My head just exploded

post from Daily Kos on 19 September 2006 11:48:56 PM. © Daily Kos

This Glenn Greenwald post is unbelievable.

No excerpting from his post can do it full justice. Just head on over and read it.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/24280810/797

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Uh, George Allen's mother didn't bother telling
him that his grandfather who was imprisoned by the Nazis was Jewish

post from AMERICAblog on 19 September 2006 11:30:00 PM. © AMERICAblog

What did she tell her son all these years, that her father was imprisoned by the Nazis because he was gay or a gypsy?

I'm sorry, but this is just a bit weird. I'm not saying that it was appropriate to ask Allen whether his mom is Jewish - I've been asked a lot if I'm Jewish, and it's usually not in a good way. But Allen's response to the issue is even odder:

Allen and his siblings also were raised as Christians. He said he became aware only recently that his grandfather, Felix Lumbroso, who had been imprisoned by the Nazis, was Jewish.

"I embrace and take great pride in every aspect of my diverse heritage, including the Lumbroso family line's Jewish heritage, which I learned of from a recent magazine article and my mother confirmed," Allen said in the statement.

Uh, this was your grandfather. How did your mother never mention the fact that he was Jewish? Especially since he was imprisoned by the Nazis. It never occurred to George Allen to inquire about his grandfather and why the Nazis imprisoned him? I just don't believe him.

I know the religion of all of my grandparents, and George Allen claims to a man of strong faith, so how could Allen not know his grandfather's religion? Especially when that religion is also an ethnicity - I mean, you don't know the ethnicity of your grandparents? You never asked mom in five decades what the ethnic make-up of your family is?

And let's remember, mom is still alive and apparently she only recently confirmed this to her son AFTER a magazine discovered it. It's not like everyone was dead and took the secrets with them. Mom was apparently hiding this family secret (or mom told George a long time ago and he's lying). That would be the same mom who is from French Tunisia where the word "macaque" is used to slur dark people. You know, the word George Allen simply "made up."

I don't really care if George Allen is part Jewish. I do care that yet again he is giving rather slippery and not-very-credible answers to questions involving ethnicity and race.

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C&Ls Late Nite Music Club with Bill Evans

post from Crooks and Liars on 19 September 2006 11:18:31 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Supporting the great Jazz Masters as best as I can.Many people know Evans from his time with Miles Davis, but I believe Herbie Hancock cited him as a big influence on his playing. Eddie Gomez is pretty damn good too.

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/09/19/cls-late-nite-music-club-with-bill-evans
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MA-Gov: Patrick wins (easily)

post from Daily Kos on 19 September 2006 11:08:55 PM. © Daily Kos

Woo hoo! Congrats to Patrick and his merry band of grassroots and netroots activists that helped get him over the finish line first.

Deval L. Patrick, who rose from poverty on the South Side of Chicago to corporate boardrooms and a top position in President Clinton's administration, won the Democratic Party's nomination for governor tonight, becoming the first African American to win a major party's nomination for the top job in the state.
Patrick easily won a three-way primary over two better-known rivals, Christopher F. Gabrieli and Thomas F. Reilly.
Reilly appeared before supporters at about 9:45 p.m. to congratulate Patrick for running an "outstanding campaign" and pledged to support Patrick. "We gave it everything we had. it just didnt work out for us,'' Reilly said.
A political unknown when his interest in the job became public in January 2005, Patrick captured the interest first of Democratic activists, winning the party caucuses in February of this year and then capturing the endorsement of the party convention in June.
Patrick now faces a tough, seven-week campaign that the state's Democratic leadership hopes will return the governor's office to the party's control for the first time since 1990. He will battle Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, who was unopposed for the Republican nomination, independent Christy Mihos, and Green Rainbow Party nominee Grace Ross.
The vote today ended the most expensive primary gubernatorial campaign in the state history, with the campaigns spending more than $15 million in television ads. Gabrieli, a wealthy venture capitalist who used more than $10 million of his personal funds for his campaign, spent $8 million on television advertising.
But a key factor in Patrick's victory appears to have been the field organization that he and his staff built, which drew heavily on the Internet. The strategy helped to deliver Patrick voters to the poll yesteday. But the campaign also was able to raise more than $1 million from its website.

With almost half the votes counted, Patrick has 47 percent, Gabrieli 29 percent, and Reilly (once the front-runner) 23 percent. Another movement people-powered Democrat has triumphed over Big Money.

Update: Patrick won every county in the state. Now that's impressive.

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Election Race Diary Roundup (9/19 - AHOY! THAR BE
SEVEN WEEKS TO GO!)

post from Daily Kos on 19 September 2006 11:06:39 PM. © Daily Kos

(From the diaires. Thanks to the volunteers who keep this feature going -- kos)

The ERR Diary Miners prove that they've been samplin' some o' the finest grog on "Talk Like a Pirate Day..." Yarrrr!

If it be the older stuff ya be lookin fer, ya scurvy swine, be sure to be lookin below the fold.

This Roundup Diary covers the period from 3:00 PM Monday, 9/18 to 1:00 PM EDT Tuesday, 9/19.

Today's Menu Includes:
67 Diaries Overall
- 26 On House races
     - With 20 covering individual Districts in 15 states
- 22 On Senate races
    - Representing 12 different states
- 15 On Various election races
    - Encompassing Governor, Secretary of State, Local, and more
- 4 General election-related diaries

Over 1,700 diaries served to date!!!

Volunteers still needed! - If you've dropped us a line in the past week please bear with us as we're "restructuring" things right now. (Incredible thanks to volunteers Nightprowlkitty, Alma, Sevah, suejazz, randallt, edgery, cdale777, mkrc98, turbonerd, evap and newcomer eeff.)

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/24280811/0169

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Late Nite FDL: World Leader Pretend

post from Firedoglake on 19 September 2006 10:58:44 PM. © Firedoglake

So, Preznint DrunkUncle took his vaudeville act uptown to the UN today. Given this administration’s efforts to undermine and discredit the United Nations on so many levels, its hard to see this as much of anything besides another[...]

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http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/09/19/late-nite-fdl-world-leader-pretend/

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FBI triples Capitol Hill corruption investigation
forces…

post from The Gun Toting Liberal on 19 September 2006 10:43:00 PM. © The Gun Toting Liberal

Okay, today, I’m going to refrain from picking exclusively upon the Republicans today; I’ve done that enough over the last couple of years, so I’ll take a brief break from it for the purposes of this post. We all know the GOP’ers have a little “corruption problem” going on within their party right now, [...]

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http://www.guntotingliberal.com/archives/1499

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Why Oh Why

DeLong:

They don't think of it that way. The fact that Easterbook's writing is "lively" and "provocative" and that he is a member of the appropriate social networks is sufficient reason to publish him as a "science writer." The fact that this has an effect not just on how good their operations are at delivering accurate information but also on how the scientifically-literate regard their operations as a whole--I don't think that's something that enters Weisberg's (or Foer's) mind at all.

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http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_09_17_atrios_archive.html#115871954285386932

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Mass Gov

I never really paid any attention to the race, but lots of people seemed to think that Deval Patrick was a good guy.

Looks like he's won the primary.

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http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_09_17_atrios_archive.html#115871887349190360

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A Good Man Bows Out

Late Poobah's Note: It appears as though Quaker Dave is giving it another go. I couldn't be happier, but I still think this post has some merit, even if he is back.As anyone can attest, politics can be a rough and tumble, ugly affair. Mud gets slung, names get called, and attacks get personal and vitriolic. In the rush to press home a point, civility is often the unwitting victim of the rushing train of debate. That's bad enough when it comes between opponents on an issue, it's even worse when allies begin to tie their own to the tracks.A recent brouhaha at Blue Gal is a case in point.Blue Gal posted an innocuous piece requesting people to sign a petition in support of the separation of church and state. In her post, Blue Gal explained that while she's a Christian, she doesn't proselytize or agree with the ideas of many fundamentalists who believe the US should be run as theocracy. As a confirmed atheist, I can vouch for her open-mindedness and fairness and suspect that the lunatic fringe of the fundamentalist camp should fear her rage nearly as much as their God's. Blue Gal is not shy and she does not suffer fools gladly.The comment thread started innocently enough, with people checking in to offer support. Among the commenters was one blogger who began with, "the more I study it, the more it occurs to me to believe that religion is a form of insanity." Another chimed in with, "Religiosity is one symptom of mental illness. That is not to say that religious people are insane, but mentally ill people gravitate to religion." Not surprisingly, some took offense at that.One was Quaker Dave (QD) from the site Quaker Agitator. Dave is a blogger in the same mould as Blue Gal. He fervently believes in God, but is also the model progressive in thought, word, and deed. Like Blue Gal, I've never heard a cross word from Dave and he is always a gracious and polite host at his blog, especially to those of us who are non-believers.Dave replied, "Well, count me amongst the happily insane. And really, please, could we lay off the anti-religious insults here? Bush is NOT a Christian person, and equating him with Christianity and then using THAT as a way of trying to tell us that religion is somehow associated with "mental illness" kind of defeats the purpose of the post here, doesn't it?"This seemed like a calm and rational way of handling the budding disagreement to me and several other commenters agreed. But what came next was a classic example of a flame war burning out of control.The ensuing comments became more and more vitriolic despite commenters - including Blue Gal - who tried to turn the passion down a notch before it spun out of control. As so often happens, that was an impossible thing to do. And so the comments went back and forth, each time getting a little more personal and edgy. In the end, feelings were hurt and damage was done. Dave ended the string with, "Okay. I give. You win. It's been fun."Afterward, Dave continued to post as normal at his blog - that is, until 9/17. That day he posted his final piece. In that post Dave explained that after 786 posts he'd grown tired of the division and tired of having his religion dragged through the mud as if he was one of the fundamentalists he abhors as much as other progressives. Dave simply decided to hang up the keyboard and let others fight the good fight.This turn of events was truly tragic. Friends of the left have lost a valuable fighter and truly eloquent spokesman. Dave was the living embodiment of the premise that not all Christians are bad. Some, like him and Blue Gal, agree that religion has lost its proper place in the American marketplace of ideas. All Dave wanted was to stay true to himself and to his God and do what he thought right and honorable, meanwhile trying to make the very point that so many of his progressive "allies" made it impossible for him to make.There are truly some bedrock problems in this country and solving those problems brings all sorts of people and ideas to the table. The constant bickering and open warfare among those trying to right the ship of state is not only damaging, it makes it virtually impossible to solve anything. When allies begin to turn on themselves, manifesting disdain for people who not only did them no harm, but were arguing for the same things, the place is seriously becoming unhinged. To make the country whole again, we need to work together, support each other, and listen to ideas and viewpoints that we might not personally embrace. We'll need people of conviction to get us over this hump and the sad thing is, we're driving many of those valuable people away.People like Quaker Dave.The Poobah appears at Bring it On!Tech Tags: politics blogging religion quaker+dave omnipotent+poobah

Read The Full Article:
http://omnipotentpoobah.blogspot.com/2006/09/good-man-bows-out.html