The Nightowl Newswrap

Savage might have whacked the wrong hornets nest this time On his radio show last week, Michael Savage called autism a "fraud" and claimed that in "99% of cases" it's a brat whose parents have failed to beat it out of 'em (we're being dramatic, but you get the idea). The remark sparked a call for his head from one of the most vocal group of parents out there, and by today, AFLAC had pulled their advertising from his show, and Supertalk FM has canceled his show on all of it's affiliate stations in Mississippi because of the remark.

Shorter Brian Kilmeade: If you will just let me make shit up, I can prove my point! On the Brian and Judge show today, Kilmeade tried to get away with saying that there are as many convoy attacks in America as there are in Iraq. Even Judge called him on the bullshit, asking when the last time a convoy was attacked in America, to which Kilmeade responded "Okay, fine. Can you roll with me for second?"

Honestly, who didn't see this coming? The Sudanese ambassador to the UN was on Fareed Zakaria's show today, dismissing the war crimes charges filed against the Sudanese president last week by the International Criminal Court as "a joke," citing the United States withdrawing from the body in 2002 as the reason why Sudan does not recognize the court’s authority and will not cooperate with it.


Welcome back, Joe Klein He keeps this up, we will stop calling him Joke Line:

John McCain said this today in Rochester, New Hamphshire:

This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.

This is the ninth presidential campaign I've covered. I can't remember a more scurrilous statement by a major party candidate. It smacks of desperation. It renews questions about whether McCain has the right temperament for the presidency. How sad.

Besides the fact that torture is morally wrong, here is a practical reason to avoid the practice Evidence obtained from Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, by employing "harsh interrogation" can not be used against him. That was the ruling of Navy Capt. Keith J. Allred, who threw out the statements made by Hamdan while he was a prisoner in Afghanistan, after he was captured in 2001. Among the statements tossed were detailed descriptions of bin Laden's whereabouts. The rejected statements made up a key part of the prosecution's case against him.

IOKIYAR The squawking of the McCain camp was shrill and voluble when Obama flew to Jordan in an Osprey, because the Democratic nominee has criticized the aircraft in the past. Just one problem...McCain also flew in an Osprey on a trip to Iraq just two months ago - even though he has been critical of the project himself, calling it wasteful. But leave it to Josh Marshall to zero in and go for the kill - he brilliantly and devastatingly links to pictures of McCain - departing the Osprey he has criticized, wearing body armor that he actually voted against. We think we can call that a two-fer.

The military sees it differently McCain is asserting that Obama "doesn't know enough about the military" to be commander in chief - but the boots on the ground have a different opinion. He was virtually mobbed by enthusiastic members of the military and state department employees when he arrived in Baghdad Monday night. You can watch the news at the link above - or you can watch a soldiers you-tube here.

Yes, people will be upset that Obama is Big Dawg popular because the last seven years and six months have just gone swimmingly with an idiot that everyone hates in charge. [/snark] What the right wing noise machine wants you to fail to consider is when they fault him for being presidential is that his popularity is just as widespread here. Remember, he can raise enough money in one day from individuals who on average donate something like $25.00, as McCain raised in the entire month - and not much at all from individuals.

Nice going, scumbag: A Texas grand jury Tuesday indicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs and four of his followers on charges of felony sexual assault of a child. Another was indicted for failing to report child abuse. Attorney General Greg Abbott said the five men are charged with one count of sexually assaulting girls under the age of 17. One of them, but not the 52-year-old Jeffs, faces an additional charge of bigamy. Abbott said a sixth member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse.

You do realize that the Olympics are going to suck, don't you?Hotels in Beijing are slashing room rates for next month's Olympics after tighter security - among other measures - dashed an expected windfall of visitors, hotels and travel industry executives said Tuesday. Fan Runjun, an employee of the press department of popular travel Web site Ctrip.com, said many two- to four-star hotels have reduced prices by 10 percent to 20 percent compared to May and June. Some have slashed rates by as much as 30 percent, said Fan, whose site lists about 500 hotels in its English-language section. The usual pre-Olympic festive atmosphere host cities experience has not hit Beijing yet, with some hotels feeling empty and listless. In June, the number of visitors to Beijing, including overseas and domestic, declined by 19.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Beijing Tourism Authority.