[Update] If you guys might rec this I might get my point across tomorrow. I dunno. Maybe this sparks meaningful discussion, maybe it doesn't. I wouldn't mind going out on a high note. Thanks to those who've said such kind things. Be well.

[Update2]Reaper9Bot9ATgmailDOTcom for those who want to contact me.

I ain't saying you'll never see me here again, but I am saying I'm pretty much done with this place.  The inmates are running the asylum and I'm afraid they're going to take the conch shell and Piggy's days are numbered.

I want to do my part, however small, to further the progressive agenda and get Democrats elected.  Altogether too many here don't want that, or are so incredibly blinded by their anger and disdain for Barack Obama to do anything constructive even downballot.  Even if they still consider themselves Democrats and even intend to vote for Democrats downballot, they've succeeded in one thing:

Okay, seriously, is a latin beat necessary every time you speak to Latinos?  Do we need some "gangsta shit" whenever Republicans talk to African Americans?

Jesucristo!  Can John McCain run an ad on the issues?  I mean, seriously?  This is a clean campaign?

Yep.  Been a fun couple of days.  I wonder if, as implied, the Internet Police will be coming for me shortly.  I doubt that, actually.

I just finished up my final exam for the summer term.  I've got three weeks without school in which I can relax.  I'm going to New Hampshire in a few weeks to do some cycling, white water rafting, and some heavy drinking.  In fact I'm drunk right now.  Sort of a law school ritual after exams, ya dig?

Apparently I'm required to be sympathetic and empathetic to those who show little to no ability to engage in reasonable discourse.  I've chewed on today's lessons and I'm not sure I'll pass that exam.  Friendship and comity are two-way streets.  I don't say this by way of suggesting some impending donnybrook, far from it.  I just don't know.  I do know one thing.

It's time for another beer.  Gather round, folks.  Uncle Reaper's gonna spin a yarn for ya.

I'm 28.  I can remember several presidential races.  I've also got a degree in history and I've done some work on this sort of thing.  Frankly, I just don't get it.

When was the last time we cared so much?  I'm not suggesting that the selection of a Vice President is unimportant, but the job was once fairly described as not being worth a bucket of warm spit.

I just don't understand how anyone can actually rationalize or justify their vote based on who the number two guy/gal happens to be.  I can see it being a factor, sure.  I just don't get how this is some sort of existential crisis.

Yep.  I've been promised a diary in which I will be proven to have "been had."  I'm not demanding that any particular diarist write it.  I'm not calling anyone in particular out.

But a promise has been made.  Where's the beef?

Okay.  We've had a few diaries in which a few posters have professed their belief that Barack Obama intentionally leaked his prayer, the one that he left in the Wailing Wall.  A few others have said that, at the least, it's plausible.  This little smear has been making the rounds at all my favorite right-wing websites and I will have no ability to debunk it there.  I will do so here.

I just got off the phone with a Ma'ariv spokesman who says that the accusation is "completely false," and that he has no idea who these papers were quoting from Ma'ariv. "No official spokesman for Ma'ariv told this to any of the papers." I've got some calls in to these papers to find out where they got the quote. (I'll update here when I hear back.) He told me definitively that "the Obama campaign did not give us a copy of the letter or approve it for printing."

The story was complete and utter bullshit and shame on any of you who leapt into believing it because you don't care for Barack Obama.  You are entitled to believe whatever you like.  You are entitled to post it here, if you like.  However, the fact that people were so damned quick and so damned glad to believe in a right-wing smear scares the hell out of me.

It was a fucking lie and you peddled it with glee and abandon.  Shame on you!

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/i dUSL017260420080730?feedType=RSS&fee dName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will announce on Wednesday that he will leave office in two months, Israel's Channel Two television reported.

The report said Olmert will not run in his Kadima party's leadership contest on September 17, clearing the way for rivals to try to form a new government. Channel Two said Olmert would step aside as soon as Kadima chooses a new leader.

Well, Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud has wanted to be Prime Minister again.  He's certainly going to try for it now.  God help us if he gets the job.  Nothing but blood, death, and suffering will come if he regains power.

I am done with litmus tests on this issue.  I am absolutely and totally finished with "debating" this issue with people who insist on absolute and complete orthodoxy in order to be a national level Democrat.

I am not going to debate the merits of allowing or proscribing abortion.  I have done that previously in another diary:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/7/6/18461 /95138#readmore

This diary does not serve to debate whether or not abortion is moral or permissible.  This diary serves to give notice:

ENOUGH DAMMIT.  We can disagree on the fringes of this issue, and we can certainly discuss the meat of it.  If we cannot then this party is dead.