Weapons of Mass Discussion:

Fact is the liberals who complain about the rich need to look at their own house. I dont believe that it is entirely that liberals dont care. They just have a different twisted belief that the government should help, not people.

Blog of Mass Destruction:

Conservatives give to their local churches to primarily help themselves and those who belong to their group…..and to get that tax deduction. Those are selfish reasons. Conservative donors, and I know this from experience, also donate out of fear of an angry God. Religious donors also charitably donate for reasons of pride. Many conservative tax exempt religious groups promote an ego-bloating campaign by giving special recognition, special status to the larger donors. Tithing, in many situations, is a test of faith.

None of this can pass for altruism…..or even come close.

De Magno Opere:

If this goes on past North Carolina, I'd look forward to the possibility.

Full post here.

I can't see Gore running. He's done with that. I can see him, Jimmy Carter and John Edwards coming out soon as super delegates and pledging their support for Obama. That might be the thing to push Clinton out of the race.

Via Buckeye State Blog:

Nothing says "I'm exploring a run for the U.S. Senate" like attending rubber chicken dinners on the other side of the State from your district.

So on April 19th, Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Youngstown) is going to be the keynote speaker at the Clermont County Democratic Party's dinner. Ryan was one of several being recruited to run in 2006, but instead supported Paul Hackett over Sherrod Brown. His support for Hackett alone should give Ryan a jump in SWO.

Full post.

Daily Bellwether:

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland could get stuck in the middle of this big nasty. He's backing Hillary over Obama, and the New York senator is now threatening to wage a floor fight at the Democratic National Convention for Michigan and Florida delegates.

Full post.

Strickland is obviously out. Brown could make the case since he didn't campaign for Clinton and carried Ohio in 2006 (plus statewide before winning his House seat several times).

But if not Sherrod, who?

Full post at Psychobilly Democrat.

They want specifics.

Blog of Mass Destruction:

The neo-conservative cult that has placed a stranglehold on America's foreign policy affairs is a relatively recent phenomenon. Bush the Elder and pre-pacemaker Dick Cheney, had both previously rejected the idea of regime change and a U.S. military occupation of Iraq during the 90's. Since that time and with the opportunity of 9-11, neo-conservatives, new conservatives led by such luminaries as Bill Kristol and Richard Perle, have pushed to mainstream the radical, extremist foreign policy philosophies that have resulted in the current quagmire situation in Iraq. The thinking once regarded as foolish and dangerous military adventurism has now, under the presidency of Bush/Cheney, been mainstreamed. In just 7 short years pre-emptive wars of choice and American occupied middle eastern territories has, somehow, become the accepted foreign policy norm.

…

I would challenge you to find in mainstream media's coverage of Iraq today any serious discussion of how the pre-emptive attack of Iraq, itself, was misguided, illegal or in some way the wrong thing to do. Media mouthpieces will wring their hands about mistakes being made after the attack was well under way. But never, or almost never, is there a thoughtful presentation explaining how attacking Iraq was the wrong thing to do in the first place.

Read the full post.

There’s been some discussion this week about whether Hillary Clinton, despite a record of reliable Democratic partisanship, might actually prefer that John McCain win in November if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee. This occurred on the heels of a Gallup poll that showed that a whopping 28% of Clinton supporters are prepared to vote for a conservative Republican if Clinton doesn’t win her party’s nod, a far higher percentage than that of Obama supporters.

Full post at The Carpetbagger Report.

Warrantless wiretaps. The Patriot Act. Presidential secrecy. For seven years, civil libertarians and open-government advocates have felt they've been wandering in the wilderness, with few allies in Congress and a White House that only gets bolder in its contempt.

But now, with "change" the watchword in both Democratic presidential bids, and top committee heads in Congress flexing forgotten oversight muscles, activists are daring to look to 2009 as the Promised Land, where a new president joins with a fed-up Congress to lead America into a new era.

"A lot are talking about the post-Watergate Congress of 1974," said Marc Rotenberg, who heads the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "There is a real feeling we may have proposals for the kind of sweeping government reform that Congress pushed through after the Nixon impeachment in July 1974."

Read the full story.

Blog of Mass Destruction:

Pat Buchanan's take on Obama's speech:

America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

My late father had a dash of white exceptionalism sprinkled over his thinking that was similar to Pat Buchanan's. My dad used to say similar things about those slave days in America. He used to tell us boys that many slaves were treated very well, taken care of quite nicely by their beneficent owners. Suggestions that slaves in America "had it good" and that whites had somehow done blacks a favor by enslaving them were suggestions I found silly and a bit dishonest. I always thought that the concept that people owned by other people "had it good," was quite a stretch. It simply never rang true.

Full post.