Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, considers Palin “extremely responsive and smart” and says she is in charge when it comes to in-state services, such as emergencies and natural disasters where the National Guard is the first responder.

But, in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, he said he and Palin play no role in national defense activities, even when they involve the Alaska National Guard. The entire operation is under federal control, and the governor is not briefed on situations.

He’s the commissioner of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. The fact that he has no role in national defense activities is a given. All you have to do is read his title.

Major General Craig E. Campbell is the adjutant general for the State of Alaska, commander of the Alaska National Guard and the commissioner of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. He is responsible to provide Army and Air National Guard military forces, a State Defense Force, and a Navy Militia that are fully prepared to protect Alaska from any threat, disaster, or emergency. He is also responsible to ensure that Alaska’s National Guard forces are ready to deploy worldwide and accomplish military missions in support of the national defense strategy. As adjutant general and commissioner for the State of Alaska, he is responsible for emergency services, homeland security, veteran affairs, a Counter-Drug Support Team, a Civil Support Team, and a Youth Challenge Program.

Beginning last night, St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be, even more so than Manhattan in the week of 9/11 — with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas canisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations. Humvees and law enforcement officers with rifles were posted on various buildings and balconies. Numerous protesters and observers were tear gassed and injured.

… Perhaps most extraordinarily, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now — the radio and TV broadcaster who has been a working journalist for close to 20 years — was arrested on the street and charged with “conspiracy to riot.” Audio of her arrest, which truly shocked and angered the crowd of observers, is here. I just attended a Press Conference with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief John M. Harrington and — after they boasted of how “restrained” their police actions were — asked about the journalists and lawyers who had been detained and/or arrested both today and over the weekend. They said they wouldn’t give any information about journalists who had been arrested today, though they said they believed that “one journalist” had been, and that she “was a participant in the riots, not simply a non-participant.”

“I was down on the convention floor interviewing delegates when I heard that two of our producers had been arrested,” said Goodman. “I ran down to Jackson and 7th Street, where the police had moved in.”

Goodman said that when she ran up to find out what was going on, she was also arrested.

“They seriously manhandled me and handcuffed my hands behind my back. The top ID [at the convention] is to get on the floor and the Secret Service ripped that off me. I had my Democracy Now! ID too. I was clearly a reporter.”

Goodman, who was released after being charged with a misdemeanor, said that Salazar had been hurt in the face, while Kouddous had been thrown up against a wall and hurt his elbow.

“Nicole told me that as they moved in on three sides, she asked them ‘How do I get away from this?’ and they jumped on her.”

Both Kouddous and Salazar could be held for up to 36 hours.

“One of the police kept shouting at me ‘Shut up, shut up,” she said. “It was extremely threatening.”

 The latest campaign kerfuffle is Obama’s effort to make hay out of John McCain’s inability to tell a reporter how many houses he owns. McCain mumbled something about condos and said the reporter should talk to his wife. Predictably, Obama is trying to spin this exchange as showing that McCain is “out of touch.”  (emphasis added)

 I can relate, though. For example, if a reporter asked me how many ties I own, there’s no way I could answer. Just like McCain, I’d tell him he has to ask my wife. Likewise if someone wants to know how many Wii games my kids have.

Rutten says this is all about making money, and I don’t disagree that there’s probably some money to be made by the wingnut welfare recipients in the food chain. But money isn’t the motive of the people who buy those books in bulk. They are making an investment in Republican politics. And the most telling thing about it is that one of the most mainstream Republican figures in the country — so mainstream that she regularly appears with her Democratic operative husband on Meet the Press with their two daughters at Christmas time — is giving her imprimatur to a book written by a known delusional, right wing racist. On that side of the dial the separation between the mainstream and the violent fringe isn’t even one degree. 

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As long as the villagers are in agreement that the only people who are truly beyond the pale in American politics are on the left, then this will continue. Mary Matalin will still be considered a perfectly respectable person by both the “right” and the “left” (as if there’s any discernible difference among the cognoscenti) and there will be no professional or social repercussions. Meanwhile even staid, old organizations like the ACLU suffer from the myth of being some sort of far left fringe organization and Democratic politicians run for cover when the right wing publicly “tars” them with guilt by association.

This is an ongoing problem that we see being played out once again in a national election. And I don’t think the progressive movement has fully come to grips yet with just how powerful this image of scary left wing freaks still is in the national imagination — or how thoroughly the right’s extremist views have been accepted by the political establishment. It’s something…read on.

If Obama could go to Germany and give a speech in English and be not only understood but well-received, why does he say we all need to learn another language? 

Historians writing about the Bush era were given a great gift yesterday — an iconic headline that explains so much of what has happened in this country over the last seven years:

Their rationale for doing that is that it prevents the Republicans from depicting them as “weak,” because nothing exudes strength like bowing. Here’s more evidence of the brilliance of the Democratic strategy to show how “strong” and “tough” they are by bowing to Bush and all of his demands, from this morning’s New York Times article by Eric Lichtblau:

A huge blast from a suicide car bomb at the gates of the Indian Embassy on Monday killed 41 people in the deadliest suicide car bombing since the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 ousted the Taliban.

Among the victims of the attack, the first in seven years on a regional diplomatic mission in Afghanistan, were at least four Indian citizens: the Indian defense attaché, a political counselor and two other Indian officials. Six Afghan police officers were also killed. Many of the rest appeared to be civilians.

The fact that the Indian Embassy was attacked raised suspicions among Afghan officials that Pakistani operatives allied with the Taliban had used the bombing to pursue Pakistan’s decades-long power struggle with India.

AP also noted that Sunday’s attack came in the wake of pledges of reprisals issued by the Pakistani Taliban because of Pakistani military operations against them in the Khyber area…

No-one has admitted being behind the attack, the deadliest in Kabul since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. Afghanistan has seen a sharp increase in violence, particularly in the south and east - and Taleban militants recently vowed to step up their attacks in the capital. But the latest blast - in what was supposed to be a secure area of Kabul - will greatly concern Afghan government officials, says the BBC’s Martin Patience in Kabul.

[What] George W. Bush has done to the fabric of our constitutional government, to Separation of Powers, to a government of limited powers, to destroy the notion that we are a nation of laws, not of men, is something that is absolutely unforgiveable, irresponsible and terribly, terribly destructive of our notion of government. President Clinton, certainly had my problems with him, but what he did in terms of perjury and obstruction was bad, but it was not destructive of the very systemic foundations of our country.  

Well, one insider says she was booked on Keith Olberman and Morning Joe to talk about her tome — and then unbooked. “These are shows that call her regularly to come on. And then the word came from on high that she had to be cancelled.”

It seems that Arianna Huffington has run up against the impenetrable wall that is Tim Russert’s ego. Huffington, who is currently on tour for her new book Right Is Wrong: How The Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded The Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe, will be appearing on CNN, ABC, and CBS. She had been booked on Morning Joe and Countdown with Keith Olbermann as well, but those bookings were suddenly and inexplicably cancelled.

NBC confirmed that Huffington wouldn’t be booked on any NBC-affiliated show to promote her book, but refused to explain why. Huffington’s people say that this is Tim Russert’s doing, that Russert is out for revenge because Huffington called him a “conventional wisdom zombie” in her book and devoted seven pages to faulting Russert for allowing his Meet the Press guests to go unchallenged (not to mention HuffPo’s RussertWatch).