Chances are you ate too much yesterday while celebrating the ideals on which our nation was founded (though certainly not the current administration’s trashing of all of those ideals). I know I ate too much.

But barbeques aside, the American left seems to have a terrible eating disorder. As the saying goes, we eat our own. I have never realized just how true this is until this past week.

Note: I know that Thank You for Smoking has been out for a while, but I was just watching it recently, and thought I'd post a review.

Thank You for Smoking
Review by Zoltan Abraham
Grade: A

Based on Christopher Buckley’s novel, this wickedly cynical comedy by Jason Reitman gives us a no-holds-barred, tell-all glimpse of the behind the scenes world of corporate lobbying. The story is narrated by the chillingly amoral tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor (played flawlessly by Aaron Eckhart), now deployed on an assignment to frustrate a new health warning on cigarettes. He is the consummate master of argumentation - the kind of guy who could convince you that up is down, that black is white; and could make you feel stupid for ever thinking otherwise. Nick freely admits to us, and even brags about, the substantial death-toll inflicted on society by the tobacco industry. The question of conscience is raised periodically as the story unfolds, and is handled with the same depth of cynicism that dominates the entire work.

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If you are feeling disappointed by Obama, if you feel that you can no longer donate to Obama, if you feel that you can no longer volunteer for Obama, if you wonder whether or not you will even vote for Obama, think about two words. Two simple little words:

Supreme Court.

Let’s get real here, folks.

John Paul Stevens – 88 years old
Ruth Bader Ginsburg – 75 years old
Antonin Scalia – 72 years old
Anthony Kennedy – 71 years old
Stephen Breyer – 69 years old
David Souter – 68 years old

With the exception of the archconservative Scalia, all of the above have been known as the liberal wing of the Supreme Court, or at least as the oftentimes liberal-leaning swing voters.

By contrast, most of the conservatives are much younger:

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Obama has opened up an anti-smear site, and a number of diarists have been writing about countering anti-Obama smear emails.

Below is my point-by-point reponse to a fake thank you letter purporting to be from Obama.

More below the fold.

I am posting this to be an open thread for the impeachment thread. Kucinich is still speaking. Go, Dennis! Go!

He is doing a great job!

Please use the comments to explain what happens next? What are the exact procedures? I didn't really pay attention during the blue dress crisis. This seems a little more substantial...

Note: All padding comments will be recced by me! :-)

Update: Everybody call your congress-critters to encourage them to support Dennis!

Link to first two diaries on this:
First Thread
Second Thread

Update 2: Cool! First recommended diary. See, impeachment is a good thing!

More updates below:

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
Reviewed by Zoltan Abraham
May 24, 2008

Grade: F

Prince Caspian, the second film in Disney’s adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis is perhaps not as agonizingly unentertaining as the first film, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but it comes pretty close. The story takes place one year after the Pevensie children had returned from their adventures from the land of Naria. They are now called back into that magical realm by the urgent need of the title character, Prince Caspian, who is fleeing from his murderous uncle, a usurper and a tyrant. The children find that while they had only aged one year, thousands of years have pasted in Naria – and things have not changed for the better. They, the two kings and two queens of old, have now been brought back to save the land for horrible devastation.

While the premise of the story is promising, the delivery leaves much to be desired.

One of my favorite Seattle radio stations, 96.5 Jack FM, had a great line: "Tell your mom the three little words she has been waiting to hear all these years - I'm moving out..."

Mother's Day has, of course, become a multi-billion dollar holiday, complete with flowers, chocolates, cards, etc. But that was not how it started. Originally, Mother's Day was a profound statement against war.

It was back in the 19th century that Julia Ward Howe started Mother's day, with the goal of stopping warfare. She wrote a powerful Mother's Day Proclamation, which is just as relevant today as it was in her own day.

If only the world had listened to her!

This is just a quick diary to point out that Spitzer’s resignation, which seems increasingly more likely, would result in the loss of one superdelegate for Hillary. Spitzer is, of course, a superdelegate who has endorsed Hillary and would vote for her in Denver.

Under New York law, Lt. Gov. David Paterson would take his place. Paterson is also a superdelegate who has endorsed Hillary. However, under New York law, Paterson’s position would be filled by the president of the state senate, Joseph Bruno, who is a Republican. Bruno would not be allowed to vote in Denver – and he certainly wouldn’t vote for Hillary if he were given the chance.

So Spitzer’s resignation would mean one fewer superdelegate for Clinton. Of course, there is also the guilt by association, which is unfair, but inescapable in the political landscape. The Spitzer case cannot but be damaging for Clinton. But whatever the public relations harm, when the dust settles, Spitzer’s imminent departure will favor Obama mathematically.

Spitzer Spoils Clinton’s Delegate Count

(Snark)

In the last few weeks, both the Hillary campaign and the corporate media have gone after Barack Obama with a vengeance. No smear has been too small to hype. So what have we learned from all of this? Let’s take a look.

The Lapel Pin: We have learned that our Constitution demands that presidential candidates wear American flag lapel pins at all times. The failure to do so is punishable by negative media coverage. As teenagers might put it, not wearing the lapel pin is, like, social suicide. In fact, we see that even the Bible tells us that we must wear an American flag lapel pin. Leviticus 40:2 reads: "He who does not wear the lapel pin has committed an abomination, and shall be stoned to death."

Muslim: Being called a Muslim is now an insult. It used to be that at least some Muslims were considered decent human beings. But in recent weeks, it has become clear that all Muslims are evil. If anyone calls you a Muslim, they have deeply insulted you. Kids on the playground are no longer saying: "That’s gay!" They are now saying, "That’s Muslim!"

Everyone’s doing their postmortems right now, so let me weigh in too. Clinton won a big PR battle last night. But beyond that, she pretty much went down in flames. Something about sound and fury signifying nothing comes to mind.

Let’s forget the hype for a moment, and remember where things stood two weeks ago.

If you are like me, it can be a bit hard to pay attention to non-primary news at the moment. But the following tidbit broke through my primary blinders as I was listening to Rachel Maddow this afternoon.

We have all heard the story that United Technologies has launched a hostile takeover attempt to acquire Diebold. We all know that Diebold is the Big Bad Wolf of electoral shenanigans. We all remember Diebold chief executive Walden O’Dell’s 2004 letter promising to deliver Ohio’s electoral votes to Bush.

But what some of us may have missed is that United Technologies is a client of the highly influential lobbying firm BKSH. Who works for BKSH? Charlie Black. Who is Charlie Black? An aide to John McCain.

Can you connect the dots here, folks?

Punxsutawney Phil, the mighty groundhog, the Seer of Seers, the Prognosticator of Prognosticators, emerged from his place of repose on Gobbler’s Knob today to issue a press release addressed to the Clinton campaign. His message said:

Hillary Clinton lost tonight’s debate for a number of reasons. She looked tense and angry; in fact, several times, she seemed ready to sock Obama in the jaw. Instead of merely stating her position on the issues, she went after Obama in a petty and vindictive manner. Her quibble about "reject" vs "denounce" backfired on her almost as badly as her infamous Xerox comment.

Obama, on the other hand, acted calmly, spoke thoughtfully, and proved to be completely unflappable, no matter what kind of ridiculous smears Clinton or the moderators tried to throw at him. But his best moment was in his closing statement, which was in response to the question:

When the New York Times published a story about John McCain’s possible inappropriate interactions with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, including a possible romantic relationship, the conservative standard-bearers of our nation suddenly rallied around McCain, even though they had before made their dislike of him all too clear. But what would have happened if John McCain were a Democrat? How would the conservative establishment have reacted to these allegations in that case, especially to the suggestion of an adulterous affair with a lobbyists? Let’s explore.

As many have pointed out, Clinton got off to a good start in Thursday night’s Democratic debate; for nearly an hour, she held her own against Obama. Then, however, came a string of negative comments directed at her rival, including the already infamous Xerox line, all of which made her seem petty, vindictive, and pompous. Suddenly, Clinton had all the grace of a five-year-old throwing a hissy fit.

But in my mind, the worst part of her performance was, by far, her final statement – the statement now being lavishly praised even by Obama supporters, and which is being trumpeted by several pundits as the reason Clinton won the debate. For me, Hillary’s closing statement was the height of political cynicism.

After a string of stinging losses to her rival Senator Barack Obama, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton unveiled her final answer to all of her critics in the form of a wholly new, wholly original campaign platform.

Dear Hillary,

I have learned to stop worrying and have really come to love you. Yes, you. I couldn’t write this on Valentine’s Day (because I was off at 5th grade science camp), but now that I am back, please consider this a belated Valentine.

After almost eight years of Republican rule, you are exactly what I have needed. Why? Let me count the ways!

On Super Tuesday, Obama won the most states and the most delegates. Since Super Tuesday, he has won eight different contests, in very different parts of the country, with some truly impressive margins.

In his speech on Potomac night, Obama did not mention Clinton by name. Instead, he focused on differentiating himself from the likely Republican nominee, John McCain. Obama was looking toward November, not next Tuesday, or March 4. He was already acting as the nominee of the party, without however seeming presumptuous.