In case you haven't heard what Bush said:

Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

In the short term, of course it's good for Democrats that Bush in the news, because he has Dahmer-like approval ratings. But the soft-on-national security charge--which was echoed by John McCain--still threatens to hurt Democrats, especially if they continue to respond the way they did today.

His problem, you see, is that Jews are generally progressive. A new poll by Gallup finds that in a prospective match up against Barack Obama, McCains loses among Jews 2 to 1.

Details below.

I've got a friend in the CIA in Pakistan. He leaked me this memo from Bin Laden himself. Pretty interesting...

One of the year's most important stories got lost in the furor over Reverend Wright:

...a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.

The advisers were members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy.

At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

This is just the latest evidence that abuse of detainees was systematic and that Bush and his inner circle--as well as senior military officials--are to blame.

What do we do with this knowledge?
What does Barack Obama do?

I don't think this has been diaried yet; unfortunately I don't have time to do so in any depth.

John Bolton is calling for George Bush to launch an attack on Iran. Bolton, of course, is no fringe player but a former administration official who has the trust of both Bush and Cheney.

Excerpts of the article, which appeared in the Telegraph on Monday, below.

I was planning to stay out of the primary wars today, but I made the mistake of checking in and saw the disgusting, elitist, destructive diary at the top of the rec list. Here's the money quote: White working class voters are, the author claims:

People who historically can't identify their own interest?  People who vote on the basis of beer, and bowling?

Don't you just love the Faux-News question marks. Yeah, okay, white working class voters are too stupid to know what's good for them.

Clinton is portraying Obama as an out-of-touch, effete, liberal elitist who can't relate to (white) working class and voters. If and when Obama wins the nomination, McCain will do the same.

Obama's problem in real. In every state but Wisconsin, even Illinois, he's failed to win the majority of white, blue-collar workers. According to a new poll, McCain crushes Obama among white working class voters in key states. For a while the campaign (and some progressives) seemed willing to write off these voters. Obama has come to recognize that he has a problem, but the changes enacted by his campaign are mostly cosmetic and will do little to solve it.

He can forget about bowling and basketball, he can forget about talking about his humble roots and his single mother. For Obama there's only one answer, and it's called progressive populism.

Let me first say that on the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel, Obama has shown more boldness than most pols with presidential aspirations. The possibility that he might bring some sanity and decency to American policy on this issue is a reason I voted for him.

But as the campaign has progressed, he's gotten more timid on the issue. And now he's timid to the point of compromising his principles.

Senators Olympia Snowe and Carl Levin are leading an effort to protect a victim of persecution who was denied asylum. This is one of those immigration cases that will make you go, "What the..." But you can do more than go, "What the...", you can urge your Senator to sign on to the effort.

Crosspost from Huffington Post

Warning: this is a blog post about a blog. If you find such posts frivolous and incestuous at a time when Iraq and our economy are in crisis, read no further.

In virtually every diary we Obama supporters have been hinting at this. I've summoned the courage to state it: Al Gore is a coward. Cowardice is the only explanation for his failure to support the candidate I support.

This courageous diary yesterday boldly pointed out that the failure to support Obama is a symptom of the disease that led to the War in Iraq. I courageously concur.

I have no idea what the impact of Obama's excellent speech will be, but it gave me new optimism about his political potential--in particular his capacity to appeal the white working class. While political observers sometimes fetishize this group of voters at the expense of other groups, there's no question that blue collar whites are a critical swing group in national elections, one that presents a challenge to Obama.

Ah, 2007. How I long for those halcyon, pre-Ferraro days when a major issue in the primary was the dangerous influence of corporate power. Thanks to Edwards, the Big Three battled over who would be more willing and able to take on corporations. There was reason to doubt that the policies proposed by Obama and Clinton--and even by Edwards, perhaps--would deliver the bold change they promised, but at least the issue of corporate power was front and center. Now, though, with Edwards gone, the issue is barely an issue, and somewhere CEOs and Wall Street execs are laughing.

The Anti-Defamation League has long been a pro-Israel (as in pro-Likud) group disguised as a human rights organization. Never has this been more clear than last week when ADL president Abe Foxman refused to condemn Pastor John Hagee because he's an "advocate of Israel."

But that's not the only reason Abe abides Hagee. You see, unlike Louis Farrakhan--whom some conservative Jews are trying to tie to Barack Obama--he's not black:

The difference “between Farrakhan and Hagee is self-evident. So to compare the two and to say: ‘Well, if you ask Obama to distance from Farrakhan — well, Farrakhan is a black racist, an antisemite, anti-Israel, consorts with America’s enemies. Hagee is a supporter of Israel, an advocate of Israel, opposed to antisemitism, and there are issues on which members of the Jewish community and some organizations disagree with, and so from time to time they or we have indicated our disagreement, but it’s not of the same nature or category or being.

Well, we knew it would come to this, didn't we?

Prominent Obama supporters at Daily Kos are tying to use Bill Clinton's sex life against Hillary. I understand that Hillary is all-knowing and all-powerful, but I'm pretty sure she can't be held responsible for Bill's libido.

I'm no fan of Hillary. Anyone who questions my opposition to her politics can seehere, here, here, and here. But I'm sick of the anti-Hillary bias of most elite journalists (Krugman aside), the sort that leads the overrated Frank Rich to make bizarre charges.

After Edwards dropped out of the race, there were many tributes and appreciations. John Nichols delivered one of the best, in the Nation:

Question: Whom did neocon extraordinaire William Kristol endorse for president in 2000?

Hint: It wasn't George Bush.