I wish it was you running for president but I'll settle for your boy 'Bama.  He seems like good people and he's arguably running an extension of your campaign.

We STILL Have the Power!

Boo-Ya!

(I can't believe I'm joining this insanity)

P.S. how do you guys get diaries so short?  It's not letting me have anything LESS than 300 characters?

I've mentioned a time or two that I am the only democrat in a family full of republicans.  It's true and while I love my family very much (most of them are some of the best people I could ever hope to share blood with), I love none of them as much as my mother.

My mother is absolutely wonderful.

Which is why I was so surprised to get an email from her less than 2 weeks ago that basicly echoed the sentiment related by Mr. Phill Gramm today.

More below.

I am quite surprised at all the wailing and gnashing of teeth people are doing over the declaration that Markos has not (not that he WILL not mind you) donated the maximum $2300 to Obama.  Not even that he hasn't donated ANY money to Obama, just that he hasn't maxed out for the general.

So I thought I would try a little social experiment if you'll join me over the fold...

This primary is over, and yet so many people on dailykos are still treating Hillary Clinton as if she were the enemy.  People are still demonizing her.  People are still demeaning her.  People are still insulting her supporters.  People are still fighting as if there was still primary in question.

This has got to end, and it has got to begin with us.

I wasn't sure what to call this diary.  The more I thought about it the more different outrageous titles drifted through my mind.  Do I call it "Wherein Arlen Specter loses his mind"?  Do I call it "We really have gone through the looking glass"?  Do I call it "Sports imitates life"?  Or do I call it "This is why people hate congress"? So many options and in the end I couldn't chose any of them.

But, my fellow Kossacks, I am going to share a story of how I came to realize (for the hundredth time) that Arlen Specter (and republicans by extension) are insane.

As we approach the end of the long anticipated Pennsylvania primary and huddle, once more around our computers breathlessly pressing refresh every 15 seconds to see the latest count, I am left wondering what is all the fuss about?

No matter who wins, nothing will change.

There have been quite a few "I'll never vote for Hillary" diaries of late (and even a couple "I'll never vote for Obama" ones as well).  I've always been a bit irritated by what I have perceived as a self absorbed extravegance in witholding one's vote or refusing to vote.  But I heard someone argue that if you don't vote for the Dem nominee that's JUST THE SAME as voting for McCain.

Are you effing kidding me?

I'm tired.  

I'm REALLY tired.

I'm tired of all the crazy arguments that are being thrown around here.  I'm tired of the Anti-whoever diaries.  I'm tired of the rebuttal Pro-whoever diaries that try and dismiss honest criticism as crazy when there's plenty of crazy criticism to dismiss.  It has reached a fevered pitch and I'm here to say, it needs to stop.

The crazy is drowning out the intellegent.  The crazy is drowning out the ease and comfort.  The crazy is drowning out the community.

This is not our battle, why are we fighting each other trying to win it?

As we get into the last minutes before the first in the nation caucus (and the waiting for the results), Daily Kos has hit a fevered pitch of arguments for and against candidates.  It has become a dense miasma of political insight that will shape our world.

This is a place to get away from all that.

So there's a front page diary claiming Obama is attacking dems from the left and how hypocritical and disingenuous it is of him (paraphrasing) to do so.

A lot of people’s first reaction was to defend Obama and claim his quote never happened and when that didn’t work, to claim he didn’t mean it like that Kos was just an irrational Obama hater (which was reminiscent to me of the right deflecting all criticism of Bush as coming from "Irrational Bush Hate").  And I’ll admit that irritated me...a lot.  I even found myself agreeing with Kos’s underlying premise as a result.  I even made the comment that Obama is starting to sink to tactics that are disturbingly reminiscent of our favorite "unity" queen, Joe Lieberman.  While not nearly as offensive as Ol Joe, he’s turning down that same path.

But as I got to thinking a bit further and I came to a startling conclusion:  So what?

Yesterday I wrote a diary titled I don't believe in Faeries that discusses the danger of indulging in fantasies about presidential candidates and the harm it does to the political discussion (as a myriad of candidate fluff diaries have demonstrated recently).  

In the course of discussing various points with respondants came the idea that we should trust our candidates to make good on their promises.  I wanted to expand on this a bit because what do we really know about these people?  And is it really neccessary or even desirable to have faith in our political leaders?

I've been trying to pin down what it is exactly that irritates me SOOooooo much about so many of the candidate diaries.  At first I thought it was because it all seemed based on opinions presented as facts.  

But then the other day I realized that what I hate so much about them is that so many are infected with fantasy thinking.  And also, I was startled to realize, I've seen all this before.

There seems to be a rumor going that to get a diary on the rec list, you just have to mention Edwards.  So to test that theory I am writing a diary that has nothing whatsoever to do with Edwards per se, but had Edwards in the title.  Let us see where this takes us shall we?

As many of you know, we have suffered another loss in the senate as democrats have surrendered the rule of law to Bush.  And an attorney general that nearly everyone accepts is the most corrupt and incompetent AG in recent history has been made even more powerful.

They have given up something they see as small, in hopes they can avert a much bigger loss if Bush DOESN'T get this way.  

We are no longer citizens of this country, we are hostages of a runaway president, and we are dying the death of a thousand cuts.

No More.

I feel really down tonight.  I don't know why but this news about Libby has really put me over some jagged edge I never realized I was teetering on.  The Bush administration has proven time and time again there is no law they won't break, no rule they won't dishonor, no person they won't smear, no excuse too lame or idiotic to use, and no tactic that is too over the top to get what THEY want for THEMselves.

And no one is stopping them.  Tonight I realized for the first time, no one is GOING to stop them.  There is no calvary.  There is no rescue. There is no justice for us.

More below...

I've been reading a bit about how horrible Kos was in the face of Kathy Sierra's brush with online threats.  What I've read seems so focused on how horrible Kos is and how victims deserve more respect, and all other manner of meta, that I think we're missing a bigger point.  How does one defend oneself against online agression?  

I don't have the knowledge or answers to address that question so I want to put it forth to the vast resources and experience of the DailyKos community and see if we can come up with real life strategies to not only practicing safe blogging, but how to deal with online threats.

Anyone want to contribute?

I started this off as a comment in frakenoid's Saturday Morning (Home And) Garden Blogging Vol. 3.7 but it started getting long and I thought better served to make a complete diary about how we remember those who've passed on and the rituals we go through to keep them in our lives.

Every Memorial day my mother, her sisters, and often my fiery great-aunt drive up to the town they grew up in to lay flowers and rememberances at the cemetary where many of their relatives are buried.  My great-grandfather, great-grandmother, and my grandfather are all there.  This is the first full year since my grandmother passed.  She is laid thoughtfully beside the man she spent 54 years of her life with.

Memorial day is coming, and all I think about are blue hydrangeas.

I started this in a comment over at the one of the Anti-chocolate Jesus cock-sucking diaries but I wanted to expand on it a bit because something has been bothering me about the debate of religion on Dailykos.  Not just today but for a long time now, because this is not the first time someone's written an inflammatory anti-religion diary before.

I hope you will join me in the discussion...