Mario Interviews Hillary Clinton (by Mario Solis-Marich at Nuestra Voice)
SCANDALOUS!!! …..IN DEFIANCE OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA I ASK HER ABOUT…….( HOLD ON TO YOUR HAT) …….HER POLICIES!!!!!  LISTENER CAUTION: THE QUESTIONS ARE FAIR

In Democratic primary, expect a GOP turnout (Houston Chronicle)
According to polling, as well as anecdotal evidence, an unusually large number of Republicans and independents may cast their votes in the Democratic contest next week, a prospect that could tip the outcome of what polls show is now a tight race… There is scattered evidence across the state that some Republicans may be voting Democratic, at least for a day… “The argument I’ve seen is, ‘Let’s get rid of Clinton once and for all,’ ” said Ralph Bordie, who conducts the IVR Poll in Texas.
And many progressives are following right along.

Comment on a CNN story about the Democratic primary, dated February 2, 2008
I did a quick check of the total number of votes using data posted by CNN… Without Michigan, and adding primary votes and caucus votes (I know they are not equivalent, but this shows the stupidity of the caucus system), and including Florida (where both candidates where equally placed) Hillary has 10,090,248 and Obama has 9,525,645 votes. If we take out Florida, Hillary has 9,233,040 and Obama has 8,956,604. So, why does [the media never] tell this story? I would welcome a better account of the total number of votes so some of you stop this propaganda that Obama represents the voice of the majority of voters. No, so far she seems to be ahead regarding the popular vote… If its democracy, let it be.
And all you white males demanding that Clinton drop out of the race, I question your commitment to democracy.

The Brie, Chablis, and Misogyny of the Obama cult (by Linda Starr)
I’ve found something new awakening in me. I’ve never been a racist, or a feminist, or an “ist” bashing any part of society.  I am learning the hard way though and find myself becoming something I never imagined in my wildest imagination, and I have a pretty wild imagination!  I find myself becoming a feminist. Hell, I think I’m turning into a FemiNazi.  You know what that is?  A card carrying women who is sick to death of the endless misogynistic wisecracks made about Hillary Clinton.

Need an example?  This is a recent cartoon from a man who considers himself left of center.  This is the last time I will post one of his cartoons.
Off the Wahl

Another example:
Left ‘Toon Lane

And another
Humor Ink

How are those cartoonists different from the right wingers who think this little treasure is funny?

Race Man by Sean Wilentz (at The New Republic)
After several weeks of swooning, news reports are finally being filed about the gap between Senator Barack Obama’s promises of a pure, soul-cleansing “new” politics and the calculated, deeply dishonest conduct of his actually-existing campaign. But it remains to be seen whether the latest ploy by the Obama camp–over allegations about the circulation of a photograph of Obama in ceremonial Somali dress–will be exposed by the press as the manipulative illusion that it is… To a large degree, the campaign’s strategists turned the primary and caucus race to their advantage when they deliberately, falsely, and successfully portrayed Clinton and her campaign as unscrupulous race-baiters–a campaign-within-the-campaign in which the worked-up flap over the Somali costume photograph is but the latest episode. While promoting Obama as a “post-racial” figure, his campaign has purposefully polluted the contest with a new strain of what historically has been the most toxic poison in American politics.
Obama himself acknowledges that he’s a Chicago South Side politician.  And in Chicago, as we like to say, politics ain’t beanbag.  It’s just amazing that the campaign has gotten away with so much for so long.  But then, everyone has been so busy piling on Clinton that they haven’t really looked at what’s in front of their faces.

In The Tank (by Lynne at Liberal Rapture)
Keith Olbermann’s first story [Tuesday] night was on Jon Stewart’s joke at the Oscars about Barack Obama’s middle name. You may be surprised to learn that Mr. Olbermann did not find it amusing and compared Jon Stewart to Ann Coulter. On Friday night his top story was on the photos of Senator Obama wearing African dress and he blamed Senator Clinton’s camp for putting it in circulation… The parlor game of trashing Senator Clinton is fun! But say anything bad about Obama and you’re hurting the party. Senator Clinton is supposed to make way for history. What? Isn’t it just as historic to have a woman be president?

The Obama Conspiracy (by John in LA at Liberal Rapture)
Republicans eliminated the more popular, but less qualified, candidates as the process unfolded. Invert that for the Democrats… Democrats need to ask themselves this. We have never elected a person with a thinner resume than [Barack] Obama. Some of you are now screaming LINCOLN! - you are, simply put, wrong. Lincoln made his name in a losing senatorial election during which he had a series of DAY LONG debates with his opponent. Obama has participated in sound bite debates during this election. Lincoln spoke out clearly on the some of the most divisive issues of his day: Slavery and the invasion of Mexico. He risked his political life and actual life in both cases. Obama avoids tough issues by littering his recycled speeches with bromides about unity and skipping Senate votes. Comparisons to JFK are so ridiculous that they are hardly worthy of comment. Kennedy: Service in the House, two Senate terms, war hero. Obama: state senator, one Senate term as a back bencher,”community organizing” and a talk show hostess endorsement… By the time September rolls around and the nation settles in to actually chose a President, not a boyfriend, McCain could easily walk off with the win. One terrorist attack and it is a McCain landslide. What is ON PAPER matters more often than it does not. Experience counts. It seems to me we’ve been gamed. Yes, a conspiracy has unfolded. An open, perfectly legal, conspiracy.
Lincoln was also involved in Illinois politics for many more years than Obama.

Obama, Enthusiasm & Movement-Building (by Bill Fletcher, Jr. at The Black Commentator)
[W]e must all be clear as to what politics Senator Obama holds and what politics he does not hold… In reviewing his platform and his speeches, I do not see much difference from the platform of Senator Clinton… What we confront is potential for change in a progressive direction rather than leadership in a progressive direction… So, what does this mean? I keep coming back to Obama’s own words when he speculated as to what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would do vis-à-vis the presidential elections if he were still alive: pressure all the candidates! Pressure, however, needs organization and it needs courage. It means that we have to point out to the campaign and the candidate precisely when we think he is wrong, and in doing so we should point him in the direction that needs to be taken. But when the campaign is over, whether it is at the Democrat Convention or in November, if there is nothing to build upon, the enthusiasm will evaporate as it has on so many other occasions after energizing electoral campaigns.
Looks like great minds think alike.  See below.

Obamarama: Is it a Movement? Or is it Marketing? And What Should We Be Doing? (A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Bruce Dixon)
[T]he Obama “movement” demands nothing from the candidate except to get elected. There are no yardsticks, no demands placed upon Obama by his constituents, no goals that have come from independently organized meetings or other processes in Black America. Activists are saying that Obama can and will be held accountable eventually - after he is elected. But how realistic is that? Unless activists both inside and outside the Obama campaign are organizing their own meetings, raising their own demands, and building their own networks apart from those of the campaign’s they won’t even have the names, or the phone numbers or the email addresses of the thousands of young and old people eager for change who have come forward to work on the campaign. The day after the election the “Obama movement” will be just like those “movements” that elected Black mayors in cities across the land. Over. And another precious organizing opportunity will have been missed.
“Just get your guy elected” is very much a Chicago thing, by the way.  Issues?  We don’t need no stinkin’ issues!

CBS News Calls Secular America Immoral (Perrspectives)
In a single sentence in one story on religion in the United States, CBS Evening News managed to insult the vast majority of the American people. Describing a major new study on Americans’ religious faith from the Pew Forum, CBS’ Wyatt Andrews suggested that atheism in particular and Americans’ widely shared belief in a secular society in general is immoral: “The unprecedented survey of religion answers many concerns about a secular, morally void America.”

William F. Buckley Jr. Dead at 82; Reaction Pours in
The Boston Globe’s Ellen Goodman says the conservative columnist “was always a wonderful source for words I never heard before in my life!” Buckley, who was distributed by Universal since 1979, founded National Review magazine.

Media Matters for America headlines

Media uncritically report McCain surprised by Cunningham’s remarks despite Cunningham’s history of using Obama’s middle name

Media diagnose Hillary “Sybil” Clinton with “mood swings,” depression, and “multiple personality disorder”

MSNBC ad for McCain documentary said McCain “mastered the art of straight talk”

Fox’s Gretchen Carlson said “connotation” of Obama’s middle name is that he is a “Muslim potentially” — but he’s not

AP gets FISA, wiretapping authority wrong again

Following McCain rally appearance, Bill Cunningham used Obama’s middle name seven times on Hannity & Colmes

MSNBC’s Buchanan compounded sexist comments, misquoted Samuel Johnson

AP again reported McCain “didn’t embrace the [bitch] epithet” without noting that he called the question “excellent”

FCC Head Says Action Possible on Web Limits
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission [Monday] sharply questioned Internet service providers who control consumers’ Web access over their networks, and suggested the agency could intervene against the practice.

Pakistan Targets TV Critics (by Robin McDowell, Associated Press)
Pakistan’s main opposition parties announced they would form a coalition government to bring civilian rule after voters delivered a crushing blow to the pro-Musharraf ruling party in Feb. 18 parliamentary polls. Two days after the vote, Aaj, the privately owned station where Hussain is news director, was knocked off the air. Its signal has been jammed or cut off three more times since then, Hussain said.

AT&T whistle-blower wins Pioneer Award
A whistle-blower credited with providing key documents in a lawsuit over the Bush administration’s secretive domestic wiretapping program is one of three recipients of the “Pioneer Awards” from a civil-rights group that brought the challenge.

Judge is asked to rescind shutdown of website
A coalition of media and public interest organizations went to federal court in San Francisco on Tuesday urging a judge to reconsider his order to shut down a muckraking website that publishes leaked documents from businesses and government agencies worldwide. Lawyers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Citizen and several news organizations, told U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White that two orders he issued last week against wikileaks.org were prior restraints that violated the 1st Amendment. Laura Handman, a Washington, D.C., attorney for the news organizations, said White’s order was so expansive that the only way to describe it was as if a judge had shut down a newspaper because of controversy over one article.

Quarterly and Annual Earnings Fall at Washington Post
The earnings drop was the result of some one-time revamping costs and the continued erosion of revenue at its flagship newspaper.

CBS bosses hiding truth - Dan Rather
Dan Rather slammed CBS Tuesday for trying to keep his court fight with the network out of the public eye. The newsman - who has filed a $70 million lawsuit against the Tiffany network, where he anchored the “CBS Evening News” for 24 years - said “corporate overlords” are conspiring to withhold several key documents. The 76-year-old was back in Manhattan Supreme Court for a hearing on his suit, which accuses CBS of sidelining him to make nice with the White House following a September 2004 report that questioned President Bush’s Vietnam-era military service.

Veoh aims to be one-stop shop for Net TV viewers
Dmitry Shapiro wanted to start a website that promised to be the CBS, NBC and ABC of the Internet, a one-stop shop for TV programming on the Web.

Blogs Make Everyone a Beltway Insider
As it does with so much else, the Web is democratizing the knowledge that in an earlier era had been possessed by a small group of political professionals. Riding around in a rowdy bus; knocking back bourbon in smoke-filled rooms. All that is so 1972. This year, anyone with the right browser bookmarks can be a political insider. “I am constantly amazed at the level of knowledge,” says [Rick Klein, who covers politics on the ABC News Web site]. “It is unlike anything I have seen before.”