I heard Rachel Maddow today bemoaning that Barack Obama will get some well-earned rest in Hawai'i. I'm happy because for Sarkozy to ask him when he would be taking a vacation means that he has been overdue for one, and we've got the convention ahead.

Feel free to express your concerns or horror in the comments but please click happy vaca wishes!

PHIL :)

Here's a tale about a winner who whined a time* then went on winning.
Thrills for all and smiles and crowds reserved for the few.
That's it, of the few, just one more. Many like him.
If you're lucky you might meet one, so you're lucky.

Here we are. Here he is. Just one more.
Phrases like "glorious leader" are sterile.
As the joke goes about why God gave us so many nerve endings,
"I want to hear them call my name."

Friendly. Someone we can relate to. Smart and capable too.
Presumptuous? That's rich. Get real.
That's President Umptuous To You!

In case you didn't know, the hope creed pre-exists all of us and has been a solid part of the American psyche on both sides of the color line for over a century.

Do any of you Obama scholars out there know where he got his from?

I think it helps the rock star factor to keep in mind that many of Obama's hallmark philosophies pre-date all of us.

Today's AP headline on Yahoo News reads:

Military says US troops killed Iraqi editor's son
by Kim Gamel

War brought death to 14-year old Arkan Ali Taha in a cab
when our forces: responded to heavy fire
Oh well,
How sad!

They should be so grateful...
his dad is chief editor of a newspaper in Kirkuk that we sponsor.
He said,
He didn't even know how to use a pistol. The only thing he knew how to use was the computer.
How sad!

He asked his son to bring him the keys to the office of his paper Voices of Villages.

I am the CUI hysteric who promulgated You should know CUI. Please take POLL in May. I realized when POGO talked me off the ledge by agreeing with emptywheel, I should at least pretend to calm down. But of course I have to holler at my first CUI sighting -- U.S. to Give Czechs Ballistic Missile Defense in todays Washington Post:

The United States also agreed to help prevent disclosure of any "controlled unclassified information" (CUI) related to the radar site if the Czech Republic does not want it released. While such information can be disclosed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, the agreement says that "each Party shall take all lawful steps, which may include national classification, to keep controlled unclassified information free from further disclosure (including requests under any applicable domestic legislation) . . . unless the originating Party consents to such disclosure."

In many ways Hellboy II is quite the anti-war picture. In many ways it finds the same balance of being pro-violence, arrogantly American, yet sweetly wouldn't-it-be-nice? about other things that we see in other movies. I mean Transformers is a whole discussion as is Iron Man, but there is something more about Hellboy II that I think makes this a pointed question.

I always thought I loved my country and was proud of it and I somehow think I still think that to this day but tonight I mourn for I am an American, a sorry hypocrite happy on a shabby mountain of civilization backed up by the gun and the best of modern war engineering. Here we are. After these witty 2 centuries. Maybe we have celebrated when we should have been keeping each other always vigilant, but here we are now.

I cannot but be ashamed for what we have done to those in detention and how we have spread the worst of our covert CIA techniques into a mass public/private international market. Great. Way to make it seem like Russia and China should go along with us, not.

Am I confused or did General John McCain just rescue American hostages in Colombia from terrorists? Reuters has today:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/...
and yesterday's visit from our admired war hero with great service to our country for which we are all greateful (a**kss+a**kss)
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Well he's really come through for us. Not since Reagan freed the hostages from Iran has one man so ably demonstrated his national security bona fides.

First point of absolute confidence: Our candidate does not have problems. He doesn't. That is a right-wing meme they haven't made stick. What he has is criticism here. His position is almost irrelevant because he did not get in the middle of this. He would have to take a meaningful position for it to be relevant. Some of us are disappointed. But our candidate does not have problems. This election will show a revivified America ready to vote for Democrats.

Second points of confidence: We are great at debunking and calling attention to right-wing memes here, and our support can make a critical difference to candidates at times when others would not be as involved. Notice that this is not a problem for our Presidential candidate.

My complaint — as I have often told my mother and co-workers — is I was not prepared to have to regard John Dean as the leading voice on everything. I was born in 1958 and think of him as a Nixon Republican who saw the light. But he is still no guardian of my liberal values. I am okay with him being the leading best voice on many other things though because I have gotten used to it, almost, for the most part.

JOHN DEAN, HELP!

I am no longer part of his "Yes, we can" although I had not yet felt that I was part of his we. Some single issues are more fundamental than others. But I am not surprised. And since I typify many here, that means we knew this about him. Right along, and while fending off Hillary, this sort of compromise is what we most feared and distrusted about the man. And we fought for him to be our nominee. And we still will fight. Because WE CAN, TOO.

I really used to admire the DFH's, born in '58, listening to all their rants, seeing all their protests and nerve. Shaped in every way by the DFH creed(s). Listening to repubs and conservatives, esp. Nixon live during my growing years, and trying to understand it from my starting premise. An archliberal. A Jewish New Yorker. Utterly certain my views were better than everyone else's. Now pushing 50, I have not changed although I have, and I am fundamentally grateful for this place.

Sorry I have to diary the same old thing so many of us are feeling but I have to. I blog therefore I am. I am deeply disappointed and yet not, because I am not surprised.

CUI is the new Controlled Unclassified Information directive released by the White House this past Friday. You may have seen smintheus' excellent diary Bush issues new secrecy directive. You should know what it is if you don't already (please take POLL). I called Rep. Waxman's office this morning, and made sure to notify POGO.org which has an excellent record on the pre-CUI Sensitive But Unclassified designation. Now we need to watch out against short-term abuses of whatever good potential CUI might have for future Presidents. Please see smintheus' excellent diary Bush issues new secrecy directive if you don't already know what CUI is, but please VOTE in the POLL first!

Sensitive unclassified NARA information becomes "Controlled" — Our clever leaders have found a helpful way to stay more organized and better protect our nation's many unclassified secrets so they don't fall into the wrong hands. That's why they need to be protected. They are sensitive and may touch on many important national interests. "Protests" that this means anything unclassified could be kept secret would clearly be unfair since at face value the CUI designation explains that it is just to better assist standardization and make sure our national interests are protected.

Please glance over the following heavily redacted version of a press release yesterday that I have EITHER completely made up or can be found in its original, fuller form at the WH. Ask yourself if I am making this up. Ask yourself if you have seen this reported ANYWHERE?

Just now on MSNBC Keith Olbermann said recordkeepers could note this was the first time he disagreed with Rachel Maddow. What do you think?

Maddow maintains Hillary will continue to run a "scorched earth" campaign as she has been doing. That Clinton's 'acceptance' speech for Indiana might have a more conciliatory tone but means little because she's going to keep on doing it. And further evidence of that is the way she is pushing for Florida and Michigan. What do you think?

Way back in the first part of the 21st century -- before genetically transformative dermal implants and even before holographic projection -- the inhabitants of the northern part of the "Western" continental mass were the U.S.

Wrapped up in many dreams of immigrants from the other continental mainland, these individuals, families and communities moved over, mostly wiped out the local inhabitants especially through diseases, and created a joint fiction of self-governance that was supposed to be improved on. The tragic demise of values as British shipboard logic took over the breadth of capitalism in the post-colonial matrix left this foundling, dreamy nation with toxic baggage. So having completely marginalized the locals while engaging in sporting capitalistic mayhem (all with incidental human cost)  this false legacy dictated much of what improving the self-governance would have to be based on.

Hillary Clinton could have announced with delight the downside in her presidential race that even should that event occur, she would be able to craft historic legislation to send to a receptive president. She could have emphasized that offer could cut both ways, as she would look forward to legislation over the coming administration submitted/sponsored by Obama.

Hillary could have...but didn't.

(add your own)

If you haven't read Yep. She goes there. by rashomon
http://www.dailykos.com/...
then please go there now. I'm assuming this little chat area will serve as a breakout from that, quickly scrolling by on the Recent Diaries. Especially because this is a Jesus-loving theme here, so I don't expect much participation (no slight intended, but discussion of Jesus is not a big me-too around here).

I love Rev. Wright primarily because he seems to have led a kick-ass church that provided a wonderful church home for our leading candidate for President, a man I admire very much. It seems to have provided him with strength of the uniter-not-a-divider sort I think Jesus would bless. It also seems to have helped him get a sense of community organization while working as a community organizer and now building on Dean's 50-state strategy very effectively. So I love Rev. Wright for having provided that church home that could now benefit all of us from the strength it gave our presumed nominee.

This is not a factual diary although I know there was an early Fox News poll showing Obama as the third most popular candidate. This is a reality I posit, endorse and seek to encourage the idea of. Echo chamber at will.

Behind every Republican voter is an adult who will switch in the privacy of the voting booth, to contribute their iota -- I am an American -- toward the America Obama seeks to collaborate with us in creating. Republicans are closet Obama voters.

Say it again: They are, in the GOP closet (say this to yourself, Republicans) "I will vote for Obama because I believe in America."

This is a tricky subject but I venture forth to put this in the air: the human efforts to repress black-male success in the U.S. is an economic pressure with direct costs and tragic opportunity costs. I estimate this at $200 billion per year. I am curious what others think. Please see poll.