As the great wheel turns, and the gloaming fades into the summer night, I place my hands once more on the monitor. Once more, the distance between us dissolves, and I am overwhelmed by your insistent voices. Oh yes, I sense you out there in the dark American night, and yes, I still have my suspicions about you.

Tonight nine little girls will gather at my house for a sleep-over (God help us) to celebrate my daughter's sixth birthday.

They will eat pizza and cake, watch Return to Witch Mountain and then play some version of Ten Little Indians to see how many of them will actually make it through the night.

But while I should be thinking of pillow fights and painted toenails, my mind is, instead, doing math:

A number of thoughts and outrages have been swimming around in my mind lately.  Yesterday, I read with great interest a Daily Kos diary talking about the House hearings relating to Rep. Kucinich's impeachment resolutions, but which were studiously arranged not to seem like impeachment hearings. One thing in particular about the diary resonated deeply within me:

I've done a few diaries about the "extraordinary claim" rule at Daily Kos.  Mainly it was because of the election fraud issue, but, the "rule" applies to any claim made.

So, with that in mind, I'm going to make a claim about the Democrats in Congress...

During Senator McCain's speech in Denver today, in the midst of the usual and expected mischaracterizations of Obama's Iraq position (and one or two outright lies), I heard something which genuinely shocked me.

Because of the choice we made and all the surge has accomplished, the time will soon come when our troops can come home. But we face another choice today. We can withdraw when we have secured the peace and the gains we have sacrificed so much to achieve are safe. Or we can follow Senator Obama's unconditional withdrawal and risk losing the peace even if that results in spreading violence and a third Iraq war. Senator Obama has suggested he would consider sending troops back if that happened. When I bring them home in victory and with honor, they are staying home.

Righteous indignation after the jump.

Anaheim, California

Faced with countering Barack Obama's hugely successful speech in Germany, Senator John McCain boarded a boat and sailed into a castle filled with foreign citizens in the hope of proving that he too had international appeal.

The speech, which was filled rhetoric touting continued aggression towards poor people living in oppressed countries, further fear mongering, and ongoing policies steeped in arrogance and self-interest was received surprisingly well, with unexpected bouts of clapping, singing and dancing.

From Politico:

After driving a hard bargain, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now taking credit for pulling President Bush's "chestnuts out of the fire" in winning House approval of a landmark home mortgage bill expected to clear Congress this weekend.

"We pulled the president's chestnuts out of the fire," Pelosi told Politico. "Without the Democratic votes, he would have had no bill."

With the enormous strain that occurs on any candidate running for President of the United States, it seems apparent to me that their duties as a Congressman, Vice-President, Governor, dog catcher, whatever must take a major hit.  

A very gray area also presents itself as we're seeing with Barack Obama's trips to places like Iraq and Germany and the controversy over injecting politics into military and foreign policy matters.  Is he a Senator or a candidate?  Is there public funding involved in certain parts or is it campaign funds?  

A friend sent me an email the other day, it was one of those conservative type emails (usually they make fun of other countries or talk about military or USA Pride).  This one I think has been around a long time, I think it was orginally attributed to Robin Williams (musta been when he was on a bender :).  I've posted the email and my reply, I'm hoping to show him (as I've shown a few others) how far we've come off track in the last 7-8 years.  I now wanna know just what percentage of Americans watch TV and local paper for their news(if even the paper), I'm starting to wonder what the numbers are, that EVERYONE who doesn't get their information via the web, is really no longer able to have a conversation about some pretty important subjects (like our government).  Doth thou protest too much? This is my first my 'post' so be gentle or not...

I haven't been reading diaries about The Speech today, so I don't know if I'm being redundant, or just sawing off my own personal limb, but I am filled with such an all consuming anger as to be more than a bit irrational.

I heard a masterful presentation address a renewal of American foreign policy by one of the most sophisticated minds on the international stage.

I also heard the run up.  Mincing, prissy words by small minds, herded together to throw stones at the "other" who refuses to conform to their limited, and limiting, world view.

Then I watched interviews with "regular guys", who clearly had no idea what they had seen or heard at the Tiergarten, yet felt no hesitation in parading their fear and ignorance across the stage with inartful comment.  

As we've suffered through the longest Presidential race in history, a narrative on our side of the political spectrum arose. McSame. Obviously, because McCain's policies were so close to those of President Bush.

But I'm not sure that's fair. And not in the way you might think. I'm not arguing that McSame is too harsh...I'm arguing it isn't harsh enough.

More below the fold

I just can't believe it. I mean, I really had faith in a movement, and then this scandal breaks.

I'm heartbroken. Stunned. Distraught. Vaguely hungry.

People are actually believing the National Enquirer.

I know, me too.

Sometimes, there are topics that you just cannot do justice in one diary.  This is not one of those topics.

Sometimes, there are simply people who cannot comprehend a topic, the facts presented about the topic, and the gist of the issue.  This is one those times.

So, off we go...

I'm pretty sure my daughter Rory is traumatized for life after the last couple years. She's almost three, and waaaay too familiar with hospitals. It started in January of '07, when she got a staph infection; basically flesh-eating bacteria. We took her to the emergency room when she developed a fever and a pimple on her leg turned into a swollen area the size of my wife's palm. The emergency room sent us home with the wrong antibiotic, and said to contact her pediatrician within the next three days or so.

In the morning she wasn't any better than when we'd left the hospital, so I demanded a same-day appointment with the pediatrician. Apparently, if we'd waited for day two, she'd have lost the leg, and if we'd waited to day three, she probably wouldn't have made it.

Follow me across the jump if you don't mind reading a diary that doesn't touch on McCain's latest gaffe. It gets worse. Skull surgeries and broken vertebrae abound.

...for the sake of "time".

TO: CBS editing team.
SUBJECT: Jaws

Can we just edit the "shark" out of the movie.

Its a little scary and we were hoping to air a segment with Katie in a bikini called "Beachy! Sexy! Craaaazy! Are your thighs ready for summer?"

Apologies upfront for this being a fairly short diary but I am sick to death of Andrea Mitchell.

I hate it when someone posts a middle finger aimed at a product they haven't even tried, simply because they judged it by its name and the initial press release.

I hate when folks on the left decry concern trolls telling democrats and feminists how they should behave, and then turn around and concern troll others, without actually doing all the legwork to support their position.

I cannot believe these people! I canceled my subscription before, but I am now calling the magazine to get a NEW subscription, so that I can cancel it again later today!

No, no. Better yet... I'm going to buy the entire magazine so that I can go into the office of every staff member wearing a Donald Trump style wig and yell, "You're so totally and everlastingly unemployed!"

Don't know what I'm talking about?

WELL, LOOK AT THIS, SPANKY: