Fred Thompson

We've all seen the signs and bumper stickers - "I'm the NRA and I Vote."

But with the Republican Party in chaos, time the question must be asked: for whom??

Grandpa Fred is putting his last eggs in the basket of South Carolina gun owners, but gun owners aren't fools and they have no interest in backing a sure primary loser.

Their dilemma is expressed by F. Hewitt Grant, the grandfatherly president of Ellett Brothers gun manufacturing:

Grant has been wooed by three candidates: Thompson, Huckabee and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Ronald Reagan launched his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the Mississippi civil rights workers murders about which the movie Mississippi Burning was written. This disgusting act sent an unmistakable dog-whistle message to the Ku Klux Klan and their racist sympathizers: that Reagan was one of them. And to progressives who knew their history, Reagan sent an unmistakable Fuck You.

Today we learn Fred Thompson will launch his campaign on Sept. 6 at a Chick-fil-A on Bush River Road in Columbia, South Carolina. While the location has its symbols, the most important fact is its time: one minute after midnight at 12:01 a.m.

Why 12:01 a.m.? For two reasons.

First, to say Fuck You to people who believe in campaign finance disclosure as a safeguard against bribery and corruption.

As vultures circle the McCain campaign, the conventional wisdom about his demise is that Iraq brought him down. As Arianna Huffington wrote,

John McCain's cratering campaign is an object lesson in how to kill a candidacy in three simple steps: 1) locate the biggest foreign policy disaster in U.S. history 2) embrace it 3) implode. (Bonus step: spend money like you are Paul Bremmer).

But Glenn Greenwald doesn't buy that analysis because the GOP base still supports the war: