and Learned to Embrace Rev. Wright's Rhetorical Flourishes.  :)

These past few days have seen some kind of over the top attacks on Obama.  Bush invoking Chamberlain/Hitler references in front of the Israeli Knesset to describe Obama, and Huckabee trying to make a joke of Obama's fictional reaction to a gunshot sound in front of the NRA.  Despicable, but sadly par for the course in R smear campaigning.

But the magic of yesterday was that instead of waiting a while and then giving some sort of watered down "boys will be boys" response, Obama took it right to Bush/McCain and called them on their BS.  

I have been waiting for two presidential campaigns for our candidate to strike back forcefully, immediately, and perhaps even most importantly directly on point.  I believe we now have a candidate that can and will do so.  I am so grateful for this.

This may well be a result of Rev. Wright's passion for justice and mentoring. More below the fold.

This Executive Order by GWB closed access to presidential papers until at least 12 years after that President leaves office and only if they agree to that access.

This precludes any understanding and/or investigation of previous Presidential actions, perchance to yield insight into the events and agreements that have lead us to this point.

Also who the players are/were, and what their impact is and has been.

It seems to me that the general acquiescense to this EO suggests that there is much that is hidden from We the People.  It should be rescinded, immediately, so that we can come to grips with the hidden goings on that have brought us to this state of our Democracy.

I checked my email tonight and got a response from a dKos participant.  His main thrust was the he wanted to meet me at YKos and "look into the face of evil."

Below the fold is the email and my response and a second response.

I will never hide my email here as it is part of the honesty that makes dKos special.  Does anyone have any thoughts on this?  Are controversial positions here fair game?  Is the I/P discussion particularly prone to hate mail?

This is clearly an Israeli/Palestinian issue/context, but I don't see my self as the face of evil, but equally clearly, someone else does, and I would ask the community is this normal behavior here.

There is a lot of angst here about a Dem win in this election. The election has yet to occur, BUT there are many, many signs that Dems are moving toward a big win.

A quick look at the map says that Dems are ascendent at the House level, in many areas.  Paccione (CO4) is moving up. Hayworth (AZ5) is behind.  Wyoming and Nebraska are in play. CN is a toss-up. Half of Idaho is thinking about voting Dem.

Look at this as a long-term effort.  Dems are regaining their chops in rural areas!

This is a short diary as the facts have been covered extensively by mbw at http://www.dailykos.com/....  mbw put it in the context of the Alito nomination.  I am presenting it here in the context of a tactic to show the American people just how secretive this administration has been.

My premise here is that there would probably be considerable risk to Dem long-term control if they get right into Bush bashing.  Not that he doesn't deserve it completely, but probably 10-20 of the potentially new House seats will be from red/purple districts.  Immediate Bush-bashing is just not an option in these areas.  

Today it was reported that we are negotiating more seriously with Iraqi insurgents about amnesty.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/...

This is likely the only way out of this quagmire.  But more importantly, it gives the Dems a way to claim that that there is a way out of this in the short term, and to do so without losing the high ground.

The high ground is to be able to look the non-Sheehan (not that that's a bad thing, but it's about reaching the other 2/3s of the voters) wing of the party in the face and say that your kin did NOT die in vain.  As costly as it was, they effected change and stability.  Now we will bring them home as quickly as possible.

I speak as a southern Democrat (AL5), but Dems should embrace this as a governing principle, though it is too late for this election.  I believe it supports the long-term, 50-state strategy.