I subscribe to the school that believes satire is one of American democracy's last refuges.  I don't defend it reflexively, but think the burden is squarely on the shoulders of those who would attack it so as to silence it.  So when I first learned of the New Yorker cover of the Obamas, I grinned at the concept, and imagined the New Yorker would acquit the idea well.

But over 24 hours -- after studying the cover art as a critic rather than glancing at it as newsstand visitor (where many will see it) -- my position has evolved from approval to disapproval.  It took me a while to sort out why, but I think I have narrowed it down to two main complaints -- 1) the nature of the venue itself, and 2) the Osama characterization above the fireplace.

OK, I'll pick up Dansac's flag and launch a new one as we come around the backstretch.  

Please be descriptive... we who aren't Indianans or Carolinians are living vicariously through your stories, and in many cases have never visited your neck of the woods.  Add a little political travelogue, a vigniette, what's blooming, traces of conversation.  While we try to be a fact-based diary, we are also word-based diary.

There has been no diarying on what's going wrong at the polls yet, which is a good thing.  I just heard on Ed Schultz, however, that first-time registered voters, particularly in NW Indiana, are being forced to fill out provisional ballots for some unknown reason.  I can't corroborate this.  Can anyone?

Vote, vote, vote!

It's my own fault, really.  In periodic moments of weakness over the past few weeks, I've allowed myself to see the endgame of this Democratic primary, and entertain with some relish the dozens of ways Obama will whup John McCain in the general election.

So as I was taking my morning constitutional through the political links of the elite press, I was in no mood to confront the pile left by the LA Times' Andrew Malcolm at his "Top of the Ticket" blog.

Malcolm is a veteran reporter.  His "immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000."

-- Wake up, Madame President!

-- Wha.. What is it?

-- Hu's on the Red Phone.

-- What?

-- Hu's on Red.

-- Well, what is it?

-- It's Hu.

-- What?

-- Hu.

This will be a very brief diary with YouTube links commemorating a very hopeful event that took place today -- the New York Philharmonic's performance in Pyongyang, North Korea.

I encourage everyone to take a moment and observe the power of performance art in the service of our common humanity.

Dvořák's New World Symphony

Arirang, the traditional Korean folk song

[With special thanks to YouTube user Sangdoo2...]

(From the diaries -- kos)

[Update -- The matchless Emptywheel fleshes out her skepticism at Firedoglake.  Apparently, the rebroadcast on the local news picked up only a segment of the 60 Minutes broadcast, and so omitted "the part of the story that detailed plans to intentionally use the Federal Justice system to take out a political rival."]

[Update 2 -- The segment was apparently was rebroadcast in full on the affiliate newscast.  Apologies for the misreading.]

The 60 Minutes Siegelman blackout story in Alabama has evolved since aggressiveprogressive's diary last night.  Because ap's diary has fallen off the recommend list, I thought I would provide the update in diary format to encourage further research and action on the part of the board.

This diary is mostly of the hit-and-run variety, but the LA Times just published a pretty comprehensive polling assessment of the Democratic state of play with one week to go.

Some highlights below the fold...

Many kind tribespeople have encouraged me to reprint a comment I appended last night to Kid Oakland's diary "Hmm" (which I also recommend, as I always seem to do with KOs work).  It was set off by today's peculiar and tellingly timed endorsement of Hillary Clinton by the New York Times, which instantly transported me to the 1990s, and back again to the present with a new clarity of vision.

So, here goes...  See you at the polls!

I hate this money-grubbing "primary" campaign.  It has done absolutely nothing for the country but strangle a quickly maturing consensus on impeachment among Democrats, Independents and awakening Republicans.  In 15 months, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney will STILL be our sitting president and vice president, in possession of all the unitary executive authority left unchallenged by our Majority of the Meek.  Today's nauseating New York Times confirmation of our ongoing legalized torture policies dumps -- yet again -- a big steaming pile of reality right on the nation's doorstep.

It is my strong opinion that this site's constituency -- and the progressive blogosphere as a whole -- needs to regroup around the idea of demanding impeachment trials for Cheney and Bush.  Trials don't mean convictions, as we learned in '98, but they do provide a measure of accountability, of which we have had none to date on literally dozens of crimes and misdemeanors going all they way back to the Florida recount and the Cheney energy meetings.

The scientific evidence, of course, has been mounting steadily and dismally for years now. The planet is suffering through an anthropogenic warming due to our sprialling CO2 emissions.

As scientists have accumulated and corroborated the evidence over these past decades, public realization of the crisis has trailed slowly behind, stunted by a consumption-based media system, a calcified auto industry, our own determined ignorance and denial, and bipartisan political timidity.

Scientists, progressive-minded voters, and their representatives have made strides in bringing the debate to cloture and moving on to action.  Vice President Gore, on the heels of the unprecedented 2005 hurricane season, pushed public demands for remediation over the top with his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth".

Today, finally, the White House unveiled an environmental policy equal to our daunting task.

[Update 11:55 PDT : My 1st Reco'd diary after 4 years here(!).  Another question I'm not hearing addressed specificially: isn't GWB ordering commission of a fraud by soliciting Ashcroft's signature, when James Comey had formally assumed the duties of AG Ashcroft?  Isn't there a piece of paper somewhere saying "I, John Ashcroft, surrender my constitutional authority to James Comey while I am under sedation."

Let history record that Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News was the first journalist to ask George W. Bush the question that will end his presidency.

O'Donnell:  "Sir, did you send your then chief of staff and White House counsel to the bedside of John Ashcroft while he was ill to get him to approve that program, and do you believe that kind of conduct from White House officials is appropriate?"

Bush evaded the question wholesale, so O'Donnell asked it again.

O'Donnell: "Was it on your order, sir?"

Bush: "As I said, the program is a necessary program that was constantly reviewed and constantly briefed to the Congress..."

Assaying reader comments in our fair corner of blogosphere, as you all know, can result not infrequently in the discovery of a nugget.  Sometimes the nuggets are offered up professionally, but also in passing, and lead one to pan down a bit further in the sand.

So, last night, I was loitering over at Digby's, where a commenter made the following observation

Leahy can issue subpoenas on his own but he can't enforce them on his own. It takes a majority vote of the Senate to hold a person in contempt for refusing to obey a subpoena. (BY the way, the matter is then refered to a US Attorney - ie a Justice Dept employee - for prosecution.)
[snip]
bloix | 03.19.07 - 5:24 pm |

There is a great deal of warranted agitation today over the very recent forced resignations of a number of U.S. attorneys.  Justin Rood over at TPM Muckraker has compiled the following list of seven, with a possible unnamed eighth from Texas mentioned this morning by Sen. Feinstein:

San Francisco - 1/16/07 - Kevin V. Ryan - unclear
Nevada - 1/15/07 - Daniel Bogden - pushed out
San Diego - 1/12/07 - Carole Lam - pushed out
New Mexico - 12/19/06 - David Igleslias - pushed out
Arizona - 12/19/06 - Paul K. Charlton - unclear
Seattle - 12/15/06 - John McKay - unclear; likely pushed out
Little Rock (Ark.) - 12/15/06 - Bud Cummins - pushed out

Can anyone think of another US attorney who may be crossing up the White House at this moment?

The White House announced this morning that President Bush will tell the nation about his war escalation plans this Wednesday night at 9pm Eastern.

In discussing the speech this morning, WH spokesman Tony Snow reinforced for everyone that this will be, at its root, a political speech.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said Monday that Bush "understands there is a lot of public anxiety" about the war. On the other hand, he said that Americans "don't want another Sept. 11" type of terrorist attack and that it is wiser to confront terrorists overseas in Iraq and other battlegrounds rather than in the United States.

Very breaking from the BBC... so far just a scrolling headline with "More Soon."  Please add updates as you find them; I'll do the same.  French sources would be great from you Francophones out there.

In what alternative universe would a two-term incumbent president -- the day before Election Day -- stump for a senatorial candidate failing so miserably in the polls that she's become a national laughingstock?

That would be the one you're living in today.  President George W. Bush, blown off today by Florida Republican gubenatorial candidate Charlie Crist in the most public manner possible, will have to content himself hailing the talents of Katherine Harris the day before her senatorial candidacy slams into earth with the force of an asteroid.

As other diarists and commenters are pointing out, today's New York Times paints a very grim picture of events on the ground in Iraq.  Between John Burns' lead article in the print edition, "U.S. Says Violence in Baghdad Rises, Foiling Campaign", and Christine Hauser's "Shiite Militia Seizes Control of Iraqi City", I'm inclinded to believe for the first time that an irreversible rout -- not a stalemate -- is now underway.

Here is yet another way media companies buy political favors.

Friday's Denver Post reports Republican Rick O'Donnell (CO-7) took an expenses-paid vacation with his girlfriend to Panama courtesy of CBS Corp. (via Denver affiliate KCNC).  It was allegedly CBS's way of saying thanks to O'Donnell for buying ad time on KCNC to promote the Colorado Commission on Higher Education he headed for Gov. Bill Owens.

The Post (itself an asset of Dean Singleton's MediaNewsGroup, which also has significant business on Capitol Hill) treats the story with "this-is-nothing-out-of-the-ordinary" language.  Here's the lede: