Sen. Hillary Clinton has given her clearest signal yet she is going to Denver and will not withdraw before a roll call vote is taken.

Her quotes in today’s news media account:

When asked if she was concerned Obama could reach the 2,118 delegate mark within days, Clinton said, "It's not over until the votes are cast. It's not over until there's actually a tally that gets somebody the nomination."

She’s going to Denver. In her strategy, even if all 205 undeclared superdelegates convene in Minnesota tommorow night, hold hands and chant "We are committed to Sen. Barack Obama!", it’s not over...

"I am stunned, stunned, that this committee has the gall, the chutzpah, that this body of 30 individuals has decided that they are going to substitute their judgment for 600,000 voters." – Harold Ickes, May 31

"Harold Ickes was the individual, who, on this committee, voted to penalize these states for having what Jim Roosevelt called a "non-event." – David Bonior on CNN Sunday at 11:30ish a.m. EDT

"We make our case to the Superdelegates that she is more electable." – Harold Ickes, MTP,  June 1

So, let’s just review....

If Sen. Clinton doesn't go quietly after the primaries of June 3, Sen. Obama needs to make her go away. Give her until June 5th. If she hasn't conceded or at least suspended her campaign, he needs to consider all options to force her out, including the four options listed below. And don't be afraid to declare Surrogate Warfare.

It bears repeating, often:

Terry McAuliffe in 2004:

"I'm going outside the primary window," [Michigan Sen. Carl Levin] told me definitively.

"If I allow you to do that, the whole system collapses," I said. "We will have chaos. I let you make your case to the DNC, and we voted unanimously and you lost."

He kept insisting that they were going to move up Michigan on their own, even though if they did that, they would lose half their delegates. By that point Carl and I were leaning toward each other over a table in the middle of the room, shouting and dropping the occasional expletive.

"You won't deny us seats at the convention," he said.

"Carl, take it to the bank," I said. "They will not get a credential. The closest they'll get to Boston will be watching it on television. I will not let you break this entire nominating process for one state. The rules are the rules. If you want to call my bluff, Carl, you go ahead and do it."

We glared at each other some more, but there was nothing much left to say. I was holding all the cards and Levin knew it.

[Source: McAuliffe, Terry. What A Party!, p. 325.]

My thoughts and qustions after the jump...

So, as I listen to KO tonight, we find the real strategy of Clinton's attempt to secure the nomination - pick me or my voters won't vote for Obama.

Chuck Tood of MSNBC detailed the strategy. Even if she gets the settlement she wants for Michigan and Flordia, even if she picks up some more superdelegates, there's almost no way she gets the nomination. She's telling superdelegates that Obama cannot count on her primary voters in the general election, so they should pick her over the will of the people because her supporters are supposedly more obstinate.

So the nomination process has come to this - HRC is acting like a spolied 6 year old who didn't get her way. "I'll take my ball and go home!"

This is how we choose a nominee?

I’ve been a teacher for 13 years. This war has dragged on for 4 years. I guess the odds had to catch up to me sometime. I’ve lost a former student I taught  - he was  killed in this war this weekend.

I'm a huge metal fan - the louder and faster, the more I like it. I'm one of those guys that thinks Metallica sold out to radio with "Enter Sandman." I'd always assumed that Tim McGraw was just another "hat act" in modern country music. You know, the kind of guy Hank Williams III sang against in the song "Trashville." But after reading this week's TIME magazine's "10 Questions with Tim McGraw," I need to buy one of his CDs - he's made a new fan!

I got my voter registration card today. It says the word DEMOCRAT in nice capital letters.

Now, it's not my first. But it's the one I'm proudest of. Find out why below the fold...

It's week 3 of Heavy Metal History. This week, the topic is homelessness. Months before Phil Collins looked angst-filled in the video to "Another Day in Paradise," the metal band Anthrax was attempting to shed light on the problem, give information and even a way to volunteer to help with the video of its song "Who Cares Wins." Of course, MTV would have none of it - the music video channel actually refused the video because it said the content was too depressing, at least until Phil Collins gave the topic a hummable hook a few months later. Find out what truths the boys from NYC tried to spread, and take a look at what the current state of homelessness is.

MORE ON THE FLIP...

The second weekly installment of Heavy Metal History ties in with "An Inconvenient Truth." This week, see what was predicted in 1988 by Metallica, before Al Gore was preaching global warming and long before Bob "I Killed Metallica" Rock soured the legacy of my favorite band.

So just what did they have to say? More on the flip...

and Legislative Branch means nothing.

Look again at the now-widely spread quote from Jack Cafferty on CNN:

The deal was announced by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the committee chairman, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. They said Cheney, who plays a key role supervising NSA counterterrorism efforts, promised that the Bush administration would consider legislation proposed by Specter that would place a domestic surveillance program under scrutiny of a special federal court...

On the flip, see what scared me the most about this...

This is the first in (hopefully) a weekly glance at what metal lyrics of the last 25 years can show us about our current political situation.

Since the FMA is the topic du jour for conservatives this week, let's look at Testament's "Practice What You Preach" and its still-accurate assessment of conservatives. Even if you don't like crunchy guitars, keep reading - you might be surprised by the level of discourse contained within...

Well, spring brings flowers, love, and Rev. Fred's travelin' freak show to a town not 30 miles from my own.

I have thought the Iraq invasion was wrong from the beginning. And I believe in freedom of speech. But there's no way I can justify what this guy's doing.

More on the flip...

Liberals often get tagged as professional victims by the far right. NOAH - The National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation - puts the lie to that description with its positive campaign to fight the stereotypes (PDF file) perpetuated by "the Da Vinci Code."

More, but only if you click...

Much has been made of President Bush's "wartime powers" that allow him to wield supreme executive power in the manner he has.

But unless Congress passed a formal declaration of war overnight that I missed, we are NOT in a state of war. And some of the legal authority President Bush has presumed must be on shaky legal ground.

And Congress had abdicated its responsibility to its citizens.

More on the flip...

I teach a 12-grade Consumer Economics elective class at a public high school in Maryland. We just finished a unit on consumer privacy. I included a list of laws, including the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which is supposed to protect telephone records. Then I read the USA Today, well, today, and find out about domestic data mining of phone records. Am I the only one who has heard of this law? Did the Patriot Act supercede EVERY privacy law previously passed?

There's more....

As a parent of a child with oculocutaneous albinism, I am SICK of the Hollywood stereotype of all people with albinism as freaks and assassins.

My 6-year-old has a form of albinism that mostly affects the eyes, and his vision suffers as a result, as is the case with most people with albinism.

I don't need yet ANOTHER Hollywood portrayal of people with albinism as evil and murderous.

More on the flip...

I went to a bluegrass jam session Saturday in rural Maryland. During a break, I got to hear a conversation between two 70 year-olds that convinced me Bush is done.

Both shared their frustration at world events, as old-timers are wont to do. Talked about "the people" taking back the country, how the "f---ing n---ers" in Louisiana were "too stupid" to leave, and complianing about gas prices.

But then the conversation took an even more evil turn, if that's possible. One turned to the other and said, "And I'd shoot that son of a bitch Bush if I had a chance, and try and take out Cheney, too." If Bush has lost the racist redneck South, was does he have left?

More in extended...