Hello guys and gals (see we’re getting Americanised here y’all!) as you all know today is the big day, the moment in history, the chance for our American brothers and sisters to consign Bush and his ilk to history.

To mark this historic moment the excellent Liberal Conspiracy will be live blogging it. A team of highly coffee fuelled experts will be on hand to offer up all kinds of er expert stuff.

Things will be getting going from 11pm onwards, I intend to be there cup of lemsip in hand to offer my historic 2 cents (read: make stupid jokes) and I invite all PP readers and writers to join us.

It’s gonna be historic y’all!

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is guilty of abuse of power, according to a probe by the state legislature.

Mrs Palin was accused of sacking a senior state official, Walter Monegan, in connection with a family feud. She allegedly fired him for refusing to sack a state trooper who was in a bitter custody battle with her sister.

The verdict of the state legislature could have a significant effect on Republicans hopes of winning the US presidential election next month.

I should hope it does. It will be a sweet irony if Palin damages McCain’s campaign. Not that he’s likely to win now anyway. Barring an unexpected Obama gaffe/scandal or terrorist attack I expect we’ll be seeing the first Black President being elected in a few weeks time.

McCain is smarter than he looks going by his choice for running mate:

Republican presidential nominee John McCain today selected Alaska governor Sarah Palin, a relative political novice, as his vice-presidential running mate.

The move is a bold play for the potentially millions of disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters who yearn to vote for a woman candidate in the November election and who have remained impervious to Democratic pleas for party unity.

The announcement came the morning after Barack Obama’s well-received address on the final day of the Democratic convention, a transparent effort to keep pundits from discussing Obama.

Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, one of the senior women in the US Senate, praised Palin as “a breath of fresh air.”

Team Obama must be watching this turn of events with interest. Sarah Palin presents a distinct challenge for him (as noted above), she could tempt Hillary’s supporters, she’s photogenic, she’s young and she’s a feminist. The US Presidential election just got a bit more interesting.

Update: BenSix notes the other challenges she presents as being not your average Republican.

Another day, and yet more news of the crumbling Bush adminstration:

A former aide to President Bush claims the White House deliberately mounted a dishonest propaganda campaign to sell the Iraq invasion to the US public, in the most damning insider account of the presidency so far.

Scott McClellan, who worked for Bush for seven years, including three as White House spokesman, brands the war a “serious strategic blunder” and “not necessary”. The scathing comments stunned Washington today because the Bush team, until now, has had a reputation for intense loyalty to their boss.

Great news for the Obama campaign, another weapon in the growing stockpile against that idiot John ‘A thousand years in Iraq dammit’ McCain.

As for those comments of why he didn’t speak up before? Better late than never and the more damage these Republicans do to themselves the better I say!

Sunny updates Best headline goes to Wonkette: “Bush Propagandist Complains Of Bush Propaganda”.
The NY Times has an amusing round up of American blog reactions.

It’s been a long time coming but John Edwards has finally endorsed Barack Obama:

Democrat John Edwards is endorsing former rival Barack Obama, fresh signs of the party establishment embracing the likely nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.

Edwards was to appear with Obama in Grand Rapids, Mich., as Obama campaigns in a critical general election battleground state.

The endorsement comes the day after Clinton defeated Obama by more than 2-to-1 in West Virginia. The loss highlighted Obama’s work to win over the “Hillary Democrats” — white, working-class voters who also supported Edwards in large numbers before he exited the race.

Another nail in the coffin for the Clinton campaign…

Is it me or does this come across like the dress rehearsal for a valedictory address? Is Clinton readying herself and campaign for defeat? Or is she just showing a ’softer’ side as a campaign tactic?

Update: Apparently, Clinton never saw it or read the transcript. Yeah right.

Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, blamed the Clinton team for distributing the picture on the internet and described as the worst piece of fear-mongering of the election campaign so far.

The picture, which first appeared on the Drudge Report, is likely to be picked up by the many websites that have falsely claimed he is a Muslim. It was taken in 2006 when Obama, whose father was Kenyan, visited Wajir in the north-east of the African country and was dressed by the locals as a Somali elder.

The Drudge report said it had obtained the picture after it was circulated in an email between Clinton’s staff under the heading: “Wouldn’t we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were [Hillary Clinton]?”

It’s terrifying isn’t it? Those Clinton’s and their nasty little smear campaign tactics have done the American people a great service by alerting them (and us) to this horrifying image. Well done on them working with the rightwing blog The Drudge Report to bring this to light.