Yep. It was embarrassing. I said 'ouch' out loud, when last night Hillary Clinton uttered the line. Whomever wrote the phrase should be fired. Though it probably won't make a difference now.

It smacked, somehow, of the work of someone used to writing political speeches in, oh, the 1990s or so.

Furthering the shiny new 'screw democracy' theme currently emerging from the Clinton campaign, former president Clinton embarrasses once again.

After the democratic candidates (led by Edwards, if I'm remembering correctly) declined to participate in a Fox-sponsored debate last April, Hillary's campaign today accepted just such a scenario.

Barack Obama this afternoon issued a powerful statement condemning today's SCOTUS ruling on race in our schools.

"Today’s Supreme Court ruling has placed a serious obstacle in the way of achieving the vision of America first outlined in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, where we see racially integrated education as the best way to reflect our great diversity, unite our nation, and make real our promise of equal opportunity for all.

"Though we have come a long way in those fifty years since Brown, our schools remain segregated by race, as well as resources and opportunities.  Three-quarters of black and Latino school children attend predominantly minority schools and white children are even more likely to attend racially isolated schools.  And yet, hundreds of school districts across the country have taken noble, yet modest, steps to address this problem, while still accommodating parental and student choice.  They have done so because they too believe that our nation’s prosperity depends on our children learning to understand each other better, work together, and solve problems together

On the same day Tony Blair announces phased troop withdrawal from Iraq, Italian premier Romano Prodi is forced to resign over a devastating foreign policy defeat. Specifically, the defeat is related to the maintenance of Italian troops in Afghanistan.

Here's the story:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...

Let us not forget Gaza.

Physicians for Human Rights recently wrote to Isreali Defense Minster Peretz, asking for information on the apparent use of a new, US-developed, weapon (still officially untested) that has killed and injured hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza over the course of the Summer.

Palestinian doctors began seing injuries of a type they had never seen before: The doctors reported an exceptionally large number of wounded who lost legs, of completely burned bodies and injuries unaccompanied by metal shrapnel. Some of the doctors also claimed that they removed particles from wounds that could not be seen in an x-ray machine.

According to those who testified, the wounded were hit by munitions launched from drones, most of them in July.

There have been a few diaries so far today that have characterized the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections as a disaster. They may well be proven right.I just want to offer another angle.

We all know that one of the key targests of the religious rights War on Freedom in this country is the university campus. Professors are being watched from Los Angeles to New York; conservative students are snitching on their liberal teachers and, increasingly confident, are hijacking classroom discussion; liberal professors are made nervous, because once the huge rightist netroot cyber-culture out there gets ahold of a story, they are bombarded with hatemail from across the nation. University administrators and department heads who sponsor events that are considered anathema by the christian right get the same treatment. So: does a university cave? Or stand up and fight?

In the case of Notre Dame, which has, until recently, had a long history of standing up to the crazies, whether it be McCarthyism or the Ku Klux Klan, we appear to have just witnessed the opening salvo in a new battle in the ongoing fight between academic freedom and the religious right.