It's now confirmed that Howard Dean will be the Thursday night keynote at Netroots Nation in Austin on July 17!

It's not too late to register -- do it now!

There really is no better place for Dean to appear, as Texas is one of the prime areas where Dean's Fifty-State strategy is succeeding.  The Democrats have a competitive Senate race in TX this year, with a genuinely progressive Senate candidate (Noreiga).  That wouldn't be possible without Dean's investment in the Fifty State Strategy.

For those of you New Yorkers looking to connect with other local liberal/progressives for a few beers and a movie, mark June 8 on your calendar.  Netroots Nation and Living Liberally are sponsoring dinner and a movie (and beer):

Yes, the votes that really matter are in:

In a presidential campaign where we have gauged candidates based on the color of their pantsuits, the health of their skin and the ability to throw a bowling ball, one critical test has been overlooked.

I am, of course, talking about how their astrological charts stack up.

Lucky for us, the United Astrology Conference was in Denver this week, with 1,500 devotees from 44 countries. On Tuesday, seven top forecasters took the stage in the downtown Sheraton and made like television political pundits, minus the screaming.

I'll cut to the chase: Six panelists predicted the election will go to Barack Obama, thanks to a Saturn-Jupiter conjunction spelling change. The seventh, Shelley Ackerman, saw an Obama win, but worried about Neptune doing something funky in January, endangering his chances of actually taking office. Her colleagues agreed the stars did look dicey in this respect.

Jeffrey Toobin has a good piece up in the New Yorker where he asks whether McCain will be a "Maverick" when it comes to Supreme Court appointments, or whether he will follow in the steps George W. Bush.  After reviewing the evidence, Toobin concludes that this is one area where McCain has NEVER been, is not now, and never will be a Maverick:

The question, as always with McCain these days, is whether he means it. Might he really be a "maverick" when it comes to the Supreme Court? The answer, almost certainly, is no. The Senator has long touted his opposition to Roe, and has voted for every one of Bush’s judicial appointments; the rhetoric of his speech shows that he is getting his advice on the Court from the most extreme elements of the conservative movement.

The Nebraska Senate primary is the most important Democratic primary today.  Scott Kleeb is a true progressive and a genuine netroots hero, having attended the YearlyKos convention (now Netroots Nation), among his other efforts to reach out to the netroots.  Tony Raimondo?  Not so much.

So I'm happy to report that OpenLeft's Chris Bowers has called it for Scott Kleeb!

Update 6--Kleebn wins Nebraska Senate primary: Even though only 5% is reporting, Scott Kleeb is ahead by an absurd amount in the Nebraska Senate primary. Pretty easy to call an election when someone is ahead by 50%. I won't update this one anymore.

I hope that's true, but only 6% of the vote is in, so I'm unsure.  Anyway, results are here.

This is an open thread.

I'm proud to say that the netroots convention that some you may have attended in Chicago last August has made a difference in the Obama-Hillary race as it cames down to the end.  Obama has a new ad out.  It's called "Guide":

Boasting a jaunty lounge-lizard soundtrack and faux film-reel effects, the ad matches the cool irony of Obama's "Annie Oakley" attack; with no voiceover and no mention of Obama's name, think Ginsu knife more than meat cleaver. But the slick style masks a typically aggressive Obama counterpunch: the implication that because Clinton has accepted more money from lobbyists "than any other candidate, Republican OR Democrat" (and once said "they represent real Americans"), she would, as president, put their priorities above the needs of average Americans--just like a typical Washington "player."

Back in the beginning of the 1990's, I went to college (The University of Chicago) with a somewhat hyperactive, always smiling bespectacled kid named Rick Perlstein.  Apparently, he was brilliant.  I didn't really know that at the time, but I did know that he played a mean jazz keyboard. I remember a Sunday late evening ritual of going to "Jimmy's," a bar on 55th Street in Hyde Park (I may have the details wrong, it's been awhile), and watching Rick jam with a mix of locals and university types.  I also vaguely remember a road trip to Michigan to watch a performance by a friend of Rick's, who he informed me was a jazz phenom (I may have the details wrong there too, but that's close to how I remember it).  Fun times.

Anyway, I forgot to mention that Rick is now a much-lauded historian, author and honorary member of the progressive blogosphere.  His first book "Before the Storm" (about Barry Goldwater), won the Los Angeles Times Book prize.

Anyway, I am going to Hawaii in a week, and I have nothing to read.  So I emailed Rick, and guess what.

So, it's official.  The 2008 Daily Kos primary wars were more intense and more bitter than the Daily Kos primary wars of 2004.  I thought that nothing would ever trump the Dean-Clark wars, where a legion of Clarkies tried to climb Mount Daily Kos to knock Dean off the summit, and got thrown back into the abyss in the process, but not before taking a handful of Deaniacs down with them.  

But I was wrong.  The Hillary-Edwards-Obama wars, that later became the Hillary-Obama wars, were worse.  The intra-blogger ad hominem accusations of corruption, bad faith, sexism and racism told the tale.  Friendships were destroyed.  Alliances were frayed.  For many, the world was just too cruel to do anything but say good bye.

This may be one of the more important stories that we hear today.  A loyal, prestigious Hillary superdelegate and surrogate has veered radically off message in terms of setting Pennsylvania expectations.

As you may have seen elsewhere, the narrowing Pennsylvania polls have led the Clinton campaign to once again move the goalposts on Obama, and to now argue that if Obama fails to win Pennsylvania, even by a small amount, he will have "failed."

However, New Jersey Governor John Corzine, a Hillary superdelegate and surrogate, has just gone out of his way to contradict the Hillary campaign, stating unequivocably that Hillary must win Pennsylvania big in order to credibly stay in the race:

The Obama-Clinton primary is over.  Obama is the nominee.  His speech yesterday ended it.  All that's left is to count the delegates.

With respect to pledged delegates,"barring an unlikely string of landslide victories by the former first lady in the remaining states," Obama will win the pledged delegate count when all the primaries and caucuses are done.   Given the Democratic party's proportional delegate rules, Hillary is cooked on this one.

With respect to the overall popular vote, now that Florida and Michigan are off the table, experts say Obama's lead, currently at about 800,000, is insurmountable, barring (once again) an unprecedented string of Hillary landslides.

Bear Stearns is done, and the speed of its collapse is nothing short of stunning.  A news story just up on the Wall Street Journal's website says that Bear Stearns, which just got bailed out by the feds on Friday, will announce either a sale to JP Morgan or a bankruptcy filing before the markets open in Asia on Monday.  In a frightening sign of instability, analysts worry that the failure to resolve the Bear situation before markets open could lead to a "financial crisis":

Before I begin, I'd like to say that what Spitzer did was wrong and embarrassing.  However, the way the prosecutors have conducted themselves seems highly questionable.  I say in the title that it "stinks," and I based on what I know so far, I think that is a defensible comment.  

Apparently, the investigation was launched when the IRS noticed that Spitzer was withdrawing large amounts of money from what appeared to be his personal bank accounts.

OK, what do you guys think of John Corzine as a potential Vice President?  The more I see the US economy spiral out of control, the more I think this election will be about the economy, not foreign policy or terrorism.  And with that kind of election, I can't think of a better VP candidate than John Corzine.  Here are the pluses, as I see them:

1.  He's the former chair of Goldman Sachs.  So he will automatically be seen as a heavyweight on the economy.

2. BUT, as a Governor, his policies have been highly progressive, even populist.  So he won't be dismissed as a Wall Street elitist.

3.  He would be stronger than your typical governor with respect to foreign policy.  New Jersey is a State that is in the cross-hairs of the terrorist threat, so he has "homeland security" style experience.  Also, he has foreign policy experience as a Senator.

The big negative is that New Jersey is a fairly easy pickup for Democrats.  But modern experience shows that the VP pick is less about winning an individual State then it is about the candidate's national message.

So, John Corzine for Vice President.  Who's with me???    

So, I'd like to run a few questions by the Daily Kos community.  I'm hoping there's someone out there who is a legal geek when it comes to the treatment of classified information, because I have some fairly fundamental questions that I haven't seen answered anywhere else in the MSM.  Answers would be much appreciated.

1.  Do first spouses have to get security clearances, pass FBI background checks, etc, in order to view classified information?

2.  If the answer to question 1 is "yes," what would be the penalty to the President if he (or she), shared classified info with the first spouse, who was not cleared?  Could Bill Clinton, for example, lose his security clearances if he in fact shared classified info with Hillary during his presidency?  Could he be prosecuted?

3.  Does Hillary's strategy of claiming she was involved in resolving high stakes foreign policy crises risk putting Bill Clinton and Clinton White House staffers in criminal jeopardy?  

Thanks in advance for your assistance.  Let's see that Daily Kos "hive mind" get to work on answers!    

This coming Saturday, March 8, Democrat Bill Foster will take the fight to Republican Jim Oberweis in a Special Election for the seat of retiring Speaker Dennis Hastert.  Although this seat, IL-14, is in a Republican leaning district, Foster is a strong candidate, and this is a good Democratic year, so he has a shot at winning.

Right now, turnout is expected to be extremely low.  But there's one factor that may excite Democratic voters and bring them to polls.  That's the factor that's been exciting Democratic voters accross the country, from Maine to Hawaii, and ESPECIALLY in Illinois -- Barack Obama!  

As we all know, Fox News is a cesspool of Republican talking points disguised as objective news analysis.  However, there has always been one bright spot in the cesspool -- Eric Burns' "Fox News Watch," a weekly media analysis show.

Burns' show was the only one on Fox News to hire true liberal commentators, rather than "Fox News Democrats" who provide the illusion of balance while actually bashing Democrats every time they fail to act like Republicans.  (Neal Gabler, and before him, Jeff Cohen, were real progressives who would never be mistaken for Fox News Democrats).

Therefore, I suppose it wasn't a surprise when, about three weeks ago, we learned that Fox News had fired Eric Burns (and Neal Gabler to boot).

This whole plagiarism attack by Hillary is beyond silly.  It's beyond silly because Patrick and Obama are spiritual and political allies.  There's no "plagiarism" here, only a common approach to politics and policy.

But what makes it even sillier is that, before Obama "stole" from Patrick, Patrick "stole" from Obama.  From a Boston Globe article entitled Patrick, Obama Campaigns Share Language of 'Hope':

This latest assertion by Clinton official Harold Ickes is quite disturbing.  Chris Bowers (and others) have made the case that whoever wins the pledged delegate count will control the credentials committee at the Convention, and therefore control the disposition of Michigan and Florida's delegates.  If true, that is good news because whoever wins the primaries will also win FL and MI, assuring that the fake beauty contest elections won't subvert the will of the voters.  But now Ickes says: