Bill Press, who launches his weekday morning radio show out of the Center for American Progress, is interviewing Harold Ford, Jr. on the radio this morning. Ford, as most of you here know, is the current head of the Democratic Leadership Conference (DLC), the corporatist wing of the Democratic Party, founded by Bill and Hill. Ford, as any regular Kossack also knows, debated Markos on Meet the Press in August and was something of a shmuck back then. This morning he outdid himself.

Press, whose show I don't regularly listen to, is a self-identified Clintonista & Washington insider.

Digby's still spinning around in my head. Yesterday she wrote about what's been obvious for quite awhile. Dick doesn't care what Americans think, and his ideological blinders allow him to think dropping a bunch of bombs on Iran is not only justifiable, but likely to result in arranged bouquets and boxed-chocolates spontaneously generating all around Iran.

And he really doesn't have to care. He's Dick. And it's not just 2002 redux; it's straight out of the PNAC playbook. Minus the Nine Eleven/Pearl Harbor event. So far, anyway.

Cheney isn't really a politician anymore and hasn't been one for a long time. He represents the people who really run things at times like this, the big money boyz, and their concerns are not so parochial as a Republican win. They run things no matter who's in office. (And anyway, they've set certain things in motion, pillaged the treasury so thoroughly and solidified their hold on the media and the Democrats sufficiently enough that they think a few years of GOP R&R is probably a good idea. They need to allow the Democrats just enough power to be blamed, in any case.)"

The drumbeats are so loud now they woke me from sleep tonight.

I called in, gave my name as Lauren, to try to answer Ed's question about why the question of impeachment wasn't raised in the presidential debate at the Yearly Kos Convention. If you listened and thought I'd tanked, try not to slam me; I really was nervous, and surprised at what seemed like high emotional content in his incredulous (and interrupting! oy.) responses to me.

This morning on NPR reported on an update on a report by Daniel Zwerdling made earlier this week.  In the earlier report, beautifully diaried here, and first diaried on dailykos here, shows us the potential impact of real reporting -- that exposing errors, misdeeds, crimes, or, in this case, a truly profound manner of failing to "support the troops" in a meaningful way by those in the military.

The underlying issue was not simply the dearth of timely intervention for those with PTSD returning from Iraq or Afghanistan (at Fort Carson, although the original story implied that there may well be more widespread problems), but outright obstruction by their superiors.

Among those hearing Zwerdling's original report were US Senators Barbara Boxer(D-CA), Barack Obama(D-IL), and Christopher Bond (R-MO), who made a joint request for an investigation by the DoD.  A top Pentagon official, the Assistant Secretary of Defense William Linkenwurter [sp?], was already on the case.

AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl
AZ-01: Rick Renzi
AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

Garnering front page headlines, a personal animosity between fellow statewide DFL candidates erupts into idiocy.

Current Attorney General Mike Hatch is the DFL endorsed candidate for Governor.  Matt Entenza, outgoing minority leader in the State House, is looking to replace him.

Seems one is spying on the other, possibly in retaliation.  

I didn't see another diary entry, so I'm posting.  If there is let me know and (sorry, still new at this) give me a tip as to how to delete if need be.

Good news for people who believe in self-determination in the area of reproduction.  ...and Massachusetts.  

The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy on Tuesday ruled in favor of three women who filed complaints claiming that the stores refused to fill their prescriptions.

Julie Battel, Katrina McCarty and Rebekah Gee filed suit against the company earlier this month.

Wal-Mart has until Thursday to comply with the ruling.

...

Wal-Mart currently only carries the pill at its Illinois stores, where it is required under state regulations.

That's right, folks.  You can get emergency contraception from WalMart in only 2 states out of fifty in this union.  Which wouldn't necessarily be a big deal if WalMart hadn't already run smaller, independent pharmacies out of business.

My apologies for writing a separate entry, but I thought I had a sufficiently different perspective on the morning health news to add a separate entry.  If you don't think so, you can opt not to comment...  or you can tell me to bugger off.  whatever.

First, I don't do critical care, but I see a lot of cardiologic issues.   Yes, I'm in medicine, but not a sub-specialist in either of the above fields.  That being said, I thought some medical context might be useful to the dKos community.  

All my morning news is from the radio, NPR to be exact, so if the televisions have other info, sorry.  I don't own one.

More below...

Bah, humbug.  I'm going a little bonkers with this new fangled computer thing.  Actually, after the petition passed around yesterday, Minnesota's own #3 congressional wingnut (After Norm and Senator Wannabe Mark Kennedy) called for a new Fuhrer...er, leader.  

Who's Kline?  Well, he's not a chickenhawk.  He served in Uniform, and I think his son does, too.  He is, however, one of the biggest winners of Tommy DeLay's own ARMPAC, in the neighborhood of 30K.  

From the NYTIMES:  (sorry I don't know how to link)