Paul Kiel is leaving TPM Muckraker.  The site will continue, and Josh Marshall still maintains master control over the TPM label. But let's give Paul some props for his ability to pursue muckraking in the true spirit of muckraking as it was practiced in the gilded age.  Kiel and his site broke story after story of governmental corruption.  Remember those DOJ document dumps?  TPM Muckraker and its readers were the ones who endured having to find Monica Goodling's comments in the haystack.  I've already started to forget about Monica.  So much corruption, so little time.  The Gonzalez hearings?  Where you gonna link:  TPM Muckraker.

I'm certain that TPM will find a new person who can carry on where Paul left off.  But wish Paul luck in in new job at  Propublica.  Here a thread where you can wish him well.

So, it's Sunday night, my wife has gone to bed, and I am up with a glass or red wine doing the dishes before bed.  I flip the radio to CSPAN, and it's Michelle Obama giving her stump speech from some Philly suburb.  It is essentially identical to the one I heard a month ago from South Carolina.  And I am moved, just like before.  Her words carry truth and spirit.

The rumors and news reports have reached critical mass:  it looks like our Preznit, just before he goes off to Texas for his August brush clearin', is gonna give Bolton a recess appointment as UN ambassador.  I say go ahead George, make my day.  

While living in the UK for 8 years, I developed a taste for listening to the BBC World Service.  The BBC practices a rather old-fashioned kind of journalism:  they ask difficult questions and then press the interviewee to answer the question when the scoundrel tries to squirm out of it.  They also have been known to report news from far away places.   Now I'm back in the USA, and I miss all that, especially when cooking dinner.  Marketplace ain't doing it for me.

This week's Economist has a thought-provoking article that challenges the belief generally held by Americans that our country is more of a meritocracy than the countries in Old Europe.  It reminds us, for example, that W, Kerry, Gore, and even Dean are products of wealthy, elite familes.  It also provides some statistics to illustrate the changing demographics and gives a nice historical analogy to the Gilded Age.  The whole thing is worth a read, but the paragraph that struck me the most was this:

We often hear from Bush supporters that they prefer the president because he is a strong, resolute leader--a "real man".  By contrast, Kerry is described as a weak flip-flopper.  This view is more common among men than women, and is thought to underlie the gender gap.  My wife tells me this is because Bush appeals to the "male mentality."  THAT is an insult to my gender.  I told her that Bush is a pussy, a girly-man.  She said that is an insult to HER gender.  So, for the purposes of this diary, I've settled on the following terms:  Bush is a wuss.  Kerry is a mensch.  

A wuss is a weak and ineffectual person, a dormat, a wimp.  He is indecisive, and caves easily.  A Mensch has fortitude and purpose. He is strong, but he considers the consequences of his actions before acting.   He is a gentleman.  You can count on a mensch.

I've listed a starter kit of the evidence below.  Please add more.  Then go out and use the evidence to convince swing voters, both male and female,  to vote for Kerry.

First diary. With 59 days to go, please seek out that rare species, the undecided voter, and talk to him. I've been volleying emails with my friend Jack, who lives in a red state. Jack is undecided. If we can figure out how to convince Jack to vote for Kerry, we win. Discussing election with the Jacks of the world is more rewarding than spewing bile at wignuts, freepers, and trolls. My wingnut uncle informed me last week that Fox is the best news "because it has the highest ratings." Why even bother to refute such tosh? It only raises blood pressures, and it has no effect on the polls. My friend Jack isn't like my uncle. He has a Ph.D, and he leans Libertarian: he's angry at the record deficits, he wants to keep his gun, and he doesn't care if gays are allowed to marry. On Sundays he goes to church, but not the kind where they raise their palms toward the ceiling when they pray. For months, he's been telling me that this election is "a choice is between Coke and Pepsi," and I've been trying to convince him that he is wrong.