Or - the random holiday that the city of Boston dug up to give them an excuse to take St. Patrick's day off.  It's still a school holiday, but unfortunately, not a holiday for most offices.

"Evacuation Day remembers the first major American military victory in the American Revolutionary War, which saw the British troops leave Boston on March 17, 1776.  General George Washington, who became the United States' first president, fortified Dorchester Heights by using cannons captured earlier from Fort Ticonderoga. The armies lobbed shells at each other during the movement, with colonists escalating the action on March 4, distracting the British soldiers' attention.

General William Howe, of the British Army, woke up on March 5 that year to find that there were heavy guns aimed at his solders and down at the British fleet. Rather than repeat the heavy casualties of the Battle of Bunker Hill, the British troops left in haste on March 17 and never returned. This was a major psychological victory for General Washington and the colonists.

Sallywally characterizes them accurately.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/26/more-clinton-hints-that-pledged-delegates-are-up-for -grabs/

As you know so well, Mark, every delegate with very few exceptions is free to make up his or her mind however they choose," she told Time's Mark Halperin in an interview published Wednesday. "We talk a lot about so-called pledged delegates, but every delegate is expected to exercise independent judgment."

[...]

"Due to the private nature of the procedures, only limited facts have been made public, all via Montague's lawyer, Max Price. Who knows what he didn't include? The problem is: he didn't need to tell everything on Monday. Because of the system's inherent deficiencies, Price was able to piggyback off the media attention for the NCAA tournament to turn Montague into a martyr for the wrongly convicted and attack campus political correctness while leaving the woman to deal with stories that suggest she was dishonest. For Montague, it was a smart play."

[...]

"Are these undisputed facts in the case? There's no way of knowing right now because unlike the judicial system, nothing else is public. This is one side's story. It may all be true. It may not. It has received all the publicity this week though. ... In this case the system either failed Montague originally with an undue expulsion or it is currently failing the woman who is open to post-verdict attack because the system is so poorly conceived."

[...]

"False allegations of rape are rare, falling in single-digit percentages, according to the FBI. Nothing is more damaging to future sexual assault cases than the public believing they are common. There's a reason so few assaults are reported at all. Yet here is another high-profile campus incident where it is being suggested, without rebuttal, because of a campus judicial system trying to comply with federal law."

The voter we almost never hear about, however, is the Clinton voter. Which is surprising, since Hillary Clinton has won more votes in the primaries than any other candidate so far. She has amassed over 2.5 million more votes than Sanders; over 1.1 million more votes than Trump. Clearly Clinton voters exist, yet there has been very little analysis as to who they are or why they are showing up to vote for her. Sure, there has been talk of Clinton's dominance among African-American voters, and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic voters. Her voters seem to skew older and more affluent. But these are demographics. (And even demographics have a hard time explaining her commanding win in Ohio, or her wins in Massachusetts and Missouri.) There is almost no discussion of what is motivating these voters. If anything, the media seems to think they are holding their noses as they vote for Hillary. As a recent New York Times article suggested, Clinton is winning "votes, not hearts."

We never hear that Hillary Clinton has "momentum"--what she has is a "sizable delegate lead." No one this cycle has described Clinton supporters as "fired up"--it's simply not possible that people are fired up for Hillary. No, what we gather about Clinton from the press is that she can't connect. She has very high unfavorable ratings. People think she is dishonest and untrustworthy. She is not a gifted politician. She is a phony. Hated by so many. The list goes on.

Considering that narrative, one would expect Clinton to be faring far worse in the primaries. Instead, she currently holds a popular vote and delegate lead over Sanders that far surpasses Obama's lead over her at this point in the race in 2008.

This is no accident. An examination of Clinton voters and their motivations might reveal that the narrative that most media outlets have been feeding us this election cycle is dubious at best. Because if the biggest vote-getter of either party is Hillary--by a large margin--then that suggests the electorate is not necessarily as angry as pundits claim. It further suggests that perhaps some people are tired of hearing about how angry they are, and are quietly asserting their opinions at the ballot box. If Democrats are so angry, Clinton would not be in the position she is today. Is it really so farfetched to claim that quite a few Democrats aren't voting for Sanders precisely because he seems angry? Which isn't to suggest that people aren't angry--certainly many Republican primary voters seem to be. Rather, it is to suggest that voters who aren't angry are still showing up at the polls, despite being ignored in news stories.

SNIP

So perhaps Clinton voters don't show up at rallies so much. Perhaps they are a bit less passionate on Facebook, share fewer articles, give less money to their candidate (she does have a super PAC, after all). But what they are doing is perhaps the only thing that actually matters in an election. They are showing up to vote. In numbers that no other candidate can boast.

It's certainly curious to presume, as many do, that Clinton's supporters are somehow less enthusiastic than Sanders's are. How is enthusiasm measured, if not by actual vote count? And they are doing so despite the media narrative surrounding their candidate, despite hearing very little about themselves in the media, despite her "damn" emails, despite Benghazi, despite her low Gallup favorables, and despite how everyone else is "Feeling the Bern." If anything, Clinton might need to thank the press for consistently underestimating her. Perhaps this is why her supporters are coming out for her in such strength: to assert their existence in the face of a narrative that both overlooks them and disparages their candidate.

Moral Hazard, the Irish setter owned for photo op purposes by New York Times columnist David Brooks, was worried. Master couldn't get off the floor. He had laid down on a small throw-rug in the club room of the Young Fogies Club on 44th Street shortly after dinner on Wednesday night. He had not since moved from that spot. Moral Hazard had done everything he could. He had licked Master's ear. He had dropped an old slobber-thick tennis ball on Master's forehead. He had chewed Master's left wingtip shoe even though it still was on Master's right foot. Now, he lay across the room in front of the cold empty hearth, licking his balls in deep contemplation, and wondering if he should alert Douthat, the houseboy, that Master seemed to be in a state of coma and that he was endangering the rest of the members of the Young Fogies Club as a danger to navigation on their way to the Gentleman's Lounge, where it was Fish Taco Friday and three-for-one Jell-O shots.

Moral Hazard noticed that Master had left his computer on, and that there were words on the screen, arranged in paragraphs. He wandered over and put his paws up on the desk. He looked over at Master again. Master's eyes were open but he was not seeing anything. Moral Hazard read, and he understood. He walked sadly out of the room, through the kitchen, and out onto the fire escape over the alley. He let the afternoon breezes wash over him. He wondered if Master would ever wake up, or if anyone would notice if he did.

The traditional Irish group The Chieftains have regularly collaborated with Ms. O'Connor to great effect, most notably on "He Moved Through the Fair" from the soundtrack to director Neil Jordan's 1996 biopic "Michael Collins," which played (SPOILER ALERT) during the climactic scene in which Collins himself is killed by radicalized elements of the IRA he founded and forged in August 1922 at Béal na Bláth, County Cork.

Very seldom seen nowadays, I've heard that "Michael Collins" is due for a general re-release in Ireland this year on its 20th anniversary. It's a compelling work and remains the highest grossing film in that country's history, despite Jordan having taken a considerable historical liberty with his thinly-veiled insinuation that future Irish President Eamon de Valera may have orchestrated Collins' assassination. (There's absolutely no evidence to that effect, even though de Valera was clearly that primary political beneficiary of the crime.)

I believe the The NSA is also conducting a review of how their information ended up in e mails from Sid Blumenthal to Madame Sec.
Among others.

I believe The Bern will not suspend his campaign as long as the FBI/NSA probe is ongoing. He would not want any interloper like Biden or Kerry be handed the nomination, in case the unthinkable happens,

Most people don't discuss economic policy; they trade platitudes.

Asked on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" who he talks with consistently about foreign policy, Trump responded, "I'm speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things."

"I know what I'm doing and I listen to a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people and at the appropriate time I'll tell you who the people are," Trump said. "But my primary consultant is myself and I have a good instinct for this stuff."

Jesus, even SNL couldn't come up with a gem like that.
LINK

Michael Hayden on Fox News

When co-host Brian Kilmeade mentioned Trump's answer Wednesday on whom the candidate consults with on foreign policy issues (himself), he followed it with, "I think he was kidding."

"I don't think he was kidding," Hayden responded seriously.

Asked whether he would field Trump's call seeking advice, Hayden, who has been critical of Trump's past boasts that he would order the killing of terrorists' families and bring back waterboarding "and a hell of a lot worse," spoke of the difference between advising a candidate and a president or president-elect.

So just imagine the huge shock it must be to all of TV Sportsland right now, that the Spartans instead became this year's biggest NCAA first round washout.

Congratulations to the 15th seed Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, who saw their opportunity with Michigan State clearly looking past them to inevitable dreams of glory, and took advantage of it.

They might back them out of fear, but they don't believe them.

When Bernie Sanders speaks, you believe him even when you don't agree with him.

I agree with people that HRC's voice is not as warm as some others, like Warren. Warren has that honey-dripped mellow tone. That's just how some people are built. I think HRC is best in a town hall setting, or talking with an interviewer, not in a speech. Everyone has different talents.

Obama's great speaking ability has not been as much of an asset as it could have been, had he not heeded GOP complaints that he was 'overexposed'.

"Will this hurt Donald in any way?"

"Probably not."