Not sure how many caught the Dean 25 could decide Clinton's fate article at Politico.  

Here's the summary:

If, as Hillary Rodham Clinton has suggested, her campaign takes the fight to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations all the way to the Democratic National Convention this summer, the fate of her challenge is all but certain to hinge on 25 individuals appointed to the Credentials Committee by party Chairman Howard Dean

The article goes on to profile the 25, but never does a summary. So I thought I'd go ahead and add that much.

I realize this is a left leaning site firmly committed to progressive, Democratic ideals and positions.  However, every party needs fresh ideas and new perspectives to drive out the same old slash and burn politics of the past.

Especially this primary season, with Republicans on their heals and Democrats tearing into each other, we need a new face.

Why not the Whig party?  Why not now?

Not sure if this has been diaried yet.  If it has, I'll delete.

But apparently in the "chickens come home to roost" speech Wright gave, he was reading directly a long quote from Edward Peck, a white US ambassador from the Reagan administration.

Look, This is Really Simple does a great job of explaining bit by bit why Hillary Clinton does not have a path to the nomination.  

What she has is more like an Odyssey and there's not much in her favor.

She can try to keep moving the goal posts and changing the rules, but if you play around with the delegate numbers, something very interesting happens.

Follow me:

Sorry for the short diary, but I think this is worth noting.

I went through 20 pages in Google Images and couldn't find one image of John McCain with a flag pin.

Can anyone find a picture of him with a pin? Has this been pointed out already and I just missed it?

I was encouraged when I saw the graph and discouraged when I read the detail.  According to Gallup a plurality of those interviewed identified themselves as Democrats:

Forty percent of Americans in the Feb. 11-14 Gallup Poll -- in response to the question, "In politics, as of today, do you consider yourself a Republican, a Democrat, or an independent?" -- said they identified with the Democratic Party, while 26% identified with the Republican Party and 34% with neither (most of these considered themselves independents).

Meet Rick Sloan, Communication Director for the International Association of Machinists, who supports Hillary Clinton.

He had this to say about Obama:

"The Obama campaign until very, very recently had no union support because they didn’t believe that their constituency ... should include blue-collar workers," Rick Sloan, a representative of the Machinists and Aerospace Workers union, said on a conference call today. "Unions that are joining them are doing it out of sheer opportunism"

Okay, you get where this hack job is going. If you read the rest, you'll see other typical hack attacks as well. Senator "Say anything to get elected" Clintion is sending out her dogs.

My head is spinning because I've just landed on another planet. Not Tucker. Not Mathews. Shuster is the guy.

Not Fox news. Not O'Reilly. Not Hannity.  Not Hume.  MSNBC is the network that is going to be the Clinton Target.

According to Media Matters:

On Thursday's "Tucker" on MSNBC, David Shuster, who was serving as guest-host of the program, made a comment about Chelsea Clinton and the Clinton campaign that was irresponsible and inappropriate. Shuster, who apologized this morning on MSNBC and will again this evening, has been suspended from appearing on all NBC News broadcasts, other than to make his apology. He has also extended an apology to the Clinton family. NBC News takes these matters seriously, and offers our sincere regrets to the Clintons for the remarks.

Full disclosure: I support Obama as a first choice, Edwards second, and Hillary third.

Naturally, given my preferences, it’s uncomfortable to see the Clintons out there (Bill especially) playing attack dogs using made up facts, twisted words, and other typical underhanded ploys. When it’s aimed at MY candidate of choice, it’s especially infuriating.

However, the chips seem to be falling in Hillary’s favor. Obama, though he may still pull off a win, is looking like an underdog at this point. I find myself contemplating a general election with Hillary against a McCain, say.

I had no intention of getting into this racism debate, but I'm listening to Slate-V, where Slate's Dahlia Lithwick and Emily Bazelon weigh in on the SCOTUS voting rights argument.

Check out the 3 1/2 minute mark.

A reference to the Justices "Shucking and Jiving" to avoid the case.

My valuable opinion after the fold.

I can already hear the right wingers claiming victory in the stem cell debate after this morning's news of a breakthrough in research which could provide a new source of stem cells without using embryos.

However, this news is really an opportunity to finally open up this debate and back wingers into a corner.

I don't meet many wingnuts in my liberal, urban habitat, but I meet some.  Often there's an argument about the war, and finally I got so upset the other day with one in-duh-vidual that I just kept drilling in with the same basic question:

When will you have your fill? How many? Is there a number that tips your scales? Is there a number that makes you wrong? Is it years? Bodies? Dollars? Are you still right? There must be a number. Will it ever be enough to help you see the pit of ruin you have dug? Are you still right? Are you always right, no matter what?

An amazing thing happened.  He stopped talking.  Suddenly, I heard birds and wind in the trees and children playing in the park.  It was beautiful.

After reading about Falwell's death, it put me in a "where are they now" mood.  

Well, it's nice to know that Jim Bakker is doing just fine.

For all those that believe in a just God and a master plan, you now have the overwhelming evidence to rid yourself of those notions.

Slate has an article slamming Fox's upcoming Daily Show rip-off the 1/2 Hour News Hour (premieres 10PM ET this Sunday).  Apparently, there's a YouTube clip as well. Links below.

This is a must see for me now.  The clip alone is almost too embarrassing to watch.

Slate Article
http://www.slate.com/...

You Tube clip
http://youtube.com/...

The perception that the Democrats have become more conservative is a huge advantage and we should embrace it.

The Republicans got elected because people had the perception that they were moderates.  Now, the tables have turned and the media, including Fox news, is labeling the Democrats as moderates.

Essentially, the middle roaders, the independants, the moderate Republicans of the country are being gift wrapped and handed to Democrats.  So let's embrace this. Let's keep our agenda exactly the way we have it, but call it a moderate agenda.

But what to do about the abortion issue...?

Apparently Neil did a bogus story on Howard and Sirius (big shock) and Howard got upset.  Somehow he got Neil on the phone and he's been pounding the guy for almost an hour on everything from this bogus story to Fox's conservative agenda.

There are some priceless quotes here. If you have Sirius, you've got to tune into the replay tonight. Catch the last hour and a half of the show.  He literally had Neil on for close to an hour.

If I can, I'll try to record the segment and post some bits tomorrow morning.  This is the first time I've heard someone take a Fox newsie to task this hard and it was great.

I know that Chris Mathews has taken a lot of heat on Kos, but I've always given him the benefit of the doubt. It's hardball, afterall, and the theme means going after all sides with the hard questions, even if they might seem unfair.

Hardball has been one of the only cable news shows I could tollerate and I always watched it. Not anymore.

I came late to the overflowing comments section from Darksyde's "What It's Like to be and Atheist" and Pastordan's "Ten things Religious People Want Atheists to Know".

Both were great pieces, but I was overwhelmed by the lack understanding when it comes to Agnostics (what I like to call myself).

So, here are ten things Agnostics would like Atheists to people of faith to know.


[update] wow, this is a great eye-opener for me, since I'm not used to debating this stuff. So, I see I need to clarify one thing. Let's try this: the existance of God is knowable. It can be proven. Atheists that say there's no evidence for God, therefore there is no God have stopped short. They've come to a conclusion before the experiment is over. After we die, we'll be able to prove the existance of God. Anyone who says that they're sure there's nothing after death is really just speculating. As to the flying spagetti monster, read point 2: reason. We can still conclude that some things a probably not the case (spagetti is a lot younger than the universe, therefore it probabably did not have a part in creating the universe, etc.)