Over at TPM they have a story running the numbers on the Clinton campaign's finances.   You know they raised $35 million in February right?   Must be rolling in the cashish?   Not so much.

After spending about $31 million in her efforts to keep up with Senator Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton finished February with more than $33 million in cash on hand, but $21.5 million of that is earmarked exclusively for the general election, leaving her with $11.7 million for the primary.

Mrs. Clinton, however, loaned her campaign $5 million earlier this year and she listed $8.7 million in debts to various vendors, making clear why she has not yet paid herself back from her loan.

Since I wrote a diary at the end of 2007 commenting on how Dkos traffic was trending down in the last 4 months of that year I figured I should write a follow up.  One of the popular theories back then was that all the candidate diaries were driving people away.  Apparently, that wasn't the problem as the atmosphere on the site was pretty chipper.  Imagine floating the idea of a "writer's strike" back then?  Crazy talk.  That was then, this now.  For the record, I was way wrong on my thoughts on where traffic was headed, but back then Hillary was also the front runner.  Numbers after the break.

As someone who has diaried on race before I took great interest in these two recent diaries.   Coffee with my Dad and A Black Woman's Musings on Coffee with My Dad.  I thought they both provided valuable insight into thoughts on race in America from two incredibly different persepectives.  And it led to some musings.

I was talking with someone about the rise of DailyKos the other night.  The idea of how big Dkos could get came up and we discussed the idea that it probably has already reached critical mass and that it was likely to trend down in the future, especially if Hillary is the nominee (as I'm sure you know she isn't very popular around these parts).  This morning I checked the site traffic for Dkos, something I've only done once before.  I have to say I was surprised by the trend.  

Let me start off this diary by saying I'm neither Black nor Jewish.  While reading some of the diaries yesterday I noticed what seemed to be a distinct difference between how diaries on racism from those two viewpoints were recieved here.  A black man wrote a diary that accused the Hillary campaign of being racist with its recent dive into the gutter of negative campaigning.  A Jewish person wrote a diary titled AIPAC, Israel and the Joos that discussed how the tendency for some people to equate AIPAC as "the Joos" was racist.  So we had two people discussing racism from their own viewpoints.  Essentially saying, "In my opinion, when X happens, its racist".  Personally, I'm going to take them at their word.  I think we all can think of examples of "isms", be it classism, ageism, sexism, etc where we "know" when it is happening.  Sure their are shades of gray but you know this stuff when you see it.  What interests me is how the daily kos community reacted to those two viewpoints.

As a former catholic who is now an atheist, I have been pretty outspoken about the fact that Mitt doesn't have a chance in hell (not that I believe in hell) in getting the Republican nomination.   Why?  Because he spent his life as a corporate raiding souless venture capitalist?   Not at all.  That is like being center fielder for the Yankees these days in America.  Simply because he is a Mormon.  It is very clear to an atheist that Mormons aren't one of the cool cults religions.  When you are an atheist you get a good sense of which invisible superheroes in the sky are socially acceptable, and which are not.  

This topic has been talked about often on Dkos over the years.  Normally it comes in the form of "they are manipulating gas prices prior to the election to help Republicans".   I believe that was true in the last election and have not seen good arguments against that.  Here is some background.  I'm a simple man.  I've got a college education but I'm not some great scholar.  I read things.   Throughout my life I have seen no correlation between reality and the price of gasoline.  I live in a port city.  We've got the big oil and gas tanks on the river.  When Katrina hit I was getting a pizza in my local joint and a dock worker was in there and said, "Gas prices are going up $0.40 tomorrow based on the what is on the ships".  I figured he was wrong.  He was more right than wrong.

Little Al,

Saw that you were in the news again.  Congratulations on that prize you won.  I'm not familiar with it but they say you got $1.5 million so it must be prestigious.  It must be nice to finally finish first at something, huh?

Anyway, things are good here.  I see you've been packing on the weight.  I guess you learned at least one thing from your old boss.  You two sure could go head to head at the feeding trough.  Remember that one time in Iowa in the hotel when Bill beat you 11 Big Macs to 10?   You never really were good at coming in first.  

I don't have a favorite religion.   I'm not a fan of any of them.   When people ask me why I point to things like this.

"Are you Muslim or not?" one officer asked the sullen waiter, who'd been picked up for smoking in public during the daily fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "When I see you eating or smoking, it is shameful."

Officer?  Do the cops normally question your religion?  Sure thing!  Wait until you see the new show "Morality Cops" (bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do when you burn in hell?)

"Tell your boss that tomorrow, the first thing we are going to do is close down his restaurant," warned the second interrogator, who was wearing a thick red armband that read "Morality Police."

The Morality Police have come to the Palestinian Authority. Only the charge isn't being led by hard-liners from the militant Islamist Hamas movement, as many once feared, it's being spearheaded by the secular Fatah party as part of its campaign to undermine growing support for Hamas in the West Bank.

So Time has some article on Hillary Clinton.  I didn't read the whole thing.  Sue me.   But they wanted to let you know that Hillary Clinton has her numbers and facts right.

Hillary Clinton may not get angry on your behalf like John Edwards or inspire you like Barack Obama. But Iowans do not take their role in the electoral process lightly, and Clinton is counting on their level of seriousness to help her turn around the one state where she struggles to maintain the lead that has come so easily in the rest of the country.

Over at Talking Points Memo they are doing their normal stellar work.    And they are reporting on the "resistance" to your rights being taken away by "house liberals".   I'm begining to think those are something like what they use to call "house negroes".  

The entire House leadership is supporting the bill, confirms Stacey Bernards, a spokesperson for House Dem leader Steny Hoyer. But where are the House liberals? They are the key group to watch, because their mini-revolt against the legislation last week was taken as a sign that there would be heavy pressure on the House leadership not to capitulate by giving the administration too much power over wiretapping.

So where are they? According to House Dem aides, House liberals appear to be leaning in the direction of supporting the legislation -- though nothing is at all certain.

I think you are some of the dumbest people ever.   Because you think your little personal nirvana (and i've been there and its nice and i saw a moose this summer) is immune.  Because of that, and your factory outlets in the middle of a beautiful national forest, i think you are dumb.

And at the same time I think you are the smartest people in the world.  Smarter than those in Connecticut.   Really.  Why shouldn't you support Hillary Clinton and Endless War.  Why not?  You don't fight it.  Your kids don't fight it.  the woman who cleaned your hotel room in old town fun town didn't even speak english.  Why shouldn't her son sign up and die so you could spend the night in a  hotel room that looked like something out of a Kevin Costner Movie.  Kevin Costner danced with wolves.  he's aright, right?

New Hampshire.  Old ideas about class war.  New ideas about the status quo.

In Slaughterhouse Five there is the following passage

Over the years, people I've met have often asked me what I'm working on, and I've usually replied that the main thing was a book about Dresden.

I said that to Harrison Starr, the movie-maker, one time, and he raised his eyebrowns and inquired, "Is it an anit-war book?"

"Yes," I said, "I guess."

"You know what I say to people when I hear they're writing anti-war books?"

"No.  What do you say, Harrison Starr?"

"I say, 'Why don't you write an anti-glacier book instead?'"

What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers.  I believe that, too.

I had the good fortune of spending some time in upstate Maine for the past week.   I also got to drive across the incredibly beautiful states of Vermont and New Hampshire.   I saw a moose.  The main benefit of my time in Maine was that I watched no TV, read no blogs and had no contact with the outside world for five days.   Prior to leaving for vacation I had been spending a lot of time educating myself about the financial markets.   I was learning about things like the Yen Carry Trade and the Fed Discount Rate.   Of course I've been reading the excellent work of Bonddad as well as other fine financial blogs (see bonddads blogroll).   So, I consider myself to be a self educated investor.    I'm not an expert by any means but I have a very good grasp of the basic facts about the economy as well as being well versed in real estate investing.    But to be clear, no one pays me for my financial advice.  

If you didn't catch the Daily Show last night they once again had on Bill Kristol.  I'm not sure why they continue to let him have air time other than he always comes off looking like a complete moron and people laugh at him, not with him.  The majority of their conversation was about Iraq.  At one point Kristol said that you shouldn't trust people like him but you should trust "critics of the war" like Ken Pollack.

So the wild and crazy stock market was down almost 400 points yesterday.  There has been "contagion" regarding the subprime credit problems.  Things are getting pretty scary and some people who have been making over $10 million a year might be getting laid off.   One poor soul already was laid off, Warren Spector formerly of Bear Stearns.

Spector, 49, had been widely tipped as next in line to take over as chief executive of Bear Sterns, one of the largest finance houses in the United States. According to Forbes he made $35m last year, with just $250,000 coming from his salary, a bonus of $16m and long-term incentive plan totaling $18.8m.

I'm not a big fan of a lot of reviewers.  And I've never reviewed a book before so keep that in mind.  That said, I recommend you read The War I Always Wanted by our very own Angry Rakkasan.  On to my "review".  

One reason I don't like most reviewers is they end up talking more about themselves than they do about the book.   That said, let me tell you about myself.

You may have noticed that the housing market isn't doing so hot.  Perhaps you live in Southern Cal or Detroit.   Perhaps you used to work for American Home Mortgage and were one of their 7,200 people who got shitcanned last week right after their CEO sold 3 million of his shares and then sent them all a "We're sorry to inform you" e-mail.   Perhaps you've heard of how all the home builders are tanking.  Or the subprime debacle (I'm sure you've heard of this).