We've got another super-delegate this morning, so can we drop that Delegates Needed number down to 170?

Congresswoman Mazie Hirono announced her endorsement of Barack Obama this morning in Washington, DC, saying "it is time to unite the party behind Senator Obama". She is one of nine super-delegates from Hawaii.

Going to a caucus can be intimidating for the uninitiated. For those dedicated folks at the Democratic Party of Hawaii who are organizing the caucuses, it is a complicated process.  They are planning more than 200 precinct meetings for the same night at 66 locations across the state. Although past events have drawn no more than a few thousand people, this event promises to be different.  The excitement of the campaign, the heavy media coverage and Barack Obama's native-son status will draw thousands of new Democrats into the process.

For those of us who will attend - the process is much simpler.  If you show up at the right location before 7:00 pm on Tuesday, February 19, you will get to cast your vote for Barack Obama.

These days I don't take the time to read books about pirates as often as I did when I was younger. One of my favorites was John Steinbeck's Cup of Gold about Henry Morgan.  He served most of his career in the service of the British crown with Letters of Marque authorizing him to intercept enemy merchant fleets to loot cargo.  Henry Morgan had 10 ships and 500 men at his command.  He was mobile, heavily armed, and immune from prosecution. With a Letter of Marqe, he was called a privateer - without it he would be a pirate.

It's the same lucrative business model now pursued by Eric Prince and Blackwater USA who have got more than a little bit of the Captain in them. Like Captain Henry Morgan, they have a private combat force outside the regular military chain of command, and observing different rules of engagement.  They are sent unmonitored into enemy territories protected by the world's most powerful Get Out of Jail Free card.  

Not to focus too closely on the President's colon, but I had to comment on the Whitehouse statements about the President's polyps. Apparently there were five polyps all of which were benign -- something the five polyps do not share in common with the President.

It occurs to me that following the logic of the pro-life movement:

   * The polyps are living cells.
   * The polyps are made from human tissue.
   * Therefore, the polyps are a human life.
   * The tissue itself is Presidential.
   * Killing the polyps is not just murder but assassination.

Given their responsibility to protect the President, I think its incumbent upon the Secret Service to protect the polyps. As for the duties of running the nation, I propose that the President and his 5 polyps can alternate days. That gives us five days of benign rule for every day of maligned rule.

Barack Obama is visiting family in Hawaii and trying to avoid the spotlight as he makes his decision whether to run for President.  But it can't be easy to keep to yourself with so many supporters in this state. My father-in-law, for one, spotted Obama at dinner Christmas Eve and stopped to say "Hello Mr. President." And Hawaii Democrats are making sure he knows he's got our full support.  

Obama would be our first Hawaii-born President, a major source of pride for a state that's rarely visited in the course of Presidential campaigns. A loose-knit  group funded a Hawaii airing of the draftobama.org ad on Christmas Day. Obama-mania is so strong here that even Republicans are asking him to run. More...

George Allen continues to insist he wants a campaign focused on the issues.  Meanwhile, the campaign he's actually running can't seem to stay out of the gutter (much like his mouth).  A friend of mine in Virginia was called by Central Research testing messages for the Allen campaign.  Among the questions:

Who is a better family man?

It's a strange question for someone planning to campaign on the issues. It's no secret that Webb has been married before, as has his wife Hong Le.

So where is Allen going with this? He's shown his willingness to make ridiculous character attacks since the campaign began.  But after the Foley mess, it would be amazing to see a Republican go on the attack with family values. Let's hope Webb's family is spared from whatever nonsense the Allen campaign is cooking up for the last few weeks.

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Here's one more item for our Democratic Party house-cleaning effort. Downtown Honolulu and Chinatown are represented in the State House by Bev Harbin, a Democrat appointed to the job by Governor Linda Lingle over the strenuous objections of the state Democratic Party. The appointment was required to go to a Democrat, but the Governor played it strategically keeping the best interests of the Republican Party in mind above all else. But Harbin's right-wing opinions are not the only problem -- she's also totally unprepared for elective office. She recently admitted on her blog that many high school students would be more qualified for the job than her, while trying to resign from nearly all of her committee appointments. I sincerely wish I was making this up. And there's more.

With the NSA's data mining revealed, the land-line telecoms were outed, but there's still no evidence one way or another that the wireless carriers have been involved.  Of course, the customer service reps and PR flacks are issuing denials or refusing to comment, but I'm guessing they were out of the loop.

If the NSA is truly concerned about security and thinks that Total Information Awareness is the way to keep us safe, then leaving out the wireless carriers would lose a great deal of critical data. Many people have only a cell phone, and those people are more likely to be young, transient, and lower-income. Add Muslim to that mix and you've got the demographic profile of a terrorist (and of course, a lot of innocent hard-working Americans prone to harrasment).  The London subway bombers even used cellular phones as bomb components to trigger explosive devices, so I'm guessing this is data the NSA really wants.

I see a few possible scenarios. So in the abscence of any real answers, let's just put it to a vote...

The minute they start talking about immigration, the GOP starts to take on a nasty edge. For the most part, the President has left that to Lou Dobbs and his friends, who have trotted out every anti-immigrant story they can find on the wire as Important Breaking News. This uproar over the singing of the National Anthem in Spanish is ridiculous, but it gets a lot of people to show their true colors.

Bush was on CNN this morning saying the National anthem should be sung in English.  But he followed it up with an even stronger line -- "I think if they want to be citizens, they should learn to speak English."  I don't know if that was a policy opinion or just his personal feelings, but I'd love to know how many (and which) of our elected officials agree with him.

Yesterday I complained about the Time Magazine article ranking Akaka among the 5 worst Senators. Initially I thought it was just a random choice, albeit poorly justified.  Akaka doesn't strike me as a go-getter, but he's well meaning and honest.  In my book, that's enough.  He's a satisfactory Senator, even if he doesn't often exceed our expectations. Apparently most people agree -- recent Survey USA rankings give Akaka 59% positive to 28% negative, putting him at 30th among the 100 Senators.

But I kept my snide comments to a minimum and made a concerted effort not to make jokes about Time Magazine.

Hawaii Senator Dan Akaka was ranked by Time Magazine at the top of an alphabatized list of the 5 worst U.S. Senators. Akaka is running for re-election with a primary battle against Rep. Ed Case, a conservative Democrat who is giving up his House seat to challenge Akaka. So far Case has campaigned on a a single issue - that Akaka is too old. Time just gave Case the second leg of his campaign.

The Time Rankings are based on discussions with "dozens of academics, political scientists and current and former Senators".  For starters, I fail to see a distinction between political scientists and academics, so let's not count them as two groups.  So Time interviewed politicians and academics -- but they don't reveal who.  Without that, Time's sophisticated readers will have a hard time putting all this in context.