Barack Obama began his speech saying he's an American citizen and a citizen of the world (his first applause line)  The McCain camp highlighted that phrase in its dismissal of Obama. Too, the dismissal spreads through the Meme-o-sphere.

But John McCain himself has used the phrase "Citizen of the World" in a speech on May 27th of this year at the University of Denver. [source]

There is such a thing as good international citizenship, and America must be a good citizen of the world—leading the way to address the danger of global warming and preserve our environment, strengthening existing international institutions and helping to build new ones, and engaging the world in a broad dialogue on the threat of violent extremists, who would, if they could, use weapons of mass destruction to attack us and our allies.

Many past Presidents (and the current one, too!) used  "citizen of the world" in their remarks. Here's a collection of them....

He couldn't wait more than a day to insult them. Just a day. A mere 24 hours. There was evening and there was morning, a Thurs day.

Who did McCain insult? Why, the faithful. The party faithful. The faith-full of the party. On the Wednes day, the news was revealed that a number of Christian Conservatives came out for McCain. Er, uh, I mean, they expressed their support for McCain's candidacy. They wavered, they weighed the choice, they prayed for guidance, and then they rose up with one accord to support John McCain.

How does McCain respond to their support? He makes changes to his campaign staff, and then he has the gall to speak of it as part of "a natural evolution." Evolution!

Oh, the insult of it all.  Why could he not speak of his plans as something he intelligently designed? Why? Why?

I never expected McClellan to write a book about being the jerk at the podium for Bush, or to make connections between his experience and the larger wreckage of the Bush presidency. But he's done just that.

At PressThink, Jay Rosen takes a long view of Scott McClellan: He notes with surprise that McClellan sees himself as Jay Rosen saw him at the time of his resignation (The Jerk at the Podium: Scott McClellan Steps Away). But Rosen examines the current furor through a hundred-year-long lens, going back to the beginning of the White House Press Corps under Teddy Roosevelt.  

This is the highlights of the Compassion Forum at Messiah College on Sunday, where Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama answered questions of faith and compassion.

This diary is a compilation of the comments denoting Who Said What. They're now gathered into one! conventient! location!  They're the facts, ma'am... roughly paraphrased, type as fast as you can recitation of the facts. Commentary? snark? Praise? It's not here (that's what the comment section of this diary is for-- hee!)

LIVE BLOG #2 from Messiah College [PA], it's Sunday Night w/ Hillary and Barack!!! The Compassion forum at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania.

* #1, the Mothership)

* This is thread #2 of the forum. ... And it's CLOSED.

* Go to #3

* and to #4

Hillary Clinton is going first, and Barack Obama will go second. the duration is 90 minutes and it's being carried on CNN and on CNN.com.

Website for the Compassion Forum

Cnn.Com live streaming

DailyKos diarist  tbrucegodfrey is ahead of her time. By 9 days. Her April 2 diary is a perfect pre-sponse to news of Trent Lott's first time riding the Metro Subway, now that he's a Man Of The People, um, I mean, Man of the Lobbyists.

[Photo: Flickr photographer afagen]

After 30 years of taxpayer funded "free" lunches and car & driver,  Lott is undergoing cataclysmic changes in his new life as a DC Lobbyist. WaPo's Mary Ann Slaker:

Lott took his first Metro ride ever last weekend, when thousands of tourists were in town enjoying the annual Cherry Blossom Festival[....] Lott really had no idea how to even go about taking public transportation.

He passes #1 of tbrucegofrey's 12-step program for new Metro riders. It's funny, though, when you read #8 and #10...

La Opinión, Los Angeles's Spanish language newspaper, just posted their editorial with endorsements:

The English language page says, "The Democratic choice is Barack Obama" (I don't know if they have permalinks to their editorial pages, so that link may expire.)(links now go to permalinked pages) Leer en español.

The Democratic Party arrives at the California primary with a historic choice between two extraordinary candidates. We believe that of the two, Senator Barack Obama represents fundamental change in a campaign in which "change" has become a central theme. Obama’s approach to immigration and his inspiring vision are what the country need to break through the current feeling of political malaise.

I read the news of those in the senate who have no problem granting telcos  retroactive immunity, and I decided to make a new "national" flag. One I'd like to burn.

How do we create a lapel pin out of this flag? Or use the flag as part of the message to the Capitulating Senators?

[cross posted at 2020 Hindsight]

It's fully voluntary, you're not being coerced, but you'll be jobless if you don't comply

That's the upshot from NASA Administrator Mike Griffin to staff members of Jet Propulsion Laboratory about a new badge requirement where all employees, for the sake of national security, must submit themselves to  extensive!   background checks.

It's called HSPD12 -- homeland security presidential directive #12, and there's a web site put together by those employees who are fighting the process. What about lab custodial staff? Lowly administration? Yep, they gotta do it, too.

Today a group of employees announced that they're filing a suit against NASA and Caltech to stop the process. Press release announcing the suit, Pasadena Star News story.

[cross-posted at 2020 Hindsight and in an open thread at FireDogLake]

Over morning coffee, I heard a ho-hum story that fits right with the Minneapolis bridge collapse and problem of aging infrastructure. My boyfriend read to me portions of an article from the Sierra Club newspaper: What are sinkholes and why do they happen?

The answer (it's old sewer pipes!) has the same root cause as collapsing bridges-- Aging infrastructure, dude! Oh, and there's a "how the media covers these events" angle, too.

So join me on this riveting recitation of the otherwise hum-drum. It's far more relevant than you think. And it's mud-slinging! Full of sh*t, too. But only peripherally. Mostly what I recall from the article. I should get a reading comprehension prize.

Bush has been saying, "Wait till we hear from Petraeus" so many times that I start to feel sorry for the guy -- What a position to be in: He's got the entire hopes of the Bush Administration and the Iraq War Supporters (tm) pinned upon him. So much so that people are talking about how Petraeus is the New Jesus.

James Fallows:

The New Jesus is the guy the boss has just brought in to solve the problems that the slackers and idiots already on the staff cannot handle. Of course sooner or later the New Jesus himself turns into a slacker or idiot, and the search for the next Jesus begins.

So where does that put us now, now that The Gospel According to the New Jesus (the Petraeus Report) is going to be written by The White House?

Mitt Romney! $300 spent on makeup! As Communications consulting! It's the latest mindless presidential politics floo flah-- how much Mitt Romney has spent on make-up (I'll try hard to avoid girly-man jokes). Complete with silence on the part of the MSM and calls to "come on, let's elevate the discourse"  here, here.

I think what's needed is to give  Mitt Romney a new nickname. The possibilties are tantalizing. Mitt Revlon? Clinique Romney? Sephora Romney? Vote for your favorite one. Which of these nicknames sounds best to you?

I just called the office of Rahm Emanuel to 1) state my support for his amendment to defund the office of the vice president and 2) to ask what would be the best approach to take with my representative-- what bill number should I refer to when I write to my congressman?

The Emanual staffer, after a pause for research, responded that I should state support for the Emanuel Amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill. That's the official title for it. So there it is. People get calling and writing.

Also, I asked when his statement would be up on his web site; I'd seen it mentioned elsewhere, but wanted to cite it at the source. Sigh. It'll take a few days before it's up, but it'll be up there. Not everything moves in internet time.

What happens when a hunter-gathering people --called Hadzabe (the second oldest people on earth, with a 50,000 year history) has hunting grounds that royal family members of a nearby oil-rich country want to use as their own private safari playground?

From a WaPo story telling the impact of the agreement made by the Tanzanian Govt with a United Arab Emirates safari company:

"If they are going to come here, we definitely will all perish," said Kaunda, a Hadzabe man who prefers khakis but still hunts with hand-hewn poison arrows. "Our history will die, and the Hadzabe will be swept off the face of the world. We are very much afraid."

Can concerned Americans pressure two foreign govts to do the right thing? I don't know, but I'm sure willing to find out. It will take less than 5 minutes (after reading a couple of articles). More details (and embassy phone numbers) under the fold...

Oh me, oh my, what big crocodile tears we cry, Representative Kingston! Since you're whining so much about family values and the length of your work week, I took a look at your record of advocacy on behalf of working families. Let's see how you did with voting for minimum wage, shall we?

Here's the Project Vote Smart page with your voting record, with the list of votes for what looks like the last 10 years. In July, Kingston's vote on the minimum wage bill was (are you ready for this?) Against:
07/29/2006 NO   Death/Estate and Minimum Wage Bill of 2006 (more voting history below fold)

Minimum Wage basics
Minimum-wage: $5.15/hour
8-hour day: $41.20/day
40 hour work week: $206/week
4 1/3-week  month: $892/month
12-month year: $10,704/year.

Let's compare that with Congressman's take, plus more "family values math" & minimum wage facts...

Congratulations, Representative Louise Slaughter, D-NY, soon to be chair of the House Rules Committee, YOU GO! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I write this diary from inside CA-26, where my congressman David Dreier was handily re-elected to congress (oh well, he's been good to JPL). We still have him around for another two years, but I'm so thrilled that he'll no longer be the party responsible for shutting out half of congress from proposing amendments, nor will he be responsible for setting ridiculously small amounts of time to debate such bills as whether to toss out habeus corpus.

Please, please, please, bring back sanity to the Rules Committee and to the House of Representatives. Let's have meaningful give and take. Let's set up the rules for scrimmage in order to become a do-something Congress.  I've actually learned more from your posts here about the ways that the Rules Committee has been so obstructionist, so I'm confident that you'll be heading the Rules Committee in the right direction. Of course, I'm hoping you'll be posting a diary with your thoughts and plans.