Another BIG sign the race is over.

The rightwing is abandoning their faux support of Hillary, and reverting to their normal mode.

--------------------------------------------------

It's DrudgeReport tonight.
It'll be Rush soon.
It'll be the rightwing media (Fox, etc) next.
It'll be the MSM following that.

Maybe they read the Politico article that Hillary has virtually no chance of winning & Obama has the delegate count.
(Story behind the story: The Clinton myth)
Maybe in that same article they read an important Clinton adviser giving it only a 10% chance of winning her race against Obama.

Whatever, the rightwing had a pretty good run at their mischief, probably costing Obama a couple delegates and some of the popular vote with the campaign to get their folks out to vote for Hillary in the recent elections.

By the way, to see the amazing power of Drudgereport, the headline is a link to this Youtube video:

CBS EXPOSES HILLARY CLINTON BOSNIA TRIP

This is interesting.
Alan Dershowitz was on MSNBC yesterday
I transcribed part of his interview starting about 2 minutes into the clip.
Clip link: http://www.redlasso.com/...

He responds to the interviewer's assertion that the whole story started with the IRS and cash payments moving around, etc:

I don't believe that story. I know it was in the New York Times but I will bet you anything that when this becomes more investigated, we will find that this is a cover story.
I know a lot about banking laws. I represented a lot of people who have been involved in money laundering and structuring. This case smells.
I believe that somebody must have dropped a dime on him and they started looking at his records...
I do not believe the cover story that appeared in the New York Times. I think that's a story that was put out by federal officials to cover what really went on here.
The banks simply don't go around accidentally finding transactions of $15,000. What banks look for is $25 million being sent to the Caymans or structured deposits of money laundered money.

This is America?? Don Siegelman can't appeal his conviction!
Not only was he railroaded, but he can't appeal his conviction!

From Donsiegelman.org :

It has been 20 months since Siegelman’s trial ended and no trial transcript has been produced by Fuller's court. This is in violation of the rules of criminal procedure which require a transcript within 30 days of sentencing. Siegelman can't appeal his conviction with out an official trial transcript.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has said he won't do anything until the appeal (Schumer Questions Mukasey on Siegelman Case).

Apparently, Don Siegelman will remain a political prisoner for a long long time.

My Aug 30 diary was about a bumper sticker slogan contest the DSCC was doing with a link to the contest site.
It had a poll to see how Dailykos would pick from the final 4 choices. And to compare with the eventual selection.

The poll result was:
DSCC Slogan for 2008. I like:

27% 26 votes  SORRY W, I'M THE DECIDER, DEMS IN '08  
24% 23 votes  ABOUT DEM TIME  
22% 21 votes  Now You Know Why I'm A Democrat  
16% 16 votes  Look where voting Republican has gotten us  
9%  9 votes     none of the above. No choice.  
95 votes wasn't a lot of votes, but the top 3 vote getters turned out to be very close.

So the DSCC's bumper sticker winner came out yesterday and is (drum roll, please):

SORRY W, I'M THE DECIDER, DEMS IN '08

(This is the stupid video revealing the winner.
And give me a break, did we really need to see Carville?)
.............

CONCLUSION:
It would seem that the Dailykos community and the DSCC are in perfect sync here.
Whodathunk it?

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has been doing a slogan contest for 2008.

It's down to the Final Four choices. You can vote for your favorite "bumper sticker" at this link:
dscc.org/slogan

Here are the Final Four:
1.

2.

3.

4.

The larger size images are at the DSCC link.

Bush Postpones Thinking about Iraq Until 2009.
Says Thinking Would Send ‘Wrong Message’ to Enemy

"Thinking about the war in Iraq is exactly what the insurgents want us to do," Mr. Bush told reporters. "By saying that we are giving the war in Iraq a thoughtful assessment, we would be playing directly into the evildoers’ hands."

The president also lashed out at the Democrats in congress for spending "untold hours" thinking about the war and argued that "excessive thinking" about Iraq would undermine the position of the U.S. troops there.

"The best thing we can do to support the troops is to not think about them," the president said.

This is totally Shocking!

(This whole Andy Borowitz humor column was quite inspired. Very funny. One of his very best recent efforts at the BorowitzReport.com.

I wish I could've copied the whole thing rather than just the three paragraphs we're limited to.
So click on the link above.)
_

The sad thing is: is this really that much more outrageous than what the White House and the right wing put out about the war in reality?

The NY Times has a long and interesting story about the increasing number of army deserters and prosecutions.
Army Is Cracking Down on Deserters.  This is the opening:

Army prosecutions of desertion and other unauthorized absences have risen sharply in the last four years, resulting in thousands more negative discharges and prison time for both junior soldiers and combat-tested veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army records show.

The increased prosecutions are meant to serve as a deterrent to a growing number of soldiers who are ambivalent about heading — or heading back — to Iraq and may be looking for a way out, several Army lawyers said in interviews. Using courts-martial for these violations, which before 2002 were treated mostly as unpunished nuisances, is a sign that active-duty forces are being stretched to their limits, military lawyers and mental health experts said.

"They are scraping to get people to go back, and people are worn out," said Dr. Thomas Grieger, a senior Navy psychiatrist ...

I'm not exactly sure how long this window of opportunity will last.
But it worked for Tom Vilsack just a couple days ago, so I'm hoping that the offer is still valid!

Get this: Apparently, if you endorse HRC, SHE'LL PAY OFF YOUR DEBTS!

What a deal!

Clinton Aids Vilsack With Campaign Debt

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton has agreed to help one-time candidate Tom Vilsack, who endorsed her on Monday, as he seeks to retire a campaign debt of more than $400,000.

Listen I'm not greedy. I realize $400K is a lot of dough. I don't really need that much.
I'd settle for, say, $200K.
Ummm, $100K?
OK, $50K but that's my final offer.

One thing: it's possible this deal is only valid for fellow presidential candidates. That wasn't clear.
But since I'm over 35 and a US citizen, I can declare to be a candidate if need be

Greg Sargent asked a $64000 question:
WHY WON'T MEDIA JUST SAY THAT PELOSI PLANE STORY IS FALSE?

Why is the media so reluctant to use the "F" word -- that is, the word "false"? The Pelosi plane story is false. Why won't the media just say so? "False." It's not a hard word to write or say.

One of things that's seriously puzzling about the big news orgs, and the political media in particular, is   ...   they are in the grip of self-imposed conventions which dictate that you should be reluctant to say flat out that a story's false when it is in fact just that.

AP headline: House GOP Blast Pelosi for Plane Request
This headline is entirely inaccurate. It says straightforwardly that the GOP is hitting Pelosi for something she did do -- request the plane -- when she in fact didn't do this. What's more, the AP piece says that "reports swirled" yesterday that she'd requested the bigger plane, without stating explicitly where these "reports" were coming from -- that is, the wingnut media and her GOP rivals.

From the absolutely valuable MediaMatters.org:
Kristol's first Time column contradicted by Time's own reporting

first paragraph:

Several points in Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol's column for the January 15 edition of Time, his first since being hired by the magazine as a "part-time columnist," were contradicted by Time's cover story in the same issue on President Bush's reported plans to send 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq.

The MediaMatters article goes through the contraditions, and in conclusion notes Kristol's use of demagogues' favorite technique:

As Media Matters for America noted , Kristol also attacked several Bush administration "critics" in his Time column without naming, quoting, or in any way identifying a single one.

Again: this is in the vey SAME ISSUE of the magazine. Sheesh.

.
How do conservative commentatories like him, David Brooks, O'Liey, etc. etc. manage to get by for so long with their complete disregard for accuracy?

And how do they keep getting these high profile, high paying gigs?

It's just one of life's mysteries

Barney Frank - my hero
THIS sort of fun is gonna be the best part of the next two (and hopefully many more) years in Congress.
THIS IS THE REWARD FOR GETTING THE MAJORITY:

BARNEY FRANK WITH A GAVEL.

With bangs of gavel, Frank lays down law

For 12 long years in the minority, House Democrats used the lazy hours of legislative debate to score political points on the ruling party, using procedural objections to make Republicans squirm before the C-SPAN audience.

But when Republicans tried to turn the tables yesterday, they had a well-schooled adversary sitting in for the speaker of the House: Representative Barney Frank.

AP report: Sen. Tim Johnson Out of Intensive Care

Sen. Tim Johnson has been transferred out of intensive care and has said some words, his doctor said Thursday, nearly a month after the South Dakota Democrat suffered a brain hemorrhage

An MRI on Wednesday showed the speech centers in the senator's brain were spared injury in the initial hemorrhage Dec. 13, said Johnson's neurosurgeon, Dr. Vivek Deshmukh.

Also, the Senator's office issued a statement today:

"The fact that Tim is beginning to use words is remarkable as is his strength and determination. He even maintains his sense of humor when I share emails about his grandsons' adventures," said Barb Johnson, wife of Senator Tim Johnson.

_
Remember, as bad as it might sound, our Democratic Senate majority hangs in the balance on the health of Sen. Johnson.

Kos! Help! I beg you!
My mouse’s scroll-wheel is wearing out!
My poor scrolling-wheel finger is getting cramps and becoming sore and numb!
And all because of a disturbing new trend at DKos (though it may have been developing for a while unnoticed).

Many of the Front Page postings have recently exploded in length. It now seems to take hours to scroll down the length of the Front Page diaries.

PLEASE Kos: Teach your FPer's about the 'There's more...' function to shorten the length of the FP, yet still not to restrict the super long diaroes being posted.  (outstanding efforts all I hasten to add :) ).

There are so many FPer's now, many newly promoted.
Perhaps they missed orientation day.
But when you Kos did the FP mostly by yourself, I seem to recall succinct posts, and using 'There's more...' to branch off to your longer posts.

Kos, need examples and proof?

There's more...

Glenn Beck becomes ABC contributor

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS  NEW YORK --
CNN Headline News and radio talk-show host Glenn Beck will join ABC's "Good Morning America" as a regular commentator, ABC News said Tuesday.

Whaa??

"Glenn is a leading cultural commentator with a distinct voice," said Jim Murphy, senior executive producer of "Good Morning America."

Well the 'distinct voice' part is correct...

Glenn Beck to Congressman-Elect Keith Ellison: "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies"

Meanwhile:

Beck will make specials on people who believe in the apocalypse, Islam in America and the "myths of global warming," the network said. The first will air in late February or early March.

What is going on with ABC/Disney?
Path to 9/11?
the Spocko stuff?
and now Glenn Beck?

Maybe he's being groomed to replace George Will...

Does anyone know what happened to Billmon?
Has there ever been an update written somewhere?

The Billmon link on the Dailykos front page blogroll is still there but doesn't work.

On Wikipedia someone posted:

On December 28, 2006, Billmon stopped blogging at The Whiskey Bar, and the URL www.billmon.org became unavailable.

I did a search and found a diary noting Billmon's disappearance, but with no real info: No More Billmon.

Is this just a brief break from blogging (but then why let the website with its archives go down?) or something more permanent?

As I believe Kos once commented something like:

Wow. Just wow.

Utahns break from Bush on Iraq.  Reddest state no longer behind war's handling, split on 'surge'

Utahns break from Bush on Iraq
Reddest state no longer behind war's handling, split on 'surge'
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune

President Bush has lost majority support on Iraq from residents of the reddest state in the nation.
   A Salt Lake Tribune poll conducted last week shows Utah's support for Bush's handling of the war in Iraq has taken a substantial plunge in the past few months. Just 41 percent of Utahns say they support Bush on Iraq - marking the first time a Tribune poll has found fewer than half of Utahns in the president's war camp.

Less than six months ago, with Bush and two senior members of his Cabinet in town to shore up support in the state that gave him his largest margin of victory in two elections, 54 percent of Utahns supported him on Iraq, according to a Tribune poll conducted in August. That rate exceeded national numbers collected at the same time by about 20 percent.

If this isn't the fat lady singing, what is?

Apparently Fred Barnes must have felt his conservative wingnut credentials needed polishing.

I saw this tidbit buried at Political Insider today (an offshoot of the great PoliticalWire).  Political Insider

The sources [close to the senator] also blasted the Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes, who appeared on the Dec. 14 edition of Special Report with Brit Hume, for implying a cover-up of Johnson's health.

Referring to health updates on the senator, Barnes said, "There is a long history of the doctors reports about politicians from the president on down about doctor's reports being untrue. You really have to be wary of them... I'm not saying we -- anybody has told an untruth about Senator Johnson, but this does happen."

Barnes "implying a cover-up and then saying he's not" can "arouse suspicion" unnecessarily. Sources are calling Barnes' insinuation "false and irresponsible."

They make clear that the attending physician of the Capitol, Admiral John Eisold, was with the Johnson family and the George Washington medical team from the beginning and has remained on top of the situation.

Very interesting opinion article in Salon today, in the wake of the Sen. Tim Johnson scare, regarding another ace that Bush/Rove have up their sleeves. Read the whole piece at:

The Lieberman maneuver.   By Joe Conason

...With a single stroke, he (Bush) could restore control of the Senate to the Republicans, fill an embarrassing vacancy in his administration and score bipartisan points -- by appointing Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Should Lieberman be nominated and accept that position, Connecticut's Republican Gov. Jodi Rell has the constitutional authority to name a new senator.

In many ways, Lieberman provides a perfect choice for Bush to replace John Bolton, the departing ambassador who resigned recently because the Senate wouldn't confirm him. Nominating a longtime Democrat who has endorsed many of the Bush administration's foreign policy positions, especially on the war in Iraq, would give the appearance of bipartisanship without requiring any real compromise with the opposition.

According to the article, Leiberman allegedly was actually offered the UN job a year ago and DID NOT IMMEDIATELY SAY NO.