In the course of events described in this diary last week, I did something I would otherwise not do: I sent an Email to the Obama campaign from my primary business Email address. I felt that I had to: I was forwarding the controversial E-mail described in the diary.
They didn't bother to respond... so imagine my surprise when I got an Unsolicited Commercial Email -- that's right, SPAM -- from the Obama campaign, asking if I had "Visited the Obama store lately?"

Yesterday, a former co-worker forwarded a racist Email to me entitled "Pics Of Our Possible New First Family." It included a lot of pictures, captioned by such phrases as

Obama's visit to Africa '06
(Where are the transcripts of the speeches
he gave here? Campaigning for Odinga?
Wouldn't it be great to be able to read these?
Do the people of the state of Illinois know
about Obama's radical background?)

I originally commented about it in this diary, but the plot thickened...

Obama has taken command:

"Senator Obama appreciates the hard work that Chairman Dean has done to grow our party at the grassroots level and looks forward to working with him as the chairman of the Democratic Party as we go forward."

Mr. Obama is announcing today that the D.N.C. will no longer accept contributions from federal lobbyists or political action committees, which follows the rules he established for his own campaign last year.

And, a direct quote:

"The next time you hear from me about the vice presidential process will be when I’ve selected a vice president and when you hear secondhand accounts, rumors, gossip about the selection process you can take it from me that it is wrong because we are not going to be talking about it in the press."

My wife and I were big fans of the HBO series. We just came from seeing the film. Overall, we enjoyed it, but we do have complaints.
First, let me deal with the cinematic issues: it was too long, there was too much product placement (brands we can't afford), too many of the old supporting cast seemed stuffed in for no great purpose, and can't Sarah Jessica-Parker afford to get rid of that schmutz on her chin?
Possible spoilers after the jump:

I was inspired by an online review to order Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope; they arrived yesterday. I immediately plunged into his first book.
It is wonderfully well-written: compelling, thoughtful, and self-aware. I will create another diary when I finish both books and have had time to absorb them.
These are important works, written from the heart, and they offer crucial insights into the life, feelings and character of the man we all want to be our next Commander-in-Chief.

Update: I am inspired by the commenters below that I shall finish these books Memorial Day Weekend... to serve the memory of our hallowed dead by understanding how I can help our next President add fewer hallowed dead to their ranks.

We gathered to celebrate my best friend's birthday this afternoon. While our Russian brides drank liquor in the kitchen, the husbands sat in the living room discussing cars, guns and politics.

We've all been trying to figure out what to do about Hillary...
Not to get her to STFU & GBTW, but how to take best advantage of her talents & positive qualities (yes, she does have some) for the future of America.
Then, a guy named Steve Fought from Toledo wrote this letter to tomorrow's New York Times Magazine (scroll down):

...Within a few months, a Democratic president might have the opportunity to restore some balance to the court. Barack Obama, for example, could do worse than choosing Hillary Rodham Clinton to fill the first vacancy.

Steve, you're my hero. (Today, at least)

It's Saturday night here in Delaware. The cats want to play, we're discussing the rising price of heating oil and our (farfetched) options. We're half-ignoring COPS on the local Fox affiliate, and we suddenly hear an intelligent voice saying sensible things.
We look up to see Barack Obama, narrating his own well-written, beautifully produced, long-form television advertisements. Not merely one ad repeated over and over again: we noticed at least two, one about policy issues and another about his childhood and education.
It's the most inspirational thing we've seen this century.

I was listening to Talk of the Nation on NPR today (Howard Stern is on vacation this week), and I heard their discussion of the apparent massacre in Haditha, Iraq.
Most of what I heard, I agreed with. The first caller was a retired Marine who felt that this was clearly a "failure of command and control." I waited for him to say "...and this failure clearly started with the Commander-in-Chief," but he failed to make the connection.
The most disturbing caller was a young Navy enlistee (named Ahmed) who complained that the enemy in Iraq, by wearing civilian clothing and hiding among the population, was not "following the rules of war."
What rules of war?

My stepson -- my ex-wife's boy -- just left our house for his week away at work. My wife and I live halfway between his home in Philly and his summer job in Baltimore, so he starts out the week with a night here.
I never get tired of having him around. After his service in Iraq, where he drove an Abrams tank on the long, frantic charge to Baghdad, every time I see him provides a bit of a rush: He's alive.
Well, mostly alive. His body is largely intact, but his soul is old and tired. He's 26, going on 60.