(Deep breath)

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At an April 6th fundraiser in San Francisco, Senator Obama took a question on possible running mates.

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I heard this story on NPR this morning, and thinking that the essence of the story was about censorship, I tracked it to learn more.

Offensive Video Raises Questions About Censorship -

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The Huffington Post reports that Jon Stewart--he of the Daily Show and anti-military snark--has spent the last three years quietly visiting soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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While I'm busily putting together the text and audio from today's event to share with you, I thought I'd start with an open thread for those of you who were in attendance to post your thoughts and observations from the Barack Obama Town Hall Meeting.

More to follow!

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File this one under the "No Foolin'" Category:

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NPR reported that Bush is visiting Africa, where villager are struggling with malaria. About time.

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John McCain's nomination as GOP candidate is locked in as Mitt Romney drops out of the presidential campaign.

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This is one blog post that left me very, very, terribly sad, thinking about the other solidiers who've done the same--even my brother, who shares the same, delightfully oddball references as Andy and who could have written a post like this while serving in Iraq 1. Having said all that, I can say I also laughed like a goon when I read it.

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Several years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a fund-raising event at which former Texas governor, the late Ann Richards, spoke. Most of what she had to say about Bush, who at that time had just defeated her in her second run for governor, was pretty funny, but in a more serious moment she predicted that he would one day make a run for the White House. Pay attention and you will see, she said, that if he’s good at anything, he’s good at saying the same things over and over and over, and his ability to do so is very effective. (I paraphrase loosely from memory here.)

We’ve seen plenty of examples of that in the past six years, but last Thursday’s address was certainly a prime one. Bush’s persistence in trotting out the threat of Al Queda terrorism to justify the war in Iraq may be the worst case in modern American history of the tail wagging the dog, but that’s his story and he’s sticking to it.

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Cross posted from Barry's Blog

Barry Welsh, Democratic candidate for US House in the Indiana 6th Congressional District, released the following statement in response to a speech made by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN06) from the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday in Washington, DC. Rep. Pence's office released a statement yesterday which is referred to below in Welsh's response.

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"President Bush keeps bringing up the threat of Al Queda and the fact is if the President would have done his job after 9/11, there would be no Al Queda. The truth is Al Queda are criminals and you fight criminals with crime fighters, not the military. President Bush said we will be in Iraq long after he leaves office, and that is unacceptable to a vast majority of Americans. We are not the ignorant masses the President likes to think we are."
-- Congressional candidate Barry Welsh regarding the address President Bush gave to the nation the other evening.

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Keith Olbermann: "Mr. Bush, you are a liar. Mr. Bush, you are playing us." This is one unhappy commentator! At one point, my ears rang.

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A few days ago, a friend called me, fuming. She had been seeing the television ads being run by a group supporting the President and continuation of the war. You've probably seen them too--heart-wrenching appeals by mothers and wives of soldiers killed in Iraq, or wounded soldiers themselves, imploring viewers to "tell your congressman" to stay the course, not to vote to bring troops home, a vote they all described as "changing their vote for political reasons."

Evidently, one network--I think she said CBS--has refused to run these ads, on the grounds that they are administration propaganda, and contain assertions that are clearly contrary to fact. My friend wanted to know why other networks couldn't be forced to reject them as well.

My inner civil libertarian wanted to explain that news outlets have freedom of speech, as we all do. They have a perfect right to accept or reject content, including advertisements, as they judge appropriate. In the marketplace of ideas, we assume that distortions and fabrications will be countered by others who exercise their own First Amendment rights to counter "bad" speech with better speech.

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I just returned from the American Political Science Association's annual meeting, and what I heard left me more depressed--and angrier--about this insane war than I was before I went.

At a roundtable on our situation in Iraq, we heard from the kinds of experts the administration should have heeded before invading: James Wirtz, of the Naval Postgraduate School, Juan Cole from the University of Michigan, Stephen Biddle from the Council on Foreign Relations, John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, and Andrew Dorman of Kings College, London.

A quick summary of the panel's message came from the first speaker: "It's absolutely amazing how many so-called 'experts' didn't see what a shit-hole Iraq would be."

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