Midday Open Thread

• Matt Welch, author of McCain: The Myth of a Maverick -- isn't buying the line about McCain getting the U.S. out of Iraq by 2013, as he parses exactly what the presumptive nominee said in his speech yesterday.
• Gary Hart takes on  John McCain:

  If John McCain seriously believes we are at war with al Qaeda in Iraq, that alone is such a serious error in judgment as to rank him with George W. Bush at his worst and therefore disqualify him from any chance to govern this country.

  This isn't a typical Democrat versus Republican story; Hart and McCain have been tight friends for decades, with Hart serving as an usher at McCain's wedding.

• Alan Keyes is gearing up to start his own third party.
• Chinese bloggers are bucking the state controlled media and breaking the real news in China, thanks to a website hosted by Watson Meng in Durham, NC.

  The site, Boxun.com, relies on a host of bloggers and citizen journalists — mostly in China — to break stories, often faster than state-controlled Chinese media or foreign news services. The site is banned in China, but Chinese people can skirt that Internet censorship through proxy servers hosted in the United States.

  Posting on Boxun (pronounced "bow shwin") is not without risks. Numerous contributors, including three in the past several weeks, have been jailed in China.

  "It's really aggravated the [Chinese] government because it takes stuff outside and puts it on display internationally," said Bob Dietz, of the New York nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists. "For us, the site is required reading."

• In other news from China, it is estimated at five million people are now homeless in Suchuan Province as a result of the earthquake.
• The Georgia bar owner that created the offensive "Curious George" Obama shirts may have received a little more publicity than he would have liked. The numerous reports caught the attention of publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt  - who said they are not amused and are considering legal action.

  "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt did not nor would we ever authorize or approve this use of the Curious George character, which we find offensive and utterly out of keeping with the values Curious George represents," said Richard Blake, the company's spokesman.