In the Warren forum, Obama reveals the viewpoint that I find perhaps the most dangerous of all among religionists. It provides a thin veil for conservative politics.

“And one of the things that I strongly believe is that we are not going to, as individuals, be able to erase evil from the world. That is God’s task, but we can be soldiers in that process, and we can confront it when we see it.”

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0…

I don’t want our government employees to view themselves as “soldiers” of God against evil.

I don’t want my president defining evil within the framework of his Christian religion.  Read more 

None.

Similarly, if Clinton had won by a narrow margin, she would have had no excuse to bypass a historic candidate like Obama.

Obama should ask Hillary Rodham Clinton as his top pick for VP. The reasons are so legion, so obvious, there’s no need to enumerate them further. They can be summarized as uniting, winning, and governing, with the justice of recognizing the first major woman Presidential candidate in U.S. history, highly qualified and supported by half of Democrats.

From Politico this evening:  Read more 

Sounds veerrry interesting. Quixote at Shakesville does a good job setting the stage for what may be a forthcoming announcement from NASA.

Yay! Sounds like we’ve learned something new! I don’t care what they found — more water, organic compounds, fossil bacteria, everybody’s missing socks — just, Yay! It’s hard not to hope for something conclusive about life.

Meanwhile, People of Earth wonder (as summed up by Watercat at Shakesville): “Why are they briefing the US President, and how are they getting scientific facts into little tiny words so he can understand them?”

Still gasping from the Veneman blow to the gut, we must now courageously face the latest Obama VP trial balloon, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. Kaine first played up but is now playing down the buzz.

Perhaps we might humbly catch a glimpse of the plans of our FKD (Formerly Known as Democratic) Party overlords by examining Kaine more closely. Kaine was, you recall, selected by the DNC to respond to Bush’s 2006 State of the Union address with a call for bipartisanship.  Read more 

That WAS your brain after the MoveOn brainwash video.
THIS is your brain on the Pointer Sisters.

Aaahhhhh, MUCH better… jump up and groove with us now… let go of all that embarrassment for MoveOn and its cute baby chick… that’s it… just let the funk flow in… that’s right… tell it, sisters…

h/t to TonyRz  Read more 

Obligatory per Jack Shafer at Slate.

Yet, if the press craves consistency, it owes its readers some sort of assessment of Edwards.

Corrente readers know all too well that the media doesn’t “crave consistency” at all. We’re not press, but we are “media.” And I’d rather resemble a rotting stump than the press. So here’s the obligatory Enquirer/Drudge-sourced sex post. I’m desperately uncomfortable allowing such sources to shape my opinions (thus my exclusion from the OFB.)  Read more 

I’m not so sure Obama has seized the remote, but in the sofa ruckus he may have luckily hit one of the buttons. There are indications he may be creating broader acceptance of his proposals for Iraq and Afghanistan:

Sen. Barack Obama, on his first and likely only overseas trip as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has remade the campaign’s foreign policy playing field, neatly sidestepping Republican charges that he has been naive and wrong on Iraq and moving to a broader, post-Iraq focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In essence, Obama has declared the war in Iraq all but over…  Read more 

George Carlin, forgive us all. This shit has grabbed my sparkly, light heart by the scruff of the neck, shaken it and tossed its limp carcass under the bus.

(And for the record, Clinton wore god-damned pantsuits because if she wore a god-damned tailored SUIT, she’d be “acting like a man” or lesbian. When she tried god-damned DRESSES, her ankles and cleavage were mocked. What the fucking HELL are women supposed to DO if they want to run for god-damned office without a god-damned perfect FIGURE?! Message received: they should stay the fuck HOME so Americans won’t have to fucking even LOOK at them.)

Real Clear Politics cites from the new Pew poll a couple figures: “69% of Hillary supporters back Obama; 17% say they will vote for McCain; and 12% are undecided.” And “55% of Democratic (and leaning) voters want to see Hillary as Obama’s VP.”

Digging deeper into the numbers…

**Only 38% said they DON’T want Hillary as VP. You mean the Cheeto doesn’t speak for us all?? It’s especially significant that when asked “Would she make you more/less likely to vote” for Barack, it’s a bit of a wash for Republicans at 23/26, but makes a huge difference to capturing Democratic votes, by 34/9. Other factoids:  Read more 

In the the latest PB2.0 thread, thinkers/gardeners Lambert and FrenchDoc intrigued me with their parallel of PB1.0 to a monoculture. Hmmm, let’s consider that further: a monoculture is a biological desert which drives out most living things, sustained only by massive inputs of poison and manure, sucking resources from the surrounding environment, vulnerable to destruction from a single external stress, its product nutritionally weak.

Ecologists know this. It suggests a framing that could create exciting opportunities for support for PB2.0.  Read more 

Environmentalists, social activists, feminists, atheists, political junkies… our modern Swifts and Voltaires. George Carlin blended anger and satire to blissful perfection, Grist Magazine is doing it for environmentalism, and Melissa McEwan does it for sexism and racism at Shakesville.

As the Obama euphoria fades, expect much more of this, from 23/6:

The Reader’s Guide to Maureen Dowd  Read more 

Barack Obama has coyly allowed another veil to drop, revealing the contempt for the Constitution he has covered modestly until now.

The bright, shiny veils, magnificently embroidered in 18-karat gold thread bought by telecoms and other corporate interests, are woven of a breathtakingly expensive, revolutionary translucent fabric.

The fabric, called TefChange, was brilliantly designed to block light from passing to Democratic power brokers, while an unfortunate 18 million onlookers were forced to view the contempt in all its glory while marveling at the praise for the Emperor of Hope’s new clothes.

UPDATE  Read more 

Riverdaughter’s post today is a hilarious must-read.

Don’t know about you guys, but I’m fine with feminist women using stereotype-based humor like this; some of you may disagree. Similarly, I give far more latitude to men, GLBTs, ethnic, racial and religious groups to satirize their own groups. I freely state I’d be pissed to read something similar on Olbermann’s blog. Riverdaughter’s earned the right to speak so; KO hasn’t. Simple. The whines I often hear about this “double standard” seem either disingenuous or humanity-bereft; I’m never sure which it is.

The US Senate’s Ladies Auxilliary met on Tuesday to discuss women’s issues… [and] finished with a demonstration on scrapbooking campaign memorabilia.

In attendance were Senators Diane Feinstein (CA), Barbara Mikulski (MD), Amy Klobuchar (MN) and Barbara Boxer (CA).  Read more 

Andrew Stephen, U.S. Editor of the U.K.’s venerable left-wing magazine, New Statesman, wrote today:

“Hating Hillary”

History, I suspect, will look back on the past six months as an example of America going through one of its collectively deranged episodes - rather like Prohibition from 1920-33, or McCarthyism some 30 years later. This time it is gloating, unshackled sexism of the ugliest kind. It has been shamelessly peddled by the US media, which - sooner rather than later, I fear - will have to account for their sins. The chief victim has been Senator Hillary Clinton, but the ramifications could be hugely harmful for America and the world.  Read more 

At CNN home page http://www.cnn.com/
Vote button is on lower right.

“Do you agree with Sen. Hillary Clinton that the press has ignored sexism in the campaign?”

GOP and Obama geeks dominate CNN, as usual, with these following astoundingly head-up-their-*#@! results:

Yes 42% 29581
No 58% 41631
Total Votes: 71212

On the morning of the West Virginia primary, Washington Post Associate Editor Kevin Merida published a blockbuster story about ugly racial incidents experienced by Obama campaign workers that continues to fuel debate.

Media pundits are now using it to prove that “Clinton is willing to ride these biases to the White House.”  Read more