Privately, Democrats have been busily charting out the choreography for Burris' arrival, conscious of the racial sensitivity involved with blocking Burris from becoming the Senate's only black member.

Sports: Giants beating Patriots in Super Bowl.

I guess Hillary isn’t the only one who found out in 2008 that “inevitability” ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Oh yeah, and some guy swam well in China.

 

Acid attack victim invokes Islamic retribution

Iranian woman blinded by man persuades court to punish him in similar way

 

Every time I've heard the Obama campaign say both proudly and defensively that their "average contribution is under $100" I've strongly suspected that it is a misleading use of the "average" statistic, knowing that the lion's share of contributions could be in amounts of $25 and $50, and yet most of the total dollars could be coming from contributions of thousands of dollars each, perhaps most of which are the maximum individual contribution of $2300 for the general election ($4600 per couple), in addition to whatever they gave during the primaries, subject (I

Promoted by stinerman

Yes, federal revenues have been increasing since 2003 [Update: This diary was posted in 2007. 2008 revenues are projected to decline in real terms and even in nominal terms] but, needless to say (or one would think), that coincidence hardly establishes causation. While some talk show blowhards, politicians and editorial page / op-ed writers persist in contending that the Bush tax cuts have had a net positive impact on revenues, the strong, broad consensus among economists -- including conservative economists and Bush's own current and former top economists -- is to the contrary: The Bush tax cuts have had a net negative impact on revenues (i.e., revenues would have been higher, and would be higher today, if the Bush tax cuts had not taken place).

There is an obvious and very important question that Obama has skillfully avoided answering in any way even remotely resembling clarity ever since shifting (a few weeks ago) from the clear answer he had during the primaries (which was a major factor in his winning the nomination).

Will this be the state of political discourse in America until November? It's starting to look that way (and I'm not speaking of discourse on SwordsCrossed, but elsewhere).

I saw this chalk drawing on a sidewalk on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

ok, folks, what exactly happened here?

1) A random act?

2) A dog who doesn't like Hillary? (some real bitch?)

3) A dog owner who doesn't like Hillary?

4) A homeless guy who doesn't like Hillary?

5) Someone who hates Hillary so much that he relocated material from elsewhere?

6) Some other possibility?   

As follow-up to my comments on this thread http://swordscrossed.org/node/2283 , I am setting up this thread for your contributions to a project of mine, any and all of which I'd greatly appreciate.

I may update this diary at a later point, but for now:

Promoted by Brendan

This just in from Newsweek: Obama may have as much relevant experience for the presidency as McCain, or perhaps even more! This insight comes courtesy of “Special Guest Columnist” Alan Ehrenhalt in his column http://www.newsweek.com/id/142892

Are You Experienced?
Why a U.S. senator might not trump a state legislator

In the days before every Memorial Day I range from irritated to disgusted at all the commercialization of Memorial Day -- as in the unavoidable screams of "MEMORIAL DAY SALE!!!". I think to myself: "Who was the first a--hole with the nerve to hold and advertise a 'Memorial Day Sale'?" If 9/11 ever becomes a national (day-off) holiday, will we at some point see one TV commercial after another urging us to "Come on in for great 9/11 SAVINGS!!!" ? If that sounds sick to you -- even inconceivable -- well, that's how I feel about Memorial Day sales.

Promoted by Brendan

Many "progressives" oppose implementing (now or at any point) a policy of means testing of Social Security and Medicare. They often base their position solely on principle, with some arguing that we should not change the nature of Social Security or Medicare to one of "welfare" (either because they object to that in principle or because they think doing so would make those programs more politically susceptible to deeper cuts), some arguing that reducing the level of benefits constitutes "theft" (although I see this as only applicable to promises already made based on taxes already paid, rather than applying to taxation and related benefit promises going forward), and some simply arguing that we just shouldn't reduce the amount of money any seniors would receive.

But before anyone can sensibly say he opposes means testing of entitlements, he must acknowledge scarcity of resources and the fact that this scarcity requires trade-offs. In particular, the reality is that we are on an unsustainable fiscal course.

Clinton and her folks argue that the superdelegates exist to exercise independent judgment, rather than just to rubber stamp whoever leads in pledged delegates, but my sense is that that view is misleading and mostly invalid as she would have it applied to this year's nomination.

Bumped by Brendan

I'm not going to watch the China Olympics. I'm boycotting because of Darfur, Tibet and lack of democracy, liberty and human rights in China. And I think only liberal democracies (and I mean "liberal" in a classic sense, meaning human rights and rule of law) should be considered as hosts. No more Olympics like 1936 or 1980. The world should not boost the prestige of dictatorships that oppress their own people and support or practice genocide.

I just want to say this before any results are in for Florida, lest anyone think it's just griping because my guy lost:

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that if one candidate gets 0.1% more of the FL vote, he gets ALL the delegates. Although I realize the benefit of winner-take-all for a particular state, it seems borderline insane to me from the standpoint of the party choosing its nominee democratically. I wish the national parties would insist on some sort of proportional delegate allocation.

Thought re: Hillary in the general, assuming she's the nominee. I don't know the actual numbers, but suppose African-Americans would normally be 10% of the general election vote, of which 90% are for the Democratic candidate, so 9% of the total vote. Suppose two-thirds of them (6%) of those would-be voters are currently Obama supporters, and of those, two-thirds (4%) are eventually so pissed off at Hillary that they stay home in the general. That could easily make the difference in the outcome, right (even if I'm off by a bit in my assumed percentages) ?

Drink tonight every time: