Quick reality check on the other side: Indiana and North Carolina voters are giving Huckabee and Ron Paul up to 30% of the primary vote - even though neither is actually running. The so-called "base" of the Republican party is clearly rejecting McSame in large numbers . . .

More details, and a pointed question, after the break.

WIth Richardson's endorsement today, it is time to start talking about running mates for the overwhelming likelihood that Obama becomes the Democratic nominee. Some of the more obvious choices after the break, and add your favorites in the comment threads

Lets face it - most powerful men in politics suck at backing down, at thinking before acting, at listening calmly, and at putting Peace ahead of Posturing.

Whether this is an occupational hazard of the process by which one becomes powerful in politics is a conversation for another diary. This dairy is about how to deal with the reality we face - which is that if we want peace in this world we're going to have to, somehow, put women and children in charge.

I can't do much about the women, but I teach aikido (a martial art that wields harmony to eliminate conflict) to kids and help run a summer camp, so I CAN do something about the children.

And you can help me help them become the peacemakers the world needs them to be.

how after the break

Every so often, a chance comes around to weave several threads of your life into one united, greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts whole, and a great idea is born.

In this case - there are 4 major threads – Teaching Aikido to kids, Running a non-profit sports camp, running the Model UN club in college, and a lifelong belief that Doing is better than Talking.

I'll tell you how these threads fit together, and the PeaceCamp Initiative I'm really looking for Kossack feedback on, after the break

One of their reviewers, who goes by Massawyrm, calls himself "A lifelong, old school, traditionally conservative (which doesn't mean what many of you think it means), Republican ("traditionally conservative" seems to mean Libertarian rather than implying a Dobson-esque neanderthal values agenda.)

What matters is that no matter how much he despised Al Gore in 2000, he loves An Inconvenient Truth. Why and How Much after the break . . .

More details after the break.

Richard Perle, NeoCon stalwart and war profiteer, seems to have, as a director of Hollinger International, looked the other way while Conrad Black looted the company of $400 million dollars. It was the least he could do in exchange for their helping finance his post 9/11 Homeland Security Venture Fund efforts.

And the SEC has informed him they're preparing to sue.

Money quote:

On the flip - what DailyKos can do to add a few hundred of the cuts required to publically embarrass, and permanently retire, one of the most vile hypocrites in contemporary politics (and that's saying something).

An important part of this is the anger people will feel once it is clear that Bush's arrogance (along with Rumfeld's, Wolfowitz's, etc.) lost us the Iraq war. Between anger, dismay, and guilt - we may well have fertile ground for an impeachment.

Regardless of how improbable this may seem, I think it is worth investigating whether there is anything we could do now, or next month, or in April, etc., that could help make this happen. More after the break.

I think we need to call them on it. Publically. We need to drive a righteous wedge between the pastors and pundits still drunk on their ability to deliver money and votes to Bush, and the uncritical masses that they've led.

details on how after the break

West Wing, in the second season, has an episode where Pres. Bartlet pulled a thermonuclear rhetorical smackdown on an obvious stand-in for Dr. Laura. Full scene appears below the fold, but the basic point is that you can't take just parts of the bible literally and wield them as you see fit, which is what the politicized evangelicals are doing.

We need to make the case that Christian Fundamentalism is inherently flawed thinking - and the following speech (based on a letter found floating around the internet) makes the case as well as I've seen it made. Tolerance is fine in theory - but bigotry and stupidity on the level these people practice them went out with the discovery that the world was round. Their entire world view needs to be publically ridiculed so they simply cannot enter policy debate without everyone else snickering. (sorry if I'm not in the most charitable mood this evening).

So WE HAVE TO DO IT INSTEAD

proposal after the break

While Duval County is 65% non-Hispanic White, only 44% of those on the list are in predominantly white neighborhoods. Challenging voters at the polls, while technically legal, clearly serves the additional purposes of slowing down the voting process, intimidating voters, and encouraging folk to abandon their place in the resultingly long lines and go home.

map and more discussion after the break.

Progressives of all stripes, currently joined in the passionate rejection of almost everything George W. Bush has done for the last 4 years, will not have that galvanizing influence once he's sent back to Crawford next Tuesday. Nevertheless, it is imperative that we capture the passion and momentum we now enjoy and save some of it for the long haul towards the world that we want to inhabit, and want to pass onto our children, in years to come.

full proposal after the break

He's sent me an updated summary of the extensive Republican voter suppression efforts in Florida which I've posted after the break.