Iraqi soccer player Ahmed Manajid is unhappy that President Bush has used footage of the Iraqi soccer team in a reelection campaign ads:

"Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," Sadir told SI.com through a translator, speaking calmly and directly. "He can find another way to advertise himself. How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women?" Manajid told me. "He has committed so many crimes."

In the ad, which you can view here,

.... the flags of Iraq and Afghanistan appear as a narrator says, "At this Olympics there will be two more free nations -- and two fewer terrorist regimes."

His team members share his view:

To a man, members of the Iraqi Olympic delegation say they....find it offensive that Bush is using Iraq for his own gain when they do not support his administration's actions. "My problems are not with the American people," says Iraqi soccer coach Adnan Hamad. "They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?"

[hat tip to Smythe's World]

John Kerry will be on the Daily Show tonight. Did any of you see it?

Preemptive Karma reports:

Clackamas County Oregon prosecutor Alfred French is being asked by a local veterans group to step down from his job, according to KATU news in Portland. French signed an affidavit declaring that he knows Kerry is lying about his record in Vietnam. French also appeared on the Swift Boat ad declaring Kerry lied about what happened. French later admitted that he had no firsthand knowledge of Kerry's actions and was relying on stories from friends.

Bush finally speaks and calls for no more Kerry attack ads. Too little, too late. Not to mention, he didn't call for those on the air to be taken down.

Update: Reuters describes Bush's statement this way:

President Bush called on Monday for ads attacking John Kerry's record in Vietnam to be stopped along with others run by independent groups, and said Kerry should be proud of his war service. But Bush stopped short of condemning a group that calls itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth or its specific accusations that the Democratic presidential candidate lied about his war record in Vietnam.

ABC News Australia reports Bush's statement as "Bush refuses to denounce anti-Kerry campaign."

[Thanks to Michael in the comments who pointed out that Bush fooled a lot of media and us that he had denounced the attacks on Kerry's record, when in fact, he was just calling for an end to 527's--political ads funded by independent groups. MSNBC is still mis-stating Bush's position, with a headline that says,"Bush calls for halt to Swift Boat veterans’ ads."]

Holden at First Draft examines Bush nephew George P.'s statements made while campaigning for his uncle in Mexico and concludes he's just another clueless George. Check out George P's comments on Iraq:

The younger Bush, whose father is Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and mother, Columba, is originally from Mexico, acknowledged at a news conference that the war in Iraq is not popular in Mexico but defended the military action, saying "we're almost done with it."

What did Alan Keyes hope to accomplish with his last-minute entry into the Illinois senate race? A new Chicago Tribune poll has him biting the dust--and bringing down local Republican candidates.

The nation's first Senate contest featuring two major party African-American candidates is beginning in lopsided fashion, with nearly two-thirds of voters indicating support for Democrat Barack Obama and less than one-quarter backing Keyes, according to a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll.

The poll suggests that Keyes' candidacy could hurt other Republicans in local and legislative races. Nearly three in ten voters said they were less likely to back GOP candidates because of the way party leaders went about settling on Keyes as their candidate, though 59 percent said it would make no difference. Although Keyes came late to the race, a sizable number of voters said they had heard of the former presidential candidate. However, more than twice as many said they viewed him with disfavor as said they viewed him favorably, the survey found.

Lots of bloggers are covering the Swift Boat liars. Atrios has been all over it. Skippy has a roundup of the other blog coverage. The latest news is the Chicago Tribune copy editor who comes out for Kerry's version. Not because he's for Kerry, but because he feels the liars are impugning the integrity of those who served. Feel free to share your thoughts on the controversy here.

When it comes to the electoral vote, Colorado, like other states except Maine and Nebraska, has a winner-take-all policy. But a proposal to change that is on the ballot this fall. If it passes, it would affect the distribution of Colorado's electoral votes in the November election.

Election officials have announced that the November ballot will include a proposal to replace the state's winner-take-all system with one to divvy up its nine electoral votes in proportion to a candidate's popular vote. The plan would practically guarantee both President Bush and Democratic nominee John F. Kerry at least some of the state's electoral college votes.

If such a system had been in place during the 2000 election, Al Gore, who lost Colorado with 42 percent of the popular vote, would have received three of the eight electoral votes it then had. That would have given the former vice president -- who lost the electoral college, 271 to 266 -- one more electoral vote than Bush, 269 to 268.

Since George Bush is favored to win Colorado, it makes sense to vote for the change, so Kerry at least gets some votes. I think it's a fairer system. If Bush takes all the Colorado votes, it's like my vote didn't count. Under the new plan, my vote will morph into permanent Kerry electoral votes and increase his national total. It's a big difference.

Update: Dwight Meredith of Wampum thoughtfully analyzes the measure-- whether it would really apply this year, whether it would benefit Kerry and the effect on the election if other states had it.

Joe Conason in Salon:

Trying to counter the success of Michael Moore, Karl Rove's men in Hollywood are rushing to release a pro-Bush epic, "The Big Picture." But are they violating federal campaign law?

....The next salvo in the cinematic campaign war of 2004 is "The Big Picture," a documentary film attacking John Kerry sponsored by David Bossie's Citizens United, the right-wing group that unsuccessfully sued to stop national advertising of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11." But Bossie's latest project could create legal problems for him and his organization -- in part because Lionel Chetwynd, the award-winning director, is working not only on the documentary but also on two shorter films to be screened at the Republican National Convention.

Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball really put Bush-Cheney strategist Matthew Dowd on the spot last night over an RNC web video that shows a small clip from a Matthews/Kerry exchange back in January. The RNC web video uses this Hardball clip in an attempt to show Kerry as flip flopping on Iraq.

Hardball decided the clip was pulled out of context. Matthews played the full bite of the Kerry interview in an attempt to get Dowd to correct the record. Apparently, it got really heated. Hardball has posted the segment video here as well as the full RNC rendering

We've talked often about the felon vote, the hispanic vote, the female vote....now it's time to campaign for the homeless vote.

If you run into any homeless people, make sure they know that the Constitution allows citizens to vote even if they don't own property or have a permanent address. The temporary address of a soup kitchen or homeless shelter is just fine.

Analysts say the homeless favor Kerry. The homeless believe he is more interested in their issues. So let's get them out there. One person, one vote-- rich, poor, male, female, minority or homeless.

Say hello to the Campaign Tracking Dashboard.

We use our text analysis technology to analyze Bush and Kerry press releases, speeches and official blogs on a daily basis. Our analysis depicts the most influential words over the last week, Image Nets which show how Bush and Kerry are portayed on their own and their competitor's sites, the Mud Meter, and measures (and trends) of tone, focus, and intensity.