And now, today's Shrub Report®:

Everybody don't forget to send 66th birthday wishes to The Swimmer.

Witness Bill Clinton's foreign policy triumph. Apparently, the Bosnian, Coratian, and Turkish embassies were attacked, too. Did the protester run out of obscure, non-factoring countries whose embassies they could attack? Here's some more information on the happenings in the Balkans.

A UK Nanny State Update.

Hasbro, the Politically-Correct Pu**y Board Game Company. They did finally decide to cave in and act like sniveling liberals..

Seig Heil, Omarosa!

Don Pardo turns 90 today, great character actor Paul Dooley turn 80,  Taggart turns 60, and 7 of 9 turns 40.

Today's High School Basketball Playoffs Wrap-up…

What is it with dumbass idol-worshippers like Obamatards and Paulistinians? People are naming their kids "Obama"? In two years, when President Obama has all of us grabbing our ankles, will Douchebag be the #1 baby name?

And finally, The Oscars are this weekend! Woohoo!

I see that as of this morning the IAEA has stated that contrary to the US Intelligence community reporting of this winter that stated that Iran had ceased their nuclear weapons program efforts, in fact they have not.

I wonder if the two morons from the Department of State Intelligence who edited the US report to reflect a halted program will now be ridiculed by name in the press?  

Oh, I forget myself.........  But one can dream, right?

You asked: "Will the Times' McCain hit piece help the GOP raise money and garner support from disenchanted conservatives..." 

My initial (and still intact) response is that I believe the Democrats/Libs work that way.  They are susceptible to the fickle winds of public opinion or the whims of fantasy and there are actually people out there who really* believe that something as ephemeral as this would sway huge swaths of the Republicans. 

I personally feel that Republicans believe what they believe and are what they are at their core and as a facet of their characters and not as a side-effect of what they read in the news-paper.

If conservatives are disenchanted by McCain, the disenchantment will not be magically removed by an article in the Times.  Nor will a true conservative waffle around like a weather-vane looking for which direction to turn. 

The aimless and directionless dems may be vulnerable to the printed word but I truly believe the true conservatives are equipped with functioning brains, have their very own back-bones, and have their feet on the ground.

I guess that makes the short answer a "No".

*reality in the lib's world is defined by how things should be or how they want them to be, not by how they actually are.

"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war"  - Shakespeare

Best take I've seen yet on the Cult of Obama

And it's from a self-avowed Obama supporter.

And I made an interesting discovery while reading this Ilana Mercer item on WND early today.

I wondered, in other threads, why the bi-racial Obama classified himself only as African-American. I think a hint comes from his wife. As reported by Mercer, Michelle Obama quipped, in one of her speeches: He was biracial. I was like, okay, what's that about?  (Link to WaPo story on Mrs. Obama included in the piece.)

Did Michelle, perhaps, pressure him to make a choice?

Just thinking.....

...of the Indispensible dead white guy--George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Continental Army and first President of these United States.

I wonder what he and all those other evil dead white guys involved in creating this country would think of their handiwork today?

knows what XEROX means. She's toast.

Remember that bad school bus crash in Minnesota a couple of days ago where several kids were killed (two of them were siblings)? There are some reports that the woman driving the van that t-boned the bus, is an illegal. Surprise! Authorities are checking on this to determine her exact status, so stay tuned...

This is Obama running a "new" campaign. He won't take any money from "federal lobbyist" but does not hesitate taking money from "state lobbyist". He is just another empty suit politician, no different than any other democrat snake oil salesman. Now NBers, here is some ammo.

Regarding his (non-transparent) contributions of $200 or less, which constitute over $47 million to his campaign, that’s obviously very impressive, but over $92,000,000 has contributed by the $201+ donors, with $49 million of that being $2000+ donors.

In Tallahassee, Obama held a fundraiser attended by several statehouse lobbyists, taking checks from lobbyists for trial attorneys, the insurance industry, fast-food chains and sugar cane growers. State and federal issues often are related, as noted by the law firm Akerman Senterfitt, whose Florida-based members donated $7,000 to Obama. On its website, Akerman notes it combines Tallahassee connections with "an involved federal political action committee" to provide its clients "with an enviable level of access."

Obama’s biggest single source of corporate money, $160,000,  came from executives at Exelon Corp., the nation’s largest nuclear power provider, and its subsidiary, Commonwealth Edison, an Illinois utility.

Exelon spent $500,000 to influence policy in Washington last year. Although Obama took no money from Exelon’s Washington lobbyists, he accepted $1,000 checks from lobbyists John P. Novak and James Monk of Springfield. In Springfield, Novak represents Exelon., and Monk is president of the Illinois Energy Assn., a trade group that represents Commonwealth Edison.While refusing money directly from federal lobbyists, who get their income from clients, Obama takes money from those clients. In the first quarter of 2007, he accepted a combined $170,000 from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, two financial services giants that have numerous issues pending in Washington and spent a total of $4.6 million on lobbying in 2006Obama said in his first-quarter financial report that he received money from 104,000 donors, twice as many as Clinton, suggesting a disproportionate number of small contributions. But the Campaign Finance Institute said Obama still received 68% of his money from donations of $1,000 or more, compared with 86% for Clinton

In Obama’s eight years in the Illinois Senate, from 1996 to 2004, almost two-thirds of the money he raised for his campaigns — $296,000 of $461,000 — came from PACs, corporate contributions, or unions, according to Illinois Board of Elections records. He tapped financial services firms, real estate developers, healthcare providers, oil companies, and many other corporate interests, the records show.

Obama’s US Senate campaign committee, starting with his successful run in 2004, has collected $128,000 from lobbyists and $1.3 million from PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics. His $1.3 million from PACs represents 8 percent of what he has raised overall. Clinton’s Senate committee, by comparison, has raised $3 million from PACs, 4 percent of her total amount raised, the group said.

In addition, Obama’s own federal PAC, Hopefund, took in $115,000 from 56 PACs in the 2005-2006 election cycle out of $4.4 million the PAC raised, according to CQ MoneyLine, which collects Federal Election Commission data. Obama then used those PAC contributions — including thousands from defense contractors, law firms, and the securities and insurance industries — to build support for his presidential run by making donations to Democratic Party organizations and candidates around the country.