"The Adventures of Unit Y"
Episode I: "America's Secret Weapon"

Ah, to flourish!  Real evil doesn’t seek to accomplish any particular goal beyond self-promotion, and with the assistance of dedicated servants of darkness, evil was poised to continue a near decade-long flourishing.

And who would seek to help evil flourish?  Not those with wicked hearts—no!  The wicked are the beneficiaries of evil’s success, not its cause.

No, evil flourishes because of the self-righteous who know not what they do: those who seek to advance what they perceive to be a noble cause, through ignoble means.  And in this age, the self-righteous who have fostered a resurgence of true evil are known as

P.U.M.A.

Cross-posted at OpenLeft

After Dennis Kucinich introduced his impeachment resolution in the House earlier this month, the Huffington Post featured an analysis by occasional contributor Elizabeth Holtzman, whose biography there is given as:

Elizabeth Holtzman served for eight years as a U.S. Congresswoman and won national attention for her role on the House Judiciary committee during Watergate. She was subsequently elected District Attorney of Kings County (Brooklyn), the only woman ever elected DA in NYC, serving for eight years. Holtzman was also the only woman ever elected Comptroller of New York City. She currently works with Herrick Feinstein, LLP, and lives in New York City.

Omitted from that brief encapsulation of a 30+ year career of public service is the fact that her most important role in the Watergate hearings may simply have been getting elected in the first place.

Read on...

News outlets are now reporting that police in Zimbabwe have detained opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai (CHAHN-gear-EYE) for allegedly planning to attend an "illegal meeting" (i.e. a campaign stop).

This comes on the heels of a large-scale campaign to harass and intimidate opposition leaders and activists in advance of the run-off election next month.  Voice of America reports that

The prominent Zimbabwean opposition figure Arthur Mutambara, arrested on Sunday in connection with an article he published in April criticizing President Robert Mugabe, was arraigned before a magistrate on Tuesday and freed on bail.

Meanwhile, sources said Zimbabwe’s jails are filling up with political prisoners who are being held in deplorable conditions.

Once our party has a nominee, anyone campaigning against that nominee is fair game.

So what should we make of this?

ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: The press traveling with Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign received an email Thursday afternoon informing reporters they could sign up for travel through June 6 on the campaign website.

In continuing my recent meta-fetish, I can't help but notice something odd:

It's 3:30 eastern time.  And I'm on a frakkin' blog.

I've got a really nice bed.  My recently deceased grandmother (we had the memorial earlier today up in Connecticut, buried her on Friday) bought my wife and me a great mattress as a wedding present.  Simmons Beautyrest, queen size.  Adorable wife and pit bull keeping it warm.

Yet here I sit, typing and watching a TiVoed candidate forum of mind-numbing tedium.

So I admit I don't have a good excuse for being awake.  What's yours?

...on ActBlue!

After hearing about the attack on Indiana congressional candidate and longtime kossack Barry Welsh and a reporter by a local GOP official, I decided we should do something to recognize Barry for (literally) fighting for our rights.

So I wrote a quick ActBlue page, and I hope you'll chip in $5 to show your support for a Democrat we can count on to go to the mattresses for us in Washington.

Metapocalypse is an ongoing act of protest against the vituperation and invective that has permeated the Netroots during the Presidential primary.  Until there is a presumptive Democratic nominee, the author refuses to post any non-meta diaries.  See this diary for details.  Only you can end the Metapocalypse—Join the mehvolution!

I’ve previously written that I believe the Netroots in general, and DailyKos in particular, are about to experience a long-term period of transformation as a result of the increased importance of online organizing to the Presidential ticket.

I think today was likely the first step in that transformation--the Schism.

Metapocalypse is an act of protest against the vituperation and invective that has permeated this site during the Presidential primary.  Until there is a presumptive Democratic nominee, the author refuses to post any non-meta diaries.  See this diary for details.  Only you can end the Metapocalypse—Join the mehvolution!

I’ve previously written that I believe the Netroots in general, and DailyKos in particular, are about to experience a period of transformation as a result of the increased importance of online organizing to the Presidential ticket.  In order for us to determine the probable course of this transformation, and possibly to affect its direction and outcome, I have decided to begin a limited series dedicated to flushing out what constitutes "Netroots Theory," and to start a broader discussion about just how we envision this community model.

To recap:

~today will decide nothing,
~the denizens of MyDD and TalkLeft will call anything but an Obama sweep proof that he can't "close the deal,"
~the consensus here and among newshounds will be that Clinton can't possibly make up the delegate deficit (which is exactly the situation currently facing her),
~the pie fights/shit-slinging will continue unabated, and
~I'll still be utterly disgusted with how we've behaved on the blogs over the past months.

So I'm having a glass of wine and hanging with my family.  Then I'm sleeping until eleven.  

Then the mehvolution will probably begin.

Your warning below:

As we saw in 2004 and again in 2006, the Netroots can serve as a rallying point for activists, even those in notably inactive areas of the country long overlooked by the national party.  With the phenomenal successes our candidates have seen in terms of online organizing/fundraising this cycle, there's no reason to believe that 2008 will be any different.

The simple fact is that the internet offers campaigns the best organizational and fundraising bang for their buck, without question.  A mass email to tens of thousands of potential contributors costs a fraction of a direct mail solicitation, and can provide funds within hours instead of  days or weeks.  And providing tools for self-directed organization, such as MyBarackObama.com, make it possible for even massive, well-funded operations to decentralize and benefit from grassroots support in areas that would be otherwise untouchable strategically.

All this leads to the likely conclusion that the Netroots will soon undergo a substantial expansion and reformation.  How we approach this will likely determine our efficacy and influence for the rest of the decade and beyond.

Rob Fournier at the AP reminds us that the Superdelegates are not a monolithic bloc, and many have their own agendas:

Never count the Clintons out. They are brilliant politicians who defied conventional wisdom countless times in Arkansas and Washington. But time is running out.

...

Clinton should find little comfort in the fact that she has secured 242 superdelegates to Obama's 160.

"I would make the assumption that the ... superdelegates she has now are the Clintons' loyal base. A superdelegate who is uncommitted today is clearly going to wait and see how this plays out. She's at her zenith now," [Democratic strategist Jim] Duffy said. "Whatever political capital or IOUs that exist, she's already collected."

Note what Jim Duffy says isn't just that the SDs might swing to Obama, but what influences them:

"Whatever political capital or IOUs that exist, she's already collected."

Let's focus on that for a moment.

Yes, I voted this morning in Virginia.  I walked to the polls, like I do every election, through freezing rain and stood in line.

And nothing that was written by any candidate partisans or detractors on this site, MyDD, OpenLeft, TalkLeft, or any other blog had anything to do with my decision to go vote, or my decision for whom to vote.  

In fact, my vote was cast in spite of a hell of a lot of what I've read in recent weeks on the blogs.

A recent diary, DCDemocrat's "The First Woman To Win The Opening Primary", created a pleasant diversion from the usual bickering among partisans.

Initially, the diary had claimed Clinton was the first woman to win a presidential primary.  YoursTruly noted that, actually, Shirley Chisholm had won the 1972 New Jersey primary.  souvarine responded that, according to an archived NY Times article's abstract, McGovern won the primary.

So, who's right?

Long story short, both of them.

Major Andrew Olmsted, who blogged under his own name, on Rocky Mountain News, and as "G'Kar" on Obsidian Wings, and who was one of the most eloquent and rational writers in the blogosphere, was killed while serving in Iraq yesterday.

Hilzoy posted the news this afternoon, along with G'Kar's farewell post, written in the event that the worst happened.

I'm reposting G'Kar's final, heartbreaking post below, and some of my favorite posts of his from the past few months.

Alright, guys, it's almost time, and I know tonight's your first big game of the season.  Season openers are always a lot of fun and excitement, but your mother and I want to make sure you remember what we taught you about sportsmanship (especially after the way you kids behaved during the preseason!).

This is a response to the recent diaries concerning the downward trend of traffic at DailyKos.  Specifically, this one by onemadson.

Actually, it isn't.  I just needed an example to make a point.

If I wanted to respond to an item--be it a candidate diary, or "Delete My Fucking Account, Kos!," or any front page post, or Kos's diary on the candidate wars, or whatever--I'd have to find a way to make that clear in the text of my response diary.

And if I wanted to incorporate my diary into a larger ongoing conversation, the only mechanism for sorting that conversation out from the din would be the tagging system, and hoping that interested readers would check the tags instead of just happening upon my diary on the "recent diaries" list.  But if the conversation were, say, about a particular event instead of a general subject (like Musharaff's reaction to the Bhutto assassination, or the Obama-Oprah tour, etc.) where the most obvious tags would cover a hell of a lot more posts than the ones about the particular subject at hand, then the tags would still be providing a fairly large haystack for just a few needles.

Like in all things, I think YouTube has an answer.

A tribute to the last real maverick in American politics, known as much for his willingness to stand firm against his party's leadership as his firm adherence to his beliefs.

Senator McCain, this one's for you:

The real essence of existence is duality.  I say this because I normally love my TiVo.  "Simpsons" reruns at all hours.  A "Law & Order" marathon whenever I want.  "House" at 2 a.m.--that's when Hugh Laurie is meant to be seen, damnit.

But for the past hour, my wife has been watching the most recent "Project Runway" and, sorry folks, I just never got into it.  Which is sort of odd, since I love "Top Chef," but oh well.

So to pass the time, I answered some email, including a right-wing, reality-challenged piece of tripe my dad forwarded to me.  My fisking is below.  If you're as bored as I am while watching Heidi and Ted, join me after the jump.