onegoodmove: Links With Your Coffee

EVANSVILLE, IN— It was a tough night for Barack Obama. His staff was worried this morning when he failed to make a scheduled campaign appearance. The very junior Senator is fine; he was found hiding under Hillary's umbrella of deterrence.

Newsweek's Howard Fineman said
on MSNBC last night Elizabeth Edwards is likely to show up at a Clinton rally or two, but can she convince the ex-candidate to come over? It's a tough decision for John Edwards since Obama is such a heavy favorite in his home state
.

Is religion a threat to rationality and science? (tip to John)
If religion isn't the greatest threat to rationality and scientific progress, what is? Perhaps alcohol, or television, or addictive video games. But although each of these scourges - mixed blessings, in fact - has the power to overwhelm our best judgment and cloud our critical faculties, religion has a feature of that none of them can boast: it doesn't just disable, it honours the disability. People are revered for their capacity to live in a dream world, to shield their minds from factual knowledge and make the major decisions of their lives by consulting voices in their heads that they call forth by rituals designed to intoxicate them.

It used to be the case that we tended to excuse drunk drivers when they crashed because they weren't entirely in control of their faculties at the time, but now we have wisely inverted that judgment, holding drunk drivers doubly culpable for putting themselves in that irresponsible position in the first place. It is high time we inverted the public attitude about religion as well, finding all socially destructive acts of religious passion shameful, not honourable, and holding those who abet them - the preachers and other apologists for religious zeal - as culpable as the bartenders and negligent hosts who usher dangerous drivers on to the highways. Our motto should be: Friends don't let friends steer their lives by religion.

The Satirical Political Report - Hillary’s PA Win May Lead to Historic Compromise on ‘Co-Presidency’

Obama's Gloves Are Off -- And May Need to Stay Off - washingtonpost.com
But the candidate who rocketed to stardom as the embodiment of a new kind of politics -- hopeful, positive and inspiring -- saw his image tarnished in the bruising fight for Pennsylvania. Provoked by Clinton's repeated references to his remarks about the state's voters and her charges that he is an "elitist," Obama struck back in the closing days of the campaign.

"It's a real danger for Obama, and if you look at these recent ads, the messages they're delivering in all these conference calls, it's a far cry from last fall," when the theme of hope emerged amid calls for a more negative tone, said Democratic consultant Steve Elmendorf, a Clinton supporter.

Republican strategist John Feehery put it less charitably: "That's the danger of running as holier-than-thou. You have a lot farther to fall."

Edward Norton takes readers' questions about climate change, ocean pollution, and alternative energy. - - Slate Magazine

Comments

Welcome to parallel universe #2, where the progressive blog OGM is for the candidate who wants Nuclear Retaliation in defense of Israel, John McCain who wants to continue Bush's policies is polling even with the two Democrats, sometimes higher. The two democrats are trying their best to lose this contest. The only way clinton can "win" is by having superdelegates choose her over obama. this is being floated as a legitimate strategy, even in the face of the 2000 election, where popular vote did not decide the outcome.

Nuclear genocide for $4.00/gal ethanol causing starvation cheered on by generals planted on the network news......

Posted by: The Magnolia Electric Co. | April 23, 2008 10:37 AM

where the progressive blog OGM is for the candidate who wants Nuclear Retaliation in defense of Israel

I don't want either one of them, but unless you live in a state where it doesn't matter those are the choices. Just curious you're the commander in chief, Israel has just been nuked and isn't able to respond what course of action do you take against Iran? OGM a progressive blog who very slightly favors the candidate who wants mandated healthcare, but hey spin, spin, spin.

Posted by: Norm | April 23, 2008 11:27 AM

Israel has just been nuked

First of all, Israel has nukes, Iran does not. Second of all, Tit for tat nuclear retaliation is not a road this nation should consider. I know america has been pretty heavy handed in the middle-east, causing much of the distain they have for us, and I hardly think that wiping iran off the map would do much to help. All of the sudden the "holy war" is real. What, talking to Hamas is essential and the best route, but Nuking Iran is just as good of a route?

As for what I would do, I'd ask people smarter than me, who have been studying this for years. I could speculate on what I personally think would work, but I don't really know. This has been studied by people smarter than me since before I was born. All I know is that Nuclear Retaliation has got to be the worst of all possible solutions, if not for the human costs alone.

Here's a different/more likely scenario. Israel nukes Iran. Now what?

Posted by: The Magnolia Electric Co. | April 23, 2008 11:46 AM

Israel has just been nuked and isn't able to respond what course of action do you take against Iran?

If the U.S. engages in "massive retaliation" and nukes Iran, there isn't gonna be any healthcare for anyone. We'll be engaged in another costly battle. And if anyone thinks that the Arab nations won't respond with "massive retaliation", then they're dreaming.

This "massive retaliation" war drum talk from Hillary is frightening!

Posted by: JoAnn | April 23, 2008 11:50 AM

The very junior Senator is fine

Obama was in the Senate for more then two years when he started his official run for the Whitehouse.

John Edwards started his first run about 3 years into his first ever elected position.

Somehow the very inexperienced Edwards is a better candidate, no?

Posted by: RedSeven | April 23, 2008 12:39 PM

Somehow the character RedSeven has no sense of humor. Edwards, is he still a candidate? Great I'll be voting for him. Experience is not the only criteria, the candidates position on the issues is also important.

Posted by: Norm | April 23, 2008 2:18 PM

Experience is not the only criteria the candidates position on the issues is also important.

I agree! Hillary's experience plus her marginally better health care plan do not make her a better candidate than Obama. Obama did not vote to go to war with Iraq and in fact he spoke out vociferously against attacking Iraq. In addition, Obama is much more measured in how he discusses potential conflicts such as a potential conflict with Iran. Hillary leaves no doubt in our minds. She will drop a nuclear bomb on Iran if they dare threaten those nebulous countries which fall under her so-called "umbrella".

Norm, you may not believe that Obama's moderate tone means anything, but with Hillary, she has left no shadow of a doubt.

I thought that these things might be clues.

Posted by: JoAnn | April 23, 2008 2:59 PM

Somehow the character RedSeven has no sense of humor

Not fair. Really not a fair comment.

Posted by: JoAnn | April 23, 2008 3:00 PM

Alls fair in love, war, and blogs. And I am pretty fucking hilarious in real life, this one won't be keeping me up at night.

Posted by: RedSeven | April 23, 2008 3:27 PM

Obama didn't vote to go to war with Iraq because he wasn't in the building - he was back in the Illinois State Legislature trying to find his way out of the Illinois State Legislature. We don't know how he would have voted, given the chance and the same information available to REAL senators and congressmen. How did the Illinois State Legislature vote?

Posted by: TekDrek | April 23, 2008 3:29 PM