Received in my inbox early this morning:

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I have decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in Maryland's 4th district.  This is by no means a formal announcement, but I did make the trek to Annapolis this morning to file, and I wanted you to know before you read it in a newspaper.  With your help, we will be planning a more formal announcement and other activities in the coming days and weeks.    Although it feels as though we've just completed one campaign, indeed the 2008 primary is just months away -- February 12, 2008 -- moved forward by the Presidential Primary.  So, we have a lot of work ahead of us, but this time is the charm.   I know that we can make a difference for the people of the 4th Congressional District -- on health care, education, the environment and global warming, transportation, and of course on ending the war in Iraq and restoring U.S. leadership in the global community.

Woo hoo!  Read more. . . . . .

not to mention insensitive, rude and just clueless.

I don't write that many diaries any more, but I had to write this one (on my birthday, yet.  Happy Birthday to me!)

I refer to the Tony Snow situation.  Last week, when the news first broke that he was going to have surgery, we had this piece of cowdung.  Tony Snow wasn't REALLY sick, he didn't REALLY need surgery, oh and by the way, did you know that I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night?

Today, of course, we found out that Tony Snow has had a recurrence of cancer, and he may well die as a result, so today we sing a different tune.  We have the obligatory "here's the news" and of course, "our prayers are with you" diaries.

Read on for my not so nice analysis of this debacle.

I was a big fan of "24" when it started up five years ago.  It was new, it was different, and more important than anything else, it was good.  It held my attention, and even if the "real time" thing occasionally broke down (getting across Los Angeles in rush hour and finding a parking space in 10 minutes?  yeah, THAT'll happen), the twists and turns of the story always kept me watching.

Even as the right-wing veneration of the show became evident (it still grosses me out to watch Rush Limbaugh plant one on Chloe ---eeeew), I continued to watch.

Not anymore, though.  I've reached the end.  Follow me and I'll tell you why.

Did you know that the real problem in Iraq is that we haven't yet "unleashed hell"?  No, seriously, that's the problem.  Take a look at this poll from Red State, the allegedly "serious" right-wing blog:

Question:  On Iraq: Which Choice Strikes You As "Best of Show"?

Cut and Run              11% (60 votes)
S-U-M-M-I-T               3% (15 votes)
Stay the Course           9% (47 votes)
Can we unleash hell yet? 62%(327 votes)
Redeploy to the
country of Kurdistan
(which we create by fiat)
and wait six months.     14% (76 votes)
Total votes: 525

And these are the "serious" wingnuts?  Holy crap.  Surely, the comments to this poll won't be as bad as the "unleash hell" nonsense, will it?

Ha ha.  Follow me over the fold and let's see what our trained psychiatric staff can do to help as we go.

Ben Cardin and Martin O'Malley have made things more interesting than they ought to have been.  I've always believed that Cardin was in OK shape but that O'Malley, particularly recently, was more shaky.  And all the recent talk was about momentum being on the side of Steele and Ehrlich.

Probably the most annoying polls, particularly for Cardin, were those put out by Survey USA, which, even when Cardin led other polls by 8-10 points or more, persistently showed Steele either ahead or tied.

This afternoon comes news that for the first time, Cardin leads Steele in a Survey USA poll.

Read on.

It's amazing how awful things are going for Republicans that all their wingnut echo chamber bloggers can talk about today is John Kerry.

Not Iraq.

Not Katrina.

Not corruption.

Not the deficit.

Not the war on terror.

You'd think there was nothing else worth talking about.  Actually, there isn't -- not if you're a Republican.

The sorry-ass details on the flip.

I've been working with a great local campaign in MD, the candidacy of Jamie Raskin, running for State Senate in District 20 (Silver Spring and Takoma Park).  A very progressive district, we are currently represented by a 30 year incumbent, Ida Ruben, who was characterized by the local Gazette newspapers earlier this year as the 7th least effective state senator in Maryland.

We have a great campaign going, and we are surging.  Lots of volunteers, and we've raised a lot of money by challenger standards.  But the incumbent has more, and reaching the voters costs money.

The Raskin website is here.  I'm just a volunteer, but I'd like to think that a real progressive like Jamie Raskin could look for support from a real progressive community like this one.  I haven't been around as much in the past few months, because of the campaign, but those who know me know my credentials.  I wouldn't be asking if I didn't think this was a good cause.  And it is a good cause.

The primary is on September 12, less than three weeks away -- we need your help. What I want is on the flip.

no, that's not a typo.  This Lieberman just happens to be a woman, a state senator named Ida Ruben.  Like the senator, Ida has been in office a long time, over 30 years.  Like Joe, Ida has grown out of touch as well as increasingly ineffective.

Since January, Jamie Raskin has been running against Ida Ruben.  Jamie is a law professor at American University in DC, a leading scholar of constitutional law for many years, and has worked on civil rights, labor rights, tenant rights, student rights and voting rights.  He started a program putting law school students into local high schools to talk about the Constitution.  Our campaign has widely been described as the most effective grassroots campaign Montgomery County has ever seen.  The Raskin campaign has received over 1,300 donations totaling $175,000, all from individuals -- he doesn't take corporate contributions.

The first similarity between Lieberman and Ruben is that they both have an opponent whose last name starts with the same letter as them.  

See some additional similarities between the "L" and the "R" on the flip.

So Lieberman spent 30 seconds conceding, and five minutes being defiant.  He thinks he's going to win as an "independent Democrat" by getting Republican votes.

This needs to be stopped -- NOW.  And we can do it.

To any Democrat who supports Lieberman's campaign -- you're not a Democrat any more.  No money.  No volunteers.  Nothing.  You disrespect the voters, you're finished.

Here's a simple message:  you support Joe Lieberman, you're dead to me.  Period.  No exceptions.

If that's the message the Democratic Party sends to potential supporters of Lieberman, this whole farce of an independent campaign will collapse within a week.

Who's with me?

Cruising around tonight over at the septic tank (a/k/a Red State) and ran across this gem from one of the alpha male apes over there known as Hunter (not to be confused with our guy, of course):

The problems we are facing and the frustrations we are experiencing, are not from too much Conservative influence, but rather the corruption of the Republican party by leftists.

Not sufficient to let this gem stand on its own, an acolyte known as ConservativeD felt compelled to reinforce the lunacy:

Worth repeating: The problems we are facing and the frustrations we are experiencing, are not from too much Conservative influence, but rather the corruption of the Republican party by leftists.

They have this cute idea of labeling what they see as great comments with a "5".  This is what passes for great analysis over on the other side.

My mental diagnosis and a few further comments on the other side.

So I spend the day in a very long, very contentious deposition in a child custody case.  I meet the wife and kids for dinner afterwards, and I innocently say "So, what's been going on today?"  So my wife tells me.  And being the good lawyer that I am, I immediately think "What's in this for me?"  (Not really, but it sounds good -- my actual first thought was, "This presidency is OVER!")

Then I ran across the piece from Think Progress about the liability of the telecom companies.  Then I REALLY did think, "Shit, there really may be something in this for me!"  And you. And you and you and you and you.  Pretty much anyone with a telephone who wasn't a Qwest customer.

I don't know if anyone else has ever used this phrase, but I'm convinced that the idea of tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars in class action liability has given me my first blogasm.  And yes, it was good for me.

Read the analysis after the flip and see if you agree with me.

Since the Washington Post and young Mr. Box Turtle are having such trouble with the basics of journalism these days, I thought I'd keep this simple:

Who:   Jim Hightower

What:  lots of Bush-bashin', BBQ-eatin', square dancin', down- home Texas hootenannyin' fun

When:  6-10 PM TONIGHT

Where: Los Arrieros Restaurant, 7926 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD  20910 (3 blocks from Silver Spring Red Line metro, 1 block north of DC-MD line on Georgia Avenue)

Why:   to support the candidacy of Jamie Raskin for the MD District 20 State Senate seat

Why should you do this?  Flip it over and find out.

No, this is not a political statement, although it certainly could be.

Armando called out Wisconsin-Milwaukee earlier today on behalf of his Florida Gators.  And got away with it.

Good for you, big guy.

But next up for your Gators is a more formidable opponent.

The Hoyas, baby.  Georgetown is BACK.  Put a lickin' on Ohio State today (essentially a home game for OSU, in Dayton).  I'm feelin' like it's the old days, and MY old days were as good as they got for Georgetown -- class of 1985.  Three Final Fours in four years, with a championship in 1984.  I graduated with Patrick Ewing.  Doesn't get any better than that for college hoops.

So I know good hoops when I see 'em.  And I say Armando's Gators are goin' down, hard.  Big time.  Take it to the bank.

"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You didn't put your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

Those words were spoken by Jamie Raskin, a law professor at American University in Washington, to Nancy Jacobs, a right-wing state senator from Harford County, north of Baltimore, in March 1 testimony before the Maryland State Senate against a constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage. What he said that day is now reverberating around the world like wildfire.

Raskin is running for the District 20 State Senate seat currently held by Ida Ruben since 1986 -- my district. District 20 covers Takoma Park and much of Silver Spring in Montgomery County, just outside Washington, DC.  I've been working with the campaign from the outset -- I met him last year, was completely sold on him, and have been working with him ever since.  He's a first-rate guy, and my personal testimonial about him can be found here.

Read what you can do to support Jamie after the flip.

Bruce Springsteen sang at the Grammys tonight.  He poked a finger in Bush's eye, singing "Devils and Dust."  The Boss ended with the line "bring 'em on" as he walked off stage.  God, I love that man.

Lyrics to Devils and Dust on the flip.  Democrats as well should take note.  Fear is a powerful thing.  And I have to ask:  what if what you do to survive kills the things you love?

Stand up.  Speak out.  Stop equivocating.  Say what you mean, mean what you say.  Shut up, Joe Lieberman, Chris Dodd (you know, I grew up in CT -- what's wrong with these people?) and others as well.

Time to take a righteous stand.  Amen, brother Springsteen.

I didn't get a chance to watch the hearings.  I did read much of the coverage here, and found it interesting.  Senate Democrats did a much better job in interrogating Gonzales than they did with Alito or Roberts, from what I read.  There was also a bit of what seemed like tepid criticism of Bush from a few Republicans (usual suspects Arlen Specter and Lindsey Graham), who will ultimately decide, after much public agonizing and soul-searching, that in fact what Bush has done was necessary for the survival of the Republic, 2006 election prospects being what they are.

Then I hit the Washington Post editorial page early this morning, and if I had been eating breakfast, it would have come back up real fast.  Fred Hiatt has outdone himself this morning, and coming from me, that's saying a real lot.

Read what Fred & Co. had to say on the flip.

"72-25?  Jesus H. Christ, that's pathetic."

That was my first thought.  My second thought was to come to Daily Kos and see what the thinking was here.  And there was Maryscott, my partner in profanity, up there at #1 with the aptly titled "We Are So Fucked."  My first response to that:  yep, no question about it.  Amen, sister, fuckin' bring it.

But then I read what she wrote (it appears to be a post-cloture vote wail of despair), and I have to disagree with Maryscott.  Registering independent, at least in closed primary states like Maryland (where I live), is worse than an exercise in futility, it's an abdication of responsibility for the future course of politics in your local, state and yes, federal elections.  Because registering independent means no vote in the primary, and thus no say in who ends up on the ballot.  And don't start with me about third parties -- Ralph Nader put paid to that quaint notion in 2000, and I don't fuckin' want to hear any more about THAT.

So what to do?  Read more, grasshopper.

From a Jim Vandehei article in today's Post:

"The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win elections," said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. "The trick will be to harness their energy and their money without looking like you are a captive of the activist left."

In other words, give us your money and your time, and shut up, because we're going to ignore anything you actually have to say.  Wow -- I'm so glad the Democratic establishment is being run by such a competent and talented guy.