Looks like a picture from decades past, but instead it is from yesterday:

Russia showcased its military might and youthful new president to the world Friday, as heavy tanks and missile launchers rumbled across Red Square in a Victory Day parade for the first time since the Soviet era.

In a nationally broadcast speech two days after his inauguration, President Dmitry Medvedev avoided the bellicose rhetoric of his mentor and predecessor, Vladimir Putin, who drew parallels between United States and Nazi Germany during last year's parade.

However, in his speech marking victory over Adolf Hitler's Germany, the 42-year-old Medvedev said the history of World War II demonstrated that military conflicts are rooted in "irresponsible ambitions which prevail over interests of nations and entire continents."

"We must not allow contempt for the norms of international law," he said, in what sounded like veiled criticism of the United States and its Western allies.

The Kremlin has consistently criticized both the U.S.-led war in Iraq and wide Western recognition of Kosovo's declaration of independence from Russia-allied Serbia as flagrant violations of international legal norms.

Amazing how things change so quickly in the world. It would be nice to have a Secretary of State who was considered an expert on Russia. Oh wait! I guess Condi dropped the ball on this one. Has McCain picked her for VP yet?

There is a big debate going on if John Edwards said "I voted for him" or "I voted for 'em" on MSNBC this morning. Here's the video and the entire interview is damn good.

More at the HuffPo

If their numbers hold true, then what excuse does Hillary have now? He has won the most states, the most popular vote, the most pledged delegates and now the most super delegates. Perhaps she should have looked at getting rid of Mark Penn earlier, like when he thought Democratic primaries were "winner take all".

In all honesty, this is poetic justice:

High fuel prices are causing the value of used SUVs to plummet, often below what's listed in the buying guides many shoppers use to negotiate with dealers.

As a result, some new-car buyers think they're getting cheated by dealers who are offering them little for their SUV trade-ins.

"The dealer is going to offer a price, and the customer is going to be ticked off," says Tom Webb, chief economist for Manheim, operators of auctions where car dealers buy their used-vehicle inventories. "The guidebooks have not caught up to the market," he says.

That 10 mpg SUV has helped raise the demand on oil and that has increased the prices. Now you are not only losing at the pump, but also at the dealership. Perhaps Americans will start thinking more about a little less car with a lot more fuel mileage.

McCain is such a straight and honest guy, really:

Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers].

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

When McCain's legislation passed in November 2005, the ranch owner gave the job of building as many as 12,000 homes to SunCor Development, a firm in Tempe, Ariz., run by Steven A. Betts, a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the presumptive Republican nominee. Betts said he and McCain never discussed the deal

.

Legislating for cash in return and lobbyists! I thought McCain was against such things? Oh he is when it's other people doing it. McCain can do whatever he wants though. Doesn't that sound like someone else we know?

magic rays

Originally uploaded by m o d e

A relaxing sunset after another nonstop stressful day. How I wish I wasn't in rainy Ohio right now.

Again some more loving from Bush for our vets:

A top White House official weighed in Thursday with renewed veto threats against rival House and Senate Iraq funding bills, saying add-ons for veterans and the unemployed were unacceptable.

Most significantly, Jim Nussle, director of the White House budget office, said that a plan by House Democrats to add unrelated legislation at a cost that could reach $51 billion over the next decade, would provoke a veto even though they are popular politically. The items he cited include extending unemployment benefits, at a cost of $16 billion over two years, and boosting education benefits under the GI Bill.

I would love to see Congress muster up enough votes to overturn the veto. Will the Republicans stand up for the veterans, or will they give them the proverbially "fuck you" that George Bush extends to them?

Here's the latest tally:

That's what the FBI is wondering:

FBI agents investigating government watchdog Scott Bloch have subpoenaed any records that would reveal whether concerns about the 2004 elections prompted him to clear Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of ethics violations.

Bloch, the U.S. special counsel who investigates federal employee whistleblower complaints, found no merit to allegations that Rice, then President Bush's national security adviser, timed some of her trips to boost Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.

The FBI is investigating whether Bloch obstructed justice by destroying computer files to hinder an outside inquiry into allegations that he retaliated against employees who opposed his policies. He's also suspected of making false statements to investigators.

Please let McCain pick her for VP. Please!

Yet another nice pickup for Obama. Why is Clinton still in? Oh yeah - she is wanting the poor people to pay off her debt. Talk about an elitist stance.

VOLCANO/LIGHTNING

Originally uploaded by illvisual

Wow this is awesome. It's a picture of a volcano erupting in Chile today.

Perhaps up to 1,000 laptops, of which 400 could be tied to the anti-terrorism program:

It has surfaced that the US State Department can't account for up to about 1,000 laptops, perhaps as many as 400 of which belonged to the department's Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program.

The State Department's Inspector General has been conducting an equipment audit for three months. Only the first stage, an inventory, has been completed.

Internal auditors found that the department lost track of US$30 million worth of computer equipment, "the vast majority of which... perhaps as much as 99 percent," were laptops, according to one official.

Another official calculated that the average State Department laptop costs US$3,000 and figured that meant as many as 1,000 laptops might be astray - not 10,000 laptops as the US$30 million figure suggests.

First - those are some fucking expensive laptops. Second - where is the accountability George Bush promised us? They had to find this out through an audit and aren't even sure exactly what is missing? Please let McCain pick Condi as her running mate. Her incompetence writes ads on it's own.

UPDATE:
An anonymous source has claimed to CQ Politics that the laptops have been found. Not sure how much I buy into that.

George McGovern has switched to endorsing Obama and is urging Clinton to drop out. Even though the Clinton campaign is vowing to "fight on", things are looking very bad for them. As I said earlier, I think her fighting on is just in order to raise money in order to help bail her out of debt.

Looks like more trouble happening in our government:

F.B.I. agents on Tuesday raided and temporarily shut down the offices of a small federal watchdog agency that is charged with protecting the rights of government whistle-blowers but has been accused of retaliating against whistle-blowers in its own ranks.

The raid on the downtown Washington headquarters of the agency, the Office of Special Counsel, and another at the home of its director, Scott J. Bloch, followed accusations that Mr. Bloch had destroyed evidence on government computers that might demonstrate wrongdoing.

Mr. Bloch, who has held the post of special counsel since January 2004, has denied intentionally destroying evidence from his agency’s computers, though he has acknowledged paying $1,000 of public money to a technology company, Geeks on Call, to scrub his own government computer in 2006. He has said he was trying to rid the computer of software viruses, an assertion challenged by members of Congress and by lawyers representing current and former employees of the office.

Another Bush appointee in a criminal scandal. What's the odds of that?

The AP just reported that Hillary Clinton loaned her campaign $6.4 million last month.