In “The Undistinguished Gentleman,” I surveyed Barack Obama’s threadbare record of supposed public accomplishments.  The first of these was his work as a community organizer at a  a housing project called Altgeld Gardens, which the Boston Globe revisited and found “far from the kind of success story politicians like to tout.” The Boston Globe now digs deeper, finding that as a state senator, Obama coauthored an Illinois law creating a new pool of tax credits for developers

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may be wearing matching outfits in well-choreographed appearances, but their supporters are not singing from the Sir Paul & Jacko songbook quite yet. The first hint should have been that their Thursday evening meeting with donors and fund-raisers was initially closed to the press.  The Obama campaign ultimately relented, allowing a pool reporter to cover the event.  The pool report by the Washington Post’s Shailagh Murray suggested

Sorry, ladies — it did not occur to me to bring the camera when I left this morning, so there are no shirtless photos of the hot Jew for you.  He does seem to be in great shape, though I think his knees were in danger of locking up after his morning training session with Tony, who also seems like a very nice guy.  Also in attendance was Major John

Incidentally, I am offline at the moment, but may be having lunch with Jeff G today.  So to help you get your weekend started, I note that you can access hours of streaming music — the good, the bad and the ugly — via the page I have set up for my other web gig, via the fantastic Hype Machine.  You can access tracks individually, or let them play through as a jukebox.  New

Kahl-ee-fohr-nee-ah Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to get energy policy right and wrong — but mostly wrong — at a climate conference in Miami yesterday. Most of the media focused on his comment that that anyone suggesting offshore oil drilling could bring down gas prices was “blowing smoke,” interpreting it as a veiled swipe at John McCain’s recent proposal to lift bans on exploring for oil off the coasts of California, Florida

John Fund’s latest column for the Wall Street Journal argues that while John McCain is not doomed to lose to Barack Obama… but: This election reminds some of the 1980 race, when voters were clearly looking for a reason to vote the incumbent party out of the White House. Even so, Jimmy Carter kept even with Ronald Reagan well into October by painting him as risky and out of the

A millionaire who inflicted years of abuse on two Indonesian housekeepers held as virtual slaves at her Long Island mansion was sentenced today to 11 years in prison. Varsha Sabhnani, 46, was convicted with her husband in December on a 12-count federal indictment that included forced labor, conspiracy, involuntary servitude, and harboring aliens. Read the rest.

While the vast majority of the media and blogospheric attention was on the US Supreme Court’s landmark decision on gun rights,  the Court also decided an important campaign finance case today. In Davis v. Federal Election Commission (downloadable at SCOTUS Blog), the Court considered whether section 319 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 — the so-called “millionaire’s amendment” of the McCain-Feingold law, which relaxes campaign finance limits for opponents of congressional

The establishment media usually plays up violence in Iraq, but they blacked out coverage of the bar brawl between CNN war reporter Michael Ware and civilian contractor Joe Burkett over the companionship of CBS newsbabe Lara Logan: The wife of Burkett, a US Embassy worker, claims the sultry 37-year-old correspondent seduced him while bullets flew overhead. This being Protein Wisdom, I must note the obvious “hotel journalism” and “foxhole” punchlines. (h/t JammieWearingFool.)

The Chicago Sun-Times reports Barack Obama’s response to Ralph Nader’s claim that Obama is “talking white” and  “wants to appeal to white guilt” : “Ralph Nader hadn’t been paying attention to my speeches, because all the issues that he talked about — whether it be predatory lending, the housing foreclosure crisis . . . I’ve devoted multiple speeches,” Obama said. “Ralph Nader is trying to get attention. I think it’s a