If I were Barack Obama I'd be pissed.

Frankly, I'm just a bit disappointed as General Wesley Clark's messaging. I was ecstatic when he began his campaign of criticizing John McCain's credentials to be President on Morning Joke but he blurted an easily soundbitten statement on Face the Nation that was also prettily easily twisted by the manipulative hacks in the media. His statement, "Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president," was not the best he could have done. Let's examine the statement, shall we?

Senator Clinton,

You made statements supporting the filibuster of the Protect America Act previously. Is that still your stance on this fundamentally unchanged bill? If so, I would be happy to donate to your campaign in order to assist you in your debt situation. Simply publicly state your opposition to FISA and place a hold on the bill and I will donate the fifty dollars I had planned to donate to Senator Obama's campaign.

Thanks so much,
A hopeful voter.

The same point that many people have been making was just made by on Countdown by Keith Olbermann. He pronounced Fox Noise as the worst persons in the world for merely saying that Tim Russert was a member of the liberal media.

Merely, I say, because that's not such a dig at Tim given that many consider NBC and MSNBC the more liberal news networks and Tim is a member of those networks. It's not an inaccurate statement despite the timing.

West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd was hospitalized this evening. He reported feeling lythargic and had a fever. His home caretaker called him an ambulance.

This was reported on Olbermann mere moments ago. Keith added that West Virginia's governor was a Democrat in case a successor were to be appointed.

I have no more information but I will update this diary when anything else comes out.

I am just about done with the worrying you anxiety ridden neurotics are engaged in here lately.

It seems everybody has written either in a diary, a front page entry, or in a comment how the math precludes a Hillary Clinton win but so many people still engage in hypotheticals regarding what they would do if she were to win the nomination.

Why?

Why not just stop it?

This is a diary to discuss Keith's special comment and diary about said comment. Feel free to muck about inside and rec up.

I was lucky enough to find out about the economic town hall here in Austin with Senator Obama and get tickets for it. Even though the event began at 9:30 this morning my boss was more than happy to let me attend as long as I brought her a button or a sticker or something. My wife, who had jury duty yesterday was able to snag tickets from UT and a Hispanic Community Center in town. We gave the other pair of tickets to another co-worker who was able to attend as well (our office is slightly liberal to say the least.)

This event was not about hope or change or any of the vague notions that Clinton supporters and/or Obama antagonists have accused the candidate of. The town hall focused specifically on his economic plan followed by a fairly long Q&A. My thoughts on it after the fold.

Jim Webb (D-VA) was one of the Democratic senators to cross the aisle and vote in favor of retroactive immunity. His name has been floated a few times on Daily Kos and elsewhere as a possible pick for Vice President. I respectfully submit that by voting in favor of retroactive immunity in favor of telecoms who broke the law and against citizens and the constitution that Jim Webb has shown himself to be a good enough senator for Virginia (certainly better than George Allen) but not quite progressive enough to run for Vice President.

This is just a test to see if there's some kind of malware attacking DailyKos that makes every Edwards Iowa diary hit the req list. Carry on, nothing to see here. I'm just running a scan to see if a vast left-wing botnet is attacking DailyKos by promoting every diary with certain keywords. Keywords commencing:

Edwards electable son of mill worker millworker surge surging Iowa Hillary Obama electable corporate corruption polls believe don't believe real record universal healthcare national crowds enthusiasm on the move.

(You're still here despite the disclaimer? Well, there's more over the fold, if you insist.)

Now that the Lieberman-Kyl amendment has passed designating a branch of a soveriegn nation's army as a terrorist organization we have to ask ourselves who the Revolutionary Guard is terrorizing and how they're doing it so that we can effectively stop them.

The Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps (IRGC) is the largest branch of Iran's military, and participated in Iraq's war against Iran. We are possibly breaking international law by selectively targeting an individual function of a sovereign government, but when have we ever heeded international law when we're scared half to death of our enemy?

I talk to my mom about politics all the time. She was a Goldwater Republican in college and we disagree on just about everything all the time. However, there's nothing more enlightening than speaking to a real wacked out wingnut Republican. Here are some of the things I've gathered and strategies for dealing with them in conversation:

I think we can all agree that the Iraq war has not truly been funded since the start of it. Spending for this war combined with tax cuts for the rich has resulted in record deficits and a ballooning national debt, so if our "leadership" in Washington is going to insist on funding this losing war, let's actually pay for it!

And what better way is there to pay for a needless war than soaking the rich? Let's put together a bill that ties expenditures for our occupation of Iraq with taxes on individuals with annual incomes of more than a million dollars. Raise the tax rates on the rich to seventy percent or so and sunset the tax increase when all of our troops are pulled out of Iraq. Advocates for the tax increase can use World War II rhetoric, but instead of comparing everybody and his brother to Hitler like Republicans, insist on a shared sacrifice and point to the 90% tax rates after WWII. The rich will be doing their duty and keeping our country solvent!

I'm typically sick of hearing Democrats and their supporters waffling about what a bad administration is in power. Let's lay it all on the line, shall we?

George Bush is a puss. He doesn't know shit, he can't make up his mind without consulting his daddy surrogate Dick Cheney, and he's surrounded himself with his buddies so he'll feel safe. No matter how retarded his compatriates are, he's gonna stick by them because he's really that fucking dumb. He knows he's sunk without them, and especially Cheney. C'mon, you look at that old fucker with the fucked up ticker and you KNOW he's evil. George Junior KNOWS he's evil. He probably even suspects he's the antichrist, but he's too much of a chickenshit to admit it to himself and DO something about it. He just wants to get through the next couple of years without getting his ass impeached, thrown out of the office, and put in front of a war crime tribunal.

You might have heard of the debate that Kay Bailey Hutchison was too scared to have in front of a live audience. Well, that debate is tomorrow! Barbara Ann already got a little practice October 7th against the libertarian candidate, and if the campaign is to be believed, she wiped the floor with him.

This is just a direct quote from a press release from the Radnofsky campaign, but it's obvious that they realize that the torture bill is a winner for Democrats.

The Radnofsky for US Senate campaign sent out a presser that begins

Houston, Texas. Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Barbara Ann Radnofsky expressed her support for the Geneva Conventions and its protection of U.S. troops. "Redefining Common Article 3 to allow torture tactics would put our troops at risk. My father was a prisoner of war in World War II. We must protect our troops who could indeed become POWs."

I don't know if all of y'all have heard the news yet, but Barbara Ann is at 39% in Texas and Kay Bailey Hutchison is at 47.8 percent. I got a lovely press release from the campaign with some good news:

I just got the Radnofsky campaign's newsletter and it looks like Kay Bailey Hutchison is a little scared of debating. Here's the quote:

After going on record to the Dallas Morning News and Austin American-Statesman that she would debate, our opponent has refused to commit to the Sept. 29 debate in Dallas sponsored by the Dallas Women Lawyers Association. The Libertarian candidate has accepted. The debate begins at 6:00 p.m. at the Belo Mansion.
The Associated Press picked up on the story, and questioned Sen. Hutchison's staff about her schedule. Her spokesman excused Hutchison's absence claiming congress was in session, despite the fact that the Senate does not typically meet on Friday.