As it stands at this moment, unless Sen. Hillary Clinton continues her campaign for the Democratic nomination until the Party's convention, there is no presently visible chance that the U.S. will come out of the presently skyrocketting hyperinflationary crisis in any form easily recognized as being, still, our Constitutional republic. The attempt by the powerful, and also predatory financier groups which have sought to crush Senator Clinton, as they had attempted to destroy the nomination of President Franklin Roosevelt in Hoover's favor in 1932, has the smell of a serious attempt at fascist dictatorship all over it. ...

Those who are attempting to shut down the Clinton campaign and control this Presidential election have no allegiance to Democratic Party, or to the United States. They are acting as agents of a dangerous foreign influence. If they were to succeed, the U.S.A. will have lost its sovereignty, and there would be very little hope for the continuation of civilized life on this planet.

The Kingwood teenager's story of decapitating a corpse and using the head to smoke marijuana was so outlandish that at first Houston Police Department senior police officer Jim Adkins did not believe it.

Yet, Kevin Wade Jones Jr., 17, appeared almost indifferent as he relayed the bizarre description of his and two friends' activities at an Humble area graveyard, Adkins said.


"I just doubted it because it's very morbid, and I couldn't see anybody doing something like this," Adkins said Thursday.

Not until police went to the home of another Kingwood 17-year-old, Matthew Richard Gonzalez, did the officer believe the tale.
"He regurgitated in his plate of food when I asked him about it," Adkins said. "So I knew there was some truth to the story." ...

Jones claimed he and his friends used shovels to dig up the body and removed the corpse's head with a garden tool, Adkins said. Jones also revealed he and the other two boys took the severed head to the juvenile's home, where they used the skull as a "bong" to smoke marijuana, the officer said.

This race now is no longer a race, but a hostage crisis. Hillary is surrounded, and she can see the super-delegates through the windows of the bank lobby and she knows they are armed to the teeth, wearing their kevlar vests, weapons sighted, aimed, and with the safeties off. In her heart of hearts she knows it is over, but still she keeps the pistol cocked at the head of the party. Maybe, just maybe, something will happen and she can make it to the fueled plane she demanded be taken to the airport and then she can go away to her big payday. She has come this far, she can’t quit now. Miracles happen.

But it won’t happen. It never does. Not even in the movies, at least not the good ones.

The only thing left to be resolved is how many hostages she kills.

It's September 12, 2001. You're sitting in front of a TV, watching footage of the World Trade Center collapse over and over and over again.

All of a sudden, someone from seven years in the future walks out of a tiny temporal vortex, and tells you: George W. Bush is going to fuck this up so badly that in 2008, the United States of America will likely elect as president a black man whose middle name is Hussein and whose father was Muslim. Oh, and he also admits he's used cocaine.

I think it would have been easier to convince me of the reality of time travel. "No, no, I believe you really are from the future. But the other stuff, that's CRAZY."

It's disappointing, to say the least, to see the first viable female contender for the presidency participate in attacks on her black opponent's patriotism, which exploit an anxious climate around national security that gives white men an edge both over women and people of color--who tend to be viewed, respectively, as weak and potentially traitorous. Says Paula Giddings, "This idea of nationalism and patriotism pulling at everyone has demanded hypermasculine men, more like McCain than the feline Obama, and demanded women whose role is to be maternal more than anything else."

As Hullabaloo contributor dday notes here, the fact Cazayoux won despite a well financed attack from the Right linking him to Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama should make people realize that the bark of the vaunted Republican attack machine is far worse than its bite.

But I’d go a step further: Cazayoux ran as a very conservative Democrat—in part because he had to if he wanted to get elected in this district, and in part because I think that’s true to who he is as a politician: a social conservative with a dash of economic populism. But his ads were so concerned with establishing his family values bona fides—a lot of them were about Protecting Our Kids from Predators—that it really began to seem barely worth the effort turn out to vote, given the apparent similarities between the candidates. (This is not an uncommon feeling for a liberal in Louisiana.) In a perverse way, and even though at least one of them was factually inaccurate, the attack ads actually appealed to liberal voters indirectly in a way that Cazayoux could not afford to directly; they spread the message about Cazayoux’s liberal-moderate voting record and persuaded me that he was someone worth supporting. Because of my limited sample size (1) I am hesitant to make any sweeping pronouncements about whether or not this phenomenon was widespread, but I will say that there are worse things right now than being linked to the national Democratic party—like, say, being linked to the national Republican party—and that we may realize soon enough that low voter turnout is the only thing keeping the Red Stick a red district.

Why doesn’t she just change her name to Huey Long? Seriously, though -- when did this happen? I remember when Hillary was the detached policy wonk, who coldly and coolly analyzed problems, and now she has morphed into some unsophisticated bubba who hates the man, hates ideas, and hates everything but joe six-pack and his shotgun and coon hound. I fully expect her to show up to her next rally in the General Lee.

“I don’t believe it’s going to be nearly the size and scope that it was in 1991.” 9.15.02

“We made serious mistakes right after the initial successes by not having enough troops there on the ground.” 9.20.04

“This conflict is going to be relatively short.” 3.23.02

“I’ve always said this is long and hard and tough.” 4.6.08

“There’s no doubt in my mind that once these people are gone that we will be welcomed as liberators.” 3.24.03

“It’s clear that the end is very much in sight.” 4.9.03

“There’s not a history of clashes that are violent between Sunnis and Shias. So I think they can probably get along.” 4.23.03

“Democrats are trying to do some kind of attack against this magnificent victory.” 7.23.03


“I would argue that the next three to six months will be critical.” 9.10.03

“Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war.” 8.04

“We’ve seen a number of signs of progress, including that of the capabilities of the Iraqi military, agreement with the Sunnis as framing the constitution, a decrease in suicide bombers from Iraqis and more and more coming in from the outside. … there is a legitimacy to the Iraqi government that, frankly, the government of South Vietnam never had.” 6.28.05

“We will probably see significant progress in the next six months to a year.” 12.4.05

“We are making progress. The formation of a government is helpful. We are training the Iraqi troops. There are parts of Iraq that are well under control and very peaceful.” 5.24.06

“Things are better and there are encouraging signs. I have been here many years—many times over the years. Never have I been able to drive from the airport, never have I been able to go out into the city as I was today.” 4.1.07, wearing body armor, accompanied by 100 U.S. soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships


“The next six months are going to be critical.” 9.12.07

“Iraq is now the central front in the war against al-Qaeda.” 9.16.07

“Anybody who believes the surge has not succeeded, militarily, politically, and in most other ways, frankly, does not know the facts on the ground.” 2.08

“We’ve go to get American’s off the frontlines, have the Iraqis as part of the strategy, take over more and more of the responsibilities, and then I don’t think Americans are concerned if we’re there for one hundred years or a thousand years or ten thousand years.” 1.6.08

“If we do set a date for withdrawal, Al Qaida will then win. … We’re all over the world. One of the obligations, unfortunately, of being a great superpower is that we have to take care of the world’s security.” 2.3.08

I think the most important thing to note about the Jeremiah Wright Story is that we're a Nation plagued by exceedingly few significant problems; blessed with a quite healthy political culture and very trusted political and media institutions; composed of a citizenry that is peacefully content with its Government and secure and confident about their future; endowed with a supremely sturdy economic foundation free of debt and other grave economic afflictions; vested with the ability to command great respect and admiration from the other nations of the world; emancipated by the burdens of war and intractable conflicts which have toppled and destroyed so many other great nations of the past; and, most of all, we're becoming freer and more prosperous by the minute.

Not only that, but we have an extremely impressive, serious and honor-bound ruling imperial class devoted to the preservation of all of these blessings.

So it isn't as though we really have anything else to talk about besides Jeremiah Wright. There are some countries in the world -- probably most -- which have so many big problems that they could ill-afford to devote much time and energy to a matter of this sort. Thankfully, the United States isn't one of them. I believe it's critical that we keep that in mind as we discuss him for the next seven months.

Vivid Entertainment is releasing a sex tape allegedly starring Jimi Hendrix. The Los Angeles-based adult entertainment company said they obtained the footage of the music legend shot in a hotel room about 40 years ago from a memorabilia collector.

The footage features Hendrix engaging in various sexual acts with two women, according to a statement released by Vivid. The company said they consulted with several experts to authenticate the footage.

The conventional wisdom is that Obama has to do something drastic about all this -- maybe hit Wright with a blackjack, or go around dressed as Captain America. But under this kind of ridiculous hazing, there's really not much he can do. Though he may try and paint the corners now and again, Obama is clearly disinclined toward the grand renunciatory gestures the press has prescribed for him. I suspect he realizes that this course could fatally derail his Presidential run, but would rather fail going forward than in retreat.

We think of these crises as a test for Obama, but as things are currently playing out, they strike me as more of a test of our politics -- that is, of whether we are so fatally addicted to sideshows that we can't have a national election about even the most pressing national issues. Obama's political fortunes, or those of any candidate, are small potatoes compared to that.

With all the talk among the Democratic presidential hopefuls about change, they may wish to consider this as they wander Indiana: People here practically revolted a few years ago when their governor, Mitch Daniels, pushed to change to daylight saving time like most of the country.

Change, it seems, may not carry quite the same political magic in this state as it has elsewhere.

“We hold onto a lot of traditional values,” said Brian L. Thomas, 39, as he bought a cup of coffee along the courthouse square here on Wednesday. “Saying you’re ready to change is probably not the best or only thing you would want to say around these parts. Frankly, we want it to be like it used to be.”

Many of the two dozen voters interviewed in this central Indiana manufacturing city of 46,000 expressed queasiness over the notions of change that both Democratic candidates have proudly pledged elsewhere. Though residents bemoaned economic conditions that have taken away thousands of factory jobs and given the state the 11th-highest rate of foreclosures, they also said they worried about doing things — anything — very differently.

“What are we going to change to?” asked Ron O’Bryan, 58, a retired auto worker who said he was still trying to decide which Democrat to vote for in the May 6 primary. “You mean change to some other country’s system? What do you think they mean?”

Jeremy Lewis, a 28-year-old window washer, said simply, “Old-fashioned can be in a good way.”