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by Steven D

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by Booman

Since Kevin James couldn't do it, I'll answer Chris Matthews question. What did Neville Chamberlain do wrong in Munich in 1938?

I'm going to gloss over a lot of detail here for brevity's sake. Adolf Hitler invaded Austria in March 1938 as part of a larger program that was sold as a unification of Germanic peoples.

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by BooMan

I don't get much hate mail. I might get one
piece every two months or so, and it usually just tells me I'm stupid.
But then I don't have Bill O'Reilly
stirring up the nativists, either. It's really disturbing to see the
kind of mail that Markos gets. I know why liberals are angry...look at
the economy, for starters. But why are Bill O'Reilly's listeners so
angry? What explains the hatred of so many people on the right?

And, to be honest, I don't think this is an unusual situation. There
seems to always be a certain percentage of people, in every country,
that basically feel like Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter do (or say
they do). It only becomes a serious problem when the group grows large
enough to start putting their enemies up against the wall. As Roger Waters put it:

Are there any queers in the theater tonight?
Get them up against the wall!
There's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me,
Get him up against the wall!
That one looks Jewish!
And that one's a coon!
Who let all of this riff-raff into the room?
There's one smoking a joint,
And another with spots!
If I had my way,
I'd have all of you shot!

I mean, how is that any different from what people are writing to Markos?

by BooMan

As far I can tell, the Republicans are now officially suicidal.
Voting against funding wars they support and voting against timelines
that Americans support, and voting against a GI Bill for the soldiers
that is just unconscionable.

by BooMan
Thu May 15th, 2008 at 03:28:04 PM EST

1. Mark Warner of Virginia
2. Tom Udall of New Mexico
3. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire
4. Mark Begich of Alaska
5. Mark Udall of Colorado
6. Ronnie Musgrove of Mississippi
7. Jeff Merkley of Oregon (but not Novick)
8. Al Franken of Minnesota
9. Kay Hagan of North Carolina
10. Rick Noriega of Texas

Right now, I think all 10 of these seats are more likely to fall to the Democrats than not. But that's not all. The following contenders will have plenty of opportunity to gain strength and win.

1. Tom Allen of Maine
2. Scott Kleeb of Nebraska
3. Andrew Rice of Oklahoma
4. Bruce Lunsford of Kentucky
5. Larry LaRocco of Idaho
6. Jim Martin of Georgia (if he wins the primary)
7. Jim Slattery of Kansas
8. Bob Tuke of Tennessee

I think the Dems will ultimately win at least two of these eight contests, but it is too early for me tell which two. The only really safe Republicans I see are:

1. Mike Enzi of Wyoming
2. John Barrasso of Wyoming
3. Jeff Sessions of Alabama
4. Thad Cochran of Mississippi
5. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina

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by BooMan

I think Obama should use the same whistle-stop
train strategy he used in Pennsylvania during the general election.
Maybe, take the train from St. Louis to San Francisco and make a bunch
of stops along the way. He also should makes trips down the Missouri
and Mississippi Rivers. Expand the map. And it looks like a trip or two to Alaska is a good idea, too.

by BooMan

Marriage Equality in California!

The California Supreme Court has overturned a gay
marriage ban in a ruling that would make the nation's largest state the
second one to allow gay and lesbian weddings.

The justices' 4-3 decision Thursday says domestic partnerships are not
a good enough substitute for marriage. Chief Justice Ron George wrote
the opinion.

The city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples and gay
rights groups sued in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco's
monthlong same-sex wedding march.

The case before the court involved a series of lawsuits seeking to
overturn a voter-approved law that defines marriage as a union between
a man and a woman.

With the ruling, California could become the second state after Massachusetts where gay and lesbian residents can marry.

"What happens in California, either way, will have a huge impact around
the nation. It will set the tone," said Geoffrey Kors, executive
director of the gay rights group Equality California.

California already offers same-sex couples who register as domestic
partners the same legal rights and responsibilities as married spouses,
including the right to divorce and to sue for child support. It's
therefore unclear what additional relief state lawmakers could offer
short of marriage if the court renders the existing ban
unconstitutional.

A coalition of religious and social conservative groups is attempting
to put a measure on the November ballot that would enshrine
California's current laws banning gay marriage in the state
constitution.

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by BooMan

The effort to turn Iran into the latest incarnation of Nazi Germany is deeply dishonest and depressing. For some people, anyone that makes Israel uncomfortable is a de facto
Nazi.

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by Steven D

I ask, only because this is a phrase I think we
are likely to hear a lot in the coming months from our good friends on
the right. Friends like Kathleen Parker who, in her infinite wisdom,
has decided that Obama may very well lose the election because he isn't
a "full blooded American"
like Hillary Clinton or John McCain, and doesn't understand what full
blooded Americans know in their deeply American gut. What's a full
blooded American, you ask? And how do you know if your birthright
qualifies you for that noble and superior status? Good questions. Maybe
I should let Kathleen speak for herself on those points:

WASHINGTON -- "A full-blooded American."

That's how 24-year-old Josh Fry of West Virginia described his
preference for John McCain over Barack Obama. His feelings aren't
racist, he explained. He would just be more comfortable with "someone
who is a full-blooded American as president."

Whether Fry was referring to McCain's military service or Obama's
Kenyan father isn't clear, but he may have hit upon something essential
in this presidential race.

Full-bloodedness is an old coin that's gaining currency in the new
American realm. Meaning: Politics may no longer be so much about race
and gender as about heritage, core values, and made-in-America. Just as
we once and still have a cultural divide in this country, we now have a
patriot divide.

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by BooMan
Wed May 14th, 2008 at 10:26:45 PM EST

I've noticed this new common acronym that keeps
getting repeated on Hillblogs: WWTSBJQ. Presumably, this stands for
'Why Won't the Stupid B*tch Just Quit'. Today, it's in use to suggest
that John Edwards is part of a network of 'boiz' that are conspiring to
push Clinton out of the race before all the people get to vote. I guess
I'm part of that network, and so is Markos and John Aravosis, and a
bunch of other male pro-Obama bloggers.

I'll let others speak for themselves, but I just want to say a few
words about my own feelings. For me, the fact that Hillary Clinton is a
woman is a plus. For a long time when it looked quite likely that she
would be the nominee, I consoled myself with the fact that she would be
an inspiration to billions of little girls all over the world. Just
today, when I was doing analysis of all the House Races,
I took a special interest in the women I identified that have enough
money to compete. And, even though both Kay Hagan and Jeanne Shaheen
are too 'New Democrat' centrist for my tastes, I'm willing to overlook
that because I think the Senate desperately needs more female voices
(especially the Judiciary Committee). So, while I have a tremendous
feeling of satisfaction that Democrats rejected a restoration of the
Clintons, I am saddened that so many of her female supporters are
feeling such a profound feeling of loss. And, on this blog at least,
I've maintained a basically zero tolerance policy for anyone calling
Clinton gender-based epithets or otherwise negatively referring to her
gender.

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by clammyc

For the past 7+ years, my conservative father’s
stock snarky answer to anything that I pointed out about the Bush
administration or the rubber stamp republican Congress was met with a
comment to the effect of “oh, don’t you worry, President Hillary will
come in and make everything all better”. I always told him that
(besides the fact that he was dodging the issue to begin with) there
was no way that she would be elected President.

A couple of years ago, when he made that comment to me, my reply was
that she wouldn’t even get the nomination - and we even bet a dinner on
it. He could only ask who would possibly get the nomination over her.
Now, this diary isn’t about Hillary Clinton - it just happens that her
Presidential campaign is the product of a Democratic Party mindset that
has resulted in oh-so-narrow losses (for the most part) and even some
“key victories” in certain ever-shrinking lists of “swing states”.

Now, the “50% + 1” approach worked for the republicans for a number of
years, and it (possibly in a self fulfilling prophesy) took a number of
states, races and seats out of Democratic Party reach as a result of
not even competing in these places. And while her campaign and chances
may not be over, this old style of running a winning campaign most certainly is over.

After all, it was inevitable, right?

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Turn on your tee-vee if you want to see John Edwards endorse Barack Obama in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

by BooMan
Wed May 14th, 2008 at 05:57:03 PM EST

As you'll see there are over seventy-five potentially competitive seats, and another thirty or so that could be competitive if the Dems find a candidate, or if the candidate improves their fundraising, or if the DCCC can devote enough money to make up for a financial disadvantage.

Simply put, the Republicans should be absolutely terrified. More than a third of their seats are in jeopardy.

You can look up the the cash-on-hand for every candidate here. I used the following format for each seat:

Congressional District (CD), Partisan Voting Index (PVI), Incumbent/Open Seat, Challenger, Challenger's Cash on Hand (COH). Enjoy.

CD-02 (R+13)- (Open Seat)- Bobby Bright- COH: 46,000
CD-03 (R+4)- (Mike Rogers)- Josh Segall- COH: 223,000
CD-05 (R+6)- (Open Seat)- R. Parker Griffith- COH: 112,000

Alaska (Primary Date: 8/26/08)

CD-AL (R+14)- (Don Young) - Ethan Berkowitz- COH: 287,000. Diane Benson- COH: 45,000

Arizona (Primary Date: 9/2/08)

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by Steven D

Torture? We don't torture. Sometimes our enhanced, but perfectly legal,
interrogation techniques may result in death or severe mental
disorders, but remember we are dealing with ruthless terrorists who
will come into your bedrooms at 3:00 am and behead you and your
children with a rusty butcher's knife without a second thought. So,
once in while, to quote a famous American Secretary of Defense, in
order to protect us over here, stuff happens over there (h/t to Digby):

The American Civil Liberties Union has obtained
previously withheld documents from the Defense Department, including
internal investigations into the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody
overseas. Uncensored documents released as a result of the ACLU's
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit shed light on the deaths of
detainees in Iraq and internal disagreement within the military over
harsh interrogation practices used at Guantánamo Bay.

"These documents provide further evidence that the torture of prisoners
in U.S. custody abroad was not aberrational, but was widespread and
systemic," said Amrit Singh, a staff attorney with the ACLU. "They only
underscore the need for an independent investigation into high-level
responsibility for prisoner abuse."

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by clammyc

Right up front, this has absolutely nothing to do with the Democratic Presidential primary.

No, what this is about is a rigged playing field when it comes to our elections, and how this strategy of “playing defense” - being reactive to the latest republican election crime and looking forward all while the republicans are already on to the next way to disenfranchise millions of voters who are highly unlikely to vote for them in the first place.

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What do you think the main themes of the presidential campaign will be?

It was an earthmoving election night. "No one could have imagined the tsunami that just crashed on Republicans in Mississippi," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in an interview after the victory. "There is no district that is safe for Republican candidates." House Democrats now hold a 236 to 199 majority, up from 203 seats they controlled two years ago. Van Hollen exaggerates. We saw a safe Republican seat in Louisiana's First District two weeks ago, where the Democrat was held under thirty percent of the vote. There are probably about 100 such safe Republican seats. But there are at least 70 Republican-held seats that should now be considered vulnerable because they have decently funded Democratic challengers and less of an historical Republican lean than Mississippi's First District. For perspective, every Republican-held seat in Michigan has a PVI rating lower than MS-01's rating of plus-ten. Can you imagine a Michigan with no Republican House members?

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There is an article in this morning's Washington Post about some of the racial resistance volunteers for Barack Obama have encountered on the campaign trail. It depressing, and somewhat misleading, as out in the field racist responses are few and far in between. But they do happen, and they happen more often in some regions than in others. A big part of the Post article focuses on Kokomo, Indiana, and it's no big surprise that there is lingering racism there. On July 4, 1923, Kokomo hosted the largest Klan gathering in history -- an estimated 200,000 followers flocked to a local park. On Election Day in Kokomo, a group of black high school students were holding up Obama signs along U.S. 31, a major thoroughfare. As drivers cruised by, a number of them rolled down their windows and yelled out a common racial slur for African Americans, according to Obama campaign staffers. Frederick Murrell, a black Kokomo High School senior, was not there but heard what happened. He was more disappointed than surprised. During his own canvassing for Obama, Murrell said, he had "a lot of doors slammed" in his face. But taunting teenagers on a busy commercial strip in broad daylight?

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I know it's easy to forget that fact, or assume that Bush is now irrelevant, in the face of the media's round the clock coverage of every possible smidgen of information related to Obama and Clinton and their titanic struggle to win the Democratic nomination this Spring. Even St. John of the McCain and his daughter's wedding got more press than Mr. Bush. But to assume that his overwhelming unpopularity with Americans, and his lame duck status makes him insignificant would be foolish. Far from it. As the months of his reign dwindle to a precious few he only becomes more dangerous. And the one place where he can still do the most damage to our country, and the world in general, is his favorite (and I mean this literally) stomping ground, the Middle East, which he is again scheduled to visit this week. Despite the failure of the Iraq war, his misguided attempts to destroy Hamas and Hezbollah, and the growth of Iranian influence in the region, the last thing he wanted to happen, he still possesses the power to create turmoil by unleashing American military might against Iran. All he needs is for the Sunni nations in the region, concerned about Iran's growing power and influence, to grudgingly agree to stand by while once again Bush, in his favorite role as the Commander-in-Chief Guy" orders his military to take out Tehran. It's the last stupid thing he can still do before departing office, and all indications are that it's a step he is determined to take. Apart from Israel, to which Bush has been by far the most indulgent president in the Jewish state's history, he is likely to get his warmest - if most anxious - reception when he meets with the assembled Sunni leaders, many of whom are as concerned about Shi'ite Hezbollah's show of force as is Israel.

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