A few days ago, I wrote about The Washington Times–part of the Right-Wing Noise Machine–publishing a bogus piece on the military supposedly having reservations about Barack Obama.

Well, it turns out that the only member of the military quoted by name–retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney–is basically a right-wing hack:

In 2006, it was McInerney who insisted that Russian Special Forces entered Iraq before the invasion and moved Saddam’s WMD to Syria.

In 2002, McInerney assured Americans the war in Iraq “will be a war that is shorter than” the 1991 Gulf War, which lasted 42 days.

In 2005, McInerney insisted that terrorists no longer feel the need to attack inside the United States because we have “leftists in America who have aided and abetted the enemy more than Tokyo Rose did in World War II.”

And it turns out another member of the military–retired Air Force Gen. Merrill A. McPeak, who campaigned for Bob Dole and George W. Bush–has high hopes for an Obama Presidency:

McPeak told the Times, “I think Obama is going to be an outstanding commander in chief, not just an ordinary commander in chief. He has the potential to be one of the all-time greats. I think the senior military will learn that about him starting from the first minute he occupies the Oval Office.”

[Emphasis Added]

Once again, the Right-Wing Noise Machine is discredited, so let’s put this idiotic meme to rest.

Moving on, we are just six days away from VOTR Day. The latest Rasmussen poll out of Texas puts Barack Obama just one point behind Hillary Clinton; ten days ago, Rasmussen had Clinton leading Obama by 16%.

Following this trend, Pollster shows Obama slightly ahead in Texas (47.8% to 45.7%) and a few points behind in Ohio (41.7% to 50.1%). Right now, Clinton has the advantage but Obama has the momentum–in 6 days, it’s likely that he’ll have the lead in Texas and could be nearly tied in Ohio.

In addition, MSNBC’s First Read reports that Obama is vastly outspending Clinton in both of the major VOTR Day states:

Watching local TV here in Ohio, it feels like Obama has a 4-to-1 advantage — with SEIU, UFCW and Obama just blitzing the airwaves compared with Clinton. It’s happening in all four states. In fact, per TV ad expert Evan Tracey, Obama has outspent Clinton $23 million to $14 million in the last 30 days. How is she expected to hold a big lead if she gets outspent this badly? The third party groups are like salt in the Clinton wound.

I’m not counting Clinton out, but she’s definitely suffering. Her negative ‘kitchen sink’ offensive against Obama isn’t sticking–in fact, it seems to be backfiring on Clinton, driving her support down. With Obama gaining momentum and spending more, it’s hard to see how she’ll hold on to–let alone grow–her already-slim leads in OH and TX. Clinton only has 6 days to pull this out, and she’s spinning her wheels as time runs out.

On the Republican side, McCain’s FEC shenanigans might land him in a heap of trouble. He’s quickly approaching the $54 million limit imposed by public financing laws and–unless the FEC releases him from public financing soon–McCain will exceed that limit and land his campaign in court.

In addition, it’s questionable whether or not McCain can even withdraw from public financing at this point, seeing as how he used public financing to secure a loan to his campaign (receiving other benefits as well, such as ballot access). The McCain is arguing that they didn’t use public funds as collateral for that loan, but even if they didn’t, the campaign will still be screwed. The New Republic’s Noam Scheiber has this to say:

Bottom line: Either McCain used the promise of public campaign funds as collateral for his loan, in which case he’s locked himself into the public campaign finance system (and its strict spending limits) and is massively screwed until September. Or he didn’t use potential public funds as collateral, which means he didn’t have anything to offer as collateral, which means he received an improper loan. Neither one of those scenarios is very good for the Straight Talk Express.

McCain has some explaining to do. No matter what, his attempt to weasel around campaign finance reform laws dispels the myth of McCain as a clean government crusader and campaign finance reformer–when push comes to shove, McCain has shown himself to be an expert parser with pure Washington flowing through his veins.

In other news, Michael Bloomberg announces he isn’t running for President; in response, the nation yawns.

Let’s face it, Bloomberg isn’t an independent, he’s an opportunist–he became a Republican so he could win Giuliani’s endorsement and become mayor of New York, then he became an independent to set the stage for his (now aborted) Presidential campaign.

We have enough egotistical opportunists running for President (see Nader, McKinney) as it is–we don’t need another one, so I’m grateful for this announcement.

That’s all the election news there is for now. If you live in Texas or Ohio, (or Rhode Island or Vermont, who also go to the polls on Tuesday) make sure to get out there and vote. I’ll bring you more news as it develops…