrats in Chicago. What follows is my recollection of those events.

    It’s always the old
    Who lead us to the war
    It’s always the young who fall
    But look at all we’ve won
    With a saber and a gun
    Tell me is it worth it all?
    I ain’t marchin’ any more
    No I ain’t marchin’ anymore

    Phil Ochs

Read more of Judy Gumbo Albert's experience of the 1968 DNC at CounterPunch.

This week on Meet the Bloggers, punk rock icon, actor, and spoken word artist Henry Rollins will guest host the entire show since Cenk is at the Republican National Convention. Rollins will be joined by bloggers Jonathan Kim (FOX Attacks!), Liliana Segura (AlterNet.org) and Paul Waldman (Media Matters), as they discuss the ways in which FOX News and the corporate media have failed to cover the election properly. 

The corporate media has favored the McCain campaign throughout this election, a bias that has only become more pronounced during the RNC. Check out some of the material below and learn about the extent of the media's bias.  Then, tune into Meet the Bloggers at 1pm ET/10am PT to join the conversation.

• Free Ride: John McCain and the Media — David Brock and Paul Waldman
• Is the McCain-Media Love Affair Souring? — Paul Waldman
• McCain's New Media Strategy: Blame the Media — Huffington Post
  
• In Study, Evidence of Liberal-Bias Bias — LA Times
• Infuriated About Tough CNN Interview, McCain Cancels Larry King Appearance — Think Progress
• Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy's Off-Air Attack of Palin for VP Pick. Who's Telling the Truth? — Crooks and Liars
• Digital Media: A Giveaway to Corporate Media — Black Agenda Report
• Scarborough, Buchanan Completely Reverse Positions on Palin in Just Five Days — Think Progress
  

Another perfect example of how dangerous FOX News can be.  Ever since FOX's Steve Doocy proclaimed that Sarah "I've only traveled to three countries outside the U.S. and one of them was a pit stop" Palin has foreign policy experience because Alaska is next to Russia, the GOP has repeated this statement over and over again in the hopes that it will magically make it true.  

Cindy McCain echoed this ridiculously illogical notion on Sunday.  Then on Monday, Karl Rove took it to the next level by suggesting that George Bush also had foreign policy experience because Texas is next to Mexico.  And, as you can see in this video, John McCain is even repeating it now.  

I always knew FOX was the mouthpiece of the Republican party, but now it's abundantly clear that the party is fresh out of ideas and taking its cues from FOX.

Here is a little taste of things to come this election season.

We hit the streets at the Democratic National Convention in Denver to see if regular folks could guess the difference what workers and CEOs make an hour.

Find out more at www.seiucope.org

The Young Turks have been broadcasting all week long from the Republican National Convention. We have had some really interesting interviews with Duncan Hunter, Heather Wilson, Bob Barr, Sen. Dan Coats, Rep. Bob Latta, Joe Klein, Michael Medved and the list goes on (you can check out a lot of these interviews on our You Tube Channel here).

Although there were great disagreements in many of these interviews, none of them got out of hand ... except one. The founder of HipHopRepublicans.com took exception when I suggested that George Bush might have been late in responding to Hurricane Katrina. He said he was shocked that I would suggest that late response might have cost some people's lives.

He proceeded to knock my mike down and then hit our camera on his way out. He also got within inches of my face as he stood over me.

 

More than 280 people were arrested here in St. Paul Monday, the opening day of the Republican National Convention. Among them were several journalists covering the protests in the streets, including three of us at Democracy Now! Amy was detained trying to question police officers about the arrests of Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.

Watch part 2 of this segment here.

The Endangered Species Act is in grave danger. Turn your online searching green & charitable with GoodSearch. And, we bring to you all new Green Gadgets.

ZapRoot: www.zaproot.com

Comment on Endangered Species Act changes

Email Your Representative About the Endangered Species Act

At the RNC, David Kurtz spoke with Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America about McCain's hypocrisy when it comes to caring for our country's veterans.

Major General Don Loranger, USAF, Ret., tells Adam why Obama is our best choice for Commander in Chief.

From Nathaniel Bach:

Did you miss the old McCain campaign? You know, the no-chance, hard-luck, dottering campaign of summer 2007. When so few voters would show up at his rallies that McCain would have to resort to this for attention? McCain's campaign had sunk to such lows of popularity and possibility that I started feeling sorry for it: "Aww, what a cute campaign with your soft-spoken 'straight talk.'" Well, for all the campaign shake-ups, increased staff, and spending power that came with beating out a shockingly more hapless GOP primary field, it turns out that feeble campaign was lurking just beneath the surface this whole time, threatening to reemerge.

From HuffPo:

Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and former John McCain adviser, Time columnist, and MSNBC contributor Mike Murphy were caught on tape disparaging John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate.

"It's over," Noonan said.

When Chuck Todd asked her if this was the most qualified woman the Republicans could nominate, Noonan responded, "The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives. Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and that's not what they're good at, they blow it."

Murphy characterized the choices as "cynical" and "gimmicky."

(Full transcript after the flip.)

Over at Crooks and Liars, John Amato has his prediction for the media response to Sarah Palin’s speech — she’ll do fine and the media will lap it up:

So, the set up will be complete after she gives her speech tonight. With all the hoopla about her views and family, the pundits have already been saying that McCain bet the farm, or ranch or whatever by naming her to the ticket. Well, I expect her speech to be a big hit with the crowd and the punditry class will all swoon over it. All she has to do is be likable (no policy required) and she will be. Case closed.

McCain’s Media will blame the evil libruls for attacking her even though that’s not the case and will praise her performance as the game changer for McCain. She’ll become the “it” girl after tomorrow just long enough to make it through the election, just wait and see.

I completely agree. Like with Bush, we will once again see the soft bigotry of low expectations. Anything less than an utter meltdown and a call for Alaska to leave the union will be hailed as a triumph and proof of McCain’s genius. In the corporate media's "minds," all questions of Palin's competence will be answered because she can talk.

Pathetic.

Your Daily Politics Video Blog: Sarah Palin has managed to dominate the news -- and the buzz here in St. Paul -- despite Obama's speech to 75,000 in Denver, a Gulf Coast hurricane and the Republican National Convention. We review the various reactions to the Palin selection from the Republican side.

American Rights at Work launched a national television ad campaign to educate the public on the critical issues facing America’s struggling middle class. The ads, which begin airing on Monday, Sept. 1, will build on the broad public support for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan bill in Congress that will help workers achieve the American Dream by giving them the freedom to choose a union.

American Rights at Work is releasing these ads in celebration of Labor Day as part of a huge, new coordinated effort among workers' rights advocates, progressives, and labor unions to champion this legislation, which passed the House last year and garnered majority support in the Senate. The effort includes paid advertising through national cable outlets and states throughout the country, including Oregon, Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Maine. The state-based ads will focus on educating the public on the positions’ of political leaders, and urging the public to call them to express their support for the legislation in the Senate.

The Daily Show had a great piece last night about the poor little Republicans—the "sea of white faces"—who were stranded at the RNC as the nation turned its attention to New Orleans and Hurricane Gustav.  Said one Republican: "I was real excited until we decided to cancel the convention to placate the liberal media…because some people are getting rained on."