Here’s some early evidence.  She might, like, think independently and stuff.

Thanks, ABC, for an hour of “debate” that (unless I missed one) didn’t cover a single substantive issue. Thanks for asking about flag pins, people the candidates met 40 years ago, sniper fire, and favorite ice cream (or did I make that one up?)

It’s borderline criminal - and we wonder why good people don’t give a shit about politics. Thanks for the circus; you could at least have fed me during it.

Question is not if, but when, according to sources close to both.

ABC is reporting that the “National Security Principals Committee” held dozens of meetings in the White House specifically planning who and how to torture. The principals conspiring to commit these war crimes included the vice president, then-CIA director George Tenet, Attorney General John Ashcroft, National Security Advisor Condi Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell. According to ABC, Ashcroft at one point asked, “why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.”

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Whenever I hear about a poll telling me what a group of Americans think, I generally write it off. Now, folks, I don’t think everyone is stupid - I just think the average American is too distracted or preoccupied or apathetic to pay attention to the stuff that some of us feel is important.

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“… We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government…”

[so old it's cool again.]

“Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception?” [NYT]

A good piece from Noonan - choice quote:

“What, really, is Mrs. Clinton doing? She is having the worst case of cognitive dissonance in the history of modern politics.”

Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen pen a good article on Politico about the endless Clinton BS.

“The notion of the Democratic contest being a dramatic cliffhanger is a game of make-believe… Journalists, for instance, have become partners with the Clinton campaign in pretending that the contest is closer than it really is.”

I agree wholeheartedly - the media is accused of being in love with Obama - but, I ask: had he lost twelve contests in a row as Clinton did prior to Ohio, would he have been portrayed as still relevant?

OK - got a few phone calls and e-mails from y’all so I guess I need to say something about this. The primary thing I find disturbing about the news surrounding Governor Spitzer is his hypocrisy. He has prosecuted these operations in the past - apparently with great fanfare and pride. I have not followed his career very closely, but people who have worked with him tell me he is a good, competent guy, if sometimes a bit socially and professionally clumsy. Read the rest of this entry »

A great article by Glenn Greenwald on the American media, the disturbing results of its symbiosis with the political elite, and some comparisons with the British press. (The last video is the most painful, BTW.)

At first, this seemed like it could have been a Rudy Giuliani ad.  But no, it’s the work of a desperate Senator Hillary Clinton. 

I wonder what President Clinton would say about this?  Here’s something apropos: 

He’s right.  

David Boaz at Cato talks about Obama’s libertarian appeal.

Good piece by Andrew Sullivan on how and why the Clintons blew it.

A few days ago she told us to “get real.”  Today she scolded Obama with “enough with the speeches and big rallies.”

How Hillary Clinton blew a sure thing.

The Senate, by its vote tonight, is conspiring to cover up crimes committed by the Bush Administration. This vote kills pending suits that would enable the judicial system to review criminal acts and orders given by the Bush Administration. Senator Clinton was in the neighborhood, but couldn’t be bothered to show up for this critical vote. Obama voted against immunity - which would have allowed these suits to go forward, rather than short-circuit the judicial process.

There is a remaining sliver of hope; that is, the House bill does not contain immunity provisions. Bush said today that there is “no reason” why the House can’t go along and that “right now, terrorists are plotting [attacks] that will make September 11th pale in comparison.” I say there is a reason, sir - it’s the fucking Constitution. Another great reason is to call your bluff on the fearmongering - which is really just a facade being used to protect your cabal from accountability.

People, there’s something you can do. Continue Chris Dodd’s fight for accountability - while his Amendment failed, we can still tell the House to stand by the RESTORE Act. There is a tool on the Dodd site there where you can contact your Rep and also petition - do this ASAP (tonight, if you can.)

My home state comes through (as it very often does on such things).

Hope all my Maine Democrat friends are caucusing today (as painful as it is, please do.  It’s really important.)

Shop pulls “Lolita” bed for young girls; the morons had never heard of Lolita.  Reminds me a little of that “My First Stripper Pole” Tesco was hawking a while back, encouraging pre-teens to “unleash the sex kitten inside.”

There’s probably an update to this story by now, but I’ve been meaning to mention it.   Interesting state/federal issues therein, even setting aside the sensationalism of a city formally declaring Bush and Cheney wanted criminals.  This’ll get more interesting, especially after election day… I’m intending on writing more about that soon.

A couple Senate colleagues commented today that McCain was a little prickly in the Senate from time to time. Yawn. Tonight, MSNBC’s Olbermann brought it up with Eugene Robinson, associate editor of the Washington Post.

Olbermann: “The temper allegation that was made, is that one that’s actually of substance?”

Robinson: “Oh, I think that’s the one we gotta be concerned about. You don’t want the guy with his finger on The Button to have a temper problem. In fact, you don’t want The Button anywhere near him if he goes off..”

Are you fucking kidding me? That’s the one we gotta be concerned about? Is this really a mature, substantive, realistic piece of analysis? Setting aside for a moment that there is no fucking button (people know that, right?) - is the implication really that Senator McCain could just be feeling pissed and grumpy one day, and bring forth nuclear Armageddon? Can we please have some honest discussions about the issues, not this cartoony-horse-racey-bullshit that even MSNBC is caught up in? Please? Damn.. and when poor Ron Paul dares suggest we have an honest debate about American foreign policy, guys like Robinson are the first to laugh him off.

Anyway, I’m lucky that California’s Democratic Party lets independents like me vote in their primary. I’ll be doing just that tomorrow, enthusiastically and optimistically voting for Barack Obama. His servers are having a bit of trouble right now (can’t yet decide if that’s good or bad - I guess it’s OK if it lasts a few minutes, but pretty bad if they stay hosed all night.)

I encourage you all to do the same (get out and vote for Obama, not crash your servers.)

Should the White House be allowed to do this? My opinion: no. There might be an innocent technical explanation, but I can’t think of one. I suppose, on the long list of crimes this administration has committed, preventing Google, Yahoo, and other search spiders from indexing public materials is low on the list. But it’s nonetheless wrong to deliberately make it harder for people to find content on the White House site.

For non-techies: a robots.txt file gives instructions to search engines as to which links they may and may not follow (and therefore index.) This file is instructing all search engines to NOT follow and NOT index any directory that follows a “disallow” statement. A cursory glance tells me they’re blocking just about everything. Most interesting? All budget materials, NSC materials, and press releases.

I do believe a domain owner has the right to control where search spiders are allowed to go. However, in this case the domain owner is the American People. So, search engines: this is one robots.txt file I encourage you to ignore.