Graven at the base of a Statue that was itself a gift from foreign lands:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)

They tarnish everything they touch and they touch everything.

Gentlemen,

I thank you for your efforts and exhortations on our behalf to block cloture of the Alito nomination.

It looks very close. You may not get enough votes to do so.

That should not matter.

This is a public service announcement.

I hope most of you caught Randy Neal's (aka South Knox Bubba's) great guest posts at Facing South.

I've got good news: as Chris Kromm reported last week, the esteemed Mr. Neal has agreed to post regularly at Facing South.

His latest entry is up: Hey, Buddy, wanna buy an airline for cheap?.

A quick note to all the SKB fans out there -- he's guest blogging this week at Facing South, the Institute for Southern Studies blog.

The Institute also has a new report out about the South's unique ties to the military and foreign policy — MISSILES AND MAGNOLIAS: The South at War 2005

For those who are PDF-resistant, Chris Kromm discusses the highlights of the report on Facing South.

Wal-Mart's "always low prices" are predicated on cheaply manufactured Chinese goods. But the full equation there has to be something like:

So what happens when the price of diesel fuel (that's what most jets and container ships burn, right?) goes up?

I signed this NARAL form that sends letters to several large pharmacies about the whole "pharmacist can refuse to fill birth control prescriptions" issue.

Here's their response:

Let me state up front that I am furious about the entire circus that the right wing has made out of a private medical matter. While I sympathize with the Schindlers, I disagree with them and believe Mr. Schiavo would best know his wife's wishes in this.

And I applaud the judges at all levels of our judicial system who took their responsibilities seriously and ruled as the law demands.

But about Reverand Jackson. Obviously, I don't agree with the position he's taking. But (and it's a big but)

I read DHinMI's main page article. While I agree with the general sentiment, I disagree with the tone.

I am a proud Movement Progressive. I am a member of the reality-based community. I will not back down, just because BushCo has narrowly defeated us in the 2004 election cycle.

Now is a time to stand up.

I just found the Redefeat Bush site and they'll let you bulk purchase really cool umbrellas like this



A dozen only cost $60 ($50 + $10 for shipping and handling)

I want to order a dozen for the folks doing meet and greet at my precinct here in Carrboro NC, but I can't find any info on when they'd show up. Obviously, they're not of much use to me after Tuesday.

I've finally gotten a Letter to the Editor published. It was in the Raleigh News and Observer.

I copied it below the fold.

My local paper has put up a poll asking who won the VP debate. It keeps getting freeped.

I find it triply disconcerting because

1. It's in Chapel Hill, NC, Edwards' home state. Keep the freepers from winning one on Sunshine Johnny's home turf, please.

2. It's the Chapel Hill News, local paper for that area of NC that Jesse Helms described as a liberal zoo.

3. They're actually going to publish the results in the print version of the paper on Sunday.

Take the poll here. You'll have to scroll down to the middle of the page.

Thanks in advance.

[Update, 12:05 EST] When I originally posted this, there were only 714 votes and Edwards was up, 64-35. Now, there are 1180 votes and Edwards' lead has dropped to 60-39. Help!

John Kerry won the Democratic nomination. It was not given to him and few of us expected him to win. (Some of us wonder about how he won, but I at least am not complaining now.)

Kerry (with the help of his defeated primary opponents) successfully unified the vast majority of Democratic voters behind him, raising an unprecedented amount of cash for a presidential challenger.

Before his nomination, he didn't just catch the incumbent, he actually took the lead.

I really don't understand the diaries I'm reading here.

"We're losing in all the polls!"
"Bush is killing us!"
"Kerry needs to go nuclear right now!"

Of course, we're losing in all the polls. It's the Republican convention. Bush gets a boost.

Of course, the SBVfT ads did some damage in August. Kerry didn't spend a lot of effort responding to them, so they were largely (but not completely) unopposed.

So what? The campaigns change after the end of the RNC. Bush and Kerry have the same war chests at that point. Republicans have to outspend Democrats to beat them. Bush hasn't garnered much in the way of a lead, to date.

Kerry's campaign will do what they need to do to win. And I think that "win" at least includes the Senate. There are so many avenues of attack. Kerry's campaign really hasn't played (or showed) many cards. The Bush campaign cannot know what attacks will be mounted.

Kerry will be ready to slam Bush. When it's time. I've given up second-guessing these folks. They beat (IMHO) better Democratic candidates. Because they're better at winning elections.

Bush is toast. Kerry, cool and calmly, will decide just exactly when to fry his ass. This election is going to be a blowout.

A brief photo essay and poll, starting below the fold.

It's my personal opinion that much can be determined about a person by the way they handle small things -- like how they hold precious infants.

You be the judge

Vermin Supreme was a minor cult figure on liberal blogs for a while. Another missed story at the Democratic Convention.

Lots of us followed him here at dKos. John Meltzer posted a diary about a 1/11/04 Boston Globe article about him.

We all were thrilled that the Democratic Convention issued credentials to bloggers and delighted (though not surprised) when you got yours, big guy.

But where's the coverage? What's going on in Boston that we're not seeing on our TV?

Any knife fights breaking out between the NDN and the DLC? Any indication of who the favored groups are (and no, I'm not talking about the delegate seating charts)?

We want some feed, dude!

Found this one over at Talk Left.

Apparently, the Kerry campaign sent a letter to the Bush campaign today, asking them to disclose:

• Halliburton: All correspondence between the Defense Department and the White House regarding the no-bid contracts that have gone to the Vice-President's former company. Some material has already been made public. Why not take a campaign issue off the table by making all of these materials public so the voters can see how Halliburton has benefited from Mr. Cheney serving as Vice-President?

• The Cheney Energy Task Force: For an Administration that claims to hate lawsuits, it's ironic that the Bush White House is taking up the Courts' time to keep the fact that Ken Lay and Enron wrote its energy policy in secret behind closed doors. Please release the documents so that the country can learn what lobbyists and special interests wrote the White House energy policy.

• Prison Abuse Documents: A few weeks ago, the White House released a selected number of documents regarding the White House's involvement in laying the legal foundation for the interrogation methods that were used in Iraq. Please release the remaining documents.

Somebody handled "Holden" is guest blogging at Atrios and came up with this little gem: