For the past 7+ years, my conservative father’s stock snarky answer to anything that I pointed out about the Bush administration or the rubber stamp republican Congress was met with a comment to the effect of "oh, don’t you worry, President Hillary will come in and make everything all better".  I always told him that (besides the fact that he was dodging the issue to begin with) there was no way that she would be elected President.  

A couple of years ago, when he made that comment to me, my reply was that she wouldn’t even get the nomination - and we even bet a dinner on it.  He could only ask who would possibly get the nomination over her.  Now, this diary isn’t about Hillary Clinton - it just happens that her Presidential campaign is the product of a Democratic Party mindset that has resulted in oh-so-narrow losses (for the most part) and even some "key victories" in certain ever-shrinking lists of "swing states".

Many of you know that the area of election fraud and election integrity is a huge one for me.  And while I am not going to link to each of the 20 or so posts I have done over the past 2 years, they are easy to find in the link above.

So with that, thereisnospoon and I am honored to be interviewing noted author and election fraud expert Mark Crispin Miller today at 4PM Eastern on BlogTalkRadio.

It’s long past time to talk about this whole "election integrity/voter fraud/voter ID/election fraud/ballot fraud" matter in a very different way.  Consider the following hurdles that have not been overcome when talking about the need for wholesale election reform:

In upholding the Indiana voter suppression, er disenfranchisement, er "ID" law, the US Supreme Court’s decision contained the following head smacking passage (hat tip to BooMan and Adam B):

The record contains no evidence of any such fraud actually occurring in Indiana at any time in its history. Moreover, petitioners argue that provisions of the Indiana Criminal Code punishing such conduct as a felony provide adequate protection against the risk that such conduct will occur in the future. It remains true, however, that flagrant examples of such fraud in other parts of the country have been documented throughout this Nation’s history by respected historians and journalists, that occasional examples have surfaced in recent years, and that Indiana’s own experience with fraudulent voting in the 2003 Democratic primary for East Chicago Mayor -- though perpetrated using absentee ballots and not in-person fraud -- demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election.

This will be a short but important post.  Some of you may know the excellent work that Cliff Schecter has done around the blogosphere, both at The Agonist, at Huffington Post, and other places.  Some of you may have seen him take down and destroy right wing talking heads over the past few years on cable "news" channels.

And some of you know the fantastic work he has done researching and bringing to light the Real McCain.

Update [2008-4-28 10:46:3 by clammyc]: And right on cue, SCOTUS makes vote suppression in Indiana legal.

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Sure, the media is obsessed with trashing Obama or Clinton, depending on the week or sound byte that can be taken out of context and twisted to insinuate that Democrats hate America or love terrorists or whatever other utter horseshit that they can conjure up to distract from the fact that John McCain is dangerous, or contradictory or just a flat out liar.

Let’s just call this colossally shortsighted and ill-advised "rebate program" what it is - a giveaway of money that this government doesn’t have to the oil companies, the credit card companies and the retail industry.

We the People - at least those whose income levels are in the range where they are low enough to receive the rebates but most likely too low to be able to do anything meaningful with the rebates - are merely the intermediary between this corporate welfare program and the true intended recipients.

Some of you may be familiar with former Democrat-turned republican Congressman Virgil Goode for his "walking tour" pork project for a town less than one square mile.  Others may remember Goode’s comments towards Muslims and directed at Rep. Keith Ellison how he should not be allowed to be sworn in on a Koran, or how he told a constituent that he would have Ellison deported.

However, you may not know about his challenger - Tom Perriello, who is an excellent candidate in his own right, let alone who his opponent is.  And you can hear Dante Atkins (hekebolos) and I interview Tom today at 3:30 PM Eastern on our BlogTalkRadio show.

For those of you who aren’t following the "goings on" in Iraq, well, things have been pretty messed up.  The whole "go git al Sadr" thing didn’t work out too well, as over 1,000 of the Iraqi forces just gave up that fight.  The Green Zone is being pelted on a regular basis now, and each week brings more death and destruction than the prior one.

Even with this, one of the major unreported items is that there has been a tremendous increase in air strikes in Iraq over the years, and 2007 saw an increase in air strikes from four per week to around four per day.

Yet, we either hear nothing about this at all, and even less about the massive number of casualties that these attacks cause.  Hell, we barely hear about the IEDs or the suicide bombings that happen in all areas of Iraq on a nearly daily basis, and those kill our troops and Iraqi forces - so why would we hear about bombings that "only" kill Iraqis - let alone innocent Iraqis, including women, children, judges, policemen and the elderly.

United States Constitution, Article 2, Section 2:  The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

Emphasis mine.

For those who didn’t see dday’s excellent diary about the very unimportant Government Accountability Office report out today, well, it is a doozy.

The title itself should bring back memories of the infamous August 2001 PDB titled "bin Laden determined to strike inside the US", as this one is titled The United States Lacks Comprehensive Plan to Destroy the Terrorist Threat and Close the Safe Haven in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas".

The first paragraph lays it all out with the following reiteration of what we have known for quite some time already:

GAO found broad agreement, as documented in the National Intelligence Estimate, State and embassy documents, as well as Defense officials in Pakistan, that al Qaeda had regenerated its ability to attack the United States and had succeeded in establishing a safe haven in Pakistan’s FATA.

The United States of America tortures people.

Get used to that.  It is no secret - it isn’t even up for debate.  There is not one person that has even the cursory knowledge of what was discussed, what was authorized, what was justified or the acts that were carried out on detainees by people representing the United States of America.

This is not a "time for healing".  Not yet.

There are some pretty graphic descriptions in here.  I put them in to show just what resulted from the discussions and decisions of top administration officials, and how it is a big fucking deal.

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Besides the fact that the media here in the United States doesn’t seem to think it is important that Bush, Rice, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet (not to mention Gonzales, Yoo, most likely Miers and others) spent way too much time discussing, debating, justifying and approving how much torture is too much torture, it is pretty damn important.

It also matters that it is not being confronted forcefully and with more than just mere "strongly worded letters" amongst this shockingly blanket burying this atrocity that the world now knows runs straight to mister Bush himself.  No matter how many times the euphemistic "enhanced interrogation techniques" is used by the same people who applaud a fictional "badass" like Jack Bauer for doing "whatever it takes" to stop that ticking time bomb from going off.

I know all the arguments against impeachment.  It’s too late.  The process is cheapened.  "We can’t win".  Whatever else.  Blah.  Blah.  Blah.

But at this point, all of that is moot - even though technically a Democratic president, a Democratic Attorney General, and a larger Democratic Congress can step up and at least mark some of the criminals that infested this Executive Branch over the past 8 years tagged with the stain of their heinous behaviors.

At this point, "we" have already lost in the court of public opinion.  "We" most certainly do torture.  "We" certainly knew that a hurricane was about to devastate an entire region of the country.  "We" manufacture evidence to invade other countries on false pretenses.  "We" are arrogant, belligerent and stubborn.  

Now granted, over the past few weeks, things at Chez Clammy have been far from "normal".  Tax season, wife about to give birth, new baby, lack of sleep, frequent trips to the store for stuff I didn’t even know existed a few days ago and a number of other things turned upside down make me think about what "approaching normal" would be here.  Maybe not ordering take out as much, maybe having the baby sleep through the night, maybe a regular work schedule....

So I did some double checking when I read about the latest McCain Moment when he said that things in Iraq over the past year brought a glimmer of "something approaching normal", just to make sure that I haven’t been so far out of the loop.

I'll get this out of the way first - I want Barack Obama to win, and I voted for him in the primaries.

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It was a little more than 2 1/2 years ago when Senator Obama posted his first of two diaries here, and needless to say, it caused quite the stir at the time.  It was around the time that John Roberts was confirmed as Chief Justice of the SCOTUS, and (rightfully so) there was a lot of concern and anger about the fact that no real challenge was made by Senate Democrats to his nomination.  

At the time, Senator Obama’s diary called a filibuster of Robert’s nomination "a quixotic fight I would not have supported" and his diary was viewed by many of us here as more of a chastising than bridge building.  His next diary was around a month later, which he closed by indicating that he "looks forward to continued dialogue in the future".

That was October 2005, the last time he posted here.  And that Senator Obama is not much different from this Senator Obama on a great many levels.

Update [2008-4-1 18:40:14 by clammyc]:  damn....I go out to pick up a few things and got this kind of response.  Thanks so much for all the well wishes.  If I don't answer every comment, I apologize, but will read each and every one and thank you all for the kind words.

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No, this isn’t an April Fools Day joke - yours truly is now officially a daddy (hat tip to Booman for breaking this news last night).

The latest progressive to join our cause, and in the words of fellow Daily Kos member The Maven "eligible to run for President in 2044" and already ready to be groomed for the position - Peter Samuel Lambert, joined us on Sunday morning, weighing in at 7 lbs/6 oz and 19.5 inches.  Of course I am biased, but he is a total cute little peanut, and to all of you that already told me so, it is simply amazing how all things get put into perspective immediately.  For someone who is rarely at a loss for words, I can’t think of any words to describe how it feels to have a little baby.

It all comes down to this point, and it really is that simple.  

Our troops have done better than anyone could have expected, especially given the lack of support by the Bush administration and the republicans in Congress, the lack of a real plan after "Shock-N-Awe™", the lack of any direction, the ridiculous decision to disband the Iraqi army, the arming and bribing of Sunni insurgents, the lack of rest, armor, equipment and the minor fact that at least 500,000 troops at the outset of the invasion would have been required in order to do what needed to be done.

However, as we have been seeing, the deadly game of "whack-a-mole" has been played out for well over a year now, and there is still absolutely no foresight into how to address the larger issues of Sunni vs. Shiite civil war, Sunni vs, Sunni fighting, local tribes and sheikhs in places like Anbar taking over, Shiite (as in al Sadr’s militia) vs. Shiite (as in Maliki) vs. Shiite (as in parts of the Iraqi army that are sympathetic to the militias) fighting, the lack of desire for a central government by many who see Maliki as an illegitimate puppet of Cheney and Bush.