Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds (War Funding Edition)

Thank you, House Democrats.

That is, thank you to the 151 House Democrats (and, oh yeah, four Republicans) who voted Thursday against continuing to fund the occupation of Iraq. As opposed to the 80 who voted for it. In other words, thanks to the majority.

I know that a handful of you don't really deserve thanks. You voted "nay" with the full knowledge that this funding was going to pass anyway. If you had seen that the vote was going to be a little closer, had there actually been the possibility that the nays would have constituted the House majority, you would have voted "aye" for fear of being labeled, come November - or on the upcoming Fourth of July - as an unpatriotic terrorist-sympathizer who doesn't "support the troops." So maybe that thanks is really only due to 147 of you. Or 143. Who knows? No way to parse out all the ulterior motive possibilities.

Nearly six years ago, 126 House Democrats voted against the Iraq War Resolution, officially known as the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. You weren't properly thanked for that. Eighty-one Democrats voted for the AUMF.

If you happen to be one of those who voted against the funding today and also voted against the AUMF in 2002, a double huzzah.

And if you're a visitor to this site whose Representative is one of the folks listed below, drop her or him a thank-you by e-mail or a phone call.

Total fatalities of American military in Iraq since March 2003: 4101

Total fatalities of coalition military: 4414

Total Iraqi fatalities as a result of the invasion and occupation: Unknown, but as many as 1.4 million

The Overnight News Digest is posted.

Open Thread and Diary Rescue

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are Yashua, PaintyKat, Got A Grip, grog, shayera and Avila, with dadanation as editor.

Today, June 19th, is an annual holiday observance in 27 states. Sometimes called Freedom Day, and sometimes referred to as Emancipation Day, today is best known as Juneteenth.

Here is a brief history of the day: :

Though the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863, it had little immediate effect on most slaves’ day-to-day lives, particularly in Texas, which was almost entirely under Confederate control. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its slaves. Legend has it while standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, Granger read the contents of "General Order No. 3":

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere. from wikipedia

Here are tonight's recommendations:

• yogipohaku poses an interesting idea about a 50 STATE REFERENDUM FOR GREEN REVENUE. Some states have oil, others wind, so why not "extract wind"? (grog)
• Daveparts looks at how the US is clinging to oil while the rest of the world takes the technological lead in developing clean alternative energy sources in Don't Fear Tomorrow. (grog)
• NM Steve Pearce wants to strip mine three states by Leftywingnut gives us the details of this proposal from New Mexico's GOP Senatorial candidate. (shayera)
• You've seen the signs, but The Cunctator reports that a new report released by the federal government makes it official: NOAA Report: Global Warming Is Damaging Our Weather. (Avila)

• Kelly of PA talks about My fight to elect Barack Obama, one person at a time... This is a cautionary tale about complacency and the challenges in overcoming the right wing smear machine. (grog)
• don mikulecky, having seen the news reels of the American forces entering the concentration camps at the end of the war, asks how much more can our Nation witness without stopping the madness of torture in War Crimes, high crimes and misdemeanors. (PaintyKat)
• Dianna reminds us that optimism knows no geographic boundaries, and progressives internationally want us to Ba-Rack the vote in "The rest of the world is watching this election very closely and praying..." (Avila)

• teacherken exhorts us to seek our kinder, gentler, better selves in order to become true stewards of this earth in Metta not meta? (Got a Grip)
• iampunha informs us of a accidental discovery that has literally changed the course of science, history and the health of mankind in June 19, 1902: the Chain of events that saved millions — and one. (Got a Grip)
• In So Always a Stranger – The Disappearance of the Greeks of Turkey, Shane Hensinger authors a wonderfully detailed piece providing a rich background on the status of Greeks in Turkey. (Yashua)
• Muzikal203 reflects on what African Americans of a different era would have thought about the racial issues facing us all today in June 19, 1865. (Got a Grip)
• Milos Janus Outlook believes there is a gem buried among the rubble and losses in China from the recent earthquake and shares in The Foolish Old Man of Sangzao. (PaintyKat)

And on a melancholic note, in closing, the founder of Project Inform, the world-famous HIV/AIDS community-based advocacy/activist organization, Martin Delaney, is retiring. Delaney founded Project Inform in 1985 and has been an indefatigable presence in the HIV/AIDS arena ever since. Tonight in San Francisco there is an event honoring him; next week, Wednesday the 25th, a similar event will take place in Washington, DC. Many lives have been saved and many individuals have had their health improved dramatically because of the work of Project Inform. Marty will be sorely missed.

Please feel free to use this as an Open Thread and to rescue and talk up your favorite diaries of the day!

Days Since I Cared: Umm... Ten. Let's Say Ten.

I'm not sure what this new fascination with count-up clocks is, on the part of Republicans -- clocks that are meant to show when Barack Obama last visited one particular television program, or last visited Iraq, or refused to respond to McCain's demand for a series of townhall meetings. It reminds me of my daughter -- once she first learned to count, that's all she ever did. She counted everything. She counted how many seconds it took her to run from the kitchen to the living room and back... she counted how long it took her to put her books away... she counted how many peas were on her plate. She was obsessed with counting.

But given the current budget, Republicans still haven't learned to count. So that can't be it.

Of course, all the "clocks" they've come up with have been, and forgive me for finding this both intriguing and hysterical, demands that Obama pay attention to them. Fox News put up a clock demanding that Obama grace Fox News with an interview -- he did. That acquiescence is likely what led the RNC to the same idea, so now they're demanding both that Obama visit Iraq (with McCain! It's a field trip!) and that he allow McCain to tag along with him on his trips around the country, appearing on the same stage.

By all appearances, they're obsessed with trying to get Obama to grace them with his presence. McCain's constant invitations to appear with Obama have been a wee bit pathetic; I've never seen a campaign so insistent on making themselves the opening act for the other party's candidate.

House and Senate Roundup, 6/19

KY-Sen: Give Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign credit; they've got the rapid response down pat. With a SurveyUSA poll just released showing Democrat Bruce Lunsford within striking distance of McConnell (down just four points, 50% to 46%), McConnell's squad released their own internals showing an 11-point race, with McConnell leading 50% to 39%.

Now, an earlier Rasmussen poll actually had Lunsford ahead, 49% to 44%. When that poll was released, McConnell did the same thing, releasing his internals (which had exactly the same numbers).

Regardless, even McConnell's internals spell trouble for him. Despite being a 24-year incumbent and the most prominent face of the Kentucky Republican Party, his poll shows him with just 50% support. Considering that this race wasn't expected to be top-shelf, that's pretty bad news for McConnell at this juncture.

Meanwhile, Mark Nickolas has posted a good interview with Lunsford, which is well worth checking out.

(Disclaimer: I don't usually link to Robert Novak, but in this case, I'm pleased that he's playing the role of New Mexico's Cassandra).

Novak reports that internal GOP polling in New Mexico has Republican Steve Pearce trailing Democrat Mark Udall by over 30 points, an even wider margin than seen in most independent polls (which have given Udall a solid 20-25 point lead of late.

Udall is a well-known and well-liked politician who taps perfectly into the environmentalist zeitgeist of the state. His liberal base is large and energetic while Pearce's conservative base is much smaller. Bush hangs like a rain cloud over the GOP here, and McCain might not bring any coattails.

It's believable then when one New Mexico Republican tells us of a poll showing Udall up by 31 points.

Speaking of Pearce, he is flailing left and right to try to close that impressive gap. In fact, he's sufficiently out of control in his attacks that he's started going after the wrong Udall.

Washington - Today, Congressman Steve Pearce, candidate for U.S. Senate, sent a letter to Barry Russell, President of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, to highlight recent action taken to cut off access to enormous domestic supplies of energy.

"The extraction and development of oil shale offers a significant opportunity to lower the cost of energy for consumers without becoming more dependent on foreign oil," wrote Pearce. "I find Mr. Udall's attempt to lock up our resources at this time surprising and the wrong direction for the country. "

According to Inside EPA, a publication that tracks environmental and energy news, Tom Udall recently submitted language to a spending bill that "prevents the the Bureau of Land Management from finalizing a regulation to allow leases to extract oil from shale". The Department of Energy reports the U.S. has more than two trillion barrells of shale oil, 70% of which is on federally owned or managed land. The inclusion of this language by Rep. Udall continues his long record of supporting policies that restrict access to America’s own energy supply. He has consistently voted against developing America's deep water resources as well as energy supplies in ANWR while the cost of a gas soars to record prices.

Yeah, see, the thing is...that was Mark Udall's amendment. Your opponent is Tom Udall.

Novak has further sad news for the GOP with regard to the House races in NM-01 and NM-02. More on that later.

"It will close."

That was the common analysis during the previous cycle’s Senate race in Pennsylvania, when poll after poll showed then-Sen. Rick Santorum (R) trailing his opponent, then-state Treasurer Bob Casey (D). But after millions of dollars of advertising, the race never did close, and Casey won in a romp.

Now, New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu (R) finds himself in a similar predicament.

Through this point last cycle, two-dozen polls showed exactly the same thing; Santorum trailed Casey by an average of 11 points and the incumbent failed to top 43 percent in the ballot test. Indications are that Sununu will suffer the same fate as Santorum.

Little Ricky lost 59% to 41% in 2006, the worst drubbing any incumbent Senator took in a cycle that was almost universally bad for Republicans.

If Roll Call really thinks there's a chance Sununu may suffer a beating so severe, he's in far worse shape than even I had thought, and no one's ever accused me of pessimism.

Elrod was probably the toughest likely opponent for Carson (although Carson beat him nicely in the special, 54% to 43%).

Unless the GOP enlists Richard Lugar or Larry Bird or somebody for IN-07, call this Safe Democratic. At least for now.

The A Team: Rick Alcalde, Colin Chapman, Randy DeLay, Billy Lee Evans, Jack Ferguson, Mike Henry, Duncan Smith, C.J. Zane, and Jay Dickey. These people can talk to whomever they want, normally Mike or Sara. Tell them who it is and transfer over unless they say otherwise. I recommend looking up who they are.

Transportation lobbyists all, of course. Don Young's A-Team.

Then there are special rules for handling The King Himself, and his wife:

-When he calls put him straight through. If whoever he wants is not here, give it to Mike, if Mike is not here: Sara. You will not get this right, there is no way to. He does not introduce himself, should you realize who he is you will find another way to get it wrong. Rise above it.

-Does not like facial piercings.

-Keep your hands out of your pockets.

-Expects you to open doors for him (particularly tricky when he does not specify where he is going, make a guess)

Mrs. Young is a bit more easygoing, it seems:

-Wants Pumpkin Seeds when she says sunflower seeds

Don't stand in her waydon't stand anywhere I would suggest. Sit down or hide in the broom cupboard.

-Does not tolerate noise from the computers.

-Does not like Cologne

-Eat what she tells you to eat.

-If you sneeze it's always allergies or pressure changes; stick strong to your case.

Eat what she tells you to eat? I hope she likes sushi, else I could never work there.

That's OK, of course, because Mrs. Young

-Means well.

Considering only the candidates, White has the edge, but the political landscape seriously favors Heinrich. Bush's name and the GOP brand are dirt in New Mexico. Tom Udall is likely to dominate the Senate race. In Albuquerque at least, Obama enthusiasm could drive up Democratic turnout, while luke- warmness about McCain could suppress GOP turnout. Domenici won't be able to help White, while Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D) could be on hand to boost all of the Democratic candidates.

Because we expect a strong Democratic tide, White's strengths look likely to be wiped out by a Democratic surge.

...

(NM-02) is the "Republican district" in New Mexico, but it could be represented by a Democrat next year. In 2004, Bush took 58 percent of this district, which covers the Southern half of the state, but the GOP might have nominated the wrong candidate.

With Democratic candidates Heinrich and Harry Teague (NM-02) having just been added to Red to Blue, Novak might not be far off the mark.