I'm not really ready to get behind any of the Democratic candidates.  I see a few good things from most of them, and all of them have the advantage of not being GWB or any of the other GOP candidates.

From what I saw of the last debate, Hillary won it.  But not on substance.  She won it on framing.  Barack did a good job too, and got a lot of face time, but he was following a script.  I think it is a good lesson for the other candidates on why Hillary is so effective a politician.  On the other hand, I find it disturbing for several reasons.

Let me explain in more detail.

In a duh moment, a judge in Oregon has declared that provisions in the Patriot Act violate the Fourth Admendment to the Constitution.  Slowly the most foolish provisions of the USA Patriot Act are being chipped away and eventually it will be a hollow shell, devoid of all purpose.  But it will still stand as a reminder to us all that it should never have been passed in the first place.

Of course, I'm not seeing anything about this anywhere else.  Plenty of news about Kiefer Sutherland or Lindsey Lohan in rehab and what nought, but something important scarcely gets a mention.

Updated:  litigatormom has posted up a diary with much better info here.

So, right after the 2006 elections, I posted up a diary entry titled "This was not a Victory" and caught a lot of flack.  You can find it here.  Given the last couple days and all the hooting and hollering going on, I thought I would remind folks why I wrote that and why it is still true.

Frankly, when we won the majority in both houses, I was surprised, and joyful.  Not because I expected great things, but because I hoped that with a majority, the Dems could at least limit the damage that BushCo could do until 2008.  I really didn't have higher expectations.  

So, I saw these on Yahoo news, and had to share.  The first is titled Corruption threatens Mexico's war on drugs and the second is Difference between Shia-Sunni at core of political struggles.  I think this is indicative of the Main Stream Media.

The obviousness of these makes me think the major news providers have their heads in the sand, or they wear blinders as they go about their daily lives.  

A friend of mine posted something rather accurate that I need to repost here.

"This election is not a mandate; far from it. Your majorities are slim and your positions frankly precarious. You are on probation. You have two years to get this country in the mood to elect a Democrat to the presidency*, and to generally see Democrats--and, by extension, liberals--as upright, forthright human beings. You will treat your fellow VIPs and your constituents with respect and dignity, while not letting them walk all over you. You will stand firm when it's called for and negotiate and compromise when it's called for. You are permitted exactly zero scandals, backstabbings, and slingings of mud. We are counting on you. Do not fuck this up."  -Rosefox link

From looking at the news, and at Daily Kos over the last several months, it seems like it.  Whenever there is good news, we can say yes, that is good.  But we, and that seems to be just about everyone, won't expand on that.  We won't dare to talk about the possiblilty that the Democrats might take back both Houses this November.  We have to limit ourselves to this particular election, or that election.  We can show a list of elections, and what the polling trends are for those elections, but we don't want to draw any conclusions.  We don't want to hope.  Is it because of three previous elections where Democrats failed, or were possibly cheated?

Surprisingly, the latest on the GWOT was on a small post on CNN.  It is about Jose Padilla being given access to the 'sooper sekrit' documents obtained about him while he was incarcerated as an enemy combatant.

Do the latest terrorism arrests in Miami and Atlanta make anyone else cynical?  From everything I have seen, and there is a lot on TV about it right now, it wasn't a threat at all.  These schmucks couldn't even buy boots, let alone guns or explosives.  And I expect we will see more of this before the elections.

There has been some media play about the plane crash of a Lear jet own by Pat Robertson.  But what has been missing, is the names of who was on the plane.  In the news arcticle on MSNBC, they mention that two passengers were dropped off in Atlnatic City, NJ.  And in the CNN article, they mention that the final destination was a golf tournament.  But no names are mentioned.  I sure would like to know who was on that flight.