The Cardoza 40

While Hillary furiously spins into self-parody and the remaining undeclared super-delegates sit perched upon their fences, shields clinging tightly to their asses, some 40 super-ds who have up to now been Clinton supporters have decided to do what's right for their party and for the country and have decided to back Obama. 

As usual, Al at The Field has the scoop:

“The Cardoza 40″: Exodus of Clinton Delegates Begins
The endorsement by US Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-California) of Obama today sends an extremely firm message to the Clinton campaign, and not only because he was, until today, a Clinton superdelegate.

The Field has learned that Cardoza is the first of a group of at least 40 Clinton delegates, many of them from California, that through talking among themselves came to a joint decision that all of them would vote for Obama at the convention. They have informed Senator Clinton that it’s time to unite around Obama, and that they will be coming out, one or two at a time, and announcing their switch between now and the convention if Senator Clinton doesn’t do the same.
…
Cardoza, in his endorsement today, said:

“I am deeply concerned about the contentious primary campaign and controversy surrounding the seating of delegates from Florida and Michigan – two states Democrats need to win in November. I will not support changing the rules in the fourth quarter of this contest through some convoluted DNC rules committee process. Yet, we must find a resolution to seat the Michigan and Florida delegates so these states’ voters are represented at the Convention. I believe we need to avoid this potentially divisive situation by uniting behind one nominee and bringing the party together immediately. Therefore, I have made the decision to support Senator Obama at the Democratic Convention in my role as a super delegate.”

Solidly Progressive, Remarkably Consistent

Video of Obama speaking extemporaneously at a Chicago labor rally in 2003 courtesy of Mike Lux at Open Left.

Remember This Guy?

He's Florida State Senator Steve Geller, the knob who mockingly pretended to object to the Republican-led legislature moving their primary up to mid-January. He's pretty clearly an asshat. Just the sort of person the Clinton's like to have around.  

Here's why he's back in the news:

Sen. Steve Geller, D-Cooper City, filed a federal lawsuit today force the national Democratic Party to recognize the 1.75 million votes Floridians cast during the Jan. 29 primary and seat the state's delegation at the convention.

What the hell is wrong with people down there? Can the rest of the country secede?

If Ever There Were An Argument Against White Supremacy

This is it:

And these were the people and sentiments that Clinton pandered to. Disgusting.

h/t: Daily Dish

More On Clinton's Poisonous Turn

Al Giordano over at The Field (which is, as I've mentioned numerous times, the BEST politiblog of the season) posits that Clinton's latest ratcheting up of poisonous rhetoric is due to sour grapes:

The Field can now confirm, based on multiple sources, something that both campaigns publicly deny: that Senator Clinton has directly told Senator Obama that she wants to be his vice presidential nominee, and that Senator Obama politely but straightforwardly and irrevocably said “no.” Obama is going to pick his own running mate based on his own criteria and vetting process.

And that is all that anybody needs to know to understand the childish and wounded behavior of Senator Clinton yesterday, grandstanding hypocritically to senior citizens in Florida, telling them they should consider themselves under sniper fire in Bosnia, er, Zimbabwe, aggrandizing herself as some kind of civil rights leader (MLK? or LBJ? She didn’t say this time) and attempting to corner 30 members of the DNC’s Rules & Bylaws Committee that will meet on May 31 to resolve the disputes over whether, and, if so, how, delegates from Michigan and Florida might be seated at the convention in August.

There are more good reasons why an Obama-Clinton ticket can’t, shouldn’t and won’t happen than the dozen offered by my old friend, ad-maker extraordinaire and political wise man Dan Payne so cogently via today’s Boston Globe.

Now that Time magazine has put the Clinton gambit out into the open, we are likely to witness, in the coming weeks, an extremely sad spectacle for Senator Clinton, whose spouse just can’t help himself and obviously is not helping her. Through being so indiscreet about his obsession with getting near the levers of state power again that the first major media confirmation of the Clinton vice presidential aspirations involved a report that he’s the one who wants it most, he has definitively reinforced that the “nightmare ticket” is deservedly off the table, and created a monstrous distraction that impedes Senator Clinton from consolidating all she has built for herself this year in the short term.

So now, when the Clinton surrogates continue to advocate that Obama choose Senator Clinton as veep, everybody will know: It’s Bill, and not Hill, stoking the fire. When New York political insider Mark Green’s Air America sent an email blast this morning to its entire mailing list featuring the milquetoast, boring and Arbitron-ratings neglected Thom Hartmann’s plea - “Obama: Ask Hillary First” (and this Air America subscriber summarily unsubscribed from that list this morning upon receiving that piece of corporate-paid advertising), everybody knows: the ventriloquist behind these Muppets is Bill Clinton.

And it’s not even about the vice presidency. For Bill, it is about wrestling back “the Clinton brand” from his spouse. How’s that for petty? Arianna Huffington wrote a compelling essay last week listing the triumphs of Senator Clinton’s campaign, paving the way for other women in politics, and noting that, “she has redefined and taken over the Clinton brand… she is the Clinton who will now be most relevant to the country’s future.”

Not so fast. “The Clinton problem” today is not: what will the Democratic Party or Barack Obama do about Senator Clinton? It is: what will Senator Clinton do about that loose cannon of a former president?

You shall know the politically inept among us by those that continue to advocate for The Disaster Ticket now that Bill has pushed himself so unnecessarily into the photo, confirming that he is the most compelling reason why an Obama-Clinton ticket will never happen, and you shall know them also even by those who oppose it but who worry, fret and gnash teeth aloud that somehow it could be forced to happen after this latest development.

The nightmare has died. Smile and get over it.

Here's Josh's take at Talking Points Memo:

But Sen. Clinton is doing much more than this. She is embarking on a gambit that is uncertain in its result and simply breathtaking in its cynicism.

I know many TPM Readers believe there is a deep moral and political issue at stake in the need to seat these delegations. I don't see it the same way. But I'm not here to say they're wrong and I'm right. It's a subjective question and I respect that many people think this. What I'm quite confident about is that Sen. Clinton and her top advisors don't see it that way.

Why do I think that? For a number of reasons. One of her most senior advisors, Harold Ickes, was on the DNC committee that voted to sanction Florida and Michigan by not including their delegates. Her campaign completely signed off on sanctions after that. And there are actually numerous quotes from the Senator herself saying those primaries didn't and wouldn't count. Michigan and Florida were sanctioned because they ignored the rules the DNC had set down for running this year's nomination process.

The evidence is simply overwhelming that Sen. Clinton didn't think this was a problem at all -- until it became a vehicle to provide a rationale for her continued campaign.

…
What she's doing is not securing her the nomination. Rather, she's gunning up a lot of her supporters to believe that the nomination was stolen from her -- a belief many won't soon abandon. And that on the basis of rationales and arguments there's every reason to think she doesn't even believe in.

Here's Jonathan Alter at Newsweek:

But Clinton has continued with one claim that could have a pernicious effect on the Democrats' chances in November. While she knows that the nomination is determined by delegates, Hillary insists on saying at every opportunity that she is winning the popular vote. And she has now taken to touting the new HBO movie "Recount," which chronicles the Florida fiasco of eight years ago. Everyone can agree that the primary calendar needs reform. But popular-vote pandering is poison for Democrats. For a party scarred by the experience of 2000, when Al Gore received 500,000 more popular votes than George W. Bush but lost the presidency, this argument is sure to make it harder to unite and put bitter feelings aside.

Oh, and it's not true.…

Read his complete debunking of the popular vote total canard here.

******

Just think, five short (okay, really loooooong) months ago, the Clintons were relatively respected in most Democratic circles. Some still respect them, obviously, but they've more than lost the respect and support of most thinking liberals. It's ever more apparent that the right wing wack jobs were right about the Clintons all along…just for the wrong reasons. What a sad turn of events. The sooner their cynical, Janus-faced asses are ushered from the stage, the happier I'll be.

Scraping The Bottom Of The Bottom Of The Bottom

Wow. Just when I thought Clinton could go no lower, she done went and proved me wrong. Her comments in Florida today—comparing an interparty disciplinary issue with slavery, the 2000 presidential election, and the problems in Zimbabwe(!)— went beyond disingenuous straight to despicable. 

Johnathan Chait at The New Republic has her number. I'm posting the whole thing, rather than a clip because it's so spot on. 

Clinton's Shocking Florida Gambit
Hillary Clinton's rhetoric today about counting the results in Florida and Michigan is simply incredible. Her speech compares discounting the Florida and Michigan primaries to vote suppression and slavery:

She said "there's a reason why so many have fought so hard and sacrificed so much. It's because they knew that to be a citizen of this country is to have the right and responsibility to help shape its future. Not just to have your voice heard but to have it count. People have fought hard because they knew their vote was at stake and so was their children's futures.

Those people, she said “refused to accept their assigned place as second-class citizens. Men and women who saw America not as it was, but as it could and should be, and committed themselves to extending the frontiers of our democracy. The abolitionists and all who fought to end slavery and ensure freedom came with the full right of citizenship. The tenacious women and a few brave men who gathered at the Seneca Falls convention back in 1848 to demand the right to vote.”

It's worth repeating: They supported this "disenfranchisement." Here's a New York Times story from last fall, headlined, "Clinton, Obama and Edwards Join Pledge to Avoid Defiant States."

Moreover, it's obviously true that Obama not campaigning, organizing, or advertizing in those states hurt him, and helped the more familiar candidate in Clinton. She decided to campaign to change the rules only after it became her interest to do so.

This gambit by Clinton is simply an attempt to steal the nomination. It's obviously not going to work, because Democratic superdelegates don't want to commit suicide. But this episode is very revealing about Clinton's character. I try not to make moralistic characterological judgments about politicians, because all politicians compromise their ideals in the pursuit of power. There are no angels in this business. Clinton's gambit, however, truly is breathtaking.

If she's consciously lying, it's a shockingly cynical move. I don't think she's lying. I think she's so convinced of her own morality and historical importance that she can whip herself into a moralistic fervor to support nearly any position that might benefit her, however crass and sleazy. It's not just that she's convinced herself it's okay to try to steal the nomination, she has also appropriated the most sacred legacies of liberalism for her effort to do so. She is proving herself temperamentally unfit for the presidency. [Emphasis added.]

Ya think?

Reason Enough To Be Glad Obama's The Nominee

Is it any wonder the Clinton campaign has lost so much respect from liberals when her sycophants not only engage in ridiculous spin but then bend over for Fox News? Try not to throw up in your mouth as you watch.

Bathroom Porn

Obamatopia

Noooooooo!

Best Year Ever!

One of the most supremely satisfying aspects to this years election cycle—more than Obama's inspiring rhetoric, more than the huge surge in registered Democrats, more than the growing strength of progressive institutions and the lefty blogosphere—is watching as virtually every sophomoric, denigrating move from the Republican playbook flops ineffectively. It's almost as if the greater share of the American populace is waking up or getting wise to the Republicans bullshit (well, after 40 years it's about time). 

In the past three special elections where Dems have won previously safe seats, Repubs pulled out all the stops and tried all of their tried and true homophobic, xenophobic, nativistic, egghead-bashing tricks only to watch as they failed miserably. It's been a beautiful thing to behold. 

Courtesy of Josh at TPM, here are ads from another contest where the Repub is trying the same old, same old and his Dem opponent hits back hard. This one in Missouri. Given the way things are going this year, I think we can guess how it's going to turn out.

Choice cut:

One of the more diverting aspects of the 2008 campaign is watching how the GOP wedge issue playbook descends toward self-parody as its effectiveness diminishes.

Here's the ad running from Missouri Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) against challenger and former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes (D-MO) and her ad responding.

Barnes' response:

In terms of electoral politics, this is the best year ever!

O In O

More great pics from Obama's Sunday Portland rally via torridjoe at Loaded Oregon.

And finally, some decent video footage:

Quote Du Jour

Here's the truth: the Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons and Iran doesn't have a single one. But when the world was on the brink of nuclear holocaust, Kennedy talked to Khrushchev and he got those missiles out of Cuba. Why shouldn't we have the same courage and the confidence to talk to our enemies? That's what strong countries do, that's what strong presidents do, that's what I'll do when I'm president of the United States of America.

So, you know, for all their tough talk, one of the things you have to ask yourself is what are George Bush and John McCain afraid of? Demanding that a country meets all your conditions before you meet with them, that's not a strategy; it's just naïve, wishful thinking. I'm not afraid that we'll lose some propaganda fight with a dictator. It's time for America to win those battles, because we've watched George Bush lose them year after year after year. It's time to restore our security and our standing in the world. [emphasis added]

—Barack Obama responding to

W's and McCain's jingoistic attacks

on the practice of diplomacy

Sister Rosetta

God, it's things like this that really make me love the Internet in general and blogging in particular. In the course of my usual blog browsing (blowsing? brogging?), I stumbled upon this post from Kathy G. at The G Spot. She has a regular feature called "Diva of the Week"; this week she featured a woman named Sister Rosetta Tharpe. I'd never heard of her before (though she was described by Kathy as legendary) which is a crying shame, because she rocks the house. Here's a clip of the post as well as vid clip:

This week's diva is the legendary gospel and blues singer and guitarist, Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Born in Arkansas in 1915, she began playing music as a child, accompanying her mother, who was a traveling evangelist, in tent revivals throughout the South. She became a star attraction on her own, mainly as a gospel singer, although she also made significant jazz and blues recordings. Indeed, her combination of the sacred and the secular was considered somewhat scandalous back in the day.

Sister Rosetta, who died in 1973, is probably best known as an important precursor to early rock and roll. With her virtuoso rocking guitar playing, she pioneered an original sound all of her own. Musicians from Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to Bob Dylan to Isaac Hayes and Aretha Franklin have cited her as an influence, and both Little Richard and Johnny Cash have said she was their favorite singer.

Here's Rosetta in a clip from the early 60s, performing her classic rendition of "Down by the Riverside." As you'll see, she totally rocks.

Here she is performing "Didn't It Rain" circa 1964-66. She arrives onstage in true diva style -- via a horse-drawn carriage!

Click here for a couple more videos.

Walt Whitman's "America"

This is very cool. Somehow Sully found a recording of one of America's brightest lights and one of my favorite poets, Walt Whitman, reading from his poem, "America." If you've never read Leaves of Grass do yourself a favor and remedy the situation. In the meantime listen to Whitman speak to us from across a century of time.

America

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear'd, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love.

Enjoy the recording:

And for more background on Whitman, go here, here or here. 

Obama In Roseburg

Putting the lie to the idea that Obama has a white, working-class voter problem (outside of Appalachia), Obama brings over 1,000 out in one of the state's more conservative regions.

Obama visting several Oregon towns

Sunday morning, Obama spoke in Gresham. The day before, he came to the heart of Republican timber country in Oregon on Saturday, and drew a favorable reception from a large audience with his promises to end the Iraq war and deliver universal health care.

The Illinois senator packed nearly 1,500 people into the Roseburg High School cafeteria for what was his first campaign foray into one of Oregon's conservative rural areas.

After Obama took a shellacking in last Tuesday's West Virginia primary, some analysts suggested the loss showed the Illinois senator was having problems connecting with blue-collar, working-class voters.

None of that was in evidence Saturday in this Douglas County timber town -- the first stop in a weekend of campaigning in Oregon for Obama, who holds a large lead in polls leading up to Tuesday's primary election.

…

As Obama took the stage Saturday, he was greeted by one man's shout of "Obama rocks!" and he received several standing ovations in a county that has voted for Republicans in every presidential election since 1964, when the county went for Democrat Lyndon Johnson.

Douglas County is among the rural Oregon counties that have suffered economically with the decline in the timber industry -- the main source of jobs in Roseburg and surrounding areas.

Obama drew cheers when he called for more research into converting wood chips into an alternative fuel source -- both to boost supplies of renewable energy and to create new jobs in timber-dependent communities.

Audience members -- including some Republicans -- said afterward Obama had scored points with them in his Saturday address.

Mike Croning, 54, a registered Republican, said he is "strongly leaning" toward backing Obama in November.

"He's a Kennedy-esque type of person. He's a thoughtful person," said Croning, a financial planner. "I don't think he's the old-style partisan politics."

Roseburg dentist Bill Schuyler, 62, said he's been a Republican all his life but now is backing Obama.

"He's the most honest candidate we've had. He speaks what he believes," Schuyler said.

…

The Illinois senator's response to that and other issues cemented registered nurse Kim Rockingber's support for Obama.

"He's an inspiring man," Rockingber said.

She also disputed assertions by some that Obama doesn't relate to working-class voters.

"We've heard a lot of stereotypes about who is voting for who. Well, I'm one of those `hardworking white people' that we heard Hillary Clinton's campaign make reference to, and I'm voting for Obama," she said.

The man is a fucking phenomenon.

I'm Lorne Michaels, And I Approve This Message

75,000!

That's how many showed up in Portland, Oregon to see Obama this afternoon. His biggest crowd yet. I'm so proud of my state!

Here's the report from NBC's First Read:

Per the Obama campaign, 75,000 people (60,000 in the gates and 15,000 outside of them) turned out in Portland to hear Obama speak there this afternoon -- making it the largest Obama crowd to date.

Duane Bray, the battalion chief with Portland Fire and Rescue, validated that crowd estimate, the campaign says.

And here's coverage from another source:

At a rally today in sunny Portland, Barack Obama spoke to some 75,000 people, according to the campaign. The mammoth crowd stood on Waterfront Park in downtown Portland adjacent to the scenic Willamette River. People even came by boat and kayak to catch a glimpse of the likely Democratic nominee.

“Hello Portland! Wow. Wow. Wow,” he said as the crowd chanted “Obama!” Looking out at the seemingly never ending crowd, he said, “We have had a lot of rallies around the country. I think it is fair to say that this is the most spectacular setting for the most spectacular crowd that we have had in this entire campaign. This is unbelievable.” He added, “It doesn’t hurt that it’s a perfect day.”

This vid (which has terrible sound quality) shows what 75,000 people look like:

Update: Here are some pics of the event:

I'm guessing Republicans are shitting themselves.

Update: More pics here.

Bizarro Land

We're definitely in a new world when Peggy Noonan writes sane articles that I can read all the way through. Her assessment of the Republicans chances this year is as bad as anyone's. 

Choice cut:

Mr. Bush has squandered the hard-built paternity of 40 years. But so has the party, and so have its leaders. If they had pushed away for serious reasons, they could have separated the party's fortunes from the president's. This would have left a painfully broken party, but they wouldn't be left with a ruined "brand," as they all say, speaking the language of marketing. And they speak that language because they are marketers, not thinkers. Not serious about policy. Not serious about ideas. And not serious about leadership, only followership.

Obama Hits Back

Hard. Choice cut: 

"If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate that I'm happy to have any time, any place, and that is a debate that I will win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for," Obama said in a campaign speech in South Dakota.

Idiocracy Now

(Almost) Post-Game Analysis

The New Republic's Michelle Cottle asked several of Hillary's staff members to create a list of what went wrong. It's fascinating. It shows that despite the cheery and defiant bs that Wolfson and McAuliffe (and the dour defiant bs from Mark Penn earlier in the year), people in the campaign actually had and have a good sense of what was going on and what happened. 

What Went Wrong?
The exclusive story of Hillary's fall, as told by the high-level advisors, staffers, fundraisers, and on-the-ground organizers who lived it.
Endings are rarely as joyous as beginnings--and in the case of a long, wearing, and ultimately disappointing campaign, they can be downright brutal. But they also have the potential to be educational, for participants and gawkers alike. So it is that we asked (begged, really) a range of Hillarylanders for their up-close and personal lists of "What Went Wrong?" Not everyone wanted to play. Many stubbornly pointed out that their candidate is not yet dead. But, on the condition of total anonymity, a fairly broad enough cross-section of her staff responded--more than a dozen members all told, from high-level advisors to grunt-level assistants, from money men to on-the-ground organizers.…

My favorite: 

1. Mark Penn
2. Mark Penn
3. Mark Penn

Clinton's Cheerleader

Clinton's campaign chair Terry MacAuliffe used to drive me crazy. I mean I wanted to throw a chair at the tv whenever I saw his oily mug dumping bs on talk shows. I have to admit, though, that lately I've been finding him almost charming. His unrelenting cheerleading in the face of near-certain defeat for his candidate has been both humorous and strangely endearing. The folks over at Veracifier have noticed, too, and put together a sort of greatest hits video. Enjoy:

Remember These Days?

Look what I stumbled across! Someone has chronicled the 1990 version of Windows. Here are some screen shots to ruin your day:

And here's the previous version:

Gack! And here's Windows 1. Note the god-awful original logo.

Thank god for Steve Jobs. 

Hillary Vows to Fight on for Edwards' Endorsement

More campaign snark from Andy Borowitz: 

Just moments after former presidential candidate John Edwards endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) for president, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) vowed to "continue the fight" for Edwards' endorsement.

"My friends, I will fight for the endorsement of John Edwards, even if it takes all summer," she told supporters in Louisville, Kentucky. "I have not begun to fight for this endorsement!"…

Politi-Porn II

That last PolitiPorn post was so much fun I had to watch it again. But though it's great fun, it's not my favorite snippet. My favorite—possibly the best piece of political talk show ass-handing in the history of cable news—is this 2006 clip from (sorry, but I must say it…) Hannity & Colmes. In it a Demo strategist named Kirsten Powers takes Ann Coulter to the mat. She shuts her up in a way I've never before seen anyone else do. The conservative diva is so flabbergasted she bolts the show. What kind of super power does Kirsten possess? Don't know, but she's earned a place in my heart. 

What Californians Have To Look Forward To

Massachusetts Supreme Court Orders All Citizens To Gay Marry

Can the rest of the country be next? 

h/t: Balloon Juice

Politi-Porn

Watch as Chris Matthews (yes, Chris Matthews) takes a right wing talk radio mouth breather to school. It's a beautiful thing to behold.

Can you believe this guy? It's too bad they don't get called on their no-nothing bullshit more often. We may never have ended up in Bush's quagmire.

Cartogra-Porn

Talk about kinky—someone has actually mapped out known sexual fetishes. Click here for full size. 

I'm feeling more vanilla by the day. 

Courting Sanity

California's supreme court finally cedes to reason and rules in favor of equal rights (and against second-class citizenship) for millions of its citizens. 

Gay Marriage Ban Overturned By California Supreme Court
SAN FRANCISCO — In a monumental victory for the gay rights movement, the California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage Thursday in a ruling that would allow same-sex couples in the nation's biggest state to tie the knot.

Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in striking down the ban.

Outside the courthouse, gay marriage supporters cried and cheered as the news spread. Jeanie Rizzo, one of the plaintiffs, called Pali Cooper, her partner of 19 years, and asked, "Pali, will you marry me?"

"This is a very historic day. This is just such freedom for us," Rizzo said. "This is a message that says all of us are entitled to human dignity."

The Daily Dish has reax from a variety of sources, including Cali's governor, here and here.

We're Pathetic!

Ahhh…the news just keeps getting better for us libs. Sam Stein has this at HuffPo:

GOP Adviser: This is '94 In Reverse, We're Pathetic
A palpable sense of doom has set in among Republican rank and file as the party begins to lick its wounds from last night's defeat in a special Mississippi congressional election. The loss, which was the GOP's third straight in what had been reliably Republican districts, spurned talks of even greater, historical setbacks in the fall.

"This is 1994 all over again," Frank Luntz, a famed Republican communications consultant, told The Huffington Post. "I was there. I saw it firsthand. The Republicans of 2008 are behaving exactly like the Democrats of '94 and making exactly the same mistakes. It's pathetic."
…
Republican officials are concerned that Washington may bring more harm than help for the down ticket candidates

"Really the mistake they have made is to nationalize these elections when the national image is poisonous for Republicans right now," explained Craig Shirley, a Republican strategist with Shirley Bannister Public Relations. "What they should do is focus on local affairs. When you are sending in big time politicians from Washington and cater to the national media, you are reminding people why they are upset with the Republican Party in the first place."
…
"This is as bad as I can remember since post Watergate," said Shirley.

A HUGE Endorsement?

Rumors are flying around the blogosphere that Edwards will endorse Obama tonight. If so, woo hoo!

Update: It's official. He's endorsed.

A BIG Endorsement

From NARAL:

Washington, DC - Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, released the following statement today, announcing that her organization's political action committee proudly endorses Sen. Barack Obama for president.

"Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC is proud to endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president. Sen. Obama has been a strong advocate for a woman's right to choose throughout his career in public office. He steadfastly supports and defends a woman's right to make the most personal, private decisions regarding her reproductive health without interference from government or politicians.

"Sen. Obama has been a leader on this issue in the United States Senate. Since joining the Senate in 2005, he has worked to unite Americans on both side of this debate behind commonsense, common-ground ways to prevent unintended pregnancy. Sen. Obama supports legislation to provide our teens with comprehensive sex education, prevent pharmacies from denying women access to their legal birth-control prescriptions, and increase access to family-planning services.

"We are confident that Barack Obama is the candidate of the future. Americans are tired of the divisive politics of the last eight years, and will unite behind Obama in the fall. We look forward to working with a pro-choice Obama White House in January."

Keenan also praised Senator Clinton as a pro-choice leader. "Americans have been fortunate to have two fully pro-choice candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination. But only one can go forward to the general election. It is truly historic for us to have these two outstanding candidates in the race."

Post-WV Snark

Well, it was definitely Hillary's night last night. Good for her. She proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she's Appalachia's candidate. Now, onto the snark from John Scalzi:

Poor, rural, working-class white folks in Appalachia didn’t vote for the rich urban former law professor senator from Chicago. They went for the rich urban former law professor senator born in Chicago instead. But since the vote went so overwhelmingly in one direction rather than the other, and rich urban former law professor senators with Chicago ties are otherwise largely interchangeable, there has to be another controlling factor here. I can’t think what it might be, though. Maybe it will come to me if I think about it.

Oh, wait, I know now. Poor, rural, working-class white folks from Appalachia wanted to strike a blow for feminism. Well, way to go, West Virginia! You’ve certainly done that. And now, clearly, you’ve shown that you’re the most feminist state in all the union.…

Contra My Last Post

Matt Yglesias has a slightly different take:

Clinton Wins WV
Her campaign is rescued from the dead. As the Clinton campaign sagely points out "no Democrat has won the White House without winning West Virginia since 1916" and therefore Obama's primary loss shows that despite his large lead in the polls over John McCain, he can't possible win the election.

What's even more interesting is that no Democrat has won the White House without carrying Minnesota since 1912 (it went for Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose party) so given that Obama won Minnesota and Clinton won West Virginia, McCain is guaranteed to win the general election unless the eventual nominee can somehow completely replicate the social and political conditions prevailing in pre-WWI America. The outlook, in short, is very grim.

Heh.

Obama In A Landslide

There I said it.* 

Of course, making predictions about politics is a fool's errand. Anyone who's paid more attention than a passing glance to electoral politics know that the cliche is true: A week/month/half-year (take your pick) is an eternity in politics. Anything can happen between now and November which would upend my assessment. 

But there's no glory without risk, and if I kept my prediction to myself, I'd hardly have credibility to crow should it turn out correct. Who'd believe me without proof? :)

So, now I'm on record with it. Come November 5, I'll either be crowing until my friends pin me down and stuff a sock in my mouth or I'll end up with a four-egg omelette on my face. It's a risk I'm willing to take. 

Why? Every indication I look at points to it. The latest being this from ABCNews: 

Eighty-two percent of Americans now say the country's seriously off on the wrong track, up 10 points in the last year to a point from its record high in polls since 1973. And 31 percent approve of Bush's job performance overall, while 66 percent disapprove.

That's 82%! Not at all surprising given this train wreck of an administration, but still a big number. Combined with other factors (an unusually large number Republicans resigning, several who aren't retiring with weak reelect numbers, the huge surge in Democratic registrations, a weak Repub presidential candidate, a strong Dem presidential candidate with historic organizational power and gobs of cash, the huge influx of young voters, and a growing progressive movement), this number bodes really poorly for Republicans. And given Obama's strengths as a candidate, I think his win will be big rather than close. 

* Unlike here, when I merely dipped my toe in the water.

Update: Apparently, I'm not the only one to notice this. Matt Stoller over at OpenLeft agrees:

Six Signs Democrats Are Going to Romp
The new numbers from the Washington Post/ABC Poll are remarkable. They show an electorate that hates Republicans, has pretty much made up its mind, is comfortable with Obama and his message, and is paying attention. Let's look at some of the core macro-trends.…

Go check out the whole post which is much more detailed than mine. 

Update II: Democrat Travis Childers just won a special election seat in a heavily Republican Mississippi congressional district. That makes three big turnovers in deep red regions in the past few months: last Saturday, Donald J. Cazayoux won in Baton Rouge, LA, tonight's win in MI, and, of course, the biggest grab, Bill Foster taking former House speaker Denny Hastert's seat in Michigan back in March. 

This is going to be a big year for Democrats. 

PolitiPorn

Maps tracking the Demo primary so far—lots of them—from Meng Bomin at DKos. Get your politigeek on.

Give Me Some Slack

I was going to do a post on procrastination, but figured I'd just get to it later....

Okay, another bad joke. Here's some great advice on slacking from Slate's Seth Stevenson, someone who clearly knows what he's talking about. My kinda guy.

Letter to a Young Procrastinator
SOME LAST-MINUTE ADVICE FROM A VETERAN SLACKER.
It's just that simple, my slothful friend. And guess what else? The trick to overcoming procrastination is even simpler. Ready? Here it is:

Get off your fat badonk and stop procrastinating. Right now. No, not after the Gilmore Girls rerun ends. Now now.

Will you do this? No. You will not. You will dabble at the crossword for a while. Later, you might get a yogurt. Eventually, you'll start reading pointless crap on the Internet. You see, you're doing it as we speak! Because: You are lazy.

Understand that this will never, ever change. You will always be lazy, and you will always procrastinate. I know it's tough for you to hear, but it's a harsh truth that you need to internalize.

I'm serious about this. It's bad enough that you're so damn lazy. People like you can't afford to be delusional on top of all your other problems. Oh, I'm sure you imagine yourself growing out of this silly procrastination phase. In the future, you'll get an early jump on projects, work at a steady pace, and always finish ahead of schedule. You'll take the time to do things right—instead of nipping under the wire in a rush of half-assed, flailing chaos.

It's a beautiful dream, my indolent chum. And I'm here to shatter it. Again, I speak from experience in these matters. When I was young, my procrastination was merely debilitating. As I age, it gets far worse.

If A Man Living In West Virginia…

…divorces his wife are they still brother and sister? Okay, the joke is a low blow. But if you think West Virginia is unfairly tarred as backwards, think again. 

My Virgin Experience

No, not a creepy story of ephebophilia or a tedious memoir of my sexual deflowering. I just had my first brush with political vandalism. 

As I got into my car this morning to go the coffee shop I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the metal frame which had held my Obama yard sign was strangely naked. It took a second to sink in that it was missing. Thinking we may have had an unusually windy storm last night, I looked around the yard, but could find it nowhere. Then it hit me that some bastard had stolen it. I looked around my block and every single Obama sign suffered the same fate. It was a graveyard of political expression, with the frames acting as surrogate headstones. 

My first response was anger. Fuckin' asshole lame-ass motherfuckering fucks! $%@*($!&&()*&! I cursed my way to the coffee shop.

Then I realized something: this was the action of a loser. Someone who feels secure in their candidate's chances in all likelihood wouldn't feel the need to stifle their opponent's supporters. I mean, I suffer every time I see one of those poorly designed Hillary signs, but I've never succumbed to the fleeting temptation to whisk them from my sight and alleviate my pain. 

So, if it makes the sad and pathetic lowlife who stole my and my neighbors' property feel better, huzzah to them. It's a reflection of how much strength Obama has and how weak his opponent is. And it's a sad commentary on the civic responsibility of Hillary's increasingly desperate and angry fans. 

P.S. Oh, why am I assuming it was a Hillary supporter and not McCain? Well, first off, this is Ashland. If there's a McCain supporter around, I haven't seen any evidence. Secondly, the Hillary signs—what small amount there are—were conspicuously left intact. 

Reason #4,598…

…to support Obama:

Next president might be gentler on pot clubs
As the candidates prepare for a May 20 primary in Oregon, one of 12 states with a California-style law, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has become an increasingly firm advocate of ending federal intervention and letting states make their own rules when it comes to medical marijuana.…

But wait, there's more!

…of the remaining contenders, Obama has been the friendliest to advocates of medical marijuana.

At a November appearance in Audubon, Iowa, Obama recalled that his mother had died of cancer and said he saw no difference between doctor-prescribed morphine and marijuana as pain relievers. He said he would be open to allowing medical use of marijuana, if scientists and doctors concluded it was effective, but only under "strict guidelines," because he was "concerned about folks just kind of growing their own and saying it's for medicinal purposes."

Obama went a step further in an interview in March with the Mail Tribune newspaper in Medford, Ore. While still expressing qualms about patients growing their own supply or getting it from "mom-and-pop stores," he said it is "entirely appropriate" for a state to legalize the medical use of marijuana, "with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors."

In response to recent questions from The Chronicle about medical marijuana, Obama's campaign - the only one of the three contenders to reply - endorsed a hands-off federal policy.

"Voters and legislators in the states - from California to Nevada to Maine - have decided to provide their residents suffering from chronic diseases and serious illnesses like AIDS and cancer with medical marijuana to relieve their pain and suffering," said campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt.

"Obama supports the rights of states and local governments to make this choice - though he believes medical marijuana should be subject to (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) regulation like other drugs," LaBolt said. He said the FDA should consider how marijuana is regulated under federal law, while leaving states free to chart their own course.

LaBolt also said Obama would end U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raids on medical marijuana suppliers in states with their own laws.

A president who would decelerate the unconstitutional and flat-out evil War On Drugs to whatever degree (and this is admittedly a baby step) is something to be relished. A candidate who's willing to say so on record while still running is positively shocking in these mindless zero tolerance Drug War times.

I'm starting to love this man.

Oh, Yeah!

Obama fans have an unfair reputation for having drunk the Kool-Aid for their candidate, but posters over at HillaryClintonForum.net (where is the eye-rolling emoticon anyway?) are virtually intoxicated on the stuff.

Here's a sample:

No mother wants to see her son or daughter die or inherit an arid, hateful earth - no father either - but most mothers are ... mothers. Hillary reaches to every mother on earth and, through them, to every child and even every father. Hillary is the Mother we all wish we had: tall, strong, sweet, smart, joyful and clear

.…

Hillary is my surrogate mother. She reminds me so much of my own mother, strong and gentle at the same time. Doing what you have to do to survive. 

Blech.

Hillary Makes Her Case

SNL's Amy Poehler nails it in this damning clip. (Point three is especially spot on.)

Daily Betty

Here's the next installment of the Daily Betty. This one's called Betty Boop M.D. I like to call it the Jippo episode. Let me know what you think of the crazy shit that happens to the baby at the end. Enjoy!

Live Nude Bugs!

A new project from Sundance Channel and Isabella Rossellini that is somewhat educational, strangely funny and utterly…fucking bizarre. It defies description, so go check it out for yourself. 

h/t: Pete Jaeger (the laziest blogger ever:)

Geek Humor

I've recently discovered a quirky comic strip site called "xkcd—a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". Some of the strips are a little on the geeky side, but most are hilarious. Check it out here. 

My favorite so far: 

Meat Your Maker

An excellent (and funny) article on improving herbivore-omnivore relations from Slate's Taylor Marsh. 

Choice cut:

Meatless Like Me
I MAY BE A VEGETARIAN, BUT I STILL LOVE THE SMELL OF BACON.
Every vegetarian remembers his first time. Not the unremarkable event of his first meal without meat, mind you. No, I mean the first time he casually lets slip that he's turned herbivore, prompting everyone in earshot to stare at him as if he just revealed plans to sail his carrot-powered plasma yacht to Neptune. For me, this first time came at an Elks scholarship luncheon in rural Oregon when I was 18. All day, I'd succeeded at seeming a promising and responsible young man, until that fateful moment when someone asked why I hadn't taken any meat from the buffet. After I offered my reluctant explanation—and the guy announced it to the entire room—30 people went eerily quiet, undoubtedly expecting me to launch into a speech on the virtues of hemp. In the corner, an elderly, suited man glared at me as he slowly raised a slice of bologna and executed the most menacing bite of cold cut in recorded history. I didn't get the scholarship.…

Ouch!

Bill The Finger Is Back

You Know It's Bad…

…when you lose Joe Conason. Conason has been one of the Clintons' biggest journalistic supporters over the years, writing countless articles and co-writing a book in their defense. But now, even he's made queasy from Hillary's increasingly desperate and nasty campaign:

Was Hillary channeling George Wallace?
Hillary's reckless exploitation of racial division could split the Democratic Party over race -- a tragic legacy for the Clintons.
May 9, 2008 | As long as Hillary Clinton is willing to spend the money and energy needed to continue her campaign, she certainly can ignore the pundits who insist that the Democratic nominating contest is over. What she should not ignore, however, is the damage that her increasingly reckless behavior is inflicting on her reputation and that of her husband -- especially when she starts to sound like a reincarnation of the late George Wallace.

When Clinton blathered on about "totally obliterating" Iran in the event it made a nuclear strike against Israel, and then reiterated that same statement last weekend, she made what was, until then, the single most ill-considered comment of the campaign. But now USA Today has published an interview in which she explained again why she regards herself as a more viable general-election candidate than Barack Obama -- except that this time, she crossed a bright white line.

Citing an Associated Press analysis "that found how Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me," she went on to say: "There's a pattern emerging here."

There is indeed a pattern emerging -- and it is a pattern that must dismay everyone who admires the Clintons and has defended them against the charge that they are exploiting racial divisions.

Gloomy Old Party

All of the fundamentals and metrics and optics (and any other overused, cliched political term you can think of) point to this being a great year to be a liberal. Any measure you can find shows the Republicans are going to get blown out of the water. Even Newt Gingrich sees the writing on the wall. Pruning Shears lays it out even more clearly:

Leading The Elephants To The Slaughter
Considering how much attention mass media has spent on electoral politics it has missed the elephant in the room (pardon the pun): The extreme peril of the Republican Party. Almost all coverage is now on the Democratic primary, and the least likely (and most dramatic) scenarios are getting the most focus. But here is what seems most likely: The candidates fight it out, a winner emerges in the next month or so and emotions peak. Everyone takes the summer off, spends some time at the beach with a good book, and returns at the end of August tanned, rested and ready to crank up an energetic election campaign. Meanwhile, each contested state gets two industrial strength Democratic voter registration machines rolling through, extends the Democratic monopoly of the news cycle and sharpens the campaigning skills of the eventual nominee.

For Republicans, that is the bad news. The worse news is that the math this time around is horrible, and the early indications are dismal (via). They have 29 House members retiring this year, and it didn’t get that high by accident. Losing as an incumbent has to be one of the worst events for a politician; it is a rejection and a humiliation - it is the voters saying “we tried you out and found you wanting.” It also usually comes with about a ten year setback. You don’t just bounce to some more prestigious office, you either take some time off or seek refuge in an appointed position. Then you slowly begin your rehabilitation. Many Republicans think now is a good time to take a powder, and by doing so they could be viable next time. It looks similarly bad (annoying trendy word for this election: optics) in the Senate. Republicans are defending 23 seats to the Democrats’ 12; even if the GOP was wildly popular it would simply have to cover more territory.

I’ve saved the worst for last. The preceding can be seen as nothing more than the vagaries of the horse race, the calendar and random chance. Fortunes wax and wane, and sometimes parties succeed just because. It is like the stock market, which moves sometimes in response to specific data and sometimes for reasons that are too complex to understand. (I will have unyielding admiration for the first newscaster who has the honesty and courage to say “Stocks closed higher today. God alone knows why.”) Republicans can talk their way out of a situation like that. It is their great misfortune that it is also accompanied by the total collapse of their principles.

You Move Me

I used to have a pet theory that the geography one resided in affected one's psychology. It was nothing empirically provable, but seemed to be borne out anecdotally. And not being a scientist that was good enough for me. Turns out, though, that the idea is actually an area of scientific study called psychogeography. The Boston Globe explains: 

Where do all the neurotics live?
On the East Coast, of course. A psychological tour of the United States, in five maps.
Psychologists have shown that human personalities can be classified along five key dimensions: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience. And each of these dimensions has been found to affect key life outcomes from life expectancy and divorce to political ideology, job choices and performance, and innovation and creativity.

What's more, it turns out these personality types are not spread evenly across the country. They cluster. And how they cluster tells us much: What city someone might want to move to, the broader character of regions, and even the creative and economic futures of broad swaths of the nation.

Drawing on a database of hundreds of thousands of individual personality surveys compiled by psychologists Jason Rentfrow, Sam Gosling, and Jeff Porter, my team and I were able to map the distribution of personality types across the United States. The result is a fascinating new way of looking at the country's terrain.

The tricky bit, of course, is causality:

But what accounts for such psychogeographical clustering? One potential explanation is that people migrate to places where their psychological needs are easily met: Open people choose to live in places with hustle and bustle to satisfy that craving for new experiences, while conscientious people settle in places where the atmosphere is ordered to meet their need for predictability.

Or perhaps, personality is influenced by our surroundings. More emotionally stable people who live in places where neurotic types form the majority may become irritable and stressed because the people around them are getting to them.

Our research suggests another possibility as well: the link between personality and the willingness to move. Conscientious and agreeable types in particular are less likely to move. Once they find a place, they tend to spread out gradually over time. Extroverts, on the other hand, are much more likely to move over greater distances. Open-to-experience types are drawn to thrills and risk, and moving, after all, is one of life's biggest new experiences.

Regardless, it looks like an interesting field of study.

Woo Hoo!

It was just a matter of time, but Obama finally has the lead in superdelegates. What's better, Oregon's own Peter DeFazio's endorsement is the one that put him over the top. Obamarific!

Obama Now Takes The Lead in Superdelegates Too
ABC News' Karen Travers Reports: For the first time this campaign season, Barack Obama has surpassed Hillary Clinton's support among superdelegates, according to the ABC News delegate estimate.

Sen. Obama, D-Ill., picked up two superdelegates this morning giving him a new metric to tout in addition to his current commanding leads in pledged delegates, popular votes, states won, and money raised.

Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., switched his endorsement from Clinton to Obama and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., endorsed Obama. DeFazio was previously uncommitted.

Update: He's now up by 7 superdelegates. Go here for details.

Update II: Huffington Post and TPM are reporting 8 and I've read 9 somewhere else, but neither source listed each one, so for now, I'm treating it as unverified and not linking to either. 

An Ex-Parrot: The Clinton Spin Edition

A Pythonesque take on the primary race, from Rod Dreher.

A Democratic primary voter enters Clinton for President headquarters.
Voter: Hello, I wish to register a complaint.

(The man behind the counter does not respond.)

Voter: Hello, Miss?

Geoff Garin: What do you mean "miss"?

Voter: I'm sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!

Garin: We're closin' for lunch.

Voter: Never mind that, my boy. I wish to complain about this candidate what I voted for not two days ago.

GG : Oh yes, the, uh, the Hillary Clinton ...What's,uh...What's wrong with her?

Voter: I'll tell you what's wrong with her, my lad. Her campaign is dead, that's what's wrong with her!

GG: No, no, she's, uh,...she's resting.

Voter: Look, matey, I know a dead candidate when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.

GG: No no she's not dead, she's, she's restin'! Remarkable bird, Hillary Clinton, idn't she? Beautiful plumage!

Voter: The plumage don't enter into it. Her presidential campaign is stone dead.

GG: Nononono, no, no! She's resting!

Voter (pointing to delegate-math statistics on CNN): Now that's what I call a dead candidate.

GG: No, no.....No, she's stunned!

Voter: STUNNED?!?

GG: Yeah! The voters stunned her, just as she was wakin' up! Hillary stuns easy, major.

Voter: Um...now look...now look, mate, I've definitely had enough of this. That campaign is definitely deceased, and when I voted for Mrs. Clinton not two days ago, you assured me that her total lack of movement was due to her bein' tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk.

GG: Well, she's...she's, ah...probably pining for Yankee Stadium. She's a big Yanks fan, you know.

Voter: PININ' for YANKEE STADIUM?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that?, look, why did she fall flat on her back on Tuesday night?

GG: Hillary Clinton prefers keepin' on her back! She's a fighter, an underdog. Remarkable bird, id'nt she, squire? Lovely plumage!

Voter: She's not pinin'! She's passed on! Her campaign is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If Hillary Clinton hadn't nailed herself to the Democratic Party perch she'd be pushing up the daisies! This campaign's metabolic processes are now history! She's off the twig! She's kicked the bucket, she's shuffled off her mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE!!

And the original:

Spin So Fast…

…it makes the Tasmanian Devil look like a slug.

Go, Lanny!

A Good Night

Well, it was a better night than I expected. Obama blew Hillary out in North Carolina and kept her under 4 points in Indiana. The race was really over in Feb., of course. But tonight sealed the deal in terms of media narrative and Clintonian spin. Clinton gave what sounded an awful lot like a concession speech tonight. Tone and body language said what her words didn't. Bill and Chelsea looked deflated and shellshocked. Hillary will probably stay in through May, looking for the most gracious way to bow out, probably after winning Kentucky or W. Virginia.

Then we liberals can kiss and make up and look ahead to kicking McCain's ass back to Arizona. Many observers think it'll be difficult to come together. John Cole thinks it'll go a little something like this:

Eerily Familiar, No?

You Don't Get A Victory Lap…

…if you're the shittiest president in history.

1.5 Million

Revolutionizing the way campaigns are financed and run.

Why I Love Him

Obama's response to the Ragin' Cajun's sophmoric comment (does he make any other kind?) yesterday:

"Well, you know, James Carville is well-known for spouting off his mouth without always knowing what he's talking about. And I intend to stay focused on fighting for the American people because what they don't need is 20 more years of performance art on television. And that's what James Carville and a lot of those folks are expert at ... a lot of talk and not getting things done for the American people."

Goal Posts Meet Mover, Part 786

Keith Olbermann helps us understand which votes matter according to Clintonia.*



* Clintonia a mental landscape similar to Narnia. Second only to Bushland in its willful adherence to fantasy.)

Does Science Make Belief In God Obsolete?

The third in a series of "big questions" posed by the John Templeton Foundation. It's a fascinating discussion among world-class scientists, theologians, writers, and thinkers. Inexplicably, Chris Hitchens is included on the list. It's a worthwhile read despite this. 

Go check it out.

Feeling A Little Gassy?

It is an election year after all.

Another One For You, Pete

Four Dead In Ohio

Much to my dismay, I overlooked that yesterday was the 38th anniversary of a day of infamy for my alma mater, Kent State University. For five years, I would honor the day by joining a candlelight vigil and walking in the footsteps of the kids who got caught up—fatally—in the riptide of American history. 

It was on May 4, 1970 that national guardsmen, tired and overworked from a previous student suppression assignment, and antagonized by military and political leaders, opened fire on unarmed university students. Thirteen students were seriously wounded, four of whom died. Of those, two weren't even a part of the demonstration that the guard was brought in to disperse. One was even a ROTC member.

It's still unclear whether it was an order or a misunderstanding that set the guns firing. All we know is that at some point guardsmen who had been falling back to a position atop a small hill, turned and began firing into the crowd. 

There's plenty of blame to go around. I reserve most of mine for then-governor James Rhodes, a right wing prick of the highest order whose attitudes and animosity for the students reinforced the general public's fears, and Nixon, whose own attitudes also set the tone against anyone challenging the war and whose actions (his invasion of Cambodia) set off the angry demonstrations. These men, and others like them, created the tinderbox that made the Kent State (and Jackson State) shootings possible. 

For more of the history, go here.

Bluegal over at Crooks and Liars found this video compilation commemorating that day:

Hillary McCain

The more Clinton speaks the more I wonder how exactly she would run against McCain in the fall. I'm considering that they're running on virtually the same platform now. The Iraq vote, bomb Iran, the gas tax holiday. Now this:

Clinton In 2005: 'I Agree With McCain' On Long-Term Iraq Presence
Three years ago, during an appearance on CBS, Sen. Hillary Clinton stated that she agreed with the overarching premise of John McCain's Iraq policy: that America's commitment to the war shouldn't be based on time frames but rather on the level of troop casualties. She even cited, as McCain now regularly does, that the United States would be well suited to follow a model for troop presence based on South Korea, Japan, or Germany.

"Senator McCain made the point earlier today, which I agree with, and that is, it's not so much a question of time when it comes to American military presence for the average American; I include myself in this. But it is a question of casualties," said Clinton. "We don't want to see our young men and women dying and suffering these grievous injuries that so many of them have. We've been in South Korea for 50-plus years. We've been in Europe for 50-plus. We're still in Okinawa with respect to protection there coming out of World War II."

Granted, that was three years ago and things have changed. Still, her instincts on this issue are just flat out wrong as far as I'm concerned. I just don't want faux-hawk DINO in the White House.

Those Classy Clintonites

Ever the crass class clown, James Carville offers this assessment of the candidates…er, testicular fortitude:

Hillary is the tougher of the two, the candidate you want on your side in a knife fight, a gender reversal that prompts Carville to indulge in some ribald humor: "If she gave him one of her cojones, they'd both have two."

Hell On Earth

Newly-released photos of the human toll of the Hiroshima bombing. View at your own discretion.

The Robert L. Capp collection at the Hoover Institution Archives contains ten never-before-published photographs illustrating the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing. These photographs, taken by an unknown Japanese photographer, were found in 1945 among rolls of undeveloped film in a cave outside Hiroshima by U.S. serviceman Robert L. Capp, who was attached to the occupation forces. 

Unlike most photos of the Hiroshima bombing, these dramatically convey the human as well as material destruction unleashed by the atomic bomb. Mr. Capp donated them to the Hoover Archives in 1998 with the provision that they not be reproduced until 2008. Three of these photographs are reproduced in Atomic Tragedy with the permission of the Capp family. Now that the restriction is no longer in force, the entire set is available below. 

Case In Point

This one episode crystalizes the difference between Clinton and her supporters and Obama and his. It's why he'll win and why that will be good for all of us.

h/t: The Field (hands down, the best poliblog of the year)

Israel 60th

A fascinating read on the events surrounding the creation of Israel and how we ended up with the current hellish situation. A caveat: it's published in Commentary, a notable neocon rag. Still, it meshes with my understanding and reading of the history of that region, so I'm passing it along. It's long—though by no means exhaustive—but a great read if you want a better understanding of the events leading up to today's nightmare. 

Intro excerpt:

Sixty years after its establishment by an internationally recognized act of self-determination, Israel remains the only state in the world that is subjected to a constant outpouring of the most outlandish conspiracy theories and blood libels; whose policies and actions are obsessively condemned by the international community; and whose right to exist is constantly debated and challenged not only by its Arab enemies but by segments of advanced opinion in the West.

During the past decade or so, the actual elimination of the Jewish state has become a cause célèbre among many of these educated Westerners. The “one-state solution,” as it is called, is a euphemistic formula proposing the replacement of Israel by a state, theoretically comprising the whole of historic Palestine, in which Jews will be reduced to the status of a permanent minority. Only this, it is said, can expiate the “original sin” of Israel’s founding, an act built (in the words of one critic) “on the ruins of Arab Palestine” and achieved through the deliberate and aggressive dispossession of its native population.

This claim of premeditated dispossession and the consequent creation of the longstanding Palestinian “refugee problem” forms, indeed, the central plank in the bill of particulars pressed by Israel’s alleged victims and their Western supporters. It is a charge that has hardly gone undisputed. As early as the mid-1950’s, the eminent American historian J.C. Hurewitz undertook a systematic refutation, and his findings were abundantly confirmed by later generations of scholars and writers. Even Benny Morris, the most influential of Israel’s revisionist “new historians,” and one who went out of his way to establish the case for Israel’s “original sin,” grudgingly stipulated that there was no “design” to displace the Palestinian Arabs.

The recent declassification of millions of documents from the period of the British Mandate (1920-1948) and Israel’s early days, documents untapped by earlier generations of writers and ignored or distorted by the “new historians,” paint a much more definitive picture of the historical record. They reveal that the claim of dispossession is not only completely unfounded but the inverse of the truth. What follows is based on fresh research into these documents, which contain many facts and data hitherto unreported. …

He's Back, Part 2

Whatever else we are, we're American.