There is a story flying around the internet right now because a number of anti-Obama blogs on Blogspot were shut down because of suspected ToS violations.  The immediate charge was that this was a concerted effort by Obama supporters to silence the PUMA contingent.

The likelihood is that they are at least partially correct.

An Insider Advantage poll has just been released showing that Obama and McCain are tied in Georgia.

McCain: 44%
Obama: 43%
Barr: 6%
Undecided: 7%

That puts Georgia (15 Electoral Votes) within reach for November, and breaks the "Solid South" foundation of most Republican strategies.

Jonathan Martin over at New Republic Online is crowing about the lone Democrat of the Oklahoma delegation deciding not to endorse Barack Obama, because of the "L" word.

Democratic Rep. Dan Boren of Oklahoma said Tuesday Barack Obama is "the most liberal senator" in Congress and he has no intention of endorsing him for the White House.

However, Boren will vote for Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August and will vote Democratic on Nov. 4.

According to MSNBCs First Read there is a list of about 20 prospective VP candidates for the bottom of the ticket this season.  Some of them are expected (Clinton, Biden, Dodd), others look like strong choices (Sebelius, and the trio of Virginians), there are also a few surprises (Tom Daschle and Sam Nunn).

This is an interesting choice of names, that is probably 99% conjecture.  But it is still an interesting topic to discuss while we wait for Obama to make his choice.

Even after Hillary Clinton has conceded and asked her supporters to turn their passion for her candidacy into determination for getting a Democrat into the White House.  But it is becoming more and more apparent that a lot of her supporters did not get the memo.

As Clinton wrapped up her remarks Saturday in Washington with a plea for supporters to work "as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me," many were posting messages saying they would never vote for the presumptive Democratic nominee. A few even called on her backers to visit Sen. John McCain's campaign Web site.

"I love her and will vote for her in 2012, but it's McCain all the way now," wrote one within moments of the former first lady's address.

There have been rumors flying about for months.  Pronouncements of the death of the campaign, and plenty of other signals, signs, and clues that proved false.  But now as the Obama campaign can see the finish line within the next few days... there are signs of the Clinton fight coming to an end.

I was riding in a co-workers car earlier today, and he for some reason had it on one of the Atlanta right-wing talker stations.  My ears were piqued by something as the talker droned on in the background, "Hillary was fired from her position as an assistant general council for the judiciary committee during the Watergate investigation.

So I got back into the office and tracked down the story of the person who was being interviewed and found the following (I hate quoting a conservative columnist as a source... but) Link

The now-retired general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, (Jerry Zeifman) who supervised Hillary when she worked on the Watergate investigation, says Hillary’s history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther – and goes much deeper – than anyone realizes.

According to exit polls from Mississippi, Texas, and Ohio; and according to a recent story from ABC about Democratic voter registration in Pennsylvania, Clinton's fastest growing constituency are Republicans.  But unlike the Obamicans who have divorced themselves from the Republican Party, these crossovers have a different hope

While many of the new Democrats appear to be moderates or independents who simply want to be a part of the process, county voter registration officials in central Pennsylvania told ABCNews.com that many new registrants spoke openly about changing their party affiliation to give McCain "a better shot in November."

To fulfill her ambitions, this strategy is now the only path.  At this point there are four possible outcomes for the 2008 election.  I have spelled them out below along with possibilities for outcome under the current environment.

I just read an interesting blog entry about Hillaryis44.org which accused the bloggers of the site of creating false advertising click-through.

Each time a page is loaded at hillaryis44.org, the entire html page is loaded in your browser. At the end of each page, in the 'footer' area, is a java based script. This script specifically generates 'onclick' events for each and every link in the 'u' document where the html redirect links are located before anyone clicks on them.

...

In the above script we see that it determines that it is bulding an http referral string in order to send a message to the 'onlick' tracker that the links in the 'u' document have been clicked.

So, in short, hillaryis44.org appears to be a site dedicated to scamming Hillary Clinton supporters into generating advertising revenue for the domain owners by clandestinely counting hits to links that no one ever clicks. They make this appear legitimate to whomever is paying for advertising by having a significant and consistent amount of traffic to their site.

When I was going to college in Virginia I had a friend who was a skin head.  He was a friend that I knew I could always count on to help me out when I needed it, he was always supportive, and just an all around good person.  Well except for the racism thing, but I wasn’t a racist so it was all good.  We would sometimes get into discussions about race relations, and though we never agreed we could always part as friends.

I would defend him to other people, because in all honesty, except for the racism thing, he was a really good fellow.  But it dawned on me when a black friend laid it down for me that if I wasn’t actively trying to reform him (which admittedly I wasn’t), then I was just enabling him and the hate that he spread.  I thought about that for a while, and talked to my skinhead friend about his racist attitudes, where they came from, why he had them, and it caused the first real rift our friendship had ever had.  He did not appreciate me challenging the root of his hate; he was comfortable with it and wasn’t going to change.  After that we grew apart because I could not remain in a friendship like that.

There has been a lot of talk about Geraldine Ferraro's horrifyingly racists comments about Barrack Obama, the racist response to the criticism of her statements, and the apparent history of racism that Mrs. Ferraro has shown as far back as 1988.  As I was reading a song came on my iPod.  They Might be Giants started singing a song which perfectly encapsulated my feelings and the feelings of so many others here.

So I wished to share everybody.  I included the lyrics because some of you might not be familiar with their work.  Enjoy (embedded in the body).

If you are an Obama supporter and you are having a lively debate with a Clinton supporter, it might be best to make sure that any objects which might be used as a weapon are removed from the immediate area.

As this Obama supporter discovered, under certain circumstances it might be best to make sure that there are no knives around.

Meet Jose Antonio Ortiz. The Pennsylvania man allegedly stabbed his brother-in-law in the stomach after the pair quarreled about their respective support of Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. According to cops, Ortiz, 28, stabbed Sean Shurelds last Thursday night in the kitchen of an Upper Providence Township home. According to a criminal complaint, the 41-year-old Shurelds, an Obama supporter, told Ortiz that the Illinois senator was "trashing" Clinton (apparently in regard to recent primary and caucus results). Ortiz, a Clinton supporter, replied that "Obama was not a realist." While not exactly fighting words, the verbal political tiff led to some mutual choking and punching. And, allegedly, a stabbing in the abdomen.

I saw a diary today which asked, pleaded really, that we Obama supporters calm down.  It made sense to me, the back and forth sniping doesn't do anything constructive for the race, the party, or anybody really.  It just opens wounds that are going to be harder and harder to heal as we move forward to the convention.

I was about to respond to it with a thanks to this diarist for injecting some cool headed reason into what has been the most divisive and unpleasant political season I have ever seen.  But as I scrolled down I saw the sniping responses... only not from Obama supporters, but Hillary supporters.

As I scrolled I got more and more angry... incensed might be a better description.  Where do these people get off?  What the hell is their problem?  But I sat back, got a beer, cooled off... and went back to the recent diaries.  There I found yet another hit piece on Obama, only the twist on this one was that he was some how not "Liberal" enough.

First let me make the statement that I want our nation to have some form of universal health care guaranteed by the government.  Universal health care is a success story enjoyed by most industrialized nations, and consequently the people of these nations are enjoying longer lives with a greater quality of life.  We on the other hand have the largest economy in the world, spend the more per capita on health care with no appreciable benefit.  We see what works but have been unable (or unwilling) to do something similar.

Now let me state that no comprehensive health care plan that has been put forth by the leading candidates has fulfilled my desires completely.  They seem to be good first steps, but they do not go the whole way.  I believed that until today when I read in the Houston Chronicle.

Clinton has not always specified the enforcement measures she would embrace, but when pressed on ABC's This Week, she said: "I think there are a number of mechanisms" that are possible, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment."

Ruth Marcus at the Washington Post put all the candidate (and the President's) stimulus package side by side and graded them in a way that even a person without a PhD in Economics can understand it.  So how did everybody measure up?

There have been a series of diaries by supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama extolling the virtues of their candidate and why Edwards supporters should switch to their team.  Their reasoning being that Edwards can’t win the Democratic nomination for President and on this point they are probably correct.  The math does not show a nomination win in the cards for John Edwards, not unless Hillary or Obama have a "Macacca Moment", which is not very probable.  So one must ask the question, why is Edwards still in it?

In my family we have always been Democrats, three generations of Yellow-Dog Southern Democrats.  Everybody in my family has different reasons for supporting the party.  My Uncle, Father, and Grandfather worked for the railroad and benefited from the union and pensions supported by Democrats.  My Mother was a nurse for a time and cannot stand the cruelty of the health care industry.  I have two cousins in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the entire family would rather their mission be done and they get home.  And me... well I support the Democrats because their policies towards assisting the unfortunate matches a moral imperative of my religious beliefs.

But I had a disturbing shock this past weekend while visiting my Mother.  We were talking about the primaries of course, about the issues, and about the candidates.  I told my Mother that I was going to be voting for Obama on Super Tuesday... she grew silent and asked me why.  I told her honestly that I like his populist stance, I preferred him to Edwards because he strikes me as more likely to be elected, and I did not think that Hillary was a valid choice because of her policies.