Attacking the Rights of Women is Par for the Course With These People

Senator Hillary Clinton points out a case of deranged wingnuttery from the Bush Administration:

The Bush administration is up to its old tricks again, quietly putting ideology before science and women's health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is poised to put in place new barriers to accessing common forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception and IUDs by labeling them "abortion." These proposed regulations set to be released next week will allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it. We can't let them get away with this underhanded move to undermine women's health and that's why I am sounding the alarm.

These rules pose a serious threat to providers and uninsured and low-income Americans seeking care. They could prevent providers of federally-funded family planning services, like Medicaid and Title X, from guaranteeing their patients access to the full range of comprehensive family planning services. They'll also build significant barriers to counseling, education, contraception and preventive health services for those who need it most: low-income and uninsured women and men.

The regulations could even invalidate state laws that currently ensure access to contraception for many Americans. In fact, they describe New York and California's laws requiring prescription drug insurance plans to provide coverage for contraceptives as part of "the problem." These rules would even interfere with New York State law that ensures survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.

Here's the link to HillPac, and a letter you can sign protesting this outrage.

--WS

Why is Hagel Getting Time With Obama?

I can see one side of this--Obama is bipartisan and can work with Republicans! But I can also see a side of this that makes more sense to me--who cares what Chuck Hagel thinks about anything? He's a lame duck, he's got a pro-Bush voting record a mile long, and he takes up a space that a better Republican Senator could have taken. By better I mean, not quite so taken with the forces of evil--someone Obama can work with. He's proven he can work with Dick Lugar--so why not take the occasionally sane Susan Collins, semi-reasonable Chuck Grassley, a lost cause like John McCain's other BFF Thad Cochran, or surprise the hell out of everyone and take the wretched Lindsey Graham and humiliate him by letting him speak?

The buzz this week that Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is planning to join Sen. Barack Obama on an up-coming visit to Iraq is correct, two sources with knowledge of the trip confirmed Friday.

Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, center, is joined by Democratic Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware, left, and Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, right, in a news conference on Capitol Hill on January 17, 2007 in Washington, D.C., to oppose the president’s troop increase in Iraq. (Getty)
A spokesman for Sen. Obama declined to comment on any details or even confirm the date uncertain trip, citing security concerns. A spokesman for Sen. Hagel did not respond to requests for comment.

While it is standard practice for such trips—known as CODELS, or congressional delegations—to be bipartisan, in this highly charged election year it is likely to raise eyebrows that the retiring Nebraskan senator—a prominent Iraq War critic—is the Republican expected to join the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee on what is sure to be a closely watched visit to the region.

Chuck Hagel might tell you he's with you, but the record shows that he's just going to vote with Bush anyway.

Come to think of it, quite a few Democrats do, too. Never mind.

--WS

As If We Didn't See This Coming

Remember that dude who was going to stand up in front of the National Press Club and say a whole lot of bad things about Barack Obama?

Larry Sinclair was arrested after the press conference and is being held by the Washington, D.C. metropolitan police. He's been charged as a fugitive from justice; one of his warrants can be seen here.

Now--as a concession to all who have raw feelings--and I'm not looking in your general direction elmo, but I suspect you might be in the room--if this had been someone saying these things about Hillary, they'd be on Meet the Press next week with Lindsey Graham and Pat Leahy.

Just another day in paradise...

--WS

Timothy Shriver, Concern Troll

Timothy Shriver says Hillary Clinton should just "do nothing" now that she's suspended her campaign. Hey, I'm sure that she thanks you for the advice, but it really wasn't necessary:

Hillary Clinton’s amazing campaign is over. Regardless of what one thinks of her, we can all appreciate the model she has set for women and girls. She’s redefined the possible in politics, and our country is forever changed because of her.

Pundits have already begun to evaluate her next political move. Senate leader? Legislative powerhouse? New York governor? None of the options seems exactly right.

At times of transition, when people don’t know where to turn, the spiritual world has an answer: Do nothing. Do nothing every day. Do nothing at all for several days and then continue doing nothing at least once a day for the rest of your life!

Sorry, Timothy. She's free to do whatever she damned well pleases, and your concern troll pleading to soothe her battered spirits underlies the fundamental reason why no one in your line of work understands her: doing nothing is what got us where we are today.

Doing nothing allowed George Bush to wreck the fucking country. Hillary was in there, every single day, trying to do something to stop it. You can complain about her vote for the war, but she was lied to like everyone else, and we're getting to the bottom of that, so you and everyone else can stop bitching at her for it. If she were to come out and say that it was a mistake, you and everyone else would bitch at her for that, too.

[If you want to comment, and bitch about the war, please do. But the point has already been made--voting to authorize the war was a mistake. Hillary was willing to do whatever it took to fix the problem, and she wasn't the one who suggested we stay there for a hundred years. So STFU.]

Now, the concern troll suggestion that she drop out of public life is all well and good, but I thank God for Hillary Clinton, because that's the last thing she's going to do. She's already back at work, fighting like crazy for the good of this country, and here's why:

For the next twenty or thirty years, a whole hell of a lot of us now get to work extra hard to un-fuck the country so that our grandkids can have something.

Hey, thanks for playing. Now, please go shut your fucking piehole and let us get to work.

--WS

That was a damned classy ending...

Hillary gave a damned strong concession speech, and Obama was quite gracious in his acceptance. Maureen Dowd won't like it of course, but then, nobody likes Maureen Dowd, so who cares?

Now everyone needs to show the class shown by both of the candidates. The rabid supporters need to let it go and be gracious - in both camps.

It isn't about anyones hurt feelings, it is about finding a way out of Iraq and saving the Supreme Court. Anyone so aggrieved that they are going to vote for McCain, or not vote at all, well, you're either certifiably fucking crazy, or you are the most selfish prick the world has ever seen. Get over yourself.

On to November.

UPDATE 4:15 Central

I just went to the Obama website to sign up to volunteer and do my p[art to get him elected President of the United States, and this is what I saw...



And it gets better...Below the fold is the video of Obama's speech after her endorsement...




Like I said, a damned classy ending to a historic primary. Now let's get busy and elect Barack Obama president.

~~BG

So much for the horse race, let's look at track conditions

All right Democrats. It is time to get our collective act together and put the past behind us. It isn't about anyones hurt feelings. I voted for Hillary in the primary and one of the checks I wrote this primary season was to her campaign. But I can read the tea leaves, and Obama is going to be the nominee.

So take the long weekend to lick your wounds, and when Tuesday rolls around, start with mending fences. It is time to get over yourself. It isn't about you, or me, or even the candidates. It is about electing a Democrat and saving the Supreme Court.

Looked at through that lens, Obama is perfectly suited for the job, because he was a Constitutional Law professor. That is hugely important with a Supreme Court that has a liberal wing that is as chronologically advanced as our liberal justices are. Especially with Roberts as Chief. Ugh...


McClatchy has an article on the importance of Missouri this fall. Obama carried the state - narrowly - on Super Tuesday - because of St. Louis and Kansas City. In the outstate areas, Hillary is the overwhelming choice. At the State Democratic Convention I saw Hillbillies for Hillary t-shirts, and my father in law, who has voted in the primary for the guy who eventually won the White House since 1980 is a huge Hillary Clinton supporter. I have been telling everyone since September, when we went to the country for bow season, that she is the outstate favorite.

Obama - and the state and national party apparatus - have challenges in this bellwether state - but they can be overcome with grassroots organization, and most importantly - presence. When Missouri voters in outstate areas are asked about Obama and the response ranges from

"I feel like I just don't know him yet."

to

"I can't vote Republican. I'll either vote for Obama or not vote. If it were today, I would not vote. There's still six months . ... He's gonna' have to convince me. I haven't seen it yet."

Our mission is clearly defined. Convince voters. I spoke to my father in law before the state convention and asked him if there was anything he wanted me to impart to the leaders of the party. He said I should tell them to make their presence known, that no one was going to vote for them if they didn't bother to ask.

So here is how Obama wins in Missouri, and helps deliver the Missouri Sixth congressional seat to Kay Barnes, the Democrat opposing the odious Sam "96%" Graves, (as in he votes the way aWol wants him to 96% 0f the time), and takes a congressional enemy off the chessboard.

It's politics 101. What Howard Dean did for the nation with the brilliant 50 State Strategy, the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party (national and state need to get their act together and combine resources for this) need to do in Missouri. Call it a 114 County Strategy.

Get someone on the ground in every county - it can be as simple as a dedicated cell phone and someone willing to answer and return calls, and store yard signs, bumper stickers, lapel pins and campaign literature in their garage or basement and pass it out when people ask for it, and put an add in every county paper every single week.

If Obama campaigns hard in Kansas City, St. Louis, and the Sixth Congressional District...He wins. KC and StL are reliably Democratic. The Sixth is vulnerable and due to flip. The Sixth is also huge in area - the population isn't dense, but the people aren't either. They know that republican policies have damaged them economically and sent their kids to fight and die in a senseless conflict that should never have been undertaken. A couple of stops in St. Joseph would pull supporters for both Kay Barnes and Representative Nancy Boyda of the KS 02 and fill the stadium at Missouri Western. Do the same thing in Hannibal and bolster democratic turnout among rural voters in three states. What's not to love about this plan?

Now the Democratic Party needs to get their act together and start plotting strategy. Ask any veteran and they will tell you - It is always - always - a bad idea to cede the hill country in any fight.


[Crossposted from Show Me Progress]

A Sad and Pathetic Spectacle...

This is the latest chapter in what is fast becoming a heartbreakingly pathetic, desperate and ridiculous saga.

Hillary Clinton today brought up the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy while defending her decision to stay in the race against Barack Obama.

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing calls to drop out.

Clinton made her comments at a meeting with the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader's editorial board while campaigning in South Dakota, where she complained that, "People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa.

Bringing up the nightmare of 1968 is a matter of context, and I'm afraid that there's a candidate still in the race who hasn't figured out "context" yet.

This is what "Class" looks like

Hillary Clinton didn't dawdle when it came time to turn her wrath on George (grandson of Nazi collaborators) Bush for his act of treachery in front of the Knesset today. She tore him a new asshole, and reminded a lot of folks why she is still fighting on. She's scrappy, she's tough and she's smart as hell. Whether you like her or not, she is all of those things and more than a few of us find those traits endearing on some level. I know I do. But I'm the kind of mouthy broad who, when someone casts the epithet bitch, smiles brightly and says "thanks for noticing!"

When Bush compared Obama to Chamberlain, he got a face-full of Hillary claws, swiping at him from half-a world away and drawing blood.

President Bush’s comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is both offensive and outrageous on the face of it, especially in light of his failures in foreign policy. This is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address and certainly to use an important moment like the 60th anniversary celebration of Israel to make a political point seems terribly misplaced. Unfortunately, this is what we’ve come to expect from President Bush.

There is a very clear difference between Democrats and Republicans on foreign policy and that difference will be evident once we take back the White House.

Amen, Sister.

Not that the haters will ever give her any due whatsoever - they are likely looking for her fingerprints on Bush's speech. After all, she's a witch and must be burned, or at least cast from society and implored to offend decent people no more with her uppity ways.

Of course, she outclasses those assholes by a mile, too.

I liked this ad...

The primary in Missouri has come and gone, and I have thus far maintained the pledge I made after my candidate withdrew to support the nominee, although anyone who has been paying very close attention can figure out who I cast my secret ballot for, and a window of my dwelling has a candidates sign up for all the world to see. I have walked across the street and dropped a couple of checks in the mailbox. But my support has been as the private citizen, not as the blogger.

When we saw this ad at Truthdig last night we both loved it - hell, we high-fived.



My decision on who to vote for should surprise exactly no one. I spent my career as a healtcare professional, and for me, it all comes down to that issue, because there is simply no daylight between them on any other of the issues that matter to me. And please - don't give me any shit about her AUMF vote, I know the context in which it took place, and if that's a dealbreaker for you, well, good luck with puberty and sorry about that, but we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Oh, Come On...

[Burt Lancaster, Elmer Gantry]

I don't consider myself an Obama supporter or a Clinton supporter--I'm a Democrat, I've participated in the primary process, and when the party selects a nominee, that's the person I'm going to support. You see, there's a greater good, and while I will always demand better Democrats, I'll still vote Democrat this fall. No Republican alive could earn my vote this year.

But Taylor Marsh jumps the shark:

Cons eventually catch up with you. Obama's played his supporters for suckers. They bought into the hope hype, sucking up this stuff with a straw, only to find out Obama's not an original, he's a knock off, of a governor, no less. Siphoning off of a winning campaign to try to win the presidency with a formula. Hey, it's politics. One campaign model fits 'em all. Put your twenty bucks in the bucket and shut the hell up!

The traditional media, cable talking heads, and quite a few large progressive blogs have regurgitated the Obama story like a pack of nomads wandering in the political desert in search of sustenance; people bankrupt of political or factual integrity looking for the answer and refusing to see what was in front of their faces all along. The question is whether the journalists who bought into the Obama hype, along with the cable talking heads who propped his campaign up, and the Obama blogs who didn't care one whit about the facts or his record but were only interested in spreading their Hillary hatred, have got so much invested they won't have the honesty, the integrity, and the moral courage to back peddle on their craven cave in before it's not only too late for them, but too late for the Democratic party.

Barack Obama isn't an original. He's the first 21st century L. Ron Hubbard of politics, Elmer Gantry, name your huckster.

"I have a dream" just became "I have a con."

Hold on, have to wipe off the spittle...

Really, Taylor? L Ron Hubbard? Elmer Gantry? One was real, one wasn't. Not much else in your metaphor stands up. No further comment on Hubbard will appear here, thank you very much. But Elmer Gantry was banned in Boston, of course, and Taylor Marsh's bullshit can't get out of Hooterville. This is a perfect example of getting completely unhinged in public and wondering why no one can take Marsh seriously anymore.

Quick question--How does THAT help Hillary accomplish anything? The real problem is this--she needed to run a great campaign and she only managed to run a pretty good one. There's nothing wrong with her or Obama, in my eyes, and we are blessed as a Democratic Party to have this kind of talent to choose from.

The derangement of the people on my side of the aisle sometimes approaches the derangement of those who oppose me politically. But derangement is derangement, and Taylor Marsh exemplifies the kind of derangement we do not need as Democrats.

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER

Sadly, one of our commenters had to do a "full disclosure" and identify themselves as an Obama supporter.

Hello? You don't need to do that. Thanks, but if you support Obama, that doesn't mean you have to disclose it. The vitriol of liberal blogs in recent months has people self-identifying themselves, lest they be "outed" and persecuted and shut down for their beliefs. You have to disclose, for example, that if you're a paid shill of Monsanto that your twenty-six blog posts highlighting what a safe and pleasant line of products that Monsanto safely makes out of distilled water and grass clippings come from a biased point of view.

A Democrat shouldn't feel obligated to disclose who they support. Come on, has it come to this? I hope not. That's why I would argue that people like Taylor Marsh have jumped the shark, and have crossed the line into irrelevance.

Some of the things that made me rant today - Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008

The worst suicide bombing in the history of Afghanistan occurred in Kandahar on Sunday, leaving at least 80 dead and 90 wounded. The attack, blamed on Taliban forces, appeared to target a local tribal leader and police chief who had "declared war" on the them.

The target, along with five of his security detail were killed. The attack occurred at a dogfighting event just outside the city that had drawn entire families of Afghanis from all over Kandahar province. Dogfighting was previously banned when the Taliban ran the country because it involves gambling, an activity that was prohibited under their fundamentalist rule. “This is the action of the enemies of our country,” said the Governor of Kandahar, Asadullah Khaled. “They do not let Afghans enjoy their lives and have a peaceful life.”


How's that Surge™ workin' out for ya? Ethnic Kurdish officials in Irbil are keeping their ethnic Arab residents on a short leash. Every three months, Arab residents have to report to an intelligence agency and bring their papers for proper vetting. So much for the blessings of liberty. I guess all Iraqis are equal, but in the new ethnically divided Iraq, some Iraqis are more equal than others, and how equal one is is determined by who is running things where you live. Great. Welcome to Johannesburg, circa 1978.

Hows that Surge™ workin' out for ya? II The fifth female suicide bomber so far this year blew herself up in an appliance market on Sunday, but this time there was no doubt that she was a willing participant. When wires were spotted under her clothing at a checkpoint she bolted toward the market. It is believed that she intended to target an Iraqi Colonel that was touring the area.

How's that Surge™ workin' out for ya? III - Remember what I told you last night about the 2000 coalition-allied and funded militia members who had abandoned their posts after an incident in which three Sons of Iraq civilian guard corps members were gunned down by American forces? Well, that was the second stand-down. Last night when I was posting, I forgot about this. Babil is the second province in which Sunni militiamen have ceased their cooperation with American forces. It happened in Diyala a week ago.

A military judge has overruled objections by the Government and will allow defense attorneys in the Hamdan case question Khalid Sheik Mohammed and six other alleged senior al Qaeda captives being held in seclusion at the Guantánamo Bay prison camp. Navy Capt. Keith Allred gave the U.S. government until Tuesday (Monday is a federal holiday) to establish an independent security arrangement to help lawyers representing Salim Hamdan gather evidence they say could exonerate their client. At issue is just how deeply involved the $200 per month driver with the third grade education was involved in the planning and execution of terror attacks. The prosecution maintains that Hamdan need not have belonged to the cells that plotted the attacks to have been part of the conspiracy to kill Americans, he is guilty by association. The defense argues that if Hamdan wasn't part of the plot, he should be found innocent of overarching conspiracy charges.

Hillary Clinton gave the most detailed response to questions posed about last weeks decision by the government to try six Guantánamo detainees in front of military tribunals, and to seek the death penalty for guilty verdicts. She would ask her Justice Department to transfer the detainees to either the civilian courts or regular military court system, instead of the current Kafkaesque "military commissions" that currently governs the fate of the detainees. The civlian court system handled the first World Trade Center attackers quite ably. They are in prison serving life, put there by a previous Clinton Justice Department.

[I haven't officially endorsed anyone since Richardson dropped out, but I will say this. I liked that answer.]

Reason number...hell, I've lost count why I eat a largely locally-grown diet, and sure as hell don't buy mass-produced ground anything. If it doesn't come from a steer we buy directly from a farmer or Four H member after the county fair season, or a deer we harvested; that we then have processed at a locker in a small town - we don't eat it. (Well, unless it's buffalo from McGonigles.) A meat-packing plant in southern California has been shut down, and a recall issued on 140 million pounds of beef, because the plant was processing "downer cows" that the USDA has deemed unfit for human consumption. It is believed that most of the meat has already been consumed, but hey, no worries! Most of it went to school lunch programs!

[Can we get a USDA inspector back in every meat processing plant please? Good grief.]

Researchers at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill have released a study that assesses human impact on the oceans and the results are chilling. The research was conducted by a team of researchers from the US, Canada and Great Britain. In all seventeen areas across which data was collected and analyzed,the human impact was obvious, and in many areas the threats to the oceanic ecosystems overlaps and the impact is compound. "The big picture looks much worse than I imagine most people expected," said lead scientist Ben Halpern at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Two days in a row, an organization of lawyers has made me swear I will continue my moratorium on attorney jokes. The National Association of Attorneys General has taken the position that the Earth is warming, the climate is changing, the ice caps are melting, and states attorney's general need to educate themselves about it. A vast majority of climate scientists believe that energy is the biggest contributor to global greenhouse gasses, and invariably, as the effects set in, the lawyers will be involved. As the attorneys that represent the citizens of their states, it stands to reason that state AG's should be able to adequately represent the citizens of their states when the torts hit the fan.

Goodnight all - consider this an open thread and I'll see you in the morning.

The Winnowing

So much for brokered conventions and draft candidates. Not gonna happen. Not this year, anyway.

With only a handful of states having weighed in, the field is down to four. And before the Borg commence with the swarming and pointing out that Ron Paul hasn’t dropped out, let me say that I am aware of this, but it is also irrelevant. His candidacy is going nowhere, and reasonable people realize this and will realign their support to the current reality.

So what do we have?

On the Republican side, we have Mitt “flip-flopper” Romney who was for all sorts of things before he was against them, calling John McCain a liberal (that word has lost a lot of it’s zip, hasn’t it?) yet he was moderate enough in a previous incarnation to be elected governor of Massachusetts, the most liberal state in the union. Then we have John “occupy Iraq in perpetuity” McCain, jumping up and down like Yosemite Sam and yelling about “waiving the white flag of surrender” – never for a moment stopping to let it register that 70% of the country realizes the folly of the Iraq misadventure and understand that you don’t “win” an occupation, you simply occupy until such time as troops are withdrawn.

On the Democratic side we have two left standing – a white woman and a black man. One has successfully pushed back against the right-wing noise machine for nearly two decades, and the other one seems, at least to this point, almost immune to it.

A while back a friend of mine said something in an email exchange that resonated with me at that moment and is still turning over in my mind. Real soon, the wall of presidential portraits is going to experience a shake-up. There will be 43 portraits of white men, and then there will be number 44 – and instead of another white male face, there is going to be a black man or a white woman smiling back.

Now that is what I call “change.”

Obama Wins South Carolina

It wasn't even close...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - NBC News declared Sen. Barack Obama as the projected winner in South Carolina's Democratic primary.

Obama won South Carolina by a substantial margin, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in second and John Edwards third, NBC reported.

Obama was projected to rout Clinton in the racially charged primary, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates.

A third-place finish for Edwards would come as a sharp setback in the state where he was born and scored a primary victory in his first presidential campaign four years ago.

Landslide margins among black voters fueled Obama's lead, allowing him to overcome the edge that Clinton and Edwards had among whites in the state. Black women turned out in particularly large numbers. Obama, the first-term Illinois senator, got a quarter of the white vote while Clinton and Edwards split the rest.

The victory was Obama's first since he won the kickoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, scored an upset in the New Hampshire primary a few days later. They split the Nevada caucuses, she winning the turnout race, he gaining a one-delegate margin. In an historic race, she hopes to become the first woman to occupy the White House, and Obama is the strongest black contender in history.

The South Carolina primary marked the end of the first phase of the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, a series of single-state contests that winnowed the field, conferred co-front-runner status on Clinton and Obama but had relatively few delegates at stake.

THIS Democratic Primary Voter would now like to see less talk about personal issues, and more talk about substantive issues. The media be damned--if this doesn't send a wakeup call to all camps that they better leave the mudslinging behind and start talking about issues that matter to voters, the end result is going to be a further fracturing of the Democratic Party.

One thing I do not want to see is the 50 state strategy thrown under the bus. Today showed that a whole lot of voters in a red state are willing to come out and vote for a Democrat. Is anyone paying attention?

They'd better be.

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER

Tonight, Obama got almost 300,000 votes. In a "red" state.

Last week, McCain and Huckabee combined got less than that.

Wow.

Wasn't there something I was supposed to blog about today?

Oh yeah - I remember now.

There's a Republican primary election in South Carolina and both parties held their caucus in Nevada today.


Nevada first...With 88% of precincts reporting, Hillary Clinton was declared the winner with 51% to Obama's 45%. Edwards garnered 4%, and should probably think about withdrawing with his chances for a cabinet position - and his dignity - intact.

On the Republican side, Romney took it standing up, with 53%. Ron Paul and John McCain were tied for second with 13% each.

I guess the Nervous Nellies among Hillary supporters were a bit over-the-top. For the record, they totally took the wrong tack. They should have approached it from the position of "then you have to hold caucuses in hospitals, too." What judge would want to be seen as the guy who upheld a showgirls right to caucus, but nurses can go hang? It was a no-brainer. Apparently. Some no-brain out there fucked that up from Jump Street.

Okay - South Carolina - that's a Republicans-only primary election, and polls won't close for a couple of hours, but Politico.com has a pretty good summation:

Saturday's most crucial showdown was on the other side of the country, in South Carolina, where the Republican contenders try to wrest advantage from each other — after three different candidates won the first three major contests.

Most polls have shown McCain leading Huckabee, trailed by Romney and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson.

The stakes for the entire GOP field are high if history is a guide — every Republican nominee since Ronald Reagan has won South Carolina.

And the weather is absolutely miserable. Can you believe it's snowing in parts of South Carolina?

Well it is.

In the part of the state where Mike Huckabee's support is strongest.

Wonder what God's own Candidate is thinking right now?

UPDATE - PALE RIDER

God's own candidate, Mitt Romney, did well out in Las Vegas. I've seen some coverage writing it off, basically saying that an overwhelming Mormon vote is the reason for his win in Nevada.

Ron Paul polling at 13% and possibly beating McCain is huge--as is the fact that Ron Paul has a larger constituency within the Republican Party than that of Rudy Guiliani. I'm reminded of Ron Paul explaining why we were attacked on 9/11 and Rudy "not getting it" and trying to belittle Ron Paul for his ideas. As nuts as he is, Ron Paul gets it right on the war and that's gotta be troubling for the overtly pro-war candidates on either side of the aisle.

UPDATE II - PALE RIDER 7:45 PM- Eastern

Tucker Carlson is trying to fan the flames of a Hispanic vs Black split in the Democratic Party. As if. We don't even have a nominee yet. We don't have anywhere near enough information to make that assessment. We have yet to see a large, populous and diverse state vote yet. And the Republican shill machine is desperate.

Tucker--talk about Ron Paul beating main stream Republicans with 50 times the name recognition and then ask us about a split among Democrats. The split is on the Republican side, clearly, because they are seeing candidates who have spent millions go down in flames.

The MSNBC coverage is dominated by Olbermann and Russert. Matthews is the third wheel along for the Prom date, and no one wants to give him liquor because he'll get caught and everyone will get busted by the Gym teacher. This makes for stilted coverage. CNN is unwatchable. They have Bill Bennett in there and all I want to do is ask "did that lardass play the one-armed bandit all day?"

UPDATE III - Blue Girl

Lets look at the Nevada numbers:

Women were a strong majority for the Democrats in Nevada. 59% of Democrats attending the caucus were female, to 41% male.

On the Republican side, the numbers are closer, but males are a solid majority - 52% to 48%.

But more telling than the gender demographics are the age demographics.

Republicans

60-up_________45%
45-59_________27%
30-44_________17%
18-29_________11%

Democrats

60-up_________36%
45-59_________32%
30-44_________19%
18-29_________13%

The numbers tell this well-versed-in-stats political consumer that the Republican party is entering the twilight years, along with it's stalwarts. It is sooooo yesterday. People who want to move forward are throwing their lot in with the Democrats, and the demographics on the Democratic side are much more stable and desirable. If you read these numbers as if they were in the respective prospectus of companies competing for your investment dollars, where would you invest your money?

UPDATE IV - PALE RIDER

Yes--the voters are turned off by the Republicans, they are identifying themselves as Democrats, and the Republicans can't raise money. It's shocking to see how broke some of them are--Guiliani and McCain are literally broke and running on fumes on a day to day basis. Romney is using his own money and Huckabee isn't spending any money. The only who has a legitimate fundraising machine is Ron Paul and he's not going to piss that money away. In 1999, George W Bush was raising millions and was building a massive war chest with which to run. There is no comparison this year. They are all running on fumes.

How about a shout out to Howard Dean? The Fifty State strategy means we are going to compete with Republicans everywhere, and we will make them play a full-court game. As their "brand" continues to sink, we will make gains in places the Washington DC establishment would have written off four years ago.

UPDATE V - PALE RIDER - 09:07PM East

Chris Matthews "John McCain-his enemy is al Qaeda.""Mitt Romney-his enemy is Washington."

[so we're going to send a snarling old man after al Qaeda? Will he have bandoliers of ammo and a grenade pinned to his lapel? I hardly doubt al Qaeda is concerned about John McCain. In fact, they must be salivating at the idea that a deranged old coot keeps trying to threaten them. It's gotta help with recruiting.]

something, something, Huckabee, something Sodom and Gomorrah.
"The Road to St. Paul" and all of it's [catholic] Biblical overtones.
John McCain is a "live and let live guy"

Why doesn't Matthews just admit that he would carry McCain to the gates of Hell just to be seen holding a man he loves, in that platonic sort of way.

Schuster is at Huckabee headquarters and he looks like he just drank a quart of vinegar.

Brian Williams is commenting on the Big Dog's temper. Hello, dumbass--how about McCain's temper and McCain's snarling personality? Compared to Bill, McCain is easily the bigger hothead.

Russert--this is between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Whatever, dude. You don't have a clue, either.

Hillary Clinton Campaign Headquarters Open In Kansas City

Saturday after noon the Hillary Clinton campaign headquarters held a grand opening in Kansas City. The doors opened at 10:00 a.m. and volunteers started phone banking, then at 2:30 a group of local and state elected officials who are endorsing Senator Clinton in her bid for the White House spoke to the standing-room-only crowd.

The headquarters is located at 7442 Holmes, on the northeast corner of 75th and Holmes, across the street from the northeast corner of Tower Park. The office space is being donated by local businessman, developer, community re-investor and Democratic fundraiser Nick Abnos, owner of the Abdiana Futon chain.

I arrived at the headquarters at about 2:00, with the local politicians who have endorsed the Senator scheduled to address the crowd at 2:30. State Senators Rachel Storch and Jolie Justus, Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders, and United States Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver. They were great speakers one and all - well-spoken, articulate in their expression of why they are supporting Senator Clinton - but Congressman Cleaver spoke last, and that man can move a mountain with his oratorical skills.

He had a lot of things to say, and much of it quotable - but one thing he said rings absolutely true...speaking about the Republicans and the concern-trolling of certain factions of the Democratic Party - "We are all Democrats. We can't let them separate us."

Amen, Mayor (Congress is only national) you got that right.

The "Bush" of the Democrats

We have a battle, not a coronation, in the Democratic Party. But the concern trolls would have you think otherwise.

Just want to highlight something that Andrew Sullivan is peddling, and how quickly Thers at Whiskey Fire was able to jump on it and mock it:

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Wow. Andy Sullivan is losing his mind. Somebody, quick, get that peanut before it rolls under the couch.

My fear is that if you merely wound her candidacy, you are in danger. The Clinton machine is now poised to pull every partisan lever and deploy every cheap tactic: the gender card, the elderly card, the 527s, the teachers' unions, AFSCME, the Human Rights Campaign, the super-delegates, and the core Democratic base. This is always about the Clintons. If the Democrats have to lose to McCain in November so Hillary Cliton can become the first female nominee for any major party, that's a price the country will just have to pay.

Now they have to either kill or coopt the hope that Obama has unleashed. Just as Bush coopted McCain's New Hampshire message in 2000, so Clinton is coopting Obama's message in 2007. She didn't find her own voice; she took Obama's, removed the eloquence and added a spice of identity politics.

She is the Bush of the Democrats. Which is why Obama must defeat her.

Jesus tits, get a fucking grip, you big giant baby. You're just making all that shit up.

Pro forma: I would prefer a different candidate than HRC. That said, more harm has been done to our democracy by the demented anti-Clintinoids than the Clintons ever did. For openers, these are by and large the same gang of assholes who enabled George W Bush.

Sullivan has no grasp of policy, or of how things actually work or are likely to in the real world. Or he just doesn't care. He has some Exciting Grand Epic Movie playing in his head, and that's what matters.

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Oh, he is indeed making it up. The movie playing in his head stars himself as the wise adviser [ concern troll? ] to President Obama, and together they fight crime and save the world from...not sure, exactly. Most supervillains don't come in a pantsuit with a husband that talks about fairy tales.

For examples of what is really happening, the SEIU in Nevada has endorsed Obama and John Kerry also says that he's going to endorse Obama. I'm guessing that the so-called Clinton machine just ain't what it used to be. In other words, it's a contest. A race. It's not a walk to glory or a coronation. It's looking like Clinton vs Obama and whoever wins is going to be ready to beat the hell out of the Republican brand name. If Sullivan still "fears" a Republican on the ticket for 2008, he clearly hasn't been watching them debate each other into oblivion. If Sullivan thinks this country is going to hand the keys to a crazy coot like McCain--who will implode when challenged in any future debate--then he hasn't been reading anything relevant about the polls, public opinion, or public sentiment about the economy, the war, and health care.

Sullivan ceased to be relevant or interesting so long ago, it isn't even funny. In a world where Bill Kristol can land a paying gig at the New York Times, don't look for Sullivan to go away any time soon.

BONUS observation from the brilliant Apollo 13:

When Gore won the Nobel, Sully on an "Inconvenient truth about Al Gore"...

Much of the blame for America’s intense divisions in wartime can be laid at the feet of the men who beat him, George W Bush and Dick Cheney. But the brutal showdown nine months before 9/11 – completely avoidable if Gore had been able to descend from his high horse – was also his responsibility. And its effects continue, even down to the difficulty Hillary Clinton has in persuading anyone outside the Democratic base that she can be trusted with presidential power.

PS: Did you know that I love bear fights! It's true!

The Shameful Media Coverage

"Thank you, Senator Obama. You've defeated Senator Clinton in Iowa. It looks as if you're about to beat her in New Hampshire. There will be no Clinton Restoration. A nation turns its grateful eyes to you."

--William Kristol



"It's the tears. She pretended to cry. The women felt sorry for her. And she won."

--William Kristol



I don't know if reaction to the media treatment of Clinton had anything to do with voter choices yesterday, but I certainly know people in real life who a) don't want Clinton to win and b) are tempted to vote for her every time they're exposed to the way she's treated by the deeply broken monsters in our mainstream media.

--Atrios

Hillary Wins New Hampshire!

Prognostications of the chattering classes aside, Hillary Clinton has won the New Hampshire primary.

And for the record, Bill "the Bloody" Kristol, tears had nothing to do with it, and she didn't cry anyway.

Of course, there are those in the (lefty!) blogosphere who are insisting that she won because she got the sympathy vote after "breaking down" but they are wrong. She might have gotten a lot of support from women, but it wasn't because anyone felt bad, or guilty or obligated. She got a lot of support from a lot of women who are pissed off at the entrenched misogyny that led to the politics of the pile-on.

That's what did it for me.

Sympathy didn't flip me. 27 years of being an adult woman and dealing with the soft misogyny of the workplace did it.

And Edwards? Screw him. I love his wife to death, but that devotion doesn't go so far that I'll support the prick now. Not after he said he wasn't going to comment, then did anyway.

It isn't over, but I have to admit that it feels really good to go to bed tonight with a win for the home team. I have been a registered voter for 27 years. That is a long time to wait for a female candidate.

Some Radio Dudes Are About to Lose Their Gig

Whoops...

Hillary, however, heard the chant, “Iron my shirt!” from two young twenty-something males who heckled her from at a New Hampshire college today.

Is your BS detector going off yet? It should. These kids who allegedly yelled this taunt are half my age, but are displaying the sexist sensibilities of Archie Bunker, who by the way, would be so old that I doubt that either of them even know who Archie Bunker was.

[SNIP]

Thanks to an alert Boston area reader, it looks like we know who our culprits are. They aren’t troglodyte misogynists. Nor are they Clinton plants. Worse . . . they’re radio shock jocks.

I guess we all gut sucked in to believing the worst that we suspect about others. Feminists assumed that these were legitimate chauvinists, and I presumed a Clinton plant.



The person in the picture above [far left] is apparently “Adolfo” from the “Toucher and Rich” show on Boston station WBCN.

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Talk about being "Opie and Anthony" stupid.

The dudes in that picture? Coming soon to a small market somewheres near where ya'll are in rural wherever down along Interstate 20. Say goodbye to Boston, fellows, because Boston is home to some of the most "anti-prank" people imaginable. I highly doubt whether the station owner is going to tolerate having to explain to the US Secret Service why two of his erstwhile employees showed up on thousands of media outlets around the world because someone on a radio show had a brain fart. I also suspect that if you're too goddamned stupid to figure out that Senator Hillary Clinton is protected by aforementioned US Secret Service, and in the middle of a serious, serious campaign for the Presidency, that there won't be a little, ummm, "Pushback" for the distraction this little stunt has caused.

Just a hint to those of you in the broadcasting field--if it sounds like a great idea, the kind that would excite your listeners and piss off the suits who just don't "get" what you're all about, you better back away slowly and make sure none of your interns actually go out and do what you told them to do.

A pitiful sight to behold

It pains me to watch the Clinton campaign coming undone like this.

As y'all know, I have backed Richardson from the get-go - but not really in the true-believer sense - and my secondary choice has gone back and forth between Hillary and Edwards.

Let's face it - the Democrats have a great slate of candidates. In any other year, any one of them would win standing up. Any one of the top four would make a damned fine chief executive, even without the comparison of following the absolute worst president in history. Who ever ends up with the nomination, I will have no problem supporting, campaigning for and voting for that candidate.

But this is no ordinary year.

For one thing we have the first viable African American, and the first viable female candidates ever in history. And we have Edwards. And we have Richardson. And Dodd and Biden and Dennis said some things we needed to hear. Dennis - bless his heart - is still saying things we need to hear. Dodd is back in the Senate and he has our back on telecom immunity. Biden is back wielding the gavel at Foreign Relations, at a tenuous time.

Now, I would love to see Hillary turn it around, manage a rally and make a showing, but - and mores the pity - I fear the Wile E. Coyote Moment™* has already occurred.

If that is the case, well, she has five more years remaining on her current Senate term, and she will take her rightful place as elder stateswoman. In any other race, she would be The One. It isn't fair, and it isn't right, and I hate the way it has happened.

But happen it has. And once again her real achievements will be sold short and she will even be chided for her efforts. Cue the Cassandra's who shriek that "she set the cause of health care reform back 15 years!!!" to get their voices ready to commence wailing "She set back the cause of women seeking the White House by 15 years!!!" in 3...2...1...

So just don't.

She didn't "set back health care reform" and she hasn't set back women seeking office.

And she deserves to be treated a lot nicer than she has been by people on both the right and the left.

Especially the left.


(*h/t MsN)