Copyright 2005 - Steal what you wantMon, 14 Apr 2008 09:54:22 GMTMon, 14 Apr 2008 09:54:22 GMTDaily Kos Daily Kos This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.
This evening's Rescue Rangers are watercarrier4diogenes, Wes Opinion, srkp23, ezdidit, TruthOfAngels and Yashua with Avila as editor.
srkp23 reminds us that in order to retain a critical edge, whether it's in politics or even life in general, that it's important to keep One Foot Out. (Wes Opinion)
When the traditional media is silent it's no longer deafeningly so, thanks to LithiumCola and many others here. Coda to the Petraeus Coverage: Saudi Arabia? is LC's shout in the midst of one of those silences. (watercarrier4diogenes)
Mentarch writes a very thorough analysis of the Bush administrations war crimes in War Crimes and Misdemeanors. (Yashua)
Valtin explores the blueprints of secret torture by the CIA and finds disturbing revelations of an older model, the Operation Phoenix terror-torture program in Vietnam, in The Biggest Torture Program in U.S. History. (Avila)
In Extended Forecast: Bloodshed, teacherken amplifies moral responsibility within our own country, via several observations in Nicholas Kristof's editorial in today's New York Times. (ezdidit)
ommzms pens a very detailed and timely diary that places the Petraeus testimony, and 5th anniversary of the Iraq war in perspective in The Lies That Bind. (Yashua)
StrangeAnimals has ideas and ideals. With fine-tuning in the comments, they're going to make a great impression on a very lucky HS AP-Gov class. (watercarrier4diogenes)
Laughter Shrapnel has braved the scariness of all the great writers here to post her first diary, The Few, The Proud... The Gaffe? It's definitely worth a read. (watercarrier4diogenes)
It has been some time since I've written on most of the hottest Senate races this cycle (with the recent special elections, I've been focusing largely on House races), so today I've prepared a quick and dirty analysis and ranking of what I consider the 21 most competitive Senate races in the country. I've ranked them according to how likely each seat is to change hands, in my estimation.
In the future, I will probably be doing at least one of these per month, perhaps more often as the election draws closer. I will probably not be including all 21 of these in each installment in the future. A number of races near the bottom of the list are not races I'd consider especially competitive right now, but rather potentially competitive in the future (or at least, not necessarily macaca-proof). Any race not on this list, I consider absolutely safe for the incumbent party given what we know now.
Just as a frame of reference, I consider each of the top six races to be no worse than a tossup right now, and everything through the 11-12 spots to be at least somewhat competitive at the moment. My guess is that if the election were held today, we would win somewhere from three to six Republican-held seats, and hold on to Mary Landrieu's seat in Louisiana.
So without further ado, jump below the fold for the rankings...
brownsox Senate2008Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:12:37 GMT
Will Barack Obama Earn the Endorsement of This Elitist?
The politics of the Karl Rove era were designed to distract and divide the very people who would ordinarily be rebelling against the deterioration of their way of life. Working Americans have been repeatedly seduced at the polls by emotional issues such as the predictable mantra of "God, guns, gays, abortion and the flag" while their way of life shifted ineluctably beneath their feet.
Who wrote that 2006 op-ed, you may be wondering? Well, none other than well-known elitist, superdelgate, and Democratic Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia, Jim Webb.
Readers, I need your assistance. Please direct me to some examples of Bill and Hillary Clinton accusing Jim Webb of elitism. And please alert me to the impending charges that Obama plagiarized Webb.
[h/t to SusanG for pointing me to this article; follow the link and read the whole thing]
Being a science writer, I can't help but gravitate toward scientific metaphors. So imagine for a second if two famous primate experts were interviewed for a nature program while an 800 pound gorilla tore the studio apart in the background. And in the midst of that chaos, the scientists avoided any mention of gorillas, while Calmly and Seriously discussing the theoretical danger posed by bunny rabbits.
Something like that happened last weekend: NBC News "chief" Tim Russert interviewed two leading 'conservative intellectuals,' Andrew Sullivan author of The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back, and Christopher Hitchens who wrote God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Both guests have been incessantly congratulated for, as the title of their books indicate, their admirable courage in transcending previously defined conservative boundaries and confronting the pernicious influence fringe ideologues and religious fundamentalists exert on the conservative movement.
Amazingly, during an hour long show, I can't recall either ‘critic’ or host raising a single question or making one comment concerning the stranglehold the religious right has on the modern Republican Party. Just for example, there was not one word spoken about conservative foreign cult figure Sun-myung Moon, his ownership of the Washington Times, its sister publication Insight which published the false story that Obama attended a hard-line militant Madrassa as a child, or any of the dozens of other scandalous connections joining ultra right wing religious icons -- some of whom who routinely concoct wild and ugly religious fabrications -- irrevocably to the Republican Party. The fact that McCain political adviser Charlie Black organized a coronation where Moon was literally crowned the Messiah in a US Senate building, and duped two US lawmakers into not just attending, but physically placing a crown on Mister and Mrs. Messiah's head did not rise to the attention of Russert or his guests. Not like there's any shortage of material.
Instead, two or three full segments of the program were exclusively dedicated to Pastor Jeremiah Wright's comments on the electoral prospects for democratic front runner Barack Obama. (To be fair, Sullivan, an outspoken Obama supporter, took time to at least try and put the issue in context.)
Something like that happened last weekend: NBC News "chief" Tim Russert interviewed two leading 'conservative intellectuals,' Andrew Sullivan author of The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back, and Christopher Hitchens who wrote God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Both guests have been incessantly congratulated for, as the title of their books indicate, their admirable courage in transcending previously defined conservative boundaries and confronting the pernicious influence fringe ideologues and religious fundamentalists exert on the conservative movement. 
