We were Democrats once, and young.  Yes, we campaigned for our preference in primary elections, we "dialed" the telephones, put out yard signs, went to rallies and donated money.  We were passionate and after a few drinks at a cocktail party/fundraiser we might have even said something unkind about "the other guy".  But those were the old days, the days before this monster called the internet became our world and "Anything Goes" became our theme song. (it's old - check the google)

    Don't get me wrong.  I love this monster.  It's the greatest thing since the proverbial sliced bread.  I use it in so many ways - for up to the minute news,research, instant stock trades, acquiring goods and services without leaving home, connecting with family and friends, donating to causes and paying my bills without writing checks or buying stamps and envelopes, and playing a lot of Texas Hold 'em tournaments.

    But this useful, dare I say, indespensible, monster has a downside that bothers me when it comes to politics and my Democratic Party.  See an expample of that downside below the fold.

    Over the last six hours I've been thinking about a comment to me from an Obama supporter.  No, he didn't trash my candidate or call me names.  In fact, his comment was rather sweet and touching.

    He said:  "But when a candidate comes along once in a lifetime like Barack what do you say but yes, yes, yes".

    I ansered:  "Hillary Clinton is my once in a lifetime candidate.  Barack is my 2016 candidate".  I'd like to say more to him and to the other obviously young Obama supporters on DKos.

    Will you indulge me below the fold?

Did you see what I saw?  The Prince of Blackwater and Lara of the long blond hair.  Good lord, what's happened to the CBS of Rather and Cronkite?  Where's Mike Wallace when you need a tough interview?

I'm making this brief because I want to hear what others saw and what they thought of it.  The interviewer, Lara Logan, is CBS chief foreign correspondent, for chrissakes.  Edward R. Murrow must be spinning in his grave.

At least there was a suprise ending for me.....I was fully expecting a big wet kiss to end it.

    I caught only a few minutes of Hardball yesterday and the transcript of the show won't be up for a couple of days but I want to share a something I heard Jim Cramer say.

    The subject was the sub-prime mess, the big unknown still hanging over the financial markets, and hanging over the heads of millions of homeowners who face losing their homes when the lousy loans they signed on to are re-set at higher rates.

    So does anybody have any plans to address this problem and if so, whom?  According to Cramer, only Hillary Clinton.

    I've spent a lot of hours here in recent days caught up in the candidate wars.  A lot of that time has been spent reading anti-Clinton diaries and reacting to some of the most viscious comments leveled at a Democrat this side of Limbaugh or Hannity.

    So I want to say a few things about why I support Hillary Clinton.  Not things about policy or specific votes or inevitability or electibility. I've done my share of that in comments. What I want to talk aboout is how I came to know Hillary and why I believe the world will be a better world with her as President of the United States.

    It was a good night for Senator Hillary Clinton in Iowa City Saturday as an estimated 1,800 Democratic activists gathered for their annual Johnson County barbeque and heard former Senator George McGovern of South Dakota give her a ringing endorsement.

    According to Hotlineoncall.com,  McGovern said "I think that if we can elect her president, she'll be a greater president even than her brilliant husband".

     Senator Clinton and McGovern go back a long way.  In 1972 she and Bill went to Texas to work on McGovern's presidential campaign.

    In this morning's Washington Post, Sally Quinn writes that the GOP is trying to figure out how to remove Vice President Dick Cheney from office.  She says that even before this weeks's "blockbuster" series in the Post, "discontent was rising in the Republican ranks".

    Further Miz Sally (called by Wiki "one of the arbitors of society and mainstream opinion in D.C.) presents a senario to accomplish a successful replacement of a man most Kossacks want to impeach if not hang.

    Follow me below the fold for her take on the situation the GOP finds itself in.

I was able just now to book a room at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place even though the Yearly Kos website says they are sold out.

The reservation center said more rooms had apparantly been released and are available.  She couldn't say how many but if you waited as I did and didn't think you could get a room, call now.  1-877-827-1356.  Rates are $149 or, if you want a guaranteed "city view" above 25 floors, $169.

Now, will someone please help me register?  I followed the instructions in the e-mail from Blogger Power.com but I can't log in.

    Susan Ralston, Karl Rove's former gatekeeper with the title "Special Assistant to the President", wants immunity before testifying before Henry Waxman's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

    This news comes from GOP syncophant Robert Novak in todays syndicated column.  Novak claims Ralston is not out to "nail" Rove but, on her attorney's advice, wants self-protection.

    The thing to remember about Ralston is that before Rove she belonged to Jack Abramoff, disgraced and now incarcerated former lobbyist, who recommended her for the White House gig.

 

    Sometimes you just have to laugh.  As the Senate votes on yet another bill to fund Mr. Bush's war, MSNBC reports that the Iraqi government has decided to take a two month vacation.  Sorry, occupiers, we're taking off June and July.

   
The only thing we know for sure about tomorrow night's debate in South Carolina is that John Edwards is going to tell a national television audience that Karl Rove must go.

In an e-mail to supporters Edwards, who has already called for Gonzo's resignation, says "new evidence shows that Rove has been methodically working to twist even the most impartial branches of the federal government - including the Justice Department - to serve the Republican Party at the expense of the American people."  Further he's asking everyone to sign their names to a fire-rove petition.

I happily signed my name.  No matter which candidate you support I bet we're all in agreement that Rove should go.  Sign on at johnedwards.com/firerove.

    "Get out the Kleenex", one cable news-twit advised before showing the heart-wrenching tape of a little boy in tears when his father appeared at his school after a long tour in Iraq.  It was dear, it was sweet, and it did indeed bring happy  tears to my eyes as it probably did to yours. This was a precious child, surrounded by precious children and a loving and relieved Mother and Father.  "Daddy's home". a good Iraq story.

    Then there's the other Iraq story without pictures.

    Just found this message from the Edwards campaign in my e-mail.

    John and Elizabeth will appear on 60 Minutes tomorrow night.  Katie Couric will be the interviewer.

    The time is uncertain due to NCAA play but it will follow the UNC game.  As a devoted Duke fan I never thought I'd say this but I hope UNC wins because the Edwards are devoted to the Tarheels and a victory will please them.  May the basketball gods forgive me.

    Must see TV.  Spread the word.

   Can you spell "obsequious"?  I can't.  I had to look it up because it's the only appropriate word to describe the Georgia congressman, Lynn Westmorland's opening remarks to former CIA covert operative, Valerie Plame Wilson.  

     I'm emotionally drained.  Like Kos I have this bittersweet place in my soul today.  But because of Kos
this is the first election in my life where I didn't have to stay up all night agonizing alone.  Ten year old Zoe, my beautiful and bright granddaughter,  calls my fellow Kossacks "Grandma's imaginary friends".  That's cute and funny but in fact you're all very real to me and in many ways have sustained me and given me more hope than people I've known up close and personal all my life.

   

     Like most of you I'm in a state of high anxiety as the hours count down.  But unlike most of you, more of my election nights are behind rather than of in front of me. And for that reason tomorrow will bring tears - of joy or sorrow. Or maybe a little of both.

     I believe tomorrow will be our day but I have believed that in every election since I cast my first vote for JFK in 1960.  Can you count my disappointments since then? My heros murdered, my candidates defeated, my country in the hands of evil men.  

 Bush says he won't withdraw even if he only has Laura and Barney with him.  As a dog lover, I'm worried about Barney and wondering if we should try to rescue him.

I'm not concerned about Laura of the Stepford persuasion.  She will go willingly into the bunker behind her master and whatever comes will be her just desserts.

But Barney's a different matter.  An innocent dog.  A rather cute, frisky fellow who will need room to romp and play and people to pet and love him.  There will be none of that in the bunker of denial.  It's cold down there.  And cramped.  There's meanness down there.  Meanness so deep poor Barney could drown in it.

I don't know how much time we have.  Anyone who  this morning heard the King's daily recitation of the democratic wonders he imagines taking hold in Iraq and Afghanistan, knows the end is near.  The delusions grow more grandiose by the hour.  
 

     Just when you think it can't get worse, it gets worse.
     The AP reports this morning that the Battle of Baghdad now includes "gangs" of children - some as young as six or seven - attacking American soldiers with rocks and gasoline bombs.

     U.S. officers say gangs of up to 100 children are assembled in Sadr City, stronghold of cleric al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and that the children are being used in a deliberate, thought-out way.  American soldiers claim to have seen young men, their faces covered with bandannas, talking with the children before the rock throwing begins and sometimes handing out slingshots so the volleys will be more accurate.  

     An al-Sadr aide issued a denial of the claim:  "Such behavior by Iraqi children is spontaneous and the natural reaction from innocent children who are witnessing horrible deeds committed by the occupation forces in Iraq".