I've listened to Hillary speeches, and to Obama's. There's one are where I consistently find Hillary more moving, more convincing. That's on the subject of health care. Compared to Obama, she sounds more earnest, more emotionally concerned about providing health care to all Americans.

But I'll admit I'm cynical about the Clintons. All the more so after the conduct of her campaign, and the negativity of her surrogates and her bloggers.

So serious question here. In her seven years in the Senate, what has Hillary done to bring about health care for all Americans? Is she just using this as an election-year talking point (as so many politicians, not just the Clintons, do), or does she have a track record of sponsoring legislation and doing what it takes to get that legislation passed?

In Cleveland and its suburbs, in Ohio's Cuyahoga County alone, 16,000 Republicans crossed party lines to vote in the Democratic primary.

Good news for us? Are these Republicans fed up with Bush who will vote for the Democratic candidate in the General election?

Probably not. To cross over, they had to sign a card pledging they are Democrats. Many added editorial comments, like "For one day only" and "I don't believe in abortion."

Garrison Keillor, the folksy Minnesota humorist, author, and producer of Minnesota Public Radio's "A Prarire Home Companion", has endorsed Barack Obama for president.

The Associated Press quotes Keillor's endorsement:

"I'm happy to support your candidacy, which is so full of promise for our country," the best-selling author and humorist wrote in a letter declaring his support. "Seven years of a failed presidency is a depressing thing, and the country is pressing for a change and looking for someone with clear vision who is determined to break through the rhetorical logjam and find sensible ways to move our country forward. That's you, friend.

Update: Great, I have enough volunteers for now. I may need more later, I f I do, I'll update again.

You can volunteer to help Dems win back Congress, RIGHT NOW, THIS VERY MINUTE, from the comfort of your own home.

NO phone calling required, just ability with Excel spreadsheets OR with perl or another text processing language.

If you can't do either, please recommend this diary; once I have enough volunteers, I'll delete it.

This is an important project, but please don't neglect other volunteering you've committed to doing, to do this.

Over time it's going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity... You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror.
--George W. Bush

You may also remember hearing this earlier this year:

President Bush praised Pakistan's fight against terrorism as unfaltering...

"We're not going to back down in the face of these killers," Bush said two days after a suicide car-bombing killed an American diplomat in the southern city of Karachi. "We'll fight this war and we will win this war together."

So given the Bush track record ("Nobody ever expected the levees to break..."), it will come as no surprise to the cynical that, with the approval of the Bush Administration, Pakistan has concluded a truce with Al Queada that will allow Osama bin Laden, the architect of 9/11, to live freely in Pakistan.

When I grew up, the Department of Defense protected America from foreign threats. Rightly enough, it monitored those threats too, so it could provide timely protection.

But I admit I don't understand why the Pentagon is spending 20 million dollars of your tax-payer money to monitor news stories for positive or negative "tone" about the war in Iraq.

I mean, it's not like the Defense Department would attack the New York Times for a "negative" story. Right?

No charges have been brought against the men. No court has seen them, no jury heard them, no due process was given. A faceless bureaucrat, answerable to no one, told them to give up their constitutional rights or effectively give up their citizenship.

Two citizens, two people as American as you or I. Are being asked to surrender their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, or give up their right to return to their own country. Your country. My country. You know, the country that's supposed to be "by the People, for the People" according to that quaint piece of paper, the Constitution.

These two citizens haven't been charged with any crime. The Constitution says that they don't have to submit to a police interrogation, but if they don't, they won't be allowed back into the U.S.

With your help, I'd like to keep comments (at least top-level responses) in this diary to only those listing Dems who have betrayed their party to support Joe against the legitimate winner of Connecticut's Democratic primary.

Of course, we should also list those Dems who have announced they are doing the right thing by supporting Connecticut's next US Senator, Ned Lamont.

As a patriot who loves America, I find burning or disparaging the flag abhorrent, reprehensible, and disgusting. To see the flag that stands for Liberty, for Freedom of Speech and Assembly, for the right to Worship or not as one's own conscience dictates -- to see that flag disgraced is terribly painful.

But as important a symbol as the flag is, what it stands for -- a Constitution that upholds the right of every person to declare his or her beliefs, no matter how repellent we find those beliefs to be -- is more important, more fundamental to the continuation of our American Liberties than any banner of cloth.

Yesterday, three Americans distinguished themselves as Patriots and Heroes. They aren't the sort of men we usually laud at DKos, but we'd be fools deserting our principles if we didn't take time to praise these Three Republican Heroes.

But some kids never make it to twenty-four.

The number of U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq who were killed before reaching their 24th birthdays: One thousand seventy-seven.

Ironically, the last under-24 years old casualty listed at http://icasualties.org was from Richmond Virginia, where the Bush daughters ran the 10K.

HIS NAME was Jeremy Ehle. HIS WAS nineteen when he was killed in Iraq.

In a draft of the speech, leaked to CounterLunch.com, extensive excerpts of which are given below, Bush explains his plan. The speech closes with Bush saying, "Let us be united for peace. Let us also be united against defeat. Because let us understand: Iraq cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that."

The speech does not outline the specifics of Bush's planned "Iraqization" of the war, but sources explain that a U.S. Army colonel who has previously been critical of the conduct of the war will be appointed a Major General in the Iraqi Army, to command Iraqi forces which will replace withdrawn American soldiers.

The practical consequence for you is this: your posts and comments here may well get you investigated as a terrorist. Or put on a no-fly list. Or denied a job.

More inside, and a question for Markos.

The Seventeenth Amendment, a cornerstone of the Populist and Progressive movements, provides for the direct election of U.S. Senators.

Many on the Right -- including Zell Miller and Alan Keyes --, citing States' Rights, are calling for its repeal.

Now, the Republican President of Utah's State Senate thinks he's figured out a way around the Constitution's 17th Amendment. And he's got over two-thirds of Utah's State Senate ready to go along.

(Much more, and many links, inside).

The New York Times' (Risen's) source is apparently Russell Tice, a former NSA employee.

Tice, and a report on the wiretapping will be on ABC's Nightline tonight (just minutes from now, at 11:35 on the East coast).

Just for tonight, I'm skipping the Colbert Report.

While there have been no specific threats of terrorism against Miami, "'[t]his is an in-your-face type of strategy. It's letting the terrorists know we are out there,' [Deputy Police Chief Frank] Fernandez said."

The Vietnam veteran, tears running down his face as he recounted his many visits to wounded Iraq War veterans at the Walter Reed Army and Bethesda Naval hospitals, announced that "continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interest of the United States of America."

Republicans attacked Murtha for this calling Murtha, a decorated former Marine, a puppet of the anti-war left. But the Democratic Leadership rallied around this tough hawk, and joined his call to bring our boys home from a failed war. Oh wait, that's not what happened.

The Democratic Leadership was nowhere to be seen.