At this very moment, Kucinich is on the floor of Congress calling for the impeachment of President Bush.

Watch on C-Span's live feed or on your TV!

Theories on why the Clintons released these at 4pm on a Friday, suggesting they believe the release isn't a good thing and want it buried in weekend news? You'd think after all the caterwauling for them to release their returns, they'd be trumpeting this from the high heavens.

My theories:

1. PA voters will get a good look at how "blue collar" their candidate really is.

2. Hillary's donors will see that $110 million figure and say "WTF? She doesn't need my money." Donors dry up, particularly internet donations.

Hmm.. that's all I got. Anyone else?

Just a quick one-off, as I suspect this will show up shortly enough:

Yahoo! News is reporting that Richardson will appear with Obama at a campaign function on Friday, March 21, and will announce his endorsement of Obama.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080321/ap_on_el_pr/obama_richardson

I need to get this idea in print before it passes; so I apologize in advance if this post isn't particularly cogent or clear.

A few minutes ago, I read <a href="http://ruralvotes.com/thefield/?p=904">this post</a> at The Field regarding the <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/17/12417/1285/527/478498">throwdown at DKos against the Clinton Civil War</a> that Hillary is bound to foment if she attempts to claim the nomination via a coup at the convention.

Kos' post is essentially a call to action to try to blunt Hillary's advance, to put quicker end to an increasingly bucolic primary season.

And as I read it, it occurred to me that much of the Democratic electorate, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic party big-wigs themselves are all somewhat paralyzed by this issue.  They don't want to move on the issue, for fear of a) prematurely ending a campaign that may produce an upset in their favor, and b) potentially offending the campaign that ends up getting the nomination.

This is an understandable, if spineless, position.

And it also occurred to me that throughout this entire campaign, Obama's whole message has been about Americans standing with their own voice to enact the change they want, and that is precisely what I saw as I read the Kos post - that despite the paralysis of the Democratic leadership, the people themselves may end up resolving the issue, in a demonstration and a validation of Obama's approach to government - inspiring us to change our nation, not expecting leadership to do it for us.

I realize this is simply me projecting my own impressions on the issue, but I don't think it's a wholly invalid view, either.

What do you think?

Politico is reporting that Michigan Democrats have finally drafted legislation to execute a redo primary in the state on June 3.

The relevant sections of the document appear to start on page 7, around section 608.

Maybe now that we actually have legislation Obama can say "Yay" or "Nay" to, he can answer whether he supports the revote.  I'd like that answer to be yes, because heretofore his argument has been that he's been waiting for legislation to approve or disapprove.

I haven't seen a link to this Daily Kos diary posted yet, so I'd like to spread this information...

Diary on Daily Kos - McAuliffe ambushing Dean? -- Need Action

From the diary:

The Clinton/McAuliffe wing of the party would like nothing more than to
see Dean removed from the DNC, and frankly I see them using the fight
over the seating of Michigan and FL delegates to be part of their
attempt to bring him down in an fight about whose really has the power
to make the rules in the Democratic Party.

The poster and others on DKos have banded together to gather donations for Dean in order to blunt the impact of Hillary's donor's attempts to hold the DNC hostage (in particular, I think Dean has shown himself a very capable leader of the DNC and I don't want to see him embattled because of this nomination fight).

Well, I guess that's about it.

If you want the link directly to the ActBlue donation page, please go here.  I'll be donating later this evening.

Ben Smith, reporting at Politico, regarding Hillary's attempt to delay releasing the official results of the Texas caucus:

In a letter sent to the state Democratic Party late Friday, the Clinton
campaign requests the March 29 count and state Senate district
conventions be postponed until the eligibility of an estimated 1
million caucus-goers are double checked.

Anyone want to venture a guess as to why she'd want to delay these results? I suspect it has to do with the revelation that Obama picked up 7 additional delegates in the Iowa county conventions.  Clinton does not need additional good news getting in the news about Obama's campaign.

Side note, I wish I could find another source for this but at the moment only Ben seems to have it.

Dear Senator Obama,

Tonight I sit here, sensing what I believe is probably the darkest moment of your campaign.  I know you'll never read this, but perhaps it's cathartic to say it nonetheless.

For so many years I have looked upon our politics with disdain, and in alot of ways, upon the American people with disappointment for the destruction they have enabled.  Once, I was a dreamer; an idealist who believed that if I worked hard enough, spoke eloquently enough, believed strongly enough, that I could convince others that tearing each other apart merely for the sake of being right, was self-destructive and short-sighted.

And over time, I wore down.  I gave up, I gave in, because it didn't matter.  Nothing ever changed... unless you'd count getting worse as change.

Once, I believed the world could be a beautiful place... and for so long I felt I had been betrayed by the promise of a world that could never exist.

With each passing year, as one by one I saw our ideals slip away, enabled by a spineless Legislature and an out of control executive, I sighed.. and had breathed nearly the last breath of my desire to fight.

And out of the darkness I heard whispers of a man named Barack Obama; quiet, at first, I was barely aware of them.  I knew only that people were talking about something in a way they hadn't in a long, long time.. but I dismissed it as a fad, a passing fancy as so many other passing fancies.

But the whispers grew louder, to voices to which I paid attention, and crested finally into shouts I could no longer ignore.

The day you won the Iowa caucus, I finally learned about Barack Obama - watched your speeches, read your plans, learned why so many voices had begun speaking of hope when before there were so few.  I found, finally, someone in whom to place my hopes for the future, a kindred soul who sees the world as I do, one who dared to tell our nation that they can be better than they've been, and that we are not as divided as our politics suggest.

Again, finally, I am allowed to know hope.  These aren't the emotional outpourings of a gullible and uninformed electorate, but the long-held release of millions who have wanted something better, but had been resigned to the fact that nobody offered it.

You do.  We do.  For too long we have waited for a leader to come along, not telling us to believe in them, but one who could tell us to again believe in ourselves, our own ability to make the world in which we want to live.  For nearly a decade I have held to the idea that the way the world is, is not the way the world must be - and never until I saw you had I seen even a single soul say the same.

Recent events have brought us some of the most vitriolic and painful exchanges of this entire campaign, moments that left some of us wondering about the absence of your voice.  None of us believed this would be easy.. but many of us didn't expect it to be quite so hard, either.

You represent precisely the divergence from Hillary Clinton's recent behavior that we have so sorely needed for so long, and yet, so much of what she has said and done has affected your campaign in ways I didn't think she could.  As I write this, Clinton has succeeded in taking from you the one thing that drew so many of us to you: your voice.  What made you different is precisely what seems to have been silenced... and worse, her gambit has silenced your ability and desire to reach out to Americans and offer them something different.  She has succeeded in distracting you from your own message, in goading you into attacking her so that she can prove you're just like her.

But you're not like her, and it need not be this way.  Remember who you are, Senator Obama.  Remember what you want, and why you are running for President.  Remember why so many of us found inspiration when you told us to hope for a better future.  We are all better than this, and that is the greatest response to any of Senator Clinton's vitriol: That each time she attacks you, bickers over meaningless minutiae, you need only respond that:

We are better than this.. and this is exactly the behavior that the American people no longer want.

Stop focusing on the delegate math.  Stop trying to "step up" the pressure on Clinton, save to ask the same questions she asks of you.  Grab every rumor about you by the horns, and destroy it.  Stand proud of your middle name, shout it from the rooftops and make us ALL be proud of it.  Remind the people why you are here, why you, and we, are better than the nation we have been..

We neither need, nor want, a savior.  We do need a leader.

"There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us.  We know only that it is always born in pain."
- J.M.Straczynski, Babylon 5

You used to speak of the fierce urgency of now.  It's here, as our nation flails.  Help us fight for it.

Sincerely yours,
An anonymous supporter


Epilogue
---------------
For you who support Obama, remember why you chose to support him.

For you who support Clinton, I hope this meets you well; and if not, and you find it instead to be pretentious and disgusting, well, you're probably right.  I don't care.

I'd be just as happy if nobody responds, and you merely think.  What do you want?  What future do you wish to build, what world would you give to you and yours, and who can help you get there?

In the end, this isn't about candidates, or Presidencies, or politics or policies.  It's about us.  It's about who we are, and what we want.

Nobody seems to be covering this, but it seems relevant news.  The
California Primary results were finally certified on Tuesday, March 4,
and the final result is that Obama has picked up 4 delegates from
Hillary - for a total 8 delegate swing.



In case the significance of this number escapes you, Hillary's net
delegate win on March 4 was approximately 8 delegates (the certified
results have yet to be tallied, but isn't expected to swing much from
that number).



The result?  Hillary's victories on March 4 were a wash.