There's plenty of John Edwards crap here today, but yet maybe not enough. I am completely unconcerned with the "newsworthiness" of this sad episode, even though I suspect that the "news" about it has not all unfolded yet.

I am amazed that Elizabeth posted here today, but not for the reason most here have already wriiten.  I also understand the anger and the rationalizations that are sprinkled throughout diaries and comments here today. This is an ugly, sad, confusing mess. But the press, and the Edwards family has some 'splainin' to do to us.  Both of them put our Presidential election at risk by calculating not what was morally right, nor what was ethical, but what would, in the press's case, be the best time to get maximum play out of the story; and in the Edwards' case, how likely they were to escape being found out.

Because, all of them knew the same truth.....

I admit it. I wrote a diary a couple days ago called, A Note to Barack Obama (with feeling). In it, I posted the text of a letter to Bill Burton, of the Obama campaign, slamming the FISA decision.  

I still hate the decision. I still have hopes that Senator Obama will take the lead on this at the last moment in a way that will put the issue to rest.  I still believe it will be too little too late. I'm really disappointed.

But, even after putting all my anger and bluster and rhetoric out there for all to see; and even though I argued effectively in the diary that we should withhold some personal resources from the Obama campaign to get his attention; and even though I agree with every single word Glenn Greenwald wrote on the subject, especially this,

Mea Culpa below the fold.....

I sent the following letter to Barack Obama, via his spokesperson, Bill Burton.  I am posting it here because I've changed my mind about FISA - again. If anyone was paying attention (which I doubt) or if this confuses you, let  Glenn Greenwald unconfuse you. Glenn is the man!

In short, I wrote a number of comments to stories and diaries here urging people to calm down about Obama's new FISA position.  All day today, I felt like shit.  I realized why just tonight.  Barack Obama's sellout of the Constitution, and his bailout of the telecoms makes me sick!

I've written a letter telling the campaign exactly what I will and will not do for Obama at this point.

The full text is below the fold....

Here it is, the end of Friday the 13th of June, 2008.  Today, Tim Russert died doing a voice-over for his weekend show; Stewart Mott, whose foundation funds a lot of Bill Moyers' PBS shows died of cancer (thanks for Seneca Doane's fine diary about Mr. Mott), and my beloved Iowa is under water. (Thanks for the great news diary from DemocratOz about the floods)  

Those were the opening words of Barack Obama's speech following his victory in the Iowa Caucuses.  On that night, I knew that Iowans had made history, but Barack acknowledged it in a way that I never expected. He universalized our message.

Why won't Hillary quit?  Why do we care so much whether she does? Is it over? Is there still time? Is there a way she can win? Does she want Barack Obama to die? Do we want her to die? Well ... history can be our guide.

This afternoon, a shocking and saddening video of a statement by Hillary Clinton surfaced that is totally unacceptable.

This afternoon I sent a letter to Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. The text of the letter is below the fold.

The Obama campaign is making a mistake, so I have some advice:  Don't do nine out of ten things right, and then do one thing wrong. It can cost you a race that is already won!

I learned how to lose a state legislative race that looked like a sure thing in 1994. The seat was open, and had been in Democratic hands for 40 years. I had been previously the local party chair, and had been a key organizer for two Presidential candidates. I had run the campaigns of the previous state representative for ten years before running myself.

How I lost a campaign in ten easy steps below the fold....

I live in Bittersville. I'll probably die here, too. So will most of the other people here now.

Bittersville's a town that used to have 1100 meatpacking jobs that paid $27.00 per hour - in 1972. By 1982 they were all gone. They made a movie about the strike at the meatpacking plant north of here. The movie won an Oscar, but the jobs still went away.

It gets worse..... in Bittersville:

In a bold stroke, Markos Zuniga Moulitsas informed Daily Kos regulars by email early today that" it's all too much, and I can't go on living the big lie." Admitting to close friends and associates at a Palmer House suite in the early hours of April 1, 2008 that he had secretly been funneling bundled cash to the Hillary Clinton campaign since February of 2006, he has decided that the Daily Kos website that he founded and managed will go black on April 22, 2008 immediately following the massive Clinton win in Pennsylvania.

I've now watched "The Speech" four times.  All four times my eyes welled up at the story of Ashley and the elderly Black gentleman.  I have spent the better part of the day trying to understand why.  Now, I think I know. Memory is a tricky thing.

Portions of the following are rewritten from a letter I wrote at Salon right before Super Tuesday.

This Diary was originally a comment on a thread about a story on 60 Minutes about an organization that travels around providing health care to indigent or uninsured people. It was heartbreaking to see people who have been completely defeated by our system.  It spurred me to think about my 21 year history in the healthcare delivery universe.

The following is a fairly comprehensive look at how I see it....

Michelle Obama said today that this is the first time in her adult life that she is proud of her country.  Pundits are going ballistic. Pat Buchanan said the comment was "like a stab to the (gut)."  The consensus appears to be that the comment was at best a gaffe, and at worst a really terrible, unimaginable slap in the face to patriotic Americans everywhere.

I disagree.

Let's take a look at what has happened in America over the last 25 years.  We suffered through Ronald Reagan, George the First and George the Last. We've listened to Rush and his legion of imitators take over radio. We've watched, enraged and frustrated while the Congress was hijacked by creeps like Phil Gramm, Tom Delay, and Newt Gingrich. We've suffered through Iran-Contra, the Savings and Loan Bailout, $100 dollar a barrel oil, ruinous foreign policies, the disaster of 9/11, and the launch of the least moral war in our history. We've heard a Democratic President lie, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman...."