February 15, 1776: Philadelphia (AP)

Yesterday Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense was distributed and received with much fanfare and enthusiasm by Philadelphia's citizens and colonial leaders alike. The pamphlet, which urges America's colonists to break from British rule, has been hailed as "revolutionary" and "groundbreaking" by many of it's initial readers.

Still, editors of colonial newspapers, many of whom were approached to publish Paine's treatise, remain unimpressed with Paine's presentation. One editor, representing the general consensus, put it thusly: "It is motivational...but utterly vague and nonspecific. This is one man shouting his pipedream into the wilderness."

Jim McKay, the sportscaster who was the voice of ABC's Wide World of Sports, died this morningof natural causes. It was McKay who brought America the news of the startling 1972 Munich Olympic hostage crisis.

First let me say that I agree 100% with Jimmy Carter's sentiments as expressed in this reclisted diary. I have not been a Hillary fan throughout this campaign, and I think the risks of having Hill and Bill back in the White House are considerable.

I'm sure that Carter sees in Hillary a lot of the same things I see: an establishment candidate who has, essentially, placed her own concerns ahead of those of the party. She continues to take unprovoked potshots at the presumed democratic candidate, and has advocated John McCain's experience as a near-endorsement over Obama. Under the circumstances the three of them (or four if you throw in Michelle) will have a difficult time trying to mesh.

Having said that, however, I wish Carter had held his fire and I hope other democrats with his stature hold theirs.

I don't know much about country music, but I'm pretty sure it's roots are in Appalachia, although I can really only base this assumption on the fact that it seems too much of a coincidence that Nashville not only skirts Appalachia, but it's also the Country Music Capital of the World. And since today's primary is in West Virginia, the only state that lies entirely within Appalachian circumscription, I thought a country music thread might be a good way to not get too consumed by polls which don't promise to be too flattering to a candidate dear to many of our hearts...

If you all will remember back a couple months ago, in the week or two after Super Tuesday, the gripping drama in many of the recommended diaries was the non-gravitation of the superdelegates to Obama's side despite his early lead in pledged delegates. You may also recall that at that time many Kossacks were threatening to write their superdelegates to apply some needed pressure to get them to sign on with Obama.

Although it was somewhat on the downlow, you may also recall that several Obama supporters here urged other Kossacks NOT to contact superdelegates on Obama's behalf, that the campaign didn't want partisans filling SD inboxes with anonymous rants and pleas. Instead, the Obama campaign urged supporters to log into the Obama site and contribute their own stories about how they became Obama supporters; these stories would then be screened and (I imagine) the most convincing stories would be passed along to superdelegates for review.

After the flip, an example of why it was smart for the Obama team to discourage supporters from contacting SDs directly.

Until today I'd been seeing references to the site Hillaryis44.org, but after visiting there...wow, it's no wonder her campaign is so out of step. First they callously offended African Americans, now they're writing off the progressive blogosphere. Now I have no idea whether this site is endorsed by the campaign or if this is just a rogue fan club that likes to rant (there's no FAQ page that identifies the site's origins, funding, etc). Either way, lets say it might be in HRC 08's best interest to try to...shut this blog down maybe? I mean there's not much I can say about this, the bitterness of the following snippets says it all.

Follow me to witness an astounding rhetorical exhibition...

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, in all its naked glory, the Limbaugh-Hannity base of the Republican Party, or as Stephen Colbert so succinctly put it, the "backwash" 32 percent.

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Like a lot of us I am all a-twitter this morning with the visions of a charismatic, intellectual, fun-loving regular guy (nothing against you Hillary) moving one small step closer to the White House.

Over in Freeperland? NOT SO MUCH! Exactly how thick is the Obama fear in Freeperville? Let me put it this way: Hilariously thick. Read the article below (bold is mine), posted as a diary, and I'll explain after the jump:

In Dan Quixote's diary today he suggest's that evolution is not a fact, it is a theory. I agree with that, sort of, insomuch as evolution is clearly not a fact. However, evolution is not a theory, either. What evolution is is an elaborate hoax by Satan and his minions (and now, I guess, endorsed by Kos himself) to confuse the word of God and deny the facts found in the Old Testament.

Don't believe me?

I have PROOF. Follow me over the flip to feel humiliated by your ignorance. You too, Dan Q.

Okay, first diary, working fast here... According to the AP via Yahoo news, the new documents from the DOJ dumped on Friday show that the DOJ Weighed Polical Activism on a scale unacknowledged up to now. The new documents include spreadsheets in which all 124 of the nominated USA's were graded on a political scale.

MASSIVE!

The fun starts below!