The right wing media is having a field day with that comment of Obama's. The comment was made last night at the Rick Warren forum, when he was asked when conception begins.
I am not going to parse Obama's statement, or interpret what he really meant. All I know is the way I heard that comment, and what I believed Obama meant.
He was at a forum to discuss God and his relationship with God. Obama's whole theme last night was to be humble. To presume you know when God intends life to begin, is presumptuous. Contrary to what some would want us to believe, Obama is not pretending he is the second coming of Jesus, he is just a man, by his own words, a man who is trying to do the right thing and do God's work here on earth.
The question of when life begins, is a question that a man who is running for the office of President should not presume to know. "Above my pay grade", as clumsy as it sounded was the exact right answer.

I know from time to time Keith O. reads the daily Kos. I think in order to reach him it would be more effective to post a diary rather than email him.
I really want him to lay off O'Reilly for a while and take on Sean Hannity. While I know it is more fun to rip O'Reilly, right now it is far more important to go after Hannity. So here goes:

I just heard on Faux news they are now having a poll and are asking for opinions if "The Edwards Scandal Will Hurt the Democratic Party". Right after that revelation, they followed with Harold Wolfson's remarks that Edwards has cost Hillary the nomination. Isn't Wolfson now a contributor to Faux news? What he is saying is, Obama didn't really win, if Edwards was not in the mix, Hillary would have won Iowa, and Obama would just be footnote in history.
Tell me again how the Clinton people are not responsible for all of this, and are not hopeful it will hurt Barack Obama and his quest for the Presidency. They have joined forces with the Republican attack machine.

Is it just me or does anyone else think the price of oil is decreasing because China has ordered, for the past two weeks, two million cars off the road, with more to follow when the Olympics finally get started?
That, along with the forced conservation here in the U.S. and most likely the rest of the world, in my mind could account for the reduction in the price of oil.

For the past two weeks, I can not get the picture out of my mind of Barack Obama addressing that crowd in Germany, and those people waving American flags, and chanting U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.
This is footage any candidate for President of the U.S. would pay millions of dollars for. After almost 8 years of George W. Bush, remembering wherever he travelled in the world, the protests, America Flags being desecrated, and burned, chants of Bush go home and now seeing an American citizen, an American Senator being honored in such a way sends chills down your spine, in a good way. It not only makes you proud to be an American, but it makes you proud to be an Obama supporter.

The economy of our country is falling apart. Today in California Governor Arnold laid off 20,000 workers and is cutting the salaries of many others, because they can not approve the budget. Those 20,000 only add to our unemployment roles. The sub-prime crisis, has not only put thousands more out of work, it threatens America's banking system, and has decreased the value of millions of homes. Homes many have put their life savings into as an investment and security for their families or their old age. Medical insurance is out of control. People are dying because they can not afford much needed treatment.
We are still fighting two wars, and our military is stretched to the limit. Absolutely nothing has been done in the past 8 years to explore alternative energy sources. The U.S.A. is in a mess, the entire world is in a mess, and what does George W. Bush think is the most important issue, lifting the moratorium on off shore drilling. This, while today we hear Exxon Mobile made record profits of 11.7 billion dollars.

In my humble opinion, what I think really works for Barack Obama is his challenge to the "status quo". His promise to change the way Washington does business. Far too many Americans today, see Washington as the problem, not as the solution. Very few people on the national stage are more a part of Washington than John McCain. He has been part of the Washington problem for 25+ years. Obama is very new to Washington, and he doesn't agree with the way they do the people's work. It needs to be changed, it needs to start to work for the American people. Only someone who can see there is a problem can work on changing it.

If there is any truth at all to the Enquirer "Edwards story", and I hope with all my heart there isn't. We need to know. The stakes are too high for any distractions at all.
Many here, me included, thought Edwards would be the perfect choice for V.P. He is the one person who wants change as much as Obama. As a team, we could all feel confident the status quo would, at the very least, be challenged.
I have my personal feelings about the veracity of the story, and many conspiracy theories about why it appeared when it did, feelings I will not go into at this time. In the past, it has been my biggest fault to speak too soon before any facts are in. So for now, I will keep my feelings to myself.

From time to time, I listen to conservative talk radio. I do it because someone has to, and I want to know what direction they are taking against Obama each day.
Yesterday, I spent lots of time in my car, and listened to some idiot who was sitting in for Limbaugh, and later in the day, I tuned into Hannity.
It is no surprise, the talking points are the same where ever you tune in.
They are echoed all throughout the day, over and over, and over. Sort of a form of brainwashing, peppered, of course, with other ridiculous bullshit, but the main theme remains the same on each show.
One would think they all get together and coordinate these programs. Do you think?

I just read an article about the Democrats in Congress considering a second stimulus package for the American citizens, since the high energy costs ate up the first one.
I have very mixed feelings about this. Of course we could all use some extra money right now, and why not the American taxpayer getting some help, when there is all this fuss about our government helping the banks and the private industries such as Fannie May and Freddie Mac. Bear Stearn got help, why not the little guy.
I will hardly mention the billions of tax dollars going to Iraq every day, without blinking an eye. These billions of dollars are going to Iraq under the disguise of funds for our troops, but you have to be pretty stupid to think "our troops" are getting the bulk of that money.

I just got the latest slimy anti-Obama email. These people will stop at nothing to subvert our government.
My husband received a version of the same sentiment several months ago, this time it is much worse, especially for those on the fence people who still have not made up their minds, and are easily swayed, and don't bother to check things out thoroughly.

I don't know how true it is, but I have heard from various body language experts, when you blink while speaking, you are most likely lying. I have also heard, when you put your hands to your face while speaking, you are hiding something.
They don't talk about an occasional blink or two while speaking, but lots of blinking.
Tonight, I watched Countdown and I was transfixed on the body language of John McCain.

Aside from the obvious; the way the Republican party has messed up, not only this country for the past 8 years, but  the entire world, one would think America, all of America is sick of them.
I just can not see how anyone can listen to any Republican speak and still assign creditability to them.
I could go on forever listing all the hypocrisy of the Republican party, but for this diary, I just want to focus on just one issue.

After watching the Sunday morning talk shows earlier today, and listening to all the mindless banter about Barack Obama ruining his "brand" for opting out of federal campaign funds. While, just last week John McCain did an about face about drilling for oil off our coasts, and less than 1/2 the time was spent on this "flip flop" on these talk shows.
When McCain changed his position on drilling for oil, I thought he is just pandering for votes from the Republican oil drilling base, just as he did with the whole ridiculous gas tax proposal.
It was not until this morning after listening to the excuse for McCain's turn around by Lindsey Graham,"gas is now $4.00 per gallon", did I really stop to think about John McCain and his relationship to big oil.

Every morning part of my routine, is to log in here at Daily Kos to see what is new. After that I go to the Drudge Report, to see what is being reported there. This morning they have a large photo on the top of the page. It is a split screen of McCain and Obama.
One look at that photo says it all, the choice for President is no choice at all. McCain is looking old and very, very angry, while Obama is looking young, calm, cool and reasonable.
Drudge forgot to include the question under these photos, "Who do you want for your President?"

I am not one of those people who gets carried away with Father's Day or Mother's Day either. I always felt they were corporate holidays, created to sell stuff. Albeit, over the years, I have been proven wrong, and both these days seem to have deep meaning for some.
Having said that, I am directing my wish for a Happy day to both male Dads, and female Dads.

I have been coming to Daily Kos since John Kerry lost the election in 2004. It was cathartic, many of us were in disbelief, and numb from the results of that election.
Not everyone agreed with each other, but there was always reasoned debate and interesting diaries. Diaries, that not only enlightened but also made you think.
It was a good place to vent, and anger was focused on the correct targets, not towards each other.
This Democratic primary changed the atmosphere here. At first, I thought it was the Hillary supporters and they simply couldn't help themselves because they were so supportive of Hillary, they felt in order to win and convince others, they had to go negative against her opposition. Most of the Hillary supporters left with the "writers strike". It seemed like the vitriol died down for a while, but things were not as stimulating.  Today, diaries I am reading sound downright hateful.

All this talk about saying McCain is confused and out of touch are they code words for he is getting old? Is he too old? Is it fair to use his age against him?
Why not, he is 72 years old, and at 72 years old, he is very tied to another generation, and the ways of that generation. I have known 72 years old who are young at heart, and if you talked to them on the telephone or corresponded with them, without actually physically seeing them, you wouldn't guess they were 72 years old. John McCain is not one of those people.