The game of "blame the blacks" — but more specifically the blacks and the Democrats — is still going strong in conservative circles. Think Progress has a video compilation of several lawmakers and pundits blaming our current economic crisis on the Community Reinvestment Act, a Democratic initiative from the 70s designed to help minorities and lower-income families buy houses. This is despite the fact that economists say our problems were caused by poor regulation and market failure. It's far easier to blame the poor minorities — and Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter — than to take any of the responsibility for their party's policies.

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) responds to the GOP's foreclosure-list voting scheme: "In the past two Presidential elections, the country witnessed appalling efforts to limit voter participation in Ohio, Florida and throughout the country. It is beyond disgraceful that the Republican Party now seems to be targeting those who are suffering the most. It appears that individuals who can’t recall how many houses they own don’t understand how awful it is to lose your home to foreclosure, and don’t know that you don’t need to own property to vote in the United States of America. It should surprise no one that the people who gave us the worst economy since the Great Depression would now want to prevent those victimized by this economy from voting in the coming elections. Senator McCain needs to step forward now and halt the Republican Party’s efforts to profit politically from the economic misery of others."

From the Boston Globe: "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." Here's the video, if you care to see it..

The Republican National Committee has released its list of speakers for the convention, which reps say "showcases the diversity of the Republican Party." Translation: every single non-white, non-male Republican politician they could round up got an invite — with Lieberman as a bonus. [HP]

"In an interview on National Public Radio last week, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean touted the racial and gender diversity of the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. In what sounded like a slip of the tongue, he momentarily referred to the GOP as the 'white party.' Paging Dr. Freud."

From the New York Times: "Well before Senators Barack Obama and John McCain rose to the top of their parties, a partisan shift was under way at the local and state level. For more than three years starting in 2005, there has been a reduction in the number of voters who register with the Republican Party and a rise among voters who affiliate with Democrats and, almost as often, with no party at all… Voting experts say the registration numbers may signal the beginning of a move away from Republicans that could affect local, state and national politics over several election cycles… In several states, including the traditional battlegrounds of Nevada and Iowa, Democrats have surprised their own party officials with significant gains in registration. In both of those states, there are now more registered Democrats than Republicans, a flip from 2004. "

From Reuters: "In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if store workers unionize, the paper said… The Wal-Mart human-resources managers who have run the meetings didn't tell those attending how to vote in the November elections, but made it clear that voting for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, would be tantamount to inviting unions in."

Nothing is set in stone, but there is very strong buzz that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will be John McCain's pick for vice president, a move that will give the GOP side a racial first of their own. The problem for the GOP is that he's young — a decade younger than Obama — and green. The problem for the country, if McCain is elected, is that Jindal is quite the kooky religious righter.