Friday Orchid Blogging

I wanted to get this in before midnight...



Phrag. Fox Valley Fireball

I got this little guy 3 years ago, or so, and he finally bloomed. And he's a nice one. A good 7.9 cm across, and the color is stunning, and rather difficult to capture on film. It's actually a bit darker and more yellow than this - almost velvety. But I put the flower next to the monitor when adjusting the photos, so this is very close. I grow this one, like most of my plants, using the semi-hydrophonics method (it grows in baked clay in a tall plastic cup with holes about an inch up from the bottom, so the extra water runs out when I water it - the water then moves around by osmosis). Anyway, I'm quite happy with this one. It's just beautiful. Enjoy. JOHN Read the rest of this post...

More coverage of Hillary's assassination remarks

Houston Chronicle blog:

So she has to hang around just in case Barack Obama gets shot? I tell you, the lady has completely taken leave of her senses.

Newsday:

Al Gore's 2000 campaign manager Donna Brazile, an uncommitted superdelegate who has been complimentary to Obama, told Newsday: "I am numb."

Andrew Sullivan:

I was on the stairmaster when the news came through. And I saw the apology as well - an apology to the Kennedy family, I might note, not to Senator Obama. Since some seem unwilling to point out why this remark was more than unfortunate, it is worth remembering that we have the first black candidate for president. You only have to spend a few minutes talking with African-Americans about this campaign to discover that the fear that Obama could be assassinated is very much on their minds. It is in everyone's subconscious, especially Michelle Obama's. To refer to the June assassination of Bobby Kennedy in the context of reasons to stay in this interminable race against Barack Obama is therefore catastrophically inappropriate. Coming after her pitch for "white votes", it is reckless....

Yes, this season has gone on for ever. And for Senator Clinton, it has now obviously gone on too long.

She's been waiting for Obama to implode. Instead, she just has.

Rolling Stone:

If there’s an innocent explanation for this, it escapes me.... And of all the weeks to be invoking dead Kennedy’s. She’s got a touch of Michael Savage in her, this one.

UPDATE: Clinton apologizes… to the Kennedy’s. Not Obama... All class.

Dallas Morning News blog:

I said earlier that I couldn't imagine Clinton making things worse for herself. Well, OMG. She now says she is staying in the race just in case we have something happen like what happened to Robert Kennedy in 1968... I just don't know what to say.

CQ Politics:

Here's one way not to become Barack Obama's running mate.

National Post:

[O]ne wonders how much longer Democratic elders will stay silent.

"This is beyond the pale," Rep. James Clyburn, an undeclared superdelegate and the third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, told the New York Times.

Clinton just made a phenomenal political mistake, whatever her intent. Absent a primary or another significant political event over the Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., the assassination remark is all anyone will be talking about.

In the past few weeks, Clinton has repeatedly appealed for more time to make her case to voters, more time so Florida and Michigan could count.

She just gave Democrats a reason to say no.

Read the rest of this post...

Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" about Hillary Clinton invoking Bobby Kennedy's assassination

The transcript follows the video:



Here is the entire text of Keith's comment:

Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on Senator Clinton's "assassination" remark to the editorial board of the Argus-Leader newspaper of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Once again, it was this:

Asked if her continuing fight for the nomination against Senator Obama hurts the Democratic party, she replied, quote... "I don't. Because again, I've been around long enough. You know, 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. You know, I just don't understand it. You know, there's lots of speculation about why it is. "

The comments were recorded and we showed them to you earlier and they are on-line as we speak.

She actually said those words.

**Those** words, Senator?

You actually invoked the nightmare of political assassination.

You actually invoked the spectre of an inspirational leader, at the seeming moment of triumph, for himself and a battered nation yearning to breathe free, silenced forever.

You actually used the word "assassination" in the middle of a campaign with a loud undertone of racial hatred -- and **gender** hatred -- and **political** hatred.

You actually used the word "assassination" in a time when there is a fear, unspoken but vivid and terrible, that our again-troubled land and fractured political landscape might target a black man running for president.

Or a white man.

Or a white woman!

You actually used those words, in **this** America, Senator while running against an African-American against whom the death threats started the moment he declared his campaign?

You actually used those words, in **this** America, Senator, while running to break your "greatest glass ceiling" and claiming there are people who would do anything to stop **you**?

You!

Senator -- never mind the implications of using the word "assassination" in any connection to Senator Obama...

What about **you**?

You cannot say this!

The references, said her spokesperson, were not, in any way, weighted.

The allusions, said Mo Uh-leathee, are, quote... "...historical examples of the nominating process going well into the summer and any reading into it beyond that would be inaccurate and outrageous."

I'm sorry.

There is **no** inaccuracy.

Not for a moment does any rational person believe Senator Clinton is actually **hoping** for the worst of all political calamities.

Yet the outrage belongs, not to Senator Clinton or her supporters, but to every other American.

Firstly, she has previously bordered on the remarks she made today...

Then swerved back from them and the awful skid they represented. She said, in an off-camera interview with **Time** on March 6th...

"Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June, also in California. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing
particularly unusual. We will see how it unfolds as we go forward over the next three to four months."

In retrospect, we failed her when we did not call her out, for that remark, dry and only disturbing, in a magazine's pages.

But somebody obviously warned her of the danger of that rhetoric:

After the Indiana primary, on May 7th, she told supporters at a Washington hotel:

"Sometimes you gotta calm people down a little bit. But if you look at successful presidential campaigns, my husband did not get the nomination until June of 1992. I remember tragically when Senator Kennedy won California near the end of that process."

And at Shepherdstown, West Virginia, on the same day, she referenced it again:

"You know, I remember very well what happened in the California primary in 1968 as, you know, Senator Kennedy won that primary."

On March 6th she had said "assassinated."

By May 7th she had avoided it.

Today... she went back to an awful well.

There is no **good** time to recall the awful events of June 5th, 1968...

Of Senator Bobby Kennedy, happy and alive -- perhaps, for the first time since his own brother's death in Dallas in 1963...

Galvanized to try to lead this nation back from one of its darkest eras...

Only to fall victim to the same scurge that **took** that brother, and Martin Luther King...

There **is** no good time to recall this.

But certainly to invoke it, two weeks before the exact 40th anniversary of the assassination, is an insensitive and heartless thing.

And certainly to invoke it, three days **after** the awful diagnosis, and heart-breaking prognosis, for Senator **Ted** Kennedy, is just as insensitive, and just as heartless.

And both actions, open a door wide into the soul of somebody who seeks the highest office in this country, and through that door shows something not merely troubling, but frightening.

And politically inexplicable.

What, Senator, do you suppose would happen if you withdrew from the campaign, and Senator Obama formally became the presumptive nominee, and then suddenly left the scene.

It doesn't even have to **be** the 'dark curse upon the land' you mentioned today, Senator.

Nor even an issue of health.

He could simply change his mind...

Or there could unfold that perfect-storm scandal your people have often referenced, even predicted.

Maybe he could get a better offer from some other, wiser country.

What happens then, Senator?

You are not allowed **back** into the race?

Your delegates and your support vanish?

The Democrats don't run **anybody** for President?

What happens, of course, is what **happened** when the Democrats' Vice Presidential choice, Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri, had to withdraw from the ticket, in 1972 after it proved he had not been forthcoming about previous mental health treatments.

George McGovern simply got **another** Vice President. Senator, as late as the late summer of 1864 the Republicans were talking about having a **second** convention, to withdraw Abraham Lincoln's re-nomination and choose somebody else because until Sherman took Atlanta in September it looked like Lincoln was going to **lose** to George McClellan.

You could theoretically **suspend** your campaign, Senator.

There's plenty of time and plenty of historical precedent, Senator, in case you want to come back in, if something bad should happen to Senator Obama.

Nothing serious, mind you.

It's just like you said, "We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California."

Since those awful words in Sioux Falls, and after the condescending, buck-passing statement from her spokesperson, Senator Clinton has made something akin to an apology, without any evident recognition of the true trauma she has inflicted.

"I was discussing the Democratic primary history, and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged in California in June in 1992 and 1968," she said in **Brandon**, South Dakota.

"I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nomination primary contests that go into June. That's a historic fact.

"The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy. I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive, I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever."
"My view is that we have to look to the past and to our leaders who have inspired us and give us a lot to live up to and I'm honored to hold Senator Kennedy's seat in the United States Senate in the state of New York and have the highest regard for the entire Kennedy family.

Thanks.

Not a word about the inappropriateness of referencing assassination.

Not a word about the inappropriateness of implying -- whether it was intended or not -- that she was hanging around waiting for somebody to try something terrible.

Not a word about Senator Obama.

Not a word about Senator McCain.
Not: I'm sorry...

Not: I apologize...

Not: I blew it...

Not: please forgive me.

God knows, Senator, in this campaign, this nation has **had** to forgive you, early and often...

And despite your now traditional position of the offended victim, the nation **has** forgiven you.

We have forgiven you your insistence that there have been widespread calls for you to end your campaign, when such calls had been few.

We have forgiven you your misspeaking about Martin Luther King's relative importance to the Civil Rights movement.

We have forgiven you your misspeaking about your under-fire landing in Bosnia.

We have forgiven you insisting Michigan's vote wouldn't count and then claiming those who would not count it were Un-Democratic.

We have forgiven you pledging to not campaign in Florida and thus disenfranchise voters there, and then claim those who stuck to those rules were as wrong as those who defended slavery or denied women the vote.

We have forgiven you the photos of Osama Bin Laden in an anti-Obama ad...

We have forgiven you fawning over the fairness of Fox News while they were still calling you a murderer.

We have forgiven you accepting Richard Mellon Scaife's endorsement and then laughing as you described his "deathbed conversion."

We have forgiven you quoting the electoral predictions of Boss Karl Rove.

We have forgiven you the 3 A-M Phone Call commercial.

We have forgiven you **President** Clinton's disparaging comparison of the Obama candidacy to Jesse Jackson's.

We have forgiven you Geraldine Ferraro's national radio interview suggesting Obama would not still be in the race had he been a white man.

We have forgiven you the dozen changing metrics and the endless self-contradictions of your insistence that your nomination is mathematically probable rather than a statistical impossibility.

We have forgiven you your declaration of some primary states as counting and some as not.

We have forgiven you exploiting Jeremiah Wright in front of the editorial board of the lunatic-fringe Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

We have forgiven you exploiting William Ayers in front of the debate on ABC.

We have forgiven you for boasting of your "support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans"...

We have even forgiven you repeatedly praising Senator McCain at Senator Obama's expense, and your **own** expense, and the Democratic **ticket's** expense.

But Senator, we cannot forgive you this.

"You know, 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."

We cannot forgive you this -- not because it is crass and low and unfeeling and brutal.

**This** is **un**-forgivable, because this nation's deepest shame, its most enduring horror, its most terrifying legacy, is political assassination.

Lincoln.
Garfield.
McKinley.
Kennedy.
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King.
**Robert** Kennedy.

And, but for the grace of the universe or the luck of the draw, Reagan, Ford, Truman, Nixon, Andrew Jackson, both Roosevelts, even George Wallace.

The politics of this nation is steeped enough in blood, Senator Clinton, you cannot and must not invoke that imagery! Anywhere! At any time!

And to not appreciate, immediately -- to **still** not appreciate tonight -- just **what** you have done... is to reveal an incomprehension of the America you seek to lead.

This, Senator, is too much.

Because a senator -- a politician -- a **person** -- who can let hang in mid-air the prospect that she might just be sticking around in part, just in case the other guy gets shot -- has no business being, and no capacity **to** be, the President of the United States.

Good night and good luck. Read the rest of this post...

McCain's "largely fantasy" talk on earmarks earns him four, yes, four Pinnochios

There's a lot of stuff we should be writing about John McCain. Tons. But, no, we're still stuck with the fricking endless Clinton drama sucking the oxygen out of everything.

Here's a good one about the lack of straight talk from McCain on one of his favorite subjects: Earmarks. Yes, McCain's false promises on earmarks are eviscerated by the Washington Post:

The Pinocchio Test

McCain's talk about eliminating $100 billion a year in earmarks is largely fantasy. His advisers are now promoting a more realistic plan of eliminating $100 billion in overall spending. But it is difficult to take even that promise very seriously given the fact that the senator refuses to identify exactly which projects he will be cut. To use a phrase coined by George H.W. Bush, this is "voodoo economics," based more on wishful thinking than on hard data or carefully considered policy proposals.

Not such a straight talker after all.

I don't think anyone's had four pinnochios since Hillary's adventures in Tuzla. Read the rest of this post...

Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid - Where the fuck are you?

We love you guys, but seriously - where are you?

What more proof do you need that Hillary Clinton isn't slowly wrapping up her campaign gracefully? What more proof do you need as to the damage that Hillary Clinton is causing our party by staying in the race? What more proof do you need as to the venom that is motivating her insistence on staying in the race? Do you honestly still think that she's not capable of dragging this out until the convention? Today proved that she is capable of anything.

It's far past the time for quiet little conversations urging Hillary to play nice. She lost the right to ask for "the benefit of the doubt" ten racist eruptions ago. Dean, Pelosi and Reid should tell Hillary that she has till Monday to gracefully exit the race, or Monday afternoon they are publicly endorsing Obama and calling on her to concede. And then, if she doesn't concede, Dean, Pelosi and Reid should publicly call on all the superdelegates to immediately pick a candidate, or else.

Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid carry a lot of weight in this town. And among Democrats, they carry all the weight. Screw with any of them, and you can lose your political livelihood. It's only a question of how much Dean, Pelosi and Reid care about the permanent alienation of the black community from the Democratic party, and the civil war that Hillary Clinton pretty much guaranteed today with her incredibly offensive comments about June being the month for assassinations.

You gave her her chance. Now it's time to tell her it's over, before the damage is permanent. Read the rest of this post...

IT'S CONFIRMED: Hillary invoked Bobby Kennedy's June assassination as reason it's too early for her to concede in May

6:29PM Rachel Maddow explains what the superdelegates should take away from this episode:


6:08PM Eugene Robinson just said "her apology adds insult to injury." Here is the video, I only just posted it on YouTube, so it may need some time before it actually works:


6:00PM MSNBC's Keith Olbermann will have a "special comment" tonight about Hillary's horrific words. This is one not to be missed, I suspect.

5:39PM Local Nevada blog calls on Nevada superdelegates to announce their decision now. Other state blogs should do the same. Target your local superdelegates, and don't just stop with the uncommitted ones, ask Hillary's superdelegates if they agree with her.

5:27PM Hillary invoked Bobby Kennedy's assassination in early March as a reason for staying in the race, per TIME - I'm sure she didn't mean it that time either:

TIME: Can you envision a point at which--if the race stays this close--Democratic Party elders would step in and say, "This is now hurting the party and whoever will be the nominee in the fall"?

CLINTON: No, I really can't. I think people have short memories. Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual.

Yeah, not at all unusual if you consider assassinations usual.

5:20PM Latest pundit excuse, "she was tired." She was tired? Ms. 3 fucking AM was tired? Nice. Well, I sure hope Al Qaeda doesn't attack when President Hillary Clinton is "tired."

5:09PM AP's first line is not good for Hillary: "Sen. Hillary Clinton referred Friday to the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 Democratic campaign as a reason she should continue to campaign despite increasingly long odds." AP understood perfectly what Hillary meant.

4:52PM Hillary apologized to the Kennedy family for saying that one of the reasons she's waiting to drop out is because Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June. Whatever. Then her spokesman said that reading anything into what she said would be "outrageous." Fuck you. You just said that it was too early to drop out in May because Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June. FUCK YOU, HILLARY CLINTON. A lot of us have been wondering for months now just what "meteor" Hillary waiting for - she wanted to say in the race "just in case"? Just in case what? Just in case Obama is assassinated, apparently. Where the hell is Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean. Enough of her bullshit. Why would any black voter stay in our party if we aren't willing to stand up to this kind of hateful bullshit?

4:49PM: It's particularly sick that Hillary would somehow use Bobby Kennedy's assassination as a reason for staying in the race the week that Ted Kennedy left the hospital with a brain tumor.

4:38PM: ACTION ALERT - Call the following uncommitted Senator-Superdelegates and ask them if the reason they haven't endorsed a candidate yet is because of what Hollary just said; that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June and it's only May. That is exactly what she just said.

59 seconds in, she says it:


Main Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121, then ask for the particular Senator's office:

Senators
Ken Salazar (CO)
Joe Biden (DE)
Tom Carper (DE)
Tom Harkin (IA)
Mary Landrieu (LA)
Ben Cardin (MD)
Carl Levin (MI)
Max Baucus (MT)
Jon Tester (MT)
Harry Reid (NV)
Frank Lautenberg (NJ)
Sherrod Brown (OH)
Ron Wyden (OR)
Jack Reed (RI)
Jim Webb (VA)
Herb Kohl (WI)

4:35PM UPDATE: Note what Hillary's staff said earlier today, before she told the editorial board that she's waiting for Obama to be murdered:

Wolfson and McAuliffe both insist that she is not quitting and will campaign through the last primaries on June 3rd -- and until decisions are made on Michigan and Florida. They say she feels to do otherwise would be letting down her supporters. Despite the odds against her getting the nomination, Clinton aides say as long as people are still voting, there is always the chance something will happen and she ends up winning.

Joe sent me the paragraph 3 hours ago. He was totally creeped out. This didn't happen in a vacuum.

4:30PM UPDATE: Now her campaign is saying that she simply said that Bobby Kennedy's 'race' went on a long time. No she didn't. She said that Kennedy was assassinated in June and therefore it's too early for her to drop out in May. She is out. Where is Harry Reid, where is Nancy Pelosi, where is Howard Dean? Hillary is waiting for Obama to be assassinated? My God. What message did she just send her supporters?

IT'S NOW CONFIRMED: Three trusted sources - two in the Senate, and one a family member - just confirmed that they were watching the video of Hillary's editorial board meeting today and just heard the exactly quote that is in the NY Post story below. Hillary actually said that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June, so it's crazy to ask her to pull out of the race in May. Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid need to tell this sick piece of shit to get out of the race now.

UPDATE: I just called the newspaper's news room to inform them that they kind of have a huge scoop here if they can confirm. Their response: You can watch the video yourself it's on our Web site. Uh, yeah, but is it true - did she say it? They don't know. Nice. The Argus Leader didn't sound very interested in finding out if they had a huge story on their hands, so who knows.

You can read the NY Post article and decide for yourself. I'm trying to listen to the interview now to find out what exactly she said and why.

The article just updated. Holy shit.

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."

Read the rest of this post...

Rachel Maddow: Hillary is taking this to the convention

Rachel is absolutely right. Hillary can simply keep appealing any decision the party makes about Florida and Michigan, all the way until the convention. Of course, each step of the way it will simply be one small appeal that only delays the nomination another 3 or 4 weeks, and I mean really, who could complain about that? And then she appeals again for another 3 week extension, and again, and again.

The Florida/Michigan issue get settled, of course, by the Democrats' Rules and Bylaws Committee... unless of course that committee's decision gets appealed to the Credentials Committee... unless of course that decision, too, gets appealed... to the floor of the convention.

Do you see where this is going? If there is an open, unresolved procedural issue involving the Florida and Michigan delegations, Senator Clinton will be able to cite that as her justification for staying in the race until the convention even though she is not ahead in the nomination contest at the end of the primary calendar.

If she can ensure that the Florida and Michigan issue stays unresolved until the convention (and by appealing it every step of the way, I don't see how that can be avoided), then Clinton stays in the race until the convention. Staying in until the convention buys her three more months of campaign time, three more months to make her case to the party and the country, three more months for some potential political unfortunateness to befall Senator Obama....

Listen: you don't need a vivid political imagination to recognize that if what you really want is to be President of the United States -- a slim chance of becoming President (a fight at the convention) is better than no chance of becoming President (because you dropped out).

The Clinton strategy, as best as I can tell, is to stay in the race. You can't win if you don't play -- conceding the nomination is sure defeat, not conceding means there's still a chance....

Obama's campaign should stop believing what most of the press says, and start believing what Clinton says -- she isn't budging....

I think if the Clinton campaign won 100% of what they wanted on the Florida and Michigan dispute, Obama could still clinch the nomination -- even according to the most pro-Clinton math -- if 90 of the remaining 210-or-so undeclared superdelegates declared for Obama.

If they so declared before May 31st, the Rules and Bylaws committee would have no reason to take up the Florida and Michigan dispute because it would be a moot point -- Obama's camp could concede every Clinton demand on the subject and still win the nomination.

Otherwise? I'll be the twitchy one on radio row at the divided Democratic convention in Denver... spooked by the ghosts of 1968, 1972, 1980...

Read the rest of this post...

Eugene Robinson: Clinton is going to contest the convention

UPDATE: Reportedly 40 Clinton SuperDs are ready to jump ship, and have told her so. Only problem? They're saying they'll do it between now and the convention if she doesn't drop out. Between now AND THE CONVENTION? Are you people stupid or something? Boy oh boy, Hillary, we're really mad superdelegates, and if you don't pull out of the race, sometime, oh, before the election in November, we're gonna start dripping out our support for Obama, piecemeal, over such a long period of time that it doesn't really matter. Oooh, I bet she's quaking in her boots. You people are pathetic. If you've already threatened her privately, then you're dead to her, forever. Waiting another three months for her to destroy the party before you step in to save the party is, well, rather irrelevant. Not to mention, it hardly shows much loyalty to the guy who is going to be our nominee.
______________

Eugene Robinson is an Associate Editor of the Washington Post. It's no longer just bloggers and Rachel Maddow who think that Hillary isn't stopping in two to three weeks. Here is what Robinson wrote today:

Clinton knows that even the disputed delegates she "won" in Florida and Michigan won't get her to the magic number she needs to win the nomination. Some commentators have speculated that she wants to have the votes counted simply so that she can semi-plausibly claim to have had more popular support than Obama, a distinction that would serve her well if she ran again in four or eight years. I say dream on; the Clintons don't do moral victories.

Hillary Clinton is after the White House, and if that means using the Florida and Michigan "issue" to tie the party in knots until the convention, so be it.

If that's not what party leaders want, they'd better do something. Because Clinton is going to keep moving forward.

Hillary is simply building her arsenal, building her grassroots anger, building her fundraisers' ire, while our party's leadership dawdles, thinking that they're simply giving her time to heal her emotional wounds. And by the time Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid actually catch on to what Hillary is really up to, it may be too late to win against McCain in the fall. Read the rest of this post...

McCain had cancer surgery in February, and didn't disclose it

So, to clarify AP's headline "McCain appears cancer free, healthy" - they really meant "this month."

Nice. From AP:

McCain's most recent exams show a range of health issues common in aging: He frequently has precancerous skin lesions removed, and in February had an early stage squamous cell carcinoma, an easily cured skin cancer, removed. He had benign colon growths called polyps taken out during a routine colonoscopy in March.

McCain isn't cancer-free if he had cancer 3 months ago. What a ridiculously sloppy AP headline, and now this will be the story - McCain is cured! (Except that he had cancer as recently as 3 months ago - hey, maybe Pastor Parsley healed him?) Anybody else troubled that candidate McCain was running for the GOP nomination, went for cancer surgery, and didn't bother telling anyone? What else isn't he bothering to tell us, and won't he tell us in the future? If this is McCain's standard for disclosure about his medical condition, we'd need weekly document dumps of his medical files because McCain clearly has a policy of hiding his true medical condition while running for president. Read the rest of this post...

Hillary's top fundraiser admits dragging out nomination until June may jeopardize Obama's chances against McCain

This is a rather huge admission. Hillary's top fundraiser, in what looks to me like an attempt to (again) blackmail the party, is now overtly admitting that, if we let the nomination drag out until June, it may be too late to reunify the party and as a result Hillary's supporters and fundraisers won't help Obama in the fall. Unless, of course, she's given the VP slot. Then Her Highness might deign to support the Democratic candidate for president instead of helping the man who plans to overturn Roe v. Wade:

Hillary's top campaign fundraising official said in an interview that there's a "risk" that Hillary's political and financial supporters won't get behind Obama in time for him to win in November if she's passed over for the veep slot....

"But there's a risk that if she isn't invited on the ticket, Hillary's political and financial supporters may not feel compelled to be as integrated and involved in the Obama campaign in order to provide the maximum support that he'll need to prevail in November."

"We have to recognize that we're talking about the month of June, versus a normal process that historically would have begun in the month of March," Nemazee said. "Time is not your friend. A dream ticket would be the best way to ensure both unity and full and active support, financially and politically, for the ticket to be in the strongest position to win in the fall."

Now, let's take a step back to fully appreciate what was just said.

1. Hillary's people are now conceding our point that by dragging out the nomination until June they may be jeopardizing Obama's chances against McCain.

2. Hillary's people are admitting that they know, and don't care, that they may be jeopardizing Obama's chances against McCain. Hillary's emotional healing is far more important.

3. And what's worse, Hillary's people are using the fact that they're hurting our chances against McCain as some badge of honor that therefore entitles them to the vice presidency.

How many more times do they need to be blackmailed before Howard Dean, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi tell this emotionally-adolescent basket case to go to hell?

Honestly, Joe and I almost hope Obama does pick Hillary. Then we can really vet the Clintons like they've never been vetted before. Who wouldn't like to know all about Bill Clinton's travels with Ron Burckle, and just what the two of them were doing on those trips to Vegas together. And since everything potentially embarrassing is fair game in a vp-vetting, Hillary would have to answer detailed questions as to whether the rumors that were blasted on the front page of a supermarket rag only 6 weeks ago are true. Then there are the rich foreigners funding Bill Clinton's library. And we'd of course need to know if there are any more Monicas in Bill Clinton's past or present. The possibilities are endless. Anybody have any further questions we'd need answered in a true vetting of Hillary for the vice presidency? Post your questions in the comments. Read the rest of this post...

Hillary was against the Florida primary, but now she's helping Florida Democratic leaders milk a problem they created

Hillary Clinton is making herself the great savior of Florida with her usual overdose of drama. No surprise, this is just another calculated flip-flop from the Clinton campaign. They were against Florida's primary before they were for it. Watch the video here.

Read Al Giordano's post, Send in the Clown, about that State Senator, Steven Geller, you see in the video. He's the guy who filed the lawsuit against the DNC yesterday -- after meeting with Hillary Clinton. Then, Geller was all over cable news yesterday -- getting his 15 minutes of infamy.

And, I can't watch Debbie Wasserman Schultz on TV anymore. It's bad enough that she wouldn't support three Democrats running for Congress in South Florida against three of her GOP friends. Now, she's creating havoc for the inevitable nominee in a state we must win in the fall. Thanks again, Debbie. Almost seems as if you and Hillary don't want Obama to win this fall - interesting...

Watching some of these Florida Democrats in action really helps explain why it's so hard for Democrats to win down there. Read the rest of this post...

Hillary steals a kid's bike money

I hadn't seen this story, it's from 11 days ago. An 11 year old kid sold his bike and gave the $440 to Hillary for her campaign. That's sweet, except of course the kid was lied to. Not only does Hillary not have a chance - so she basically stole a kid's bike for nothing - but we just found out that $3m of the $22m she raised lost month went to her top adviser Mark Penn. It's all well and good to inspire kids, but how inspired is he going to be when she loses and he finds out she lied to him; she knew she never had a chance, but took his bike money anyway in order to pay off her rich friends? Read the rest of this post...

What is McCain hiding in his medical records?

UPDATE: I just read that there are 1,173 pages of documents. In the three hours alloted, that's a whopping 10 seconds a page the reporters can spend. Yes, for three straight hours, imagine flipping a page every ten seconds, non-stop. Assuming they're taking notes, and they are, the time would double, conservatively, so they'd have 5 seconds a page. Yeah, real full disclosure.

Joe reported yesterday on McCain's rather bizarre contortion regarding "release" of his medical records. He's not "releasing" them at all. Like some kind of supermarket game show where you get 5 minutes to stuff as many groceries in your basket before the time runs out, McCain is giving a select group of reporters only 3 hours to peruse through what are probably hundreds if not thousands of pages of documents, then when the buzzer rings, it's over, no more documents. What does McCain think this is, some kind of game? We deserve to the know if the man is going to survive in office. And playing this cute "3 hours, go!" game with his medical records, just makes it all the more suspicious. What is he hiding? More from the NYT:

On Friday, the campaign will allow a small pool of reporters access to the records from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Pacific time in a conference room at the Copper Wind Resort in Phoenix, near the Mayo Clinic Scottsdale. The reporters will be allowed to take notes but not remove or photocopy the records. Campaign officials said they were imposing the restrictions to prevent the actual records from wide dissemination.

You know what? Too freaking bad if John McCain doesn't want his medical records widely disseminated. He's going to be 72 years old, he recently had cancer, he doesn't look all that well, and he wants us to hand him the keys to the country for the next four years. Well, I'd like to know he's going to survive four years of the hardest job in America, if not the world. If McCain doesn't want to release his records, then he go find another job. If he wants to be president of the United States of America during war time, then we should have access to all of his records, for as long as we wish. Who the hell does he think he is? It's Bush and Cheney all again. The arrogance is astonishing. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's the start of a long holiday weekend -- the first long weekend since gas prices skyrocketed. Wondering if that will have an effect on travel. Also wondering why every other industry in America being screwed by rising oil prices lets the big oil companies get away with record profits.

Using that old Bush trick of getting out negative info. on the Friday of a long weekend, McCain is kinda, sorta releasing his medical records today. (More on that shortly). What will the Bush administration drop this afternoon with the hopes the media ignores it?

Also, one other thing for any Democratic talking head or politician. Bush's approval rating is in the 20s. People in the country can't stand Bush. Please only call the Bush administration, "the Bush administration," not "this administration." Call Bush, "Bush," not "this president." Just saw Joe Biden on the Today Show and he was great. But, he kept saying "this administration." Lots of politicians do that. John Kerry always did. But, they all need to say the name "Bush" over and over and over. Bush is the biggest problem the Republicans have. Never let the American people forget who created the mess we're in. Say "Bush."

Okay. Enough. Get started.... Read the rest of this post...

Oil prices: bubble or reality

There is certainly plenty to grab on either side of the debate. Changing policies that change consumption take time. Sure, the US is using a bit less gas now compared to a year ago though there is little reason to believe India and China are suddenly using less. The most depressing segment of this article is the group saying "$130 per barrel is high but $90-$100 is more realistic." The average price per barrel in 2007 was $64 so even if prices are in the $90-$100 range, that's a stunning increase over 2007 and that is before factoring in the rolling average for 2008.

At the moment, the Bush is desperately trying to re-make his image as a new born environmentalist. Who wants future generations to look back and point the finger at the last remaining idiot who blocked reform? The people who fell for his other whoppers will probably fall for such lies but even then, they probably will think he's caving in to lefties and going soft. The reality here is that much like other threats to America's long term security, the Republicans ignored this issue and own a lot of responsibility for the problems we face today. They all promised security but they've done quite the opposite. Read the rest of this post...

A gay president?

How about a competent president? Isn't that what people ultimately want? For the time being, he's the world's best mayor but hopefully that is just the start.

Will a black American president shake hands one day with a gay president of France? Barack Obama has already taken strides towards reversing the conventional, racial wisdom of US politics. Bertrand Delanoë, the popular, successful, gruff, acerbic – and gay – Mayor of Paris took his first step yesterday on a four-year obstacle course which could, in theory, take him to the Elysée Palace in 2012.

In the introduction to a book of interviews, outlining a market-oriented and even Blairist future for Socialism in France, M. Delanoë hinted strongly that he would run for the leadership of the Parti Socialiste in November and probably seek the party's presidential nomination in four years' time. He was ready, he said, to "invest my convictions and energy in my country" if "democracy and the Socialist Party call on me... to act".

Read the rest of this post...

Big Oil profits

Oil hit $135 on Thursday.

$135.

How many times is Congress going to drag Big Oil or Wall Street CEOs to Washington and publicly blast them and then do nothing? Nobody enjoys dishing out a bit of humble pie to this crowd more than I do but eventually it needs to go beyond this. OK, I get that they're all making record profits and people are paying the price but we know that and have known that for a while. So? What's the next step? And if they want to talk about salaries, I can think of much worse cases out there that again, we just hear talk. Action is never part of the plan.

Where's the vision - a serious, long term vision - for moving beyond these companies? If they don't like what is happening today (and who does, outside of Big Oil?) then tell us what they intend to do about it. Everyone is frustrated with this situation but they're just as frustrated with these endless TV moments that never go anywhere. It may make for fine theater in certain circles but most people are looking for more leadership and something more tangible. Is that asking too much? Read the rest of this post...