It is my opinion that the prolonged primary process is not a bad thing for our party.

Does anyone here remember 2004? Do you remember how the DNC decided that Dean would not make a good candidate because he (Send the kids out of the room here, they might not be able to handle this)'screamed' in Iowa.  John Kerry was already in the Republican's sights and we all know how that campaign turned out.  (In case you don't know we continued to be mired in Iraq, we got Alito and Roberts on the Supreme Court, oh, and we're in a recession.  Did I mention that that big oil has had its most profitable years EVER since that election?)

That's what happens when you let the Republicans decide who you should run.

It's our process. We'll run it.

Now to the point:

So, Hillary is slinging mud.

I've given her my opinion.

I don't agree with her tactics, and I think they are damaging to the party.

Flippo.

So, the Presidential Primary continues. We Democrats do not have a nominee yet.
So what?

The race isn't over, and there does not need to be a winner until the convention.

Mud slinging and bickering only serve to help the Republicans, but continuing the race is not a detriment to our party.

Clinton and Obama can continue to battle each other all the way up to the convention. That's what Primaries are for. We have kept the Democrats on the front page for 4 entire months.

It should not be up to the MSM to decide when we decide. Let us run the party and they can report on the facts. Or just spew whatever crap the Republicans want the to about our party, but that's what they do anyway.

flippo

This is largely a response to Nora Ephron's article this morning in the Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

In it Ms. Ephron lumps white males into one big group and accuses us all of being misogynistic racists.

I'm a white male. I have been all of my life. While I find the fact that our elections are decided by white men stupefying, and while I agree that White Men should have exclusive control of this nation, I cannot accept that all white men who vote for Clinton or Obama are expressing some deep seated hatred of the opposing candidate.

I like Hillary. I like Obama. When I voted in California in February I voted for Obama.  He has expressed views more aligned with my beliefs than Clinton has. I would have voted for Edwards, or Richardson, but their chances were slim even by Super Tuesday.

With that said, I might have voted for Clinton, but didn't. It's nothing against her, nor is it anything against women.

I spent most of the 90s planning to vote for Hillary Clinton one day. I still hope too... after the flip

Rather than fume at my friends coworkers and family, I chose, as I often do, to write directly to the President and tell him how I feel about the Libby decision.

<Flippo>

President Bush, it is time to end the illegal and immoral war that you started in Iraq.
It is clear that you have no plan for victory; only a plan for prolonging the pain and suffering of both the Iraqi people and the American people.
Please admit that you have failed in this endeavor
Bring our beloved countrymen and women home now.
Peace.

Hey, I don't diary much, so i figured I'd post this.

Did I miss something?

Up until Senator Kerry's post today, and Senator Boxer's this evening, I had not noticed any members of Congress putting a tip jar on their diaries.

Senator Boxer did not actually put out a Tip jar like Senator Kerry, but she did add a comment immediately below her post, as many do in order to solicit mojo.

What's up with that?

Are they looking to view hidden comments?
Do they really want to troll rate someone?
I'm pretty sure a troll rating would lead to the loss of a vote in a future November.

Washington DC:
April 26, 2007.

The White House reported today through Big-Girl-Panty-Wearing Acting Press Secretary Dana Rerino that it has uncovered a signing statement issued by President Roosevelt in 1939 when the "Hatch Act" was signed into law.

A very excited Perino said that it is uncanny that a lousy Democrat President like FDR could have been so prescient and insightful when it came to such unreasonable legislation.

The Hatch Act is credited with ending patronage in U.S. Politics, and made it illegal for Government employees to engage in partisan politics.

Newly discovered statement below the fold:

Has anyone else noticed the apparent disconnect between the owner of the gun store that sold Seung-Hui Cho his first gun, and the other people who knew him?

Numerous people have claimed that they found Cho disturbing and scary. Teachers and fellow students alike felt he was a danger to, at least himself, if not society at large. His parents also felt he was suicidal.

ABC News quotes the store owner here:

Markell said Cho was "a clean-cut college kid," and the transaction was entirely legal under Virginia law. "He was as cordial as could be, and there was nothing unusual in his manner that suggested any thing wrong," Markell said.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/...

The Store owner claims not to have been there when he bought the gun, so I don't know how he could make an assesment of Cho.  

How, though, do we get from an obviously disturbed person, to "clean cut kid?"

Is there a different standard of behavior in gun owning society of which I am unaware?
Or is the gun owner doing the work of the gun lobby, and pretending that all was well back in March?

(Flippo)

I'm reminded of the Stiff Little Fingers song "Wasted Life" when this subject comes up.

I could be a hero
Live and die for their 'important' cause
A united nation
Or an independent state with laws
And rules and regulations
That merely cause disturbances and wars
That is what I've got now
All thanks to the freedom-seeking hordes

They wanna waste my life
They wanna waste my time
They wanna waste my life
And they've stolen it away

I say, "When this subject comes up," because both Barak Obama and John McCain have said that we have wasted the lives of more than 3,000 of our citizens in the illegal and immoral war that George Bush and his cronies started in Iraq with the help of the Republican Party, the MSM and through the complacency and cowardice of the Democratic Party. (Okay I paraphrased that part)

How is it that we see it, two of the 4 people most likely to end up in the 2008 Presidential Election see it, but we are not allowed to say it?

The reaction both times to the same comment was blustering outrage on the part of the opposing party's punditry and politicians.

Flippo

I was listening to Senator Obama on the Ed Schultz show today on Air America.

The Senator asserted that he does not take the vote of African Americans for granted, and that he has to earn every vote from every community.

This is, to most of us, an obvious statement. Why would any person expect to carry an ethnic group based on his own ethnicity?

Senator Obama has been asked that question before, and will probably be asked again.

It seems like a pretty stupid question, "Hey, you're black, so won't all black voters choose you?" It is a pretty stupid question.

The problem is this: There are millions of Americans who will NOT vote for Senator Obama because he is black.

The thing that Senator Obama is not saying in his answer is, "Even though there are many people who are prejudiced against me because of my ethnicity, I won't assume that there are any voters who favor me for the same reason."

Flippo

As the President (George W. Bush) makes the rounds to various places in Washington, asking for the advice he apparently never knew was available to him over the past 6 years, he is working out a new Iraq policy.

I predict that the new policy will be: BLAME CONGRESS!

Right now behind the scenes Vice President Cheney and other administration operatives are likely beating up the folks at the State Department and the Pentagon. We know that the five experts who met with the President at the White House just regurgitated Bush/Rove's talking points like a multi headed version of Senator Lindsey (Graham.http://lgraham.senate.gov/index.cfm?mode=presspage&id=266378) that’s how I read this anyway:

Most of those summoned to the White House have criticized the Iraq Study Group's central recommendation to boost the number of advisors and draw down the number of combat brigades, contending the plan could endanger U.S. troops.

-Los Angeles Times

more on the flip.

I have a simple and easy solution to the "Gay Marriage" vs. Civil Union issue that is confronting New Jersey's Legislature and Court System.
This will apply Nationwide, and can eliminate the debate once and for all.
It is clear, decisive, and the Supreme Court can just rubber stamp it.

It will eliminate second class status for the millions of Americans who choose to enter unions not traditionally recognized by the major religious organizations who have made an issue of the subject.

Stop recognizing Marriage.

Rationalization, justification, and clear reasoning below the fold...

For the first time in American History, there are two women close (updated from comments, because eventually you run through the entire cabinet) in line for the Presidency. One of them is Third on the list. The other is 5th.

I know it's a long shot, and it's never happened, but I think this shows that we indeed have come far in recent years.  

This is the 21st Century.

Maybe we could elect a woman as President soon...... two years from now, or so.

As we all know President Bush vetoed his first piece of legislation this week.

Since President Bush claimed it was a moral issue that made him veto the embryonic stem cell bill, I think it is only fitting that he should publicly vow to never benefit in any way either physically or financially from embryonic stem cell research.
I have written him a letter requesting that he do just that.

Congressman Dan Lungren (R) CA-3 voiced his support for the President's decision based on the same moral grounds.
I wrote to him too.

(Flippo)

If Fitzmas happens this week, or next, or at any time in the next 3 years, I'm still going to be pissed off.

This is in response to the folks who will start asking me why I'm not happy that Rove will have been fired.

Karl Rove has committed treason, and since then had gotten a promotion. He is making 161,000 a year on the Government payroll. Those are our tax dollars paying a criminal.

Will I be happy if Rove s fired? I doubt it. If he no longer has influence in Washington, that will be nice.

A list of reasons for while I'll still be pissed off if the President fires a guy who should have been fired 3 years ago is below the fold.

Update: I fully believe Rove should be fired, and it is a good start, but don't ask me why I'm still pissed off once he's gone. Token gestures don't fix problems, just like buying 20,000 mobile homes doesn't house hurricane refugees. (Flippo)

On my way to work today I saw a sign on a fence near the 405 freeway.

I was admiring some tagging on the side of a "CompUSA" store, wondering how someone got enough time in view of a busy freeway to paint 4' high letters, when my sight shifted to the fence between the store and the freeway.

There is was, "Impeach" 3' long and 18" high.  Impeach.

North bound 405 in Huntington Beach, or Fountain Valley.

Update: The sign was down today. The grafitti was gone too, but it had been replaced by newer stuff ten feet along the wall. It looked like it might have been done in chalk. (Flippo)

In Today's LA Times there's an opinion piece by California Senator Dianne Feinstein.

In it she says that President Bush's policy of preemptive strike is wrong.

Wow.

Now, I've been more a Boxer fan these past 6 years due to the fact that Feinstein seems to cave to the Right at EVERY Turn.  Maybe the winds are blowing in a different direction.

(Flippo)

I went to a Sav-On Store in Orange County, CA earlier this week, to buy condoms. To my surprise they were in a locked case near the prescription counter.

I don't know about you, but I've never been comfortable buying condoms. I'm a 39 year old married male, and I was buying them through prior agreement with my spouse. We engage in an act known as FAMILY PLANNING.

Family planning is a process where a couple chooses when and how to have children. It's frowned upon by certain Churches (The Catholic Church only accepts abstinence and 'the rhythm method, and those are abided reluctantly.)

So, here I am on my lunch hour. Looking to score some prophylactics.  The case has a sign that says, "Ask one of our staff for assistance."

I don't know how the 60 year old woman who unlocked the case felt, but I thought it was awkward.
(More on the flip.)