John McCain may as well be John Bush. They certainly agree with each other most of the time.

One of the most enduring taboos in American politics, the airing of graphic images from the September 11 attacks in a partisan context, died today. It was nearly seven years old.

The informal prohibition, which had been occasionally threatened by political ads in recent years, was pronounced dead at approximately 7:40 CST, when a video aired before delegates at the Republican National Convention included slow-motion footage of a plane striking the World Trade Center, the towers’ subsequent collapse, and smoke emerging from the Pentagon.

The September 11 precedent was one of the few surviving campaign-season taboos. It is survived by direct comparisons of one’s opponents to Hitler.

Be afraid, be very afraid. Because then they can keep taking advantage of you.

Jack A. Abramoff, the once-powerful Republican super-lobbyist, was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for his role in a corruption scandal that rocked Congress and the Bush administration.
…
The sentence was far below the 121 months that Abramoff could have received under federal sentencing guidelines but more than either the Justice Department or his lawyers had requested.

Huvelle said Abramoff deserved the sharp reduction in sentence because of his help in aiding prosecutors pursue other targets in the lobbying scandal.

But she also said she wanted to send a strong signal that compromising the integrity of public officials would not be taken lightly.

Huvelle said Abramoff had “corrupted the political process and deprived the public of the honest services” of officials in the executive and legislative branches.

Abramoff, of course, has ties to lobbyist-hating mavericky reformers John McCain and Sarah Palin. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

There’s the Continental Congress…A real WWII vet…Photos of workers at Ground Zero. A close-up of a folded flag presented to a grieving widow at a military funeral… profiles of soldiers swelling with pride in slo-motion. 

But CBS News found that the footage of the ‘funeral’ and soldiers is what is called ‘stock’ footage. The soldiers were actors and the funeral scene was from a one-day film shoot, produced in June. No real soldiers were used during production. 

The footage, sold by stock-film house Getty Imageswas produced by a commercial filmmaker in Chicago. Both Getty and the production company, Mr. Big Films, confirmed that the footage was shot on spec and sold to the Republican National Committee. 

One of the actors, Perry Denton of Chicago, Ill. also confirmed that he was hired on a day-rate as an actor for the shoot and told CBS News he was surprised to learn the footage was shown at the convention. 

Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland used the racially-tinged term “uppity” to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday.
 
Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.

“Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity,” Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

Well, I was wondering how long Republicans were going to keep calling Obama presumptuous, snobbish, and arrogant before they just came out and said it.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Walt Monegan, the former Alaskan Public Safety Commissioner, said he was dismissed because he refused to fire the Governor’s former brother-in-law, a state trooper.

 

“I believe I was fired because of, primarily the reason of her former brother-in-law,” Monegan said. “I think that my unwillingness to take special action against her former brother-in-law was not well received.”

 

Monegan says he believes that the Governor has not told the truth about what happened.

 

“I think there are some questions now that, coming to light about how transparent and how honest she wants to be,” Monegan said.

Watch the ABC News report.

Update: In other Troopergate news, Alaska’s police officer’s union has filed an ethics complaint against the Governor’s office.

An ethics complaint obtained by NBC News was filed yesterday by the police officers’ union in Alaska, requesting a probe into possible wrongdoing by the governor or her office. It was brought on behalf of state trooper, Mike Wooten, the ex-brother in law of Palin, who is at the center of the “Troopergate” scandal.

The complaint alleges that the governor or her staff may have have improperly disclosed information from Wooten’s personnel records. The complaint alleges “criminal penalties may apply.”

“It seems obvious to us somebody has improperly accessed [Wooten's] personnel file,” John Cyr, director of the union that filed the complaint, told NBC News.

Here’s the best response I’ve seen to this new line of attack. (The bit about community organizing starts about halfway through.)

This recurring theme of turning the phrase “community organizer into some sort of epithet like “communist” or “homo” or something, that’s really despicable.  The difference between a community organizer and a politician is that community organizers are the ones who take the responsibility upon themselves to help their fellow citizens without the benefit of a government budget behind them.  And  go out there every day doing the hard thankless work to make this country livable which is what allows you politicians to be able to go on TV and brag about how this is the greatest country in the world.  And for you to go on that TV show and spit in those people’s faces for the sake of a rhetorical flourish is disgusting.

Update: Reflections from a Daily Kos reader:

Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor.

If Toobin is too liberal for you to trust his views on Palin, try right-winger Ben Stein on for size. Palin’s not winning his money tonight.

(Full text of her speech here.)

Of course, I’m not perfect, so if something happens to be totally destroyed, do let me know.

Rough transcript from Pandagon:

Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state government work. Engler, Whitman, Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. And these guys, this is all how you want to (inaudible) this race. You know, just run it up. And it’s not gonna work.
Noonan: It’s over.
Murphy: Still, McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.
Noonan: I saw Kay this morning
Todd: They’re all bummed out. I mean, is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?
Murphy: She’s never been comfortable.
Noonan: The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives and (inaudible) the picture.
Murphy: Yeah, but what’s the narrative?
Noonan: Every time the Republicans do that because that’s not where they live and it’s not what they’re good at and they blow it.
Murphy: You know what’s really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism
Todd: And as you called it gimmicky.
Murphy: … and this is cynicism.

But please, Peggy, tell us how you really feel?

Update: Shorter Peggy Noonan: Oh shit!