Hillary's assassination remark is bad enough to disqualify her.  PERIOD.
Her comment translates thus:

"I am staying in the race in case or until Obama is assasinated."  This is a disqualifying remark.  

Call me naive.  Call me a tin hat dreamer.  But I truly believe that there is a fundamental procedural flaw in this grand experimental republic that is the USA.  The Constitution and Bill of Rights are exemplary documents and they have guided and informed our country through some ugly times.  But...

the flaw to our system of government, the hole in the dike, (that has taken 200 years to become FULLY exploited) is: the extent of access to political power by lobbyists with money.  Legislation is not good enough to address this problem because it can become subverted or watered down.  What we need is a constitutional ammendment that provides an additional CHECK to our vaunted list of checks and balances:  An amendment prohibiting the giving of gifts to ANY person holding elected public office at any level of government.  An amendment that prohibits any entity other than private citizens from contributing to political campaigns.

Having spent many hours in redneck bars attempting to do battle with over racist views (in a former life as a country musician), I can tell you that one doesn’t have many EFFECTIVE conversational weapons against the obstinate intransigence of a garden variety racist who has been immersed his/her whole life in what are cultural "truths" (i.e., "black people are ___") about race.  The context in which such conversations occur is so far into racist territory (analogous to being way behind enemy lines) that the things that appear to be taken for granted in the conversation would certainly lead you to believe that the warrior (e.g., myself) is racist IF taken out of context.  One does what one can in such conversations to create a chink in the wall without starting an all out war because the all out war is guaranteed to be ineffective in stirring up any latent thoughts that might exist in the racist.  I know that some who do battle in this perverted world are more courageous than I in their methods (my fellow musician Phil who last Monday refused to play Dixie for a University of Georgia Sugar Bowl game visitor) but we do what we think we are capable of.  

More below the fold:

I heard Rush yesterday speaking about how the US would be forced to lay off 150k defense related civilian jobs all because the Dems were hanging the military out to dry by not approving the entire Bush finding request.

I want you all to think about this line of attack from the Repubs because it is a HUGE deal and it will haunt the elections of 08 and beyond, I GAURANTEE.  What we all need to know is just WHO THESE 150,000 PAWNS ARE...

More below...

This is what happens when a paranoid subculture exists in a vacuum with minimal dissent and no effective opposition.  This is a snapshot of what our country COULD be like if the Extreme Right were not checked by the rational opposition of a republic.

Utah County Republicans ended their convention on
Saturday by debating Satan's influence on illegal
immigrants.

This is from an article by Caleb Warnock in the "Daily Herald," Central Utah's Newspaper.

Ever have one of those moments when "The System" has you stymied beyond helplessness?  A company whose voicemail can not be negotiated?  A bank that will not let you talk to a person?  A customer service line that does not have a menu choice that pertains to your issue?  (believe me, I do tech support and try calling back someone you are trying to help and you can't get through the gate at his company.  UGGH!)

I tried to email Rahm Emmanuel today.  He's from Illinois.  I'm from Louisiana.  I don't know how to do it.

You never know what you'll find in New Orleans.  It's still living as I keep finding out.  

My name is Ben Rosow and I live in New Orleans.  I am an engineer and a musician. I am one of the lucky ones because my Uptown house in the "Sliver by the River" did not flood after Katrina, although it did receive extensive damage that remains un-repaired to this day, due to the scarcity of contractors.  

If this is out of date please ignore, but I believe that the misplacement of

1000

firefighters, yes 1000 firefighters from "Utah and elsewhere" to the job of handing out fliers for FEMA (until 50 of them were dragged to a Bush Phot-op) PR purposes is a huge story.  The link is to a story from the Salt Lake Tribune dated Sept 12.

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197

Read it and seethe.  I feel that this country is absolutely sick to the bone if it can't repudiate Bush.

My Louisiana "Democrat" is Mary Landrieu, a spineless, behind-checking waffler if ever there was one.  I share this to exhort others to do the same if they have suspect Democrats in their states.  Here's what I wrote to her regarding Dr. Dean:

"Dear Senator Landrieu:

I am writing you to tell you that I support Howard Dean in the tough stand he is taking within the Democratic party against the New Intransigence of the Republican Party.  I expect you to support him in his efforts."

Continuing below the fold...

Guckert's pseudonym is one of the interesting side issues that is bringing forth the typical distortions of the Right wing talking heads.  Guckert and his defenders generic line about his false name runs something like this: "Pseudonyms have traditionally been used by journalists, writers, actors, musicians, and other public figures..."  Wait a minute!  They slipped one in there.  This is a true statement but for the first item in the list: "journalists."

I posted the following in an email to CNN this morning.

Regarding your story about the Howard Dean "Bad Date" internet experience:

The debunking of the effectiveness of the Dean internet campaign at winning primaries entirely missed the mark.  What defeated Dean was nothing less than a media that was obviously and clearly determined to stop this candidate.  The "gaffes" that were attributed to Dean by the TV news purveyors were no worse than the dozens of comments from other candidates that could have been played up but were carefully ignored.  The classic example was Dean's statement about the hypothetical capture of Osama Bin Laden about which Dean said (paraphrasing) "If I had him in my sights, I'd probably pull the trigger but if we get him in custody, I think he should receive a fair trial under U.S. law."  For this he was, ridiculously, lambasted.  Tell me what is wrong with this statement?  What should he have said?  "Let's lynch Osama on Times Square"???  Equally negative spin could have been relentlessly applied to Kerry (special interest contributions, trashing his medals), Bush (falsified war rationale, reckless government spending,...), and others but it wasn't.  The coverage of the Dean campaign has been nothing short of atrocious.  

Up until the end of October, Dean was the media darling with his upstart excitement and his underdog status.  My wife predicted what would happen next.  Noticing the huge wave of anti-Dean sentiment that was quickly building in the electronic and print media, she predicted that the majority of the voters, who did not yet know about Dean, would discover him in the context of the new spin which pictured Dean as "Angry", "Impetuous", "Un-presidential", "a Loose Cannon", and other EDITORIAL characterizations.  This is, in fact, exactly what happened.  Today's story which said that voters courted Dean but married Kerry is totally false.  The voters who polled for Dean in December and voted for Kerry or Edwards in January were swayed by the overwhelming anti-Dean bias of the editorialized "news" coverage.  Shame on the media.  A recent study of media coverage showed negative coverage of Kerry and Edwards to be running in the 45-50 % range but negative coverage of Dean to be 78 %.  
What is clear to me is that Dean was defeated by an antagonistic press, something that no internet campaign or any organizing effort can ever defeat.  The press now has the power to elect the president.

Dean supporters are going to turn out to vote for a Democratic nominee in November '04 who will be running against the most destructive president in American history, but they will definitely be holding their noses.  

In presenting the "Bad Date" story about Dean, CNN is covering their tracks by vilifying Dean after the fact to justify their hack job during the campaign.  

What America needs now is the Dean proposed reduction in media ownership concentration.  But this flies in the face of what the media conglomerates want.  And these foxes are watching the hen house.