As much as McCain's Rovian advisers want to make the campaign this year all about the notional imperfections of Obama's character, it will be, again, about the economy, stupid.

The Associated Press has come under well-deserved criticism for serial stenography, a thoughtful doughnut gift, and its chairman doing the Osama-Obama thing in public.

But this story, which will presumably appear in hundreds of newspapers tomorrow, tells about how the Bushite recession has nationwide impacts, and makes up somewhat for the AP's shameful McCain-promoting in other stories.

Especially since this story starts in a not-so-optimistic Optimists Club in Arizona.

But it does not end there.

More below.

Obey traffic laws.

The latest Bush recession has put a lot of financial pressure on municipalities, here in NY and presumably in every other state.

Counties, cities and towns will be receiving less revenue from state aid, real estate transactions, and property taxes from those in or near foreclosure.

At the same time that their expenses are going up -- for employees and their health insurance, for gasoline and other energy expenses, for construction materials for roads and buildings, etc.

One way municipalities can, and will, make up for that is by having their police forces issue more traffic tickets.

As I heard secondhand recently from a town judge, and saw myself firsthand during a morning in traffic court of my city.

Forewarning details below.  

Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, aka Boss Bruno, announced today that he is scurrying off the sinking ship of the last Republican power base in New York state, the slimly held (32-30) Senate.

Boss Bruno has held the Senate majority, barely, by clever redistricting, buying off a few DINOs, and channeling millions in pork to otherwise undistinguished Republican senators.

But, facing an FBI investigation into his corruption and the probability that the Republicans will lose several Senate seats this year, he's decided to retire.

The local alternative paper was prescient, in this Metroland story last Thursday.

Here's a taste:

For months, speculation about the senator’s future has made the rounds in the Capital Region’s political class. Many of these rumors have focused on stories of federal subpoenas and indictments tied to an FBI investigation into the embattled politician’s outside business deals. Other rumors weigh the senator’s options in the face of a historic loss by the Republican party of the Senate majority.

More below.

Bush's grand tour of Europe seems that it will, despite the diligent work of the usual corporate media stenographers, emphasize yet again how much he is deservedly disliked by the people of our most important allies.

There may not be large demonstrations against him, but there will certainly not be large crowds, or even McCain-event dozens, cheering him in Ljubljana, Berlin, Paris, Rome, London and Belfast

In fact, he will probably have to hide from the European people who, if possible, dislike him even more than the American people.

This is so much, and again deservedly, different from the way Europe welcomed President Dwight Eisenhower in 1959.

Details, below.

My latest e-mail from McCain's campaign includes an invitation to join Citizens for McCain -- turncoat Joe LIEberman's latest fund-raising scheme to help elect Bush 3.0.

LIEberman's short intro does not repeat the Democrat-as-adjective slur that was in another promotional e-mail for this weird group, and was deservedly dissed here and elsewhere.

Though it does tell a basic lie -- describing LIEberman as a "Democrat (sic) from Connecticut."

And it features the kind of happy warrior photo of McCain and LIEberman that McCain has been avoiding with the Worst President Ever lately.

But makes our blood boil.

More McCain campaign BS, below.  

Also at The Albany Project and Democracy in Albany

In New York, as in too many other states, legislative districts are drawn to be safe seats forever for politicians of one party or the other.

And, as a result, many incumbents get a free ride -- that is, no challenger at all.

Whether it's Dr. Dean's doing, or netroots types being more active than ever, or ambitious challengers with their fingers to the strong Democratic wind this year, the national 50-state, 435-seat strategy has inspired lots of people at the state legislative level.

Here in New York, too.

The most powerful Republican in the state, State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, has a challenger this year -- Brian Premo.

Premo is a well-known attorney who's running on a basic "change" platform that should resonate with voters in Rensselaer and Saratoga counties (east and north of Albany).

Premo would, in every way but pork, be a better, more honest representative of the Senate district.

Why, below.

Want a high-paying, anti-public-school job around Albany, NY -- there it is, on the top of the job-ads part of any story on the Albany Times Union site today.

A $60k or so job recruiting Albany city parents to send their kids to the Brighter Choice charter school (essentially, a publicly funded private school, in NY anyway).

This particular one was set up by a Republican political hack who, after his special-purpose PAC helped get George Pataki elected in 1994, saw his opportunities as a charter school profiteer.

And took them.

Details below.      

Bob Novak is certainly no friend of Democrats, but he does have decades of experience in Washington.

And has a staff that can do the grunt work to find, review and pass the latest state poll results up to the Prince/Boss.  

Novak thinks McCain will beat Obama by the narrowest of margins in November -- 270-268.

His state-by-state analysis is mostly credible, as much as any five months out.

Below are his "Lean Republican" states, and his analyses.

We will only need one of those states in November.

I think we can get two or three.

Please feel free to tell us all in comments why Novak's missing what's happening on the ground in your states.

Me, I'm from New York, which Novak has, accurately, as "Solid Democratic."

Unlike Bush, Limbaugh, etc., at least Novak knows what the adjective is for the Democrats' party.

Here's another story, among so many, about how McCain is far more conservative than he lets on -- he evidently hates public education.

McCain's never come right out and said it, and if he did the BBQ crew would not report it, but when his top education adviser is Lisa Graham Keegan, no other conclusion makes sense.

Rogue Columnist Jon Talton has a great post today about charter-school-profiteer Keegan.

Here's a taste:

The results of Keegan's crusade in Arizona were nothing short of tragic.

Acting as if Arizona public schools were overfed, union-wrecked systems seen in a few big cities back east, she pushed for "school choice" in the form of charters.

Few appear to perform well. Some are prime business ventures for well-connected right-wingers. Many are fly-by-night storefronts with no playgrounds, libraries or cafeterias.

More below the jump  

Somewhere along the way, I got on the McCain campaign e-mail list, so every couple of days a get a "my friends" e-mail asking for money.

The one I got today focuses, from the dark side, on what should be one of the top three issues in this year's presidential election for liberals, as it has always been for conservatives -- who will nominate judges to the Supreme Court.

McCain agrees that this is a "big issue" -- at least for trying to scare a few bucks out of e-mail recipients.

I think it's bigger than big, because if McCain gets even one nomination, the Supreme Court will be Bushite conservative for a generation.

Effectively, for me and many baby boomers, the rest of our lives.

Details below.

Sure, she's a perky, cute morning show type who brings some of that to a network evening newscast.

And she has not been that successful, ratings-wise, as the first female network news anchor.

Couric does not have decades of Village journalistic experience in regurgitating what government officials say.

But that's certainly a good thing, compared to the network-news-veteran anchor alternatives, who have that "experience" and reflexively have shown their support for the Worst President Ever in various embarrassing ways lately.

So, Couric is the person liberal/progressive types should watch for their evening news, mostly because longtime Village members Charlie Gibson and Brian Williams have shown themselves to be way too Fox-News-like.

Details, below.

Also at The Albany Project

Not literally, of course, but in so many words.

And it's no surprise, really, since multi-millionaire lobbyist Tom Loeffler, McCain's campaign general co-chairman and finance chairman, has been a Bush gang profiteer and fund-raiser for 20 years or so.

For example, Loeffler presumably has other oily clients, but his Wikipedia page lists just one — the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Loeffler was in the Albany, NY, area to raise some money for Rensselaer County Republicans (whose boss is facing a probable federal indictment and practically certain loss of his state Senate majority this year).

Whatever Loeffler said to the boss' kickback crowd was evidently off-the-record, since there's no story in any of the local papers (online anyway).

But Loeffler could not hide his Bush-love under a barrel, so he stopped by the Albany Times-Union before the dinner.

Details of unabashed Bush love, below.

Also at The Albany Project

A mere three days ago, I wrote a diary about an amazing 20-cents-in-one-week gasoline price increase at my regular station in upstate NY.

Today, I saw a price hike even more shocking -- 10 cents in one day.

And, I came across another incredible story on the Internets about how fragile gasoline supplies can get.

Details that explain some of why more than four out of five people are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the USA, below.

Also at The Albany Project

That's how much gas went up where I do my weekly fill-up in upstate NY -- from $3.43 a gallon to $3.63 a gallon for regular.

I know many people in other parts of the country are paying even more than that, but did you all have a 20-cent bump last week?

This is presumably part of the annual changeover from winter to summer formula, that somehow catches refiners and oil companies by surprise so they have to raise their prices.

This week's price hike is by far the highest spring gouge in my memory of the past 30-plus years of buying gas.

And it will have an effect on my discretionary spending, and millions of others, I'm sure.

Why, below.

Freedom's Watch, a 527 set up by former Bushite serial liar Ari Fleischer and funded by Likudnik Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson, was supposed to be the wingnut counterbalance to MoveOn, etc., in the 2008 election.

Fleischer's plan was to raise $200-million-plus for disinformation media buys.

Well, that's not gonna happen, according to The New York Times.

The headline is: Great Expectations for a Conservative Group Seem All but Dashed

Details, below.

Update: Athenae has a fiery live-blogging post about this over at First Draft. Check it out.

Douglas Feith, a former high-ranking Rumsfeld deputy at Defense who was a major neocon warmonger, was just on "60 Minutes," pimping his book.

Steve Kroft asked unusually pointed questions, and Feith repeated Bushite bullshit lies about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

And showed why, despite a lot of competition, he remains in the running for "the stupidest fucking guy on the planet (SFGOTP)."

Details below.

In another one of those weird coincidences lately, an allegedly sleep-deprived Wall Street CEO decided to buy Bear Stearns today, on the same night that 60 Minutes ran a long segment about how getting less than seven hours of sleep a night severely and negatively affects decision-making ability.

JP Morgan Chase will buy Bear Stearns, at a remarkable 93 percent discount from its Friday closing price -- another, and not the last, effect of the Republican Bush/Greenspan economic crisis.

The sleep-deprived detail, below.

Trying to keep his hand in, and sell his latest book, Newt Gingrich sent an e-mail out today trumpeting a poll that shows that a vast majority of Americans support the Bushites on "updating" FISA.

According to this "poll," commissioned by Gingrich's own "non-partisan," "nonprofit" American Solutions:

By a three-to-one margin (71 to 23), Americans believe Congress should have taken action before leaving Washington to make sure the Protect America Act did not expire.

Additionally, the data show that Americans agree by a 3.5-to-one margin (74 to 21) that companies that assist the United States government in tracking down terrorists should be protected from lawsuits related to that assistance. This is one of the core issues at stake in the debate over the Protect America Act, as Pelosi and the left-wing House Majority's leadership have chosen to side with the trial lawyers over our safety.

Let's have a look at the somewhat unprofessional poll questions that predictably yielded these weird results, below.