EVENING UPDATE,  MARCH 15,  2008

OH, GOODY

They're fighting at the Daily Kos.  Pass it on.

The quintessential nutbag liberal site is ablaze with conflict and angst.  It's the Clintonians versus the Obamans, 15-rounds, winner-take-all:

This is how ugly things have gotten between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- Clinton supporters are staging what they call a "strike" at the influential liberal website DailyKos.

It's not really a "strike" -- blogging for these diarists is not a job, and stopping their blogging won't cause them financial hardship.

But, that said, these diarists' boycott of DailyKos is indicative of the turmoil in which the Democratic party finds itself.

Read more on their "strike" HERE.

- jpt

UPDATE: I asked Kos himself, Markos Moulitsas, what he makes of all this.

His response: "First, these people should read up on the definition of 'strike.' What they're doing is a 'boycott.' But whatever they call it, I think it's great. It's a big Internet, so I hope they find what they're looking for."

I weep for them.  The pain must be great, the anguish greater.  Can't we all get along?

No.

OBAMA'S OTHER PROBLEM

Aside from the headache created by his pastor's wild remarks, Barack Obama has, as noted here this morning, a Rezko problem.  John Kass, of the Chicago Tribune, recounts a meeting Obama held with journalists:

Barack Obama looked me straight in the eye. I heard him speak. Yet unlike some other pundits, I felt no thrill going up my leg.

I did feel a twinge of Rezko, though, and figured Obama could feel it, too, like when the bottom of your foot cramps up inside your shoe and you can't dance.

That's "hardball" the Chicago way, as Barack visited the Tribune on Friday to discuss his old friend, fundraiser and real estate fairy, indicted political fixer Tony Rezko. Rezko himself was quite busy, in federal custody, preparing for this week's testimony in his corruption trial.

And...

Later, when the people from other floors weren't hanging in the halls like Bono groupies at a U2 concert, I was left alone with a problem: Obama asks us to believe he can swim in the sewers of Illinois politics without catching a cold. He tells us that Rezko helped him scope out his dream house, yet Obama never thought he'd get a call from Tony saying his back was itchy.

"No," Obama said. "Because I had known him for a long time, and so I would have assumed I would have seen a pattern [of Rezko asking for favors] over the course of 15 years."

I'm too old to believe in fairy tales.

Finally...

He did state, unequivocally, that if elected president, he would keep U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald as the federal hammer in Chicago, no small announcement given that Rezko is on trial and Obama ally Mayor Richard Daley is feeling federal heat.

Obama and Republican John McCain are the only presidential candidates who have formally committed to Fitzgerald. Hillary remains mum on the subject. Perhaps she and Bill hope to hold a federal carrot or a stick out to the Daley boys, should she win the Democratic nomination.

"I think he [Fitzgerald] has been aggressive in putting the city on notice and the state on notice that he takes issues of public corruption seriously," Obama said.

Will this announcement on Fitzgerald harm your relationships with Chicago politicians?

"I can't speculate on that," he said. "You can."

I disagree with his policies, but I like the man. And I almost liked his answers. Almost.

And "almost" is the problem.  It's why Barack Obama might "almost" become president.

DEM FRUSTRATION

I can understand the growing frustration among Democrats. It's no fun when you see your lead slipping away, and you can't figure out how to include two of our largest states at your convention.  What's a mother to do?

The New York Times reports on what some Dems are doing:

Democrats in Michigan and Florida struggled Friday to resolve the impasse over their disputed January primaries, coming up with a plan to hold a June primary in Michigan while remaining deadlocked in Florida.

Reflecting how tense the situation has become, influential fund-raisers for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton have stepped up their behind-the-scenes pressure on national party leaders to resolve the matter, with some even threatening to withhold their donations to the Democratic National Committee unless it seats the delegates from the two states or holds new primaries there.

The committee penalized Michigan and Florida for holding their primaries early in violation of national party rules, barring their delegates from being seated at the Democratic convention this summer. But with the Democratic contest now a scramble for every remaining delegate, the allocation of delegates from the two states could have a substantial impact on the nomination.

Mrs. Clinton won the primaries in both states, but the contests were not sanctioned by the party, neither candidate campaigned in the states and Mr. Obama did not even put his name on the ballot in Michigan.

The Florida/Michigan issue is a Democratic nightmare.  In a close contest, no candidate can leave the Democratic convention, having been nominated without the participation of those states.  There's an aroma of illegitimacy about it. 

Watch this to become a decisive issue.  If the Democrats can't run a convention, Senator Mcain will say, how can they run the country?

A SENSE OF OUTRAGE

I've been outraged and sickened, as I'm sure you have, by the murder of the student body president at the University of North Carolina, Eve Carson.  By all accounts she was an utterly outstanding young woman.

My sense of outrage grows as I read about the two individuals charged with the crime, one of whom may well be implicated in the murder of a Duke University student some weeks ago.  This is a colossal failure of the legal system:

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- On March 3, a 21-year-old convicted burglar named Demario James Atwater was supposed to be in court after he was caught carrying a gun while on probation. The hearing was rescheduled because of a courtroom mix-up.

Two days later, Eve Carson, 22, the student body president at the University of North Carolina, was killed near campus, shot in the head. On Wednesday, police arrested Atwater and charged him with killing Carson.

This picturesque college campus, already traumatized by the death of a popular, high-achieving student leader, has now absorbed several new blows: Not only did probation officers fail to monitor Atwater or schedule him for a probation revocation hearing, but a second young man charged in Carson's slaying is accused in the killing six weeks earlier of a student at nearby Duke University. At the time of both slayings, 17-year-old Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. was on probation for breaking into a house.

Lovette was charged Thursday with killing Abhijit Mahato, 29, a graduate engineering student at Duke. Mahato was shot in the head in his apartment during an apparent robbery Jan. 18.

The revelations staggered the rival campuses, just 10 miles apart, which had been brought together in public mourning over Carson's death. Duke students wore ribbons in memory of Carson and observed a moment of silence during a recent basketball game in Durham between the schools.

Atwater and Lovette, both high school dropouts from Durham, had histories of burglary and theft but managed to get probation rather than jail time. Police have not said how the two knew each other, though they attended the same high school.

State officials acknowledged that Atwater was not properly monitored.

No, I guess not. 

Both suspects are from Durham.  You know Durham, don't you?  It's a university town, Duke University to be exact.  You know Duke, don't you?  It's the place where 88 professors signed a petition last year calling, in effect, for the legal lynching of three innocent Duke lacrosse players.

Where are these "scholars" now?  How many of them will sign a petition calling for an overhaul of a legal system that allowed two hardened criminals to remain free?

Don't hold your breath.  They don't do that in Durham.  They're too "progressive," too "enlightened," too guilt-ridden over the condition of the "oppressed."

Meanwhile, Eve Carson remains dead. 

MIRACLE EYES

Finally, Japanese scientists have invented glasses that remember where the wearer last saw things like keys, a wallet, a music player.

Those frustratingly frantic searches for mislaid car keys or mobile phones could soon be a thing of the past.

Japanese scientists have invented a pair of intelligent glasses that remembers where people last saw their keys, handbag, iPod or mobile phone.

The spectacles - which come with a built in camera, display screen and computer brain - can even identify unfamiliar plants or faces.

In fact, the only thing it can't help you find are your glasses.

The Smart Goggles are the brainchild of Prof Kuniyoshi at the University of Tokyo. He believes they could revolutionise the lives of people who suffer from regular "senior moments", as well as those suffering from serious memory problems caused by dementia.

Remarkable.

Now, I can pass on some inside information:  There's a team of scientists working on a similar device - a hearing aid that allows the wearer to hear what his pastor has been saying for 18 years.  The premium model then instructs the wearer on how to express surprise.

And I'll be back tomorrow.

Posted on March 15, 2008.