One recurrent theme - everybody I talked to brought this up on their own - was the acrimony between Dems who were once all united in their Bush hate.  It came as no surprise to hear people say they're no longer talking politics with certain friends, no longer visiting certain blogs, and no longer watching certain news shows.  A couple of folks shamefacedly confessed that they've started watching Fox News b/c, in the words of Ed Rendell, they are evenhanded in their dislike of Obama and Clinton.  

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them...And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

It's about the most patronizing, elitist remark I've heard uttered by a national politician.

Hillary's Bloggers

Cross-posted at Taylor Marsh.

Phil Singer, a Clinton spokesman, said, "Hillary respects former president Carter but disagrees with his decision," adding: "She would not meet with Hamas without coordinating with Israel."

Obama has said he is willing to meet with officials of hostile governments, but he puts Hamas in a different category.

Spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama "does not agree with President Carter's decision to go forward with this meeting because he does not support negotiations with Hamas until they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel's right to exist, and abide by past agreements."

Quote, Joe Scarborough:

Barack Obama has only been in Congress for one year before he started running for POTUS.  You know how tough it is to run a city.  Could you imagine trying to run the United States of America if you've only been in DC for one year??

DB: Before making the movie I was what some would call a heavy pot smoker - most days, if not at 4:20, at least in the evening. I'd wake and bake on occasion, like on days that end in "ay." No, actually, I only wake and bake on days when I don't have much to do. Which as a stand-up comedian, is a lot of days. But I had never smoked all day, every day for 30 days, so I thought it might be tough. Turns out, it wasn't.

Voter registration rolls being purged, threats of arrest if certain people show up to vote, limited voting machines and polling places causing horrendouly long lines, intimidation of entire groups of people, selective challenges at the polls, the farce of the "provisional ballot," are some of the important issues that can change an election.

The potential for fraud and evidence of recent fraud in the counting of votes cast is the other huge piece that progressives by and large are unwilling to look at.  Why they think we will win without addressing this issue is beyond me.

From  PC World - Business Center (which was linked to and quoted from at the Brad Blog), computer experts say that the three largest electronic voting company products, which will be widely used in November throughout the country, are vulnerable to a hack which could alter votes.  (Read: This could change an election!)

This year, the U.S. will pick a new president using electronic voting machines that can be hacked, security experts said Thursday at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

Wagner was part of the team that audited California's voting systems during the state's review of electronic voting, and the problems his team found affect counties across the U.S. "The three systems we looked at are three of the most widely used around the nation," he said during an e-voting panel discussion at the show. "They're going to be using them in the 2008 elections; they're still going to have the same vulnerabilities we found."

The ACLU is calling on congress to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the administration's little torture reenactment parties at the white house.

digby
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Congress to demand an independent prosecutor to investigate possible violations by the Bush administration of laws including the War Crimes Act, the federal Anti-Torture Act, and federal assault laws.

"No one in the executive branch of government can be trusted to fairly investigate or prosecute any crimes since the head of every relevant department, along with the president and vice president, either knew or participated in the planning and approval of illegal acts," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Congress cannot look the other way; it must demand an independent investigation and independent prosecutor.