Cross posted at Left in Alabama

This is big and is not just about Alabama -- it's about what's happening across the United States.  But we've got to take it and run with it, not rest on our laurels.  

The Montgomery Advertiser Reports that Dothan Mayor, a Republican, Pat Thomas, the Mayoral Chair for Republicans for McCain, has Endorsed Bobby Bright for Congress.

This is incredible news and certainly flummoxes the campaign of Alabama's current Chair of Blasphemy, Jay Love (R-Holier than Thou).

The Advertiser quotes Mayor Thomas in its article:

"'I endorse Bobby Bright's commitment to do what is best for Alabama, rather than what is best for one political party,'  he said. 'Mayor Bright and I share the same vision for the future of the Wiregrass region, and I know he is uniquely qualified to represent the citizens of the Wiregrass.'"

The same article notes that Love has received ALFA's endorsement, i.e., which has become a de facto euphemism for Big Insurance.  Big Insurance loves Love.  Big surprise.

On August 6, 1945, nuclear war began when a U.S. B-29 bomber named the Enola Gay dropped a Uranium-235 fission bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.  At 8:15 a.m. the bomb, dubbed "Little Boy", detonated at an altitude of 1,900 feet about 800 feet Southeast of the aiming point, the Aioi "T" Bridge with the blast force of 13 kilotons of TNT.  About 70,000 citizens of Hiroshima were immediately vaporized, or burned, blasted or crushed to death.  Another estimated 90,000 to 200,000 died over the course of the following days, weeks, months and years from radiation sickness and injuries from the blast.  For more on the history of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, and Japan's surrender to the Allied Forces please see the links provided.

This diary, though, is about Hiroshima today, or, rather, photos from Hiroshima taken in May, less than 3 months ago.  I had not been there since 1991.

The quadrennial Democratic National Convention will be held in Denver, Colorado from August 25-28.  I think its website is very cool.

Additionally, there's The Big Tent thing.  Check out that link.  Really.  It may wind up being better than the Convention-proper, except for the last night and Obama's acceptance speech.

I set to be there -- from Aug 23-29 -- "Live Blogging for Left in Alabama".  Those of you who met Mooncat (as Spouse Mooncat - aka Herding Old Cats) at Netroots Nation met the founder of LIA and our Blog Leader.  Country Cat and I, along with an intrepid Radio Station owner/personality here in Ala, will be the LiA live blog team (maybe one other) in Denver.    

So, then:  who here's coming to Denver?  

A mild rant.  Blowing off steam in the midst of grief.

My father passed away two days ago.  Please see the substantive part of his Obituary, in today's local paper, below.  I've traveled a few hours down to the family home and am here with my mother, my sister and brother-in-law, and my brother.  We're going to be o.k. and, while aching with grief over the hole our father's (in the case of my mother, husband's) presence has left in our lives, we realize how fortunate we have been to have had such an incredible person in, and influence on, our lives.

I don't know how these things work in the rest of the country, but down here in The Deep South, everybody's got to "come by", and bring food.  It's nice.  They're nice.  They loved and miss my father, too. But, gad, please give us some time alone.

Note:  I posted a version of this in this diary yesterday.

In today's Abbreviated Pundit Roundup, my attention was called to Michael Barone's jingoistic, bullshit fluff piece on "the surge" in the Moonie Times.  What neither Barone, nor McCain, nor Bush, nor Hannity, nor Limbaugh, nor Lindsey Graham, nor Lieberman, nor McConnell, et mal mention is Bush's program to bribe insurgents to stop killing U.S. Troops.

Bottom line:  paying former "insurgents" to switch sides and stop killing our troops is, it seems, working.  I am troubled by the amnesty given to many (dozens, hundreds, thousands?) who were just a year or two ago killing Americans, or damn-sure trying to.  However, if it ends up saving American Soldiers' and Marines' lives, and getting us the hell out of Iraq, then I suppose it's the lessor of Bush-initiated evils.

Writes Scalia in District of Columbia v. Heller:

"We are aware of the problem of handgun violence in this country... [but, you see, as Right Wing fucktards, we really don't give a shit.  In fact, not only are we going to strike-down DC's ban on a kind of firearm technology that didn't exist when the Bill of Rights was ratified, we're going to strike down trigger-lock requirements!]"

Why?  What was Scalia's and the majority's reasoning and rationale?  I quote and paraphrase:

"The historical narrative [is that insane gun fanatics own the Republican Party, and the Republican Party owns me.  Besides, I simply don't give a shit if Saturday Night Specials flow like a flooded Potomac into the lower elevations of the District of Columbia.  What's it to me?"

Sorry for the short diary, but here we have, in a 5-4 decision, another legacy of Republican Presidents putting hacks and goons on our Supreme Court.

It's been almost 3 years since I put up a diary here entitled, "Read the Beatitudes Before You Vote".  James Dobson's now trying to pick a fight with Barack Obama. Time for an update.  

By the way, it's good to be back here after taking a couple of months off, save for a little lurking, during the worst of the Spring Primary mud-wrestling here.  I would be remiss not to mention that if you don't know Docudharma, you should.  Wonderful site and a great "find" for me.

 Back to The Beatitudes.  I advocate the printing and wide distribution of a simple bumper sticker, patch, T-shirt, skywriting message, etc. in the run-up to the general election:  

                                   Read The Beatitudes Before You Vote

Keep going . . .

From 1999 to mid-2004, I bounced around political websites, mostly in my homestate - Alabama - trying to engage in adult-level discussion and debate, but found myself repeatedly disappointed in obnoxious, uninformed and juvenile drek that passed for discourse.  Most sites I slogged through were moran-dominated and easy-to-degenerate into name calling; dismissive (or derisive, to put it kindly) of anything that was not laudatory of All Things Republican.  Just abysmal.

Then, in the summer of 2004, I happened upon an article in the New York Times that mentioned this recently-developed Democratic weblog ("or 'blog'") called "The Daily Kos" and, so, I checked it out.  I was blown-away.

I lurked for a week or so until I saw a diary someone put up about the scam (Big Lie, b.s. propaganda) that was the "McDonald's Coffee Case".  See, I'm an attorney and used to teach a "Legal Survey" course in a local community college and always enjoyed spending an evening discussing this case with my students and ripping apart the various lies corporate America and the Insurance Industry pumped-out about it.  Read this, really.  It'll open your eyes.

Just when you think they can't get crazier, more obnoxious, or more full of themselves, the Southern Baptist Convention surpasses itself by approving a Resolution that questions the role of human activity's impact on global warming.  Excerpt from USA Today article:

"The SBC resolution, approved near the end of the denomination's annual meeting, acknowledges a rise in global temperatures. But it rejects government-mandated limits on carbon-dioxide and other emissions as "very dangerous" because they might not make much difference and could lead to 'major economic hardships' worldwide."

Question:  can you spot any difference between the crux of this Resolution and the "Leave No Oil Company Behind" plank in the GOP's platform?

About the evils of other Democrats (o.k., Penn is, indeed, a putz) . . .

. . . the British Royalty was doing something very strange:  showing-up Americans.

I provide this as a service for anyone who wishes to step off the Crazy-Go-Round that dictates those who ride must fume and stomp and e-scream to high heaven about another Democrat, more than noting the various and continuing outrages of the GOP and its leaders, minions and enablers.

UPDATE:  It's nice to be thanked, and for the right reasons (from comments):

Have a tip and a rec, like the ones I try to throw to voices of sanity and reason.

Or, at the very least, fellow monkeys who know who we should be flinging the poo at.

Not like it matters, but the lonely battle against the Hillbots and Obamatons goes on.

Moody Loner

It's begun.

The Right Wing Hate Machine's cranked up and pointed at Obama.  

"... he is part of the blame America first crowd."

I have neither the inclination, nor the energy, to go back and pull-up and cite all the predictions and quotes from Dairies and Comments here (going back a month or two ago) that told y'all this was coming.

I have neither the inclination, nor the energy, to go back and pull-up and cite all of the, uh, shall we say, "heat", that I and others were on the receiving end of for daring to suggest that happy talk and optimism and hope would neither silence nor win-over Hate Radio, the GOP, nor their corporate masters.

That's irrelevant to the fact that we (I support Obama now) better brace ourselves.  More important:  Obama better learn, and learn quick, to fight back.

One of W. Bush's favorite new suckup lackeys appointees is Attorney General Michael Mukasey.  News this morning is that Mukasey has made an unannounced trip to Iraq (unannounced because the escalation has worked so well that the Administration's afraid that random acts of peace in Baghdad may disrupt-  aw, hell, you know why he had to sneak into the continuing basket case that is Baghdad).  

A.G. Mukasey will advise the Iraqi government officials on how to start-up a legal system.  Kind of like, "Hey, guys!  Let's put on a play!"

Here's the money quote, excerpted from the USA Today article cited above:

"Mukasey also met with . . . some of the more than 200 Justice Department officials currently working on the so-called "rule of law" mission in the wartorn country."

Hmmm, is it just me, or is a Bush-appointed Attorney General advising another country on "Rule of Law" not so different from . . .  (keep going) . . .

A short diary, and it dovetails with the current (at 4:00p.m. Central, 7 Feb 08) Story on McCain's attempt to pander to CPAC.  

I write this because I think its worth us discussing what both (gad!) Brit Hume and Sean Hannity (and D Kosniacs) have observed:  when most Republican candidates have "the nomination" all locked up, they try and move to the Center (witness Creep-ass Lying Bush and that "Compassionate Conservative" bullshit).

It is worth noting, and worth us discussing, and worth banging a LOUD DRUM about that McCain is running to the rabid right.  McCain's pandering to the Pro-Hate, the Pro-No-Accountability-for-Crashing-the-Constitution, the Xenophobic, the Let's Do a Hundred Years War! (Part II) crazies.  These the ones who contend that every social ill in America is caused by the rich being too poor and the poor being too rich.

This is how McCain hopes to gain the White House.  Well, any takers?

BenGoshi
__________________________________________________________________

In his Saturday night So. Carolina victory speech, Barack Obama said, in pertinent part:

                "It's not about rich versus poor..."

See full article/quote here

-referring to the election and I suppose all of the hopefulness and America and puppies, etc.

 Well, Mr. Obama, I'm sorry but it IS about "rich versus poor/middle class".  

 If you are so naive, or delusional, or cynical, or "audacious" to think that Big Oil/Pharma/Banking/Insurance, that the Credit Card and Healthcare/Hospital MegaThugs, that the Halliburtons and Blackwaters of this world will suddenly "see the light" when you're elected and hand over even a molecule of their collective Billions/Trillions, and Power, to the poor and middle class, on account of your "Hope" and your supporters' sincere desire to all "get along" (don't see much of that "gettin' along" here, I must say), then I'm afraid that your devotees are in for a MOST rude awakening. . .

I support John Edwards.  I believe that he would make the strongest Democratic nominee for President come general election time and most capable and fighting-for-the-little-guy (and gal) President, compared to his two current rivals, Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama.  

Frankly, I don't believe either can hold a candle to John Edwards in terms of effectively taking on the HyperWealthy, HyperPowerful Neo Robber Barons who - along with their GOP toadies - currently run way, way, way too much of this country.  There.

But advocating for Edwards is not the purpose of this diary.  I propose we show the country, and the world for that matter (the intertubes do go worldwide, so rumor has it), some of the positive traits/skills/attributes/characteristics in whichever two Democratic Front-runners (no offense to Gravel or Kucinich) each of us do not support for the nomination.

I will, of course, go first.  Please see below the fold.

A short diary.  I'm pressed for time.  But this deserves to become part of the Daily Kos archives (at the very least).  From the Los Angeles Times, January 16, 2008

:

Inquisition at JPL

By Timothy Rutten

". . .

"For the last four years, two robot rovers operated from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge have been moving across the surface of Mars, taking photographs and collecting information. It's an epic event in the history of exploration, one of many for which JPL's 7,000 civilian scientists and engineers are responsible -- when they're not fending off the U.S. government's attempts to conduct an intimidating and probably illegal inquisition into the intimate details of their lives.

"Talk about the thanks of a grateful nation. . ."

Link to full column here.

Guess-oh-guess what this is all about!

Keep going . . .

. . . and, once again, makes The Onion so irrelevant.

From a today's AP Report:

"Bush visited Capernaum, a site where Jesus is said to have performed miracles.  The president gazed across the Sea of Galilee where Jesus is claimed to have walked on water. He toured the site of an ancient synagogue and joked and held hands with nuns outside the Church of the Beatitudes, a place where Jesus delivered his famed 'Sermon on the Mount.'

"Asked how it felt to walk in Jesus' footsteps, Bush replied, 'Amazing experience.'

"During the visit, Bush was given a crystal statue inscribed with words from the sermon, recounted in Matthew Chapter 5: 'Blessed are those who are peacemakers for they will be called children of God.'"

ALL:  PLEASE UNREC THIS DIARY (I've got my answers) AND REC THIS ONE BY TOMP (On the rec list, but should go to the top).  THANKS TO ALL FOR YOUR COMMENTS AND RECS.  

For the past couple of weeks I've gone somewhat 'round and 'round with Obama supporters here and elsewhere.  My premise:

Hope, conciliation, making friends and finding common ground make for fine, wishful thinking, but such Happy Thoughts will do nothing to effectuate change in the mindset and dark, soulless hearts of what I call the Neo Robber Barons, e.g., Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Insurance and the Banking, Credit Card and Health Care Industries.  And, if he goes to the White House, Obama's lovefest be CRUSHED under the weight and remorseless power of these industries, their GOP minions and lobbyists.

Typical Obama-supporter responses to this assertion are below the fold.  I'm afraid they range from the "fingers-in-the-ears 'la, la, la' I can't hear you" vein, to vague, to, well, silly.  Not much "there" there to back up this "hope", it seems...