Clinton donors push. Howard pushes back

This primary season certainly puts Howard Dean in a tough spot.

Clinton Donors Press Dean at Fifth Avenue Bundler Summit
More on Clinton Donors Versus Dean

From the second link:

Dean then responded, heatedly, that in his experience, those who sought the intervention of party leadership were motivated by their own particular agendas. And that was not the sort of leadership he intended to provide.

You tell 'em, Howard!

I recall during the 2004 primaries, Terry McAuliffe was not exactly an unbiased arbiter. Working, as Howard Dean has in his tenure as DNC chair, to make sure everyone is treated fairly, is certainly a thankless job. But, as Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, McAuliffe should consider himself damn lucky that the current DNC chair is making a genuine effort to remain neutral.

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When animals *don't* attack

As the article says, of course this scene could have gone horribly wrong, but happily it didn't. And I just couldn't pass up sharing this picture and story. Especially after reading about Glenn Beck's anti-polar bear rant.

Wildlife photographer Norbert Rosing was taking pictures of a team of huskies in Canada's frozen north when a polar bear gatecrashed the party.

Along with dog handler Brian Ladoon, Mr Rosing watched helplessly as the bear and one of the dogs approached each other.

They growled and bared their teeth. But then, instead of fighting, the enemies became firm friends.

First the bear gently nuzzled the husky's neck. The dog responded by rising on its hind legs to lick the bear's face.

The bear then rolled on its back to play as the husky looked on, somewhat bemused.

More here.

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Open Thread

see more crazy cat pics

BTW, I've got a diary at Booman: Hillary: Pledged delegates are "misnomer"

Hillary, for her part, was on Leno last night, joking about sniper fire. This must be part of a "humor offensive" (she writes, fully appreciating the potential double-meaning of the phrase.) How very "Bush pretending to look for WMD" of her.

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Jimmy Carter drops a hint

Via ThisDay Online

Carter, who is a Super Delegate from Georgia State, gave this hint at a media interaction after the Carter Center Awards for Guinea Worm Eradication in Abuja yesterday.

Carter, who was accompanied by his wife Rosalynn, did not profess a direct support for Obama but rather choose to make a veiled statement.
“We are very interested in the primaries. Don’t forget that Obama won in my state of Georgia. My town which is home to 625 people is for Obama, my children and their spouses are pro- Obama.

My grandchildren are also pro- Obama. As a Super Delegate, I would not disclose who I am rooting for but I leave you to make that guess," he said.

Cool.

By the way, I've also added some articles to my Google shared items.

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Wednesday thread

New thread, since it's not April Fool's Day any more and the site banner is back to normal.

A few links before I leave for work

Lifted--great animated short by Pixar

Flying Penguin Footage via the BBC (Okay, that one was left over from April Fool's)

And on a more serious note, check out Booman's post Learning about Trinity.

Laters.

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April 1 Open Thread

Click here for the Top 100 April Fool's Hoaxes of All Time and here for the Wikipedia page.


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Gore launches the "We" campaign

Via Progress Ohio

The We campaign is a nationwide effort to engage and mobilize the American people to come together and call for solutions to climate change.

The campaign is an unprecedented commercial‐scale, mainstream mobilization effort designed to bring public opinion past the tipping point and convince elected leaders to take bold action.

This three‐year effort will combine the best practices of successful commercial marketing and issueadvocacy efforts.

It supplements and supports the ongoing work of other organizations but is unique in its scale and breadth.

Oh, and Joseph at Plunderbund reminds us that today is Al Gore's 60th birthday.

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Open Thread

see more loldogs are funny dog pictures!

Bear with me peeps. Here's the deal...I really wanted to put up the Fun With Captions post, but I also knew that there would be people who didn't want to look at The Decider's mug every time they loaded the page. So I decided to put up a new post right away. But I also anticipated people being confused about which thread people would be posting in, so I decided to make one comment thread to be shared by both the Open Thread and the Fun With Captions post. I'm sure I'm still managing to confuse someone, but this is the solution I've decided on.

Also, FYI, I start teaching again tomorrow, right after work, so I won't be available for any blog tinkering until well into the evening.

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Fun with captions

Okay, so I'm bored.

And I've been thinking that there must be some great captions for this picture, but I don't seem to be coming up with any myself

So here's what I *did* do--I made two versions, adding the talk and thought balloons.

Can you think of some good captions for either of these?

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George Bush is no Gene Kelly

I think I had seen reference to the letter Patricia Ward Kelly, widow of Gene Kelly, sent to the New York Times, but hadn't gotten around to finding the letter and reading it once I got home from work. Thankfully, I was just reminded by this post at Crooks and Liars. Ms. Kelly's letter was prompted by this Maureen Dowd column, in which the columnist stated:

The dollar’s crumpling, the recession’s thundering, the Dow’s bungee-jumping and the world’s disapproving, yet George Bush has turned into Gene Kelly, tap dancing and singing in a one-man review called “The Most Happy Fella.”

Anyway, as Nicole Belle remarked at Crooks and Liars, there "are some smackdowns that are just better than others."

When Gene was compared to the grace and agility of Jack Dempsey, Wayne Gretzky and Willie Mays, he was delighted. But to be linked with a clunker -- particularly one he would consider inept and demoralizing -- would have sent him reeling.

Graduated with a degree in economics from Pitt, Gene was not only a gifted dancer, director and choreographer, he was also a most civilized man. He spoke multiple languages; wrote poetry; studied history; understood the projections of Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes. He did the Sunday Times crossword in ink. Exceedingly articulate, Gene often conveyed more through movement than others manage with words.

Sadly, President Bush fails to communicate meaningfully with either. For George Bush to become Gene Kelly would require impossible leaps in creativity, erudition and humility.

Patricia Ward Kelly
Los Angeles, March 16, 2008

Oh, snap.

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Black church and community

When I wrote Here is the church earlier this week, one thing that didn't even occur to me is the historical significance of the church in the African American community. So I am grateful to Booman for doing a front page post this morning addressing this issue. His post featured an excerpt from rikyrah, of Jack and Jill Politics. I include that same excerpt here, as it addresses this issue much more effectively than I ever could.

Black people do not change churches like they do purses. I am in my 30's, and outside of school, I've had exactly 2 church homes in my life. It took nearly 2 years to find the second one, but I found it. Commitment to a church isn't something that's done fly-by-night. It's not some fleeting commitment. It is a given that you will find something that you don't like about any church you attend; which is why it is the general COMMUNITY that will ultimately make that decision.

The Black Church is the ONLY institution, in the history of The United States of America, which, from its conception,

Validated, Supported, Incubated, and Treasured.

BLACK HUMANITY.

Period.

Don't think I'm correct, then name me another institution which has done so.

The attack on Trinity is seen as an attack on the Black Church, and thus, by extension, an attack on the Black Community as a whole.

During times of slavery and Jim Crow, the Black Church was what reinforced Community.

Post Civil Rights and Integration, the Black Church is now what brings Community together, considering that the Black Community, like the rest of America, is becoming more stratified along the lines of class. The Black Church is really the only place in Black America where you will consistently find the doctor and welfare mother in the same building, with the same purpose. It's the place to break down those walls of class that are building up.

To disown Wright and Trinity would be to disown the Black Community itself, which is why Obama said in his speech he couldn't. He understood that fundamentally about the Black Community, and he understood that political expediency would mean the doubting of the existence of his soul by the Black community. Obama would never be trusted again by Black folk if he had disowned Wright & Trinity. Even Black folk that don't go to church understand that you don't mess with the Black Church - it's just not done.

Update: I think that showing the people of Trinity some love is a good idear. If you agree, please pass it on.

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NATIONAL NURSE RESOLUTION PASSES VERMONT HOUSE!

wOOt!  wOOt!  wOOt! wOOt!  wOOt!  wOOt! wOOt!  wOOt!  wOOt! wOOt!  wOOt!  wOOt!

A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF
AN OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL NURSE
PASSED THE VT HOUSE TODAY!


THIS JUST IN FROM MY REP. BILL FRANK! ~

Yea!!! The resolution was just presented on the floor by Rep. Patty
O'Donnell and passed on a voice vote. Later today the House Journal
will be posted on the Leg web site, where this will show up.


http://www.cafepress.com/nationalnurse.28937656 

wOOt!  wOOt!  wOOt! wOOt!  wOOt!  wOOt! wOOt!  wOOt!  wOOt! wOOt!  wOOt!  wOOt!

COMMENTS

It's Kitten Time!

It's always Kitten Time at The Daily Kitten. Scroll down to read the very interesting entry for March 24.

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Here is the church...

The latest from Hillary Clinton...

"You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."

*Shakes head*

Oh, Hillary, what are we going to do with you? You have been saying for months that you're "ready on day one". But, you remember that saying about how "everything I needed to know, I learned in kindergarten"? I think maybe you were absent for an important lesson.

Here's the church, and here's the steeple
Open the door and see all the people.

All the people, Hillary. Not just the pastor. Setting aside for a moment the concepts of forgiveness and redemption, and, oh, I don't know, choosing to stay with someone who's made a mistake of some sort, disagreeing with one's pastor is not necessarily reason enough to leave one's church home.

As Deborah Brown said at Street Prophets this afternoon

To me, all these folks who yell sanctimoniously about Obama NOT leaving the church when he heard something he didn't like are only showing their true colors as people who have never been meaningfully involved in a church family.

Your church is, or should be, so much more than a single pastor-- it's the people, philosophies, works and programs that make up a combined spiritual home and physical place to be the hands and feet of God.

More here.

Just an aside, by the way. People are free think whatever they want about the value or harm of organized religion. But I believe we owe it to ourselves and each other to try to understand the relationships and contexts of people's lives through their eyes, and not just through the lens of our own biases.

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CBS video contradict's Hillary's Bosnia tale

Actual mainstream media coverage

CBS News Video from Hillary Clinton's 1996 visit to Bosnia as first lady contradicts a more dramatic description the Democratic presidential candidate gave in a recent campaign speech.

More media coverage here.

Also, in Metanarratives and Hillary's Honesty Gap, Greg Saunders points out how easily Hillary's "misstatements" could become this year's "invented the internet".

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This and that

I posted the following over the weekend at My Left Wing...

Since Hillary Clinton has been pushing the idea that she has "crossed the commander-in-chief threshold", I think it's reasonable that we should examine the evidence to see if it supports that assertion. Actually, I believe that the 24-hour news channels should be examining that evidence. But hopefully they'll catch up to speed on that after they squeeze the last few drops of sensationalism out of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons. In the meantime, bloggers are doing what they can to get this story the attention it deserves...

"I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." --Hillary Clinton, speech at George Washington University, March 17, 2008.

Let's take a peek at this harrowing experience Hillary bravely endured, with the sniper fire and what have you.

Wait a second...that doesn't look nearly as life-threatening as what Hillary described! It's almost like she was exaggerating, or something.

For more, see Hillary in Tuzla: The Tale of Bosnian Sniper Fire (TRAILER) at The Jed Report.
.....
Since the time I posted that diary, the Clinton campaign has apparently said that they may have "misspoke". Carville, tool that he is, has stood by his "Judas" remark. Making Hillary, who, exactly? Sadly, a supporter of Obama brought up "the blue dress", making it even harder to keep any kind of spotlight on offenses committed by the Clinton campaign.

Dammit! Have I mentioned how freaking sick I am of all of this? I want to walls to start oozing stuff that tells Hillary to GET OUT. Wherever she goes.

Bottom line, though, I've had a long day, and need to stay away from the political stuff. So I'm going to post some links about Peeps, and then try to find my happy place, and hang out there for a while.

It's a new movement: Peep art
Columbus Dispatch "Pimp My Peep" contest
Washington Post Peeps Show
Chicago Tribune Peeps Dioramas
Peep Research

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END OF EASTER DAY ~ HERE'S TO SPRING!

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Open Thread

Needed a break from the political stuff, so I checked out some Discovery News stories. One in particular, an article entitled Squirrels Network Like Facebook Friends, caught my attention.

And the picture accompanying the article was just crying out for the lolcat treatment....

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Carville's reaction to the Richardson endorsement

Gollum speaks (via an article in the New York Times)

The reaction of some of Mr. Clinton’s allies suggests that might have been a wise decision. “An act of betrayal,” said James Carville, an adviser to Mrs. Clinton and a friend of Mr. Clinton.

“Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” Mr. Carville said, referring to Holy Week.

Stunningly offensive remarks in so many ways.

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Casey Knowles' new ad for Obama

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