TalkLeft:

All Obama has to do to insure victory is pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate and he refuses to do it. Just amazing.

Double super “to the bare walls” “all you can eat special” happy hour bonus bingo.

With one caveat.  Read more 

McClatchy:

“We need to get rid of caucuses,” said Melissa Whitener, a waitress from Conneaut, Penn., who traveled to lobby the Democratic National Committee as it prepared its party platform.

“Caucuses are inherently unfair,” she said. “I work in a restaurant. I can’t take off a whole shift to go sit in a caucus. We need to all be on the same primary system. Why should 2,000 people in Iowa have the same say as 2 million in Pennsylvania?”

Why, indeed?  Read more 

I’m posting a long quote from a New York Times book review here, because the quote says something important about the future of our nation.

There is no happy ending to this sordid and shameful story. Despite growing political pressure, despite Supreme Court decisions challenging the detainment policy, despite increasing revelations of the once-hidden program that have shocked the conscience of the world, there is little evidence that the secret camps and the torture programs have been abandoned or even much diminished. New heads of the Defense and Justice Departments have resisted addressing the torture issue, aware that dozens of their colleagues would face legal jeopardy should they do so. And the presidential candidates of both parties have so far shown little interest in confronting the use of torture or recommitting the country to the Geneva Conventions and to America’s own laws and traditions.

Now I wonder — is that lack of interest in confronting the use of torture or recommitting the nation to abiding by international law really something we could have expected from a different Democratic nominee?

And is that why the Village destroyed them all?  Read more 

Matt Taibbi has an article up on alternet called Economic Realities Are Killing Our Era of Fantasy Politics.

Taibbi has published plenty of things I disagree with and this is not a blanket endorsement of him, but he has written a fine article and fits in with what we’ve been talking about here along the lines of “can we afford the rich” and preparing for a hard winter and harder times to come.

In the beginning of the article he quotes a letter to Bernie Sanders from a single mother who had to burn furniture last winter to keep warm, and then he goes straight into the stupid BS narratives that the consultants and the Village are trying on for the race:  Read more 

I know, I know, Susie’s good people, and she’s been patient with one very persistent troll. (She’s also got car trouble, so she has more important things on her mind.) But when I read this post and saw the exact same paragraphs quoted by two different trolls — one full force nasty, one concern-like — I lost my sense of decorum and good taste.

Troll A:

I suppose you could follow the lead of historiann, anglachel, riverdaughter, and the rest of the PUMA dead enders and claim that obama is really another hitler, worse than bush, planning a totalitarian takeover of the US of A, etc. etc.

or, if you read the original article you find this:  Read more 

I’ve been saying for 30 years that Ronald Reagan shoved the country over the edge of a slippery slope to destruction.
In 1985 the FBI looked into the FLDS, and among the “harmless” leaders of the sect they let go was Rulon Jeffs, father of jailed “prophet” Warren Jeffs.
Among the things let fester as a result:

But after stepping in at the request of Brent D. Ward, then the U.S. Attorney for Utah, the U.S. Department of Justice closed the case without filing charges.
A lawyer who represented evicted FLDS members in a related lawsuit considers the federal investigation a missed opportunity to curb the power of the sect’s leaders.
“Some of the systematic policies that adversely affected young men and young women might have been diminished or possibly stopped,” said St. George attorney Clay Huntsman. “Now it’s gotten out of hand.”
In the years since then, ex-members have alleged that boys and young men are banished for minor offenses and that Warren Jeffs has overseen a purge of fathers whose wives and children are reassigned.

Current Fibbie honcho Robert Mueller, asked about a four-state task force independently gathered recently in Las Vegas to coordinate efforts to detect, prosecute and punish crimes among the members of the international cult, said his agency would assist local law enforcement, but had “other priorities.” Kinda like Cheney, with his five deferments….

Meanwhile Salt Lake City TV reports FLDS enforcers are rumored to be stalking San Angelo’s State District Judge Barbara Walther. Texas authorities received detailed warnings about FLDS “enforcers” headed for retribution from Utah and Arizona.

Judge Walther, pictured above in an AP photo by Eric Gay, ordered the removal of more than 440 children, including some young mothers apparently under 17, from the cult’s Yearning For Zion Ranch outside Eldorado in Schleicher County on April 24. The removals came while investigators sought to find and assist the caller who phoned a San Angelo family crisis hotline claiming she and her child were undergoing mistreatment at the hands of her much-older “husband” and other “spiritual wives” in his household on the ranch.

A Texas appeals court and the Texas State Supreme Court subsequently ruled that the children should be returned to the ranch. Walther and attorneys worked out orders in one exceptional instance — the case of Jeffs’ sexually-abused 16-year-old daughter, who won’t be going back to YFZ.

Gov. Rick Perry, who indicated last month that he was proud of the actions taken by CPS, warned through a spokeswoman that Friday’s decision by the Texas Supreme Court ordering the sect children’s release could place youngsters in danger.

“The governor is concerned that the legal process by which the children were removed from their home is overshadowing the sexual abuse allegations at hand,” said Perry’s deputy press secretary, Allison Castle.

“He is very troubled that the children, especially those most at risk for abuse in this case – young girls – are being sent back to the very compound that is riddled with uncertainty, potential for harm and remains at the center of a very serious criminal investigation,” Ms. Castle said.

The sect has denied there is any greater prevalence of child abuse in its ranks than in mainstream society. It says Texas swept its more than 450 children into custody two months ago in an act of religious persecution.

Texas attorney general Greg Abbott has opened an investigation into charging Jeffs, currently jailed in Kingman, AZ, with rape  Read more 

For those of you who insist on believing that Joe Lieberman is still something other than a Senatorial colleague of Barack Obama, that he continues to be some kind of mentor to Senator Obama, welcome news that Obama isn’t afraid to call Lieberman on his Joementum.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the self-described “Independent Democrat” who caucuses with the Democratic party in the Senate even though he has endorsed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, got some tough talk from Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, yesterday about his advocacy for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate and the general tone of the campaign, Democratic sources tell ABC News.

Returning to the Senate after his securing the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama and Lieberman greeted each on the Senate floor in the Well as they were voting on the budget resolution.

They shook hands. But Obama didn’t let go, leading Lieberman - cordially - by the hand across the room into a corner on the Democratic side, where Democratic sources tell ABC News he delivered some tough words for the junior senator from Connecticut, who had just minutes before hammered Obama’s speech before the pro-Israel group AIPAC in a conference call arranged by the McCain campaign.  Read more 

For me, the cool thing about being a Corrente Senior Fellow (active or emeritus, or whatever the fuck I’m doing here these days) is posting on my favorite blog on the whole intertubes.

Now, there are a few awesome folks whom we’d surely like to hear more from these days. Some tell us they’re keeping their powder dry until the “pie fight” is over, and that’s cool. “Whatever gets you through the night,” as John Winston/Ono Lennon once said.

But they also serve who stand and don’t wait. And few have done that like one Lambert Strether.

He was blogging when the leftysphere stood against the conventional wisdom.  Read more 

In November of 2006, Bill Moyers was asked to give the Sol Feinstone Lecture on The Meaning of Freedom, an endowed serial event for the men and women cadets of West Point.

It is an amazing speech to read, and it should warm the hearts of all liberals that West Pointers are being exposed to material like that Bill Moyers chose to honor them with.

I suppose I could, and perhaps should, leave the link and let you go and read it, but I’ve decided to highlight certain aspects of Moyers’ lecture, although you should still go and read the extended excerpt published at TOM PAINE from which I am working.  Read more 

I got busy and a few weeks ago I forgot to put up a post in recognition of the Battle of Camerone. Since it is Memorial Day, I’ll do it now.

The Battle of Camarone occurred on April 30, 1863, between the French Foreign Legion and the Mexican army. A small infantry patrol led by Captain Danjou, Lt Maudet and Lt Vilain, numbering 62 soldiers and 3 officers was attacked and besieged by a force of 2,000 infantry and cavalry, and made a stand at the Hacienda Camarone, in Camarón de Tejeda, Veracruz, Mexico.  Read more 

Here:

Can we get a list of words that Hillary can say without the whore media throwing a hissy and cranking up the echo chamber for a 56-hour hate rush on MSGOP?

No.

And:  Read more 

On Wednesday, Joe Lieberman published a piece on the opinion pages of WSJ which essentially accused the entirety of foreign policy positions held by the current Democratic Party of being essentially a stab in the back to the entirety of foreign policy positions of the Democratic Party of FDR, Truman, and JFK. Interestingly, LBJ wasn’t included in the litany of Democratic golden oldies. Joe may have succeeded in performing a lobotomy on himself, resulting in a weird sort of frontal stupidity, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still wily.

Today, Joe Biden, has a superb answer to Lieberman, also in the pages of the WSJ, one in which Biden touches all the right bases, not more, not less, and then heads confidently for home plate, leaving that other Joe in the dust.  Read more 

Andrew Stephen, U.S. Editor of the U.K.’s venerable left-wing magazine, New Statesman, wrote today:

“Hating Hillary”

History, I suspect, will look back on the past six months as an example of America going through one of its collectively deranged episodes - rather like Prohibition from 1920-33, or McCarthyism some 30 years later. This time it is gloating, unshackled sexism of the ugliest kind. It has been shamelessly peddled by the US media, which - sooner rather than later, I fear - will have to account for their sins. The chief victim has been Senator Hillary Clinton, but the ramifications could be hugely harmful for America and the world.  Read more 

AP:

Floridians “learned the hard way what happens when your votes aren’t counted and the candidate with fewer votes is declared the winner,” [Clinton] told supporters. “The lesson of 2000 here in Florida is crystal clear: If any votes aren’t counted, the will of the people isn’t realized and our democracy is diminished.”

“The people who voted did nothing wrong and it would be wrong to punish you,” she added.

Bingo.

Obama had every opportunity to make his nomination appear legitimate. He systematically refused those opportunities.  Read more 

Hat Tip to SM at Confluence for pointing this out. Guaranteed to get you all blubby.

Have a drink, everybody, it’s Friday night and we’re all pumped up for Hillary cuz she’s all pumped up for us!

It’s the Map, not the Math

[Readers, the comments section is long and noisy, but interesting. See if, in your judgment, the points the bringiton makes are addressed head-on, or not. And watch for the duellling haikus! —lambert]

[Update below, 11 May 08, bottom of main text - BIO]

Only one thing matters; winning the Presidency in November. Hillary Clinton has proven she is by far the strongest candidate an most likely to achieve that victory. How can she convince the Democratic Party delegates?  Read more 

Like you probably do, I get a lot of emails from folks who don’t, um, really understand what I think about politics but know I have an interest and want to share what they find funny. I suppose these guys are “famous;” they seem to have a lot of YouTubes and it looks semi-professional and/or backed with Republican welfare money. Anyway, I thought this was actually very interesting.

Crude as it is, I have only one thing to add: I’ve spoken with ~15 people this month on their choice of Dem candidates: my plumber, a couple of my neighbors, some folks at the grocery store. I’m chatty and curious like that, and I’m also struck by the theme I have heard from 14 of that group (yes, I have been counting).  Read more 

I found this Sportswomanship Story at First Draft this evening. I concur with Athenae — it bears repeating.

Associated Press Photograph By Blake Wolf, AP

Western Oregon’s Sara Tucholsky is helped around the bases by members of the Central Washington softball team after injuring her knee when doubling back to tag first base.

After being assured there was no rule against it, Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace carried Western Washington’s injured Sara Tucholsky around the bases, completing her homer and adding a run to a 4-2 loss that eliminated the Wildcats from postseason.

There is something very special about the young women involved in this incident — and I can’t say  Read more 

Examination at The Root of the perceptions and personas of Oprah and Obama, and how unrealistic stereotypes and expectations—and meeting them and molding yourself to fit them—provide very fragile and shaky foundations for trust.  Read more 

Here (fair using most of it):

Obama has not had any difficulty pulling white voters, per se. Where he can’t crack the nut is with the working class, whether they’re white, Latino/Latina, or something else — anything but African-American. The reason AAs are the exception is obvious: Obama has tremendous support from the entire African-American community, understandably so. AAs from every economic stratum support his candidacy. But if Obama weren’t black, working-class AAs wouldn’t vote for him either.

And no wonder. Working people need health care and Social Security, not a goddamn Unity Pony and a speech.

I’m moved to remark on this because the meme is circulating that Obama’s problem is that white working-class voters are all a bunch of Archie Bunkers who are too racist to vote for him. This meme is being pushed aggressively by the Obama campaign, especially after the huge Pennsylvania loss. Straight from Axelrod’s mouth to the pages of the New York Times, where it’s dressed up as thoughtful analysis.

The purpose of the racist meme is fivefold:

1. To distract from Obama’s real weakness — that he has nothing to offer working people and can’t get them to vote for him to save his damn life;
2. To excuse his failure by instead blaming the voters;
3. To imply that the only reason people vote for Hillary is because they’re racists, which just goes to show how nasty and icky Hillary is;
4. To subliminally remind people that the Clintons themselves are racists, at least according to the Obama campaign;
5. To once again mine the seemingly inexhaustible vein of white guilt that sends shivers up the legs of the liberal elites.

The constant repetition of the phrase “white working class” (or variations thereon) is crucial to propagating the meme. And it’s false, because it erases Latino/Latinas along with every other non-AA ethnic group, and shifts the focus away from “working class” (which is where it belongs).

So please, stop saying white working class. Don’t play into Axelrod’s game.

P.S. Similar thing with older voters.

Bingo.  Read more 

Via TeddySanFran @ FDL, the question everyone should be asking right up to election day:

So, the question is: will the ad run on Monday?

…

Is John McCain powerless? Is he impotent?

Bwahaha. Yes, these are important questions. I hope that some of our more accessible talking heads *cough* Ezra *cough* will be able to raise them on the air. As in:

Really, what people are asking right now is, why hasn’t McCain been able to gain traction with Democrats? Are we looking at an impotent campaign here, you know, one that’s never going to get any stronger towards November?

or

Well, McCain’s been taking criticism lately, and he hasn’t shown that he’s really strong enough to deflect any of it… is this the emergence of an impotent candidate?

or

“Say, do you think McCain takes Cialis because he’s impotent?”

You get the picture. Simple yet devastating. Can we pull it off?

Her op-ed piece in the NY Times tells it like it is. Go read.

Via Talk Left, Bob Somerby on Keith Olbermann and Countdown:

But then, Countdown has almost surely become the most propagandized show in cable “news” history. Yes, you can still find pure crap in the mainstream press. But pure crap abounds now on Countdown.

When we started this site, the mainstream press corps took the cake (see item above). Now, our “liberal” cable show does—and that has our analysts bollixed.

How silly does it get on Countdown? Just watch any part of the show, any night! The propaganda flow starts right away, and it rarely stops.

But wait, there’s more! The emphasis is mine.  Read more 

Paul Krugman in his latest column:

The question Democrats, both inside and outside the Obama campaign, should be asking themselves is this: now that the magic has dissipated, what is the campaign about? More generally, what are the Democrats for in this election?

That should be an easy question to answer. Democrats can justly portray themselves as the party of economic security, the party that created Social Security and Medicare and defended those programs against Republican attacks — and the party that can bring assured health coverage to all Americans.

They can also portray themselves as the party of prosperity: the contrast between the Clinton economy and the Bush economy is the best free advertisement that Democrats have had since Herbert Hoover.  Read more 

“We need a nominee who will take on John McCain, not cheer on John McCain, and I will be that nominee.”

Hat tip to Talk Left.