Ajax left us today, Mother’s Day 2008.  He was ten.  A large, rust colored Golden Retriever and our very good friend.   His surgery on Friday to remove a tumor did not succeed.

I have seen other diaries like this, and this one is long...But I do this for Ajax, my wife, myself, and our family.  This is a small event but it is hard for us and I wanted to share the wonder, intelligence and love we experienced with Ajax.

Zogby has just released his poll from today and yesterday.  Obama won Saturday 46-44.  But he lost yesterday and only had 40%.

Zobgy sez Clinton 46-43 over Obama.  Here is the poll.  

But Zogby is not reliable.  SurveyUSA has been very good.  The PPP and the Q polls have been reasonably good too.  

A new SurveyUSA poll shows Obama up by 10 over Hillary:  52-42.  He leads among Latinos (53-45) and Asians (45-30) and Whites (52-42)....This especially good news on the Latino vote which Hillary had locked up in prior primaries.

Here are the poll results....

Hillary is poisoning the well by saying Obama cannot be CINC, making a successful campaign against McCain impossible.  She is also suggesting Obama could be her VP--in an effort to get people to vote for her--it's the ol' two for the price of one theory.

How should Obama respond?  By saying he will never, ever be her VP.  That's playing hardball.

Hillary Clinton has said she would only release her tax returns if she were to win the nomination.  But of course then it would be too late for Democrats to evaluate her finances as part of the nomination process.

Obama of course has released his tax returns:

Mr. Obama, speaking to reporters, zeroed in on Mrs. Clinton’s loan and said that her decision not to disclose her income tax returns raised questions about the loan.

"I’ll just say that I’ve released my tax returns," he said, responding to a question about tax returns. "That’s been a policy I’ve maintained consistently. I think the American people deserve to know where you get your income from."

McCain's tour of a Baghdad market has highlighted the attempts by conservatives to manipulate public opinion on whether the surge is working.  McCain's pretense was exposed. But the larger question remains of whether the surge is working--and whether there is a way to gauge what is happening without resorting to anecdotal evidence, hunches and opinion.  Looking at the numbers of deaths, as gruesome as it may be, is one objective measure.  

One current talking point gaining favor was that  Fitz knew when he started his investigtation that Armitage--not Libby--was the source for the Novak column.  Thus, the reasoning goes, Fitz should have never proceeded with the investigation.  Not true.

Where did Armitage get the information he leaked to Novak about Plame?  None other than our hero Scooter. So, contrary to what Brit Hume says, Libby--at Cheney's direction--was responsible for outing Plame.

Cheney hit the airwaves once again this weekend, doing his best to scare people into supporting the Bush administration.  If we withdraw, all hell will break lose, he says.

Not so fast.  If we withdraw, the Saudis have reportedly threatened to intervene on behalf of the Sunni minority in Iraq.  We should take up the Saudis on their "threat."    

Peggy Noonan is one of the  most influential and well-read conservative writers around.   She wrote the "evil empire" speech for Ronald Reagan. Conservatives just flock to her.   But why is she not on T.V. touting conservatives this cycle?  Answer:  She wants the GOP to lose.

Why?   Bush is too arrogant and doesn't listen, she reasons.   I saw the beginnings of her rupture with Bush when he gave the "burning fires" of democracy 2004 inaugural speech.   Too much God, Noonan reasoned.   Now her new Wall Street Journal Article dumps big-time on Bush.

 

Democrat Patty Wetterling is running a great campaign against Republican Michelle Bachmann, and is ahead in some polls.  At the Living Word Christian Center on October 14, 2006, Bachmann showed just what an uphill battle Wetterling faces.  After her Pastor endorsed her during his sermon--contrary to IRS regulations for tax exempt entities--Bachmann then took center stage and told the congregation how God had called her to run for Congress.

The Church should lose its tax exempt status. Bachmann says she has ongoing conversations with God all the time.  See the video below......   I found this on the Huffington Post.  

A new conservative talking point has emerged.  Apparently, Major Garrett of FOX News reported that the Red Cross and Salvation Army were ready to deliver food and water to the victims in New Orleans but were turned away by officials with the State of Louisiana because they did not want "to create an atomosphere that would lead people to stay."

Hugh Hewitt is banging the drum on this one.

I thought I would send up this Diary in the hopes of seeing what the response to this talking point is or should be.  (If this Diary is repetitive, I will of course it--but I've looked at the last 100 Diaries.)
 

RedState is threatening to violate the confidentaility of posters they deem trolls.  And worse they have threatened to track the user's private information such as his or her place of employment, other sites frequented et. al. and post them on RedState.

Kossacks beware.  Best not to give them some way of tracking you down.  They have no sense of humor and may indeed try to hurt you if they deem you a troll.

The way to beat the right wingers is to expose them for what they really are.  I have spent the last month posting on RedState.  I was able to post a total of 323 comments before I was banned.  (I am not sure whether I should be proud of that or embarrassed it took them so long to ban me.)   My sojourn at RedState was very interesting as they admitted to some truly disturbing things.  The patina of intellectualism and fairness that RedState likes to project was stripped bare, revealing their true selves, as shown in the quotes below.  

We all have heard what a hornet's nest Gavin Newsom created when as mayor he started allowing gay marriages in the City of San Francisco.  DiFi excoriated him publicly for jumping the gun.  He has been blamed for the Democratic defeat last election.

But I just watched his interview on MSNBC's Hardball--and he is great!  Tremendously poised and intelligent, answering Tweety's rapid fire questioning with quick responses.  He is tough, no nonsense and very telegenic.

Gannon will appear live on Larry Elder's talk radio show on KABC. Here is the link for the live audio feed.  The feed goes silent at times, during commercials, I think.

He has really been hitting the airwaves today.  Sorry to take up a diary on this--I'll remove if that is the consensus of the thing to do.

Here's my story of being bounced from Free Republic. What's yours?

It took me three posts to get tossed.  I was responding to a post on the supposed repression of free speech of someone who supports reparative therapy, making the gay straight.

I tried to be really nice.  I merely asked if there were any studies on reparative therapy; I thought I sounded like a moderate Republican--at least that was my goal.  I was not even taking a strong position one way or the other--but I was bounced nevertheless.

At first, I laughed.  But on second thought, it was  disturbing--those folks cannot tolerate free discourse.  It is as if they did not want me providing contrary data corrupting their one-way minds.

Below is some classic Freeperlandia  

Many are talking about the following phrase from Bush's Inaugural Address:

This apocalyptic language is echoed by other biblical language throughout the address.  William Safire said in his New York Times column today that this language was the result of poor editing and should have been deleted because it sounded dangerous.  But it was no mistake.  And Bush and Cheney intend to go to war again.

 The Republicans talk about democracy in Iraq at the same time they say they will bring back the death squads of El Salvador and need torture as weapon in the fight.  The emphasis on "bringing democracy" to Iraq and toppling a dictator who killed and tortured his own people is complete hypocrisy. This same group supported a military dictatorship in Guatemala that waged a war against its own people, resulting in the deaths of at least 200,000 civilians, most of them Mayan Indians.  According to the UN Truth Commission, the military dictatorship was responsible for 93% of the deaths.