Howard Dean is still first. Send some love to DNC.

going to watch Eli Stone

Charlie Rose has Axelrod as a guest.

I agree with you Steve about your average ditto head.

More and more convinced that Jay Bookman was right in his AJC column.

Jay Bookman, AJC: "Clinton suffers ‘campaign bubble’ syndrome"

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1956

"Working very long hours side by side with fellow believers in the cause, otherwise sane people can begin to lose a sense of perspective. An “us against the world” psychology begins to take hold, and over time their counterparts in the opposing campaign —- people who in most respects are very much like themselves —- come to seem the very embodiment of evil. For those caught up in the struggle, the outside world falls away to the point that their entire lives and being are wrapped up in the campaign. And things that can seem small and insignificant to an outsider tend to get blown out of proportion by people living inside that little world.

If you pay any attention at all to politics, you’ve seen examples for yourself. When you see a campaign spokesman —- for example, James Carville —- overreact to some minor insult or misstatement by the other side, it’s easy to dismiss the outrage as calculated spin. But often, that’s not what’s happening. It is instead an expression of very real emotion, generated by living too long in the surreal bubble that a campaign often becomes."

Steve, we did send extra to the DNC this month.  Howard has been under siege, so we figured he needed some support.

Hillary quipped on Leno:  "It is so great to be here. You know, I was worried I wouldn't make it. I was pinned down by sniper fire."

Actually she's been pinned down by her own "fairy tale."

I've met Nunes. He has an opponent in the next general election. The 21st CD(CA) is the largest Ag district in the country. The district has two national parks located in it. It has been gerrymandered scalet red. I lobbied a couple of Nunes' DC wise guys over dinner one evening to end the war in Iraq. It was an interesting conversation. That district has a lot military families and bases located in it. It also is one the highest in poverty.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?tit...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California's_21st_congressional_district

George W. Bush received 65% of the vote in this district in 2004; John Kerry received 34%. The district voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger 72-25% in 2006 (Angelides), Dick Mountjoy 52-43% in 2006 (Feinstein), Bill Jones 59-38% in 2004 (Boxer), recalling Gray Davis 72-28% and Schwarzenegger 56-23% in 2003, and Bill Simon 61-32% in 2002.

2000
63.6% for George W. Bush
33.2% for Al Gore

This is how to send love to Howard. . . .  

good morning!  yes, Hillary is in her own little bubble.  she'd already angered a lot of folks re: her sniper fire lies - to go on Leno and make a joke about it just proves that she's tone deaf to what's going on around her.  it's going to be nasty and painful when that bubble breaks. 

GObama!

Good morning, everybody

Just as i thought, the sniper fire story is the preferred way for the Clinton relationship to Bosnia to be approached.  She's like one of those ground-nesting birds that does a distracting dance to lure potential predators away.  Why does she want to distract the focus from Bosnia/Kosovo?  See yesterday's KOS diary.  I'll post it on BFA. 

If you assume that Republicans are people who shun responsibility, then you understand that they prefer to consider AIDS a plague from god about which humans can/should do nothing.  If they don't believe it's god's fault, they're just "que sera, que sera" people.  Don't expect them to be logical or even consider why god would send such distress on humanity.  They're not interest in why or wherefor; they're only interested that they not be blamed.  Perhaps they can be shamed.  Some of them.

5:26 AM EDT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080404/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_delegates_12

Clinton seems to deny doubting Obama

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer

Fri Apr 4, 12:04 AM ET

BURBANK, Calif. - Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared Thursday to deny published reports that she told New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson that Barack Obama cannot win the general election. But her campaign aides later said the New York senator had misunderstood the question.

...

BREAKING NEWS!  the surge is... a failure.  none of the benchmarks this 'improved safety' was meant to support have been met and the 'Iraqi troops' are in turmoil...  100 years?  at this rate, yes indeed.

BAGHDAD — More than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen either refused to fight or simply abandoned their posts during the inconclusive assault against Shiite militias in Basra last week, a senior Iraqi government official said Thursday. Iraqi military officials said the group included dozens of officers, including at least two senior field commanders in the battle.

5:31 AM EDT

seems like Mr. Asscroft (oops, Ashcroft) can't get his names straight:

http://timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?StoryID=677591&Category=REGION&LinkFrom=RSS

SARATOGA SPRINGS --

...

He drew hollers of disapproval when he accidentally called Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama "Osama."

One student, Jamie Worrall, expected Ashcroft's talk to reverberate in classroom discussions.

...

goodbye, McSame...  time to repent, Bush voters!

81% in Poll Say Nation Is Headed on the Wrong Track

Americans are more dissatisfied with the country’s direction than at any time since the New York Times/CBS News poll began asking about the subject in the early 1990s, according to the latest poll.

Although the public mood has been darkening since the early days of the war in Iraq, it has taken a new turn for the worse in the last few months, as the economy has seemed to slip into recession. There is now nearly a national consensus that the country faces significant problems.

A majority of nearly every demographic and political group — Democrats and Republicans, men and women, residents of cities and rural areas, college graduates and those who finished only high school — say the United States is headed in the wrong direction. Seventy-eight percent of respondents said the country was worse off than five years ago; just 4 percent said it was better off.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/us/04poll.html?ex=1365048000&en=6baa02a91f779af5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

http://blogforamerica.com/view/24751

I'm bugged by the whole notion that states that used primaries instead of caucuses to allocate their delegates should count for twice as much, by saying that the popular vote total should be used as a test for super delegates. the winner of that test won in a particular subset of states and nothing more

such a test doubles the importance of those states in fact and to think the straw poll in Michigan with only Clinton on the ballot would be added in is outrageous

there is no way to measure more fairly the actual strrength of a candidate in any one Congressional District than the number of pledged delegates won

Big fat snowflakes

Fun in November

Nuissance in April 

So, Iraqis aren't keen on running a police state.  The military is supposed to be directed at external assaults, not to deal with internal dissent.

The question is how much more training and equipment will they need until they feel ready to eject the US? 

what winning looks like... it's the grassroots, baby!

clip...

In North Carolina, which will vote on May 6, the Obama campaign has opened 16 offices, including ones in smaller locales such as Hickory, Elizabeth City and Boone. Obama is spending $800,000 on the airwaves, and his team is making a strong push to register voters, with 22 training and local outreach sessions scheduled for yesterday alone.

In Indiana, which will also hold its primary on May 6, Obama has spent $1 million on television ads that have been airing for more than a week, and the campaign opened its 17th office there yesterday. Clinton has 12 offices in the state.

The Clinton team has not run a television ad in Indiana; it began running its first ad in North Carolina yesterday.

Obama's heavy investment in field offices, phone banks and other or ganizational efforts probably is where his financial edge will be most significant, said Michael Feldman, a former adviser to Al Gore who says he is neutral in the Democratic contest.

"I bet if you scanned the number of campaign field offices they have, in some harder-to-reach places, you'd see that every voter is being pursued vigorously," he said. "They've been able to put a lot of effort into chasing these voters."

Obama's ability to capitalize on a sustained wave of online support has enabled him to spend almost all of his time campaigning. Clinton has attended more than a dozen fundraisers since Jan. 1, and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, has appeared at more than 40, while Obama and his wife have attended fewer than 10 during that time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040300407.html?nav=rss_email/components

I read the article rd posted  above about Clinton denying telling Gov Richardson Obama could not be elected.  Then the aide saying Clinton heard wrong.  Geez can't they even get their lies straight.  The whole article bothered me, what with her there are no pledged delegates, everything is fair game attitude.  Using Rev Wright as a leverage for getting superdelegates.  Wanting to use Michigan and FL to up her popular vote count, now that she is behind.

And now I wake up to find that Clinton joked about the sniper fire.

I really really really don't like her.

Fred,

Thanks for posting about the tainted products on the last thread.

I use a couple of them.  Thought they were safe.  Threw them out.

Friends Don't Let Friends

I am writing to some of my friends who are friends of Bill and Hillary Clinton. The blessed and beleaguered FOBs, who are hanging in there whether you want to or not. Many of you have confided to me that you want out. Many of you have admitted that you are heartsick about some of Hillary's tactics and tired of the bitterness and infighting of her supporters. So I am just going to say this: you can leave...you can hit the road, you can get while the getting is good (or at least not heinous). I have heard the whispers of a widely held fear of reprisals, of careers scuttled, of the revenge that may be extracted by the likes of McAuliffe and Ickes. I ask in the words of our very own Dick Cheney ...."So?" Honestly what can they do? Set all the superdelegates on fire? Are they really all powerful? These guys seem so yesterday with their bad suits and pasted-on smiles ... are they really to be feared? Seems to me like the man behind the curtain is just a tired, red-faced ex-president looking for a return to his glory days. I promise you, when this is over we will buy the good old bad boys a new set of golf clubs and a membership to the Emperors Club. They will be happy ... Viagra sales will soar, and life in Washington will go on. The cherry trees will continue to bloom in the spring.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beth-broderick/friends-dont-let-friends_b_94918.html

7:37 AM EDT

ah, youthful energy --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WAB0yPgbdM

-- Take The Last Train to --ville :

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGBtnq

Rally at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania

...

7:51 AM EDT

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/2374940940/in/set-72157604313664444/

Rally at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania

I am Educated, Latino, Gay, Immigrant, US Army Veteran, and I support this man: Senator Obama! Vico. Tell me your story, for hate or love! WE need it! YES WE CAN!
Posted 4 days ago. ( permalink )

...

My LTE to our local paper--

WHY IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT? 

Democracy, as in "government BY the people," isn't really quite mature yet. That's because until all adult citizens were enabled to vote and gain access to relevant information, it wasn't possible to hold public officials accountable for their decisions.



And that's how the people who thought of themselves as "leaders," if not "rulers," liked it. They especially liked that, for some reason, the principle of "sovereign immunity" had been held over from when nations were ruled by kings and continued to protect them from being challenged for their misdeeds.



So, if elected officials spent all their time doling out public resources to benefit their relatives and friends, the public had only one recourse, and that was to unseat them at the next election, assuming that the ballot boxes didn't get stuffed.



It wasn't until the passage of the Federal Tort Claims Act in 1947 that the cozy situation enjoyed by public officials began to erode--a process that came to a climax of sorts with the passage of the Freedom of Information Act two decades later. And, from the perspective of public officials who don't like to be challenged, it's been down-hill all the way.



Then somebody hit on the idea that, if during war-time the President of the United States could reclaim in the name of "national security," at least a semblance of the totalitarian powers ("sovereign immunity") that the rule of law had stripped away, it might be worth ginning up a war.



So, that's what all these efforts to deprive the people of their civil and human rights (privacy, speech, travel, assembly, etc.) has been about--an effort by the Bush Administration to regain the dictatorial powers of a king.



Indeed, to re-establish the principle of immunity (unaccountability), they're even willing to have it extended to their corporate cronies, the guardians of public information in the information technology business. Not content to withhold the information that, by rights, belongs to the American people, Bush and Cheney determined to spy on us and persuaded (suborned) the corporations to help.



It's for this power grab that both Bush and Cheney need to be impeached. Even if they're not removed from office, we the people need to let them know they've done us wrong.



That's the message that HR 24, being considered in the New Hampshire House on April 16, 2008, will deliver to the US Congress. Make sure your Representatives vote to send it to Washington.

 

Behind the sniper fire joke on Leno was what I fear is yet another lie. Hillary said this:

"Obviously I've been so privileged to represent our country in more than 80 other countries, lots of war zones."

LOTS OF WAR ZONES.

Now, it may depend on what the meaning of "lots" is. But I don't remember Hillary valiantly going to war zones while First Lady, excepting the war zone that the media indicated was Hill and Bill's home life.

So I hope the media starts asking exactly how many war zones she visited.

-- volney

8:21 AM EDT

kudos to Obama for, in the words of Spike Lee, Do The Right Thing :

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/04/03/exclusive-clinton-and-mccain-set-to-share-the-stage-tomorrow-in-memphis-will-obama-join-them.aspx

Posted Thursday, April 03, 2008 2:11 PM

UPDATE: No Obama. “While he would have enjoyed participating in the event in Memphis, he had a prior commitment to the North Dakota Democratic Party that he is also looking forward to attending," says spokesperson Jen Psaki.

8:27 AM EDT

I want a president who spends more time honoring prior commitments than one who does things on the spur of the moment, like --

-- showing up on SNL or dashing off to Memphis.

turned on cnn at 9 a.m

they aa news reader talking to sharpton and jesse jackson near the hotel where king was shot.

he asked about 20 times "SOME PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW WHY OBAMA ISN'T HERE".

hacks.

The Promise Land.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4...

28. volney - She must be think she's Eleanor. Good grief, this woman knows no shame.

10:02 AM EDT

Obama is today where he's supposed to be:

http://in.barackobama.com/page/s/ftwayne

...

Wayne High School Gymnasium
9100 Winchester Rd
Fort Wayne, IN 46819

Friday, April 4th
Doors Open: 9:00 a.m.

The event is free and open to the public

...

Something different--

http://www.nuernberg.de/internet/eisbaer/videos.html 

s/b she must think

10:05 AM EDT

28. volney - She must be think she's Eleanor.

+++

Rigby ?

I want a president who spends more time honoring prior commitments than one who does things on the spur of the moment, like --

-- showing up on SNL or dashing off to Memphis.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  

My, what an odd idear: keeping a promise. . . .  Haven't had much of that in the last couple of decades, have we?  How very old fashioned: kind of Trumanesque, don't you think?  Or Rooseveltian? 

BREATH. OF. FRESH. AIR. 

10:09 AM EDT

many will dwell with the past today;

whilst others will be thinking about the future;

so the only thing one can possibly influence now in the present, is the future

The diary is called The Promised Land. Haven't had my coffee yet and my kitty is jumping on the keyboard. Yikes

New thread.

10:16 AM EDT

lets see, I'm an American white male of Irish descent, who has served in the U.S. military --

who didn't wear anything green this past St. Patrick's Day --

who didn't fly the Stars and Stripes on this past Veteran's Day --

is anybody from the media going to question me on that ?

Jeez, if I had to be involved with every Irish and military memorial event in America, I'd have to quit my job, sell my house and buy a RV.