In the news...

...Congrats all the way around to LD17's legislative delegation of Senator Meg Burton Cahill, Representative Ed Ableser, and Representative David Schapira (Democrats, one and all). Each earned a grade of 100% from the Arizona League of Conservation Voters in their Legislative Scorecard for the 2008 session. While there were many high-scoring districts, LD17 was the only district where more than one legislator earned a grade of 100%.

On the opposite end of the scale was LD3, with Sen. Ron Gould and Reps. Trish Groe and Nancy McClain (Rs one and all - of course) earning an average score of 27%.

...While it's been a lot of fun to watch the LD18 Republicans tear themselves apart (LOTS of fun :) ), the media coverage of all of the negative campaigning and polls conducted by Republican firms has all but ignored Tammie Pursley and Judah Nativio, the strong Democratic candidates in the west Mesa district (for House and Senate, respectively). However, the EV Tribune ran a full story on Nativio on Thursday. It was a pretty good piece, one that pointed out that the race for the LD18 senate seat won't end on September 2nd when the contest between immigration attorney (and brother-in-law of Congressman Jeff Flake) Kevin Gibbons reaches its conclusion.

The real race will just be beginning.

...Friday morning at 10, the AZ Democrats will be holding a rally to highlight John McCain's close ties to Big Oil. The rally will take place from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on the southwest corner of 48th St. and Thomas, across from the Mobil station.

...Apparently nobody told McCain and the Republicans that they've been calling themselves the party of private property rights - they're getting sued for misappropriating and misusing someone's private property.

From AP -

Jackson Browne sues McCain, RNC over song in ad

Jackson Browne doesn't want John McCain running on anything fueled by his lyrics.

The singer-songwriter sued McCain and the Ohio and national Republican committees in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Thursday, accusing them of using his song "Running on Empty" without his permission.

Perhaps their "respect" for private property rights just doesn't apply to the property of famous liberals...

...In an example of willful irony (OK, it was shameless hypocrisy, but I'm trying to be tactful here - this isn't supposed to be an unmitigated McCain-bashing post), McCain has criticized the Russian invasion of Georgia (the country, not the state), saying things like "In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations."

Iraq, John. Iraq.

...Darragh Murphy, head of PUMA PAC, an organization that purports to be a group of grassroots Hillary Clinton supporters working to secure her nomination at the Democratic Convention in two weeks, has some credibility problems.

It turns out that in 2000, she supported John McCain in the Republican Presidential primary to the tune of $500.

Can you say "astroturf"?

This stuff and other stuff about PUMA PAC has been going around the internet for a more than a month now, but she was blathering (and getting ripped apart) on Hardball on Thursday. So I figured that it was my turn (I know a couple of Clinton delegates who read this blog).

...And in goofy news of the day, a Chandler resident wants his city to sue the Obama campaign because he feels that the campaign's logo is so similar to the City of Chandler's logo that it constitutes trademark infringement. (AZ Republic)

I think it's BS, but you decide (logos courtesy the AZRep article linked above) -

Later!