I put this together and posted it as A Desparate John McCain Launches Rovian Attack Ad Rooted in Blatant Lies as part of the Searching for John McCain project.

After looking back over and seeing how it pulls multiple threads with references together, I decided to post it here, as a summary overview to date of this latest effort by the Republicans to spin a controversy out of thin air and lies.

John McCain has announced his campaign is going to run an ad in Colorado in the next few days criticizing Barack Obama for not visiting troops while in Berlin.

As was reported during the past couple of days, Obama cancelled a scheduled visit to a military hospital because of a request that came directly from Pentagon officials. John McCain Criticizes Obama for What McCain Himself Did, Respect DOD Rules on Campaign Activities.

Thursday, July 17, 2008, 9:30 a.m., The House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing on the one of the most dangerous threats to Internet neutrality, privacy, and the integrity of data transmitted on the Internet now threatening the medium.

What Your Broadband Provider Knows About Your Web Use: Deep Packet Inspection and Communications Laws and Policies

The hearing focused on the company NebuAd, a company that has designed high-speed programs that do deep packet inspection of all traffic passing through an ISPs routers and MODIFY THE PACKET CONTENTS in order to track user habits and inject code to modify web pages being returned to users.

John McCain seems intent on carrying on the lawless philosophies of the George W. Bush administration before he even wins the Presidency. He has been guilty of multiple violations of existing Federal law governing campaign spending for months. He and the Republicans are now gearing up a plan to get around the law that will limit McCain's direct expenditures in the post-primary phase of the election, by funneling money through state campaign funds. A clear violation of campaign spending laws.

Now remember. This is the same John McCain who helped pass many of the laws he is now violating in his quest to be elected President.

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA, McCain–Feingold Act

Frank Rich writes in the New York Times July 6 about the new Pixar film "Wall-E".

He turns the review into not just a review of the movie, but a telling review and critique of the corruption and degradation of our popular and political culture.

Below is newsletter from Privacy Forum I subscribe to. The author has given me permission to quote these in toto, given it is published as a public newsletter electronically via a listserv that anyone can subscribe to, and the whole point is, after all, to try and get people to pay attention to the threats to their privacy that loom larger and out of control in our society every day.

There is little to say about it other than, well, is anyone surprised anymore at the arrogance of the corporations like AT&T? They have Congress eating out of their hands after pouring tens of millions of dollars into Congress' pockets.

Congress is going to pass a bill that unconstitutionally exempts them illegally and ex post facto from investigation for their crimes, committed at the behest of the Bush / Cheney administration.

The vast majority have not even read, and do not even know what is in the law that is about to be passed. They just know that in their secret meetings with the telecoms, as the money changed hand's they were assured is was best for them, and of course, best for America.

Although it appears fashionable at the moment to say IOKIBODI (It's OK if Barack Obama Does It), and have to disagree.

We are talking about absolute fundamentals here, folks.

Either the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the rule of law means something.

Or they don't.

It really does not get any simpler than that.

Ergo, my FAX this morning to the Washington offices of Sen. Evan Bayh and Sen. Barack Obama.

So George W. Bush says, somewhat tentatively, that he will abide by the Supreme Court decision yesterday.

Does that mean he will close the national disgrace, Guantanamo, which will remain a blot and stain on the history of our nation as long as it endures?

So I logged onto Sen. Lieberman's website the other day, and identified myself as a citizen of CT. Well, OK, so I fibbed a little bit, but doing so tends to get past the walls on some Congressional web sites.

I posted a pretty damning indictment of Sen. Lieberman, especially his hypocrisy over Hagee, Obama, the whole muslim thing.

I used an existing throwaway hotmail account I maintain for such stuff, just in case I get a reply.

Which I did.

See below.

Where is the left leaning liberal media when you need them?

June 10, 2008, the morning after Rep. Kucinich stands on the floor of the House and delivers a drop dead serious demand for articles of impeachment of President George W. Bush.

Including a recitation of his and his administrations multiple crimes and acts of malfeasance.

And from the mainstream, traditional, corporate owned and operated news organizations? The sound of crickets.

For each site, I searched on 'impeach', to see if it was in any text on the page.

If you visit Hillary Clinton's Web Site right now, at the top of the page is a form you can fill out with your name, email address, and a comment area.

The form states: "I am with you Hillary, and I am proud of everything we are fighting for."

My middle brother, who has lived his whole life in Alabama, has over the years joined the ranks of sturdy Republicans in the South, that has become the party of ignorance, racism, and endless warfare against immigrants, and endless fear of Blacks.

It has over the past 15 years or so become almost impossible to have a civil or rational conversation with him.

The email below is his latest contribution to enlightened political discourse. This is what these people pass around, and uncritically swallow whole, thinking they have put the left wing liberal latte drinking islamocommunofascist elitists in our places. It is very difficult to deal with people who think like this, because they seem to have become fact and reality resistant to a degree that is hard to imagine if you are cursed with an objective sense of truth and fact based thinking.

It of course illustrates how deeply mired in lies and twisted half truths the hard core 28% (or whatever small fraction it is now) of true believers on the hard right neo-con Bush Cheney Republican part remain.

eems Sen. Lieberman, who as we all know is a brilliant thinker, wishes to join Alaska's Senator Stevens in demonstrating his vast understanding of the Internet and how it works.

After reading the post quoted in full below from Privacy Forum listserv I subscribe to, I went to news.google.com, and found that there are a number of news reports on this, e.g.

Lieberman Wants Terrorist Content Yanked From YouTube

One article reports youtube has refused the Senator's request:
YouTube refuses Lieberman request

I guess my only question at this point, especially given the diary at top of the rec list at the moment Are YOU One of the 8 Million Targeted for Roundup? is, what part of 'these people are establishing a police state in America do you NOT understand at this point?'

I have written previously on issues of Net Neutrality, and the snowballing threats to freedom of expression and access to the Internet.

In those posts, among other references, I have pointed to the work of Lauren Weinstein, a prominent advocate of privacy and Internet freedom.

This morning's post to his Privacy Forum listserv to which I subscribe references a deeply disturbing issue that could seriously threaten the ability of anyone wanting remain anonymous while participating in discussion groups and forums to maintain that anonymity.

Although I personally have done everything but tell you my name and office number in my posts, I have still preferred to not totally expose myself. If you need a reason why, just read KOS report on the front page of this site today and sample the lovely email from Bill O'Reilly supporters he is receiving currently.

O'Reilly's hateful cadres

But on to today's topic below the fold.

End of last week, I was able to attend the Hillary Clinton rally in Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana. I posted a photo dairy of that event:
   Hillary Clinton in Bloomington Indiana Photo Summary

Last night, April 30, Sen. Barack Obama brought his campaign to Assembly Hall. I was able to attend, and below the fold are the photos and some reporting on the event.

I have included a large number of photos, my reason the same as I stated in the prior diary. The vast majority of Americans do not get to attend these events. Some of the diaries I have enjoyed the most on this site have been those with good photo documentation that helped give me a feel of what the place, the people, and the event was like. Attending these events lets us become a little part of unfolding history, and everyone should be able to share a little of that feeling.

At the end of the diary, I have added some comments on the speech, and what an amazing, electrifying event this was. I also have some comments on the amazing depth and substance of the speech.

(Welcome again, of course, to Assembly Hall, home of the Indiana Hoosiers basketball program.)

Last week Hillary Clinton appeared at Assembly Hall, the home court building of the Indiana Hoosiers, as I reported in a photo diary:
   Hillary Clinton in Bloomington Indiana Photo Summary

I mentioned in that diary that it would really round things out if Sen. Obama would appear here, also.

I got email notice that that is going to happen last night about 6:30. Details below the fold.

A couple of items I read this morning are worth noting, I think, in the context of the criticisms of Obama's appearance on Faux Noise network, but more importantly in the context of the possibility of the emergence of altered power bases in American politics that could be leading us into a major realignment not seen since the election of FDR in the 1930's.

Upon exiting the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin supposedly replied to a group who asked him what sort of government the delegates had created: "A republic, if you can keep it."

I would say that is becoming the nature of the free and open Internet. We have one: If we can keep it.

As reported April 23 on CNet news.com, it appears the drive to the total surveillance police state by the Bush/Cheney regime is still in full force. FBI wants widespread monitoring of 'illegal' Internet activity

This can be construed from the testimony of FBI Director Robert Mueller's testimony before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

Hillary Clinton brought her campaign to Bloomington, Indiana this afternoon, Friday, April 25, 2008.

She appeared at Assembly Hall, which houses the court of the Indiana Hoosiers basketball program.