I've been wrestling with Obama's decision to side with the compromise/capitulation side of the FISA debate.

It's not just that I disagree with it personally (see Something the Dog Said's diary, which states better than I could why I don't expect Obama to march in lockstep with every position I hold) it's that I don't understand the politics of it, from a purely pragmatic perspective.

Actually, scratch that. I think I understand it all too well. I just don't like the implications.

More below.

Dear Fellow Kossacks,

Over the last little while, since the primary season officially ended in fact, I've been noticing a disturbing undercurrent to some of the comments and diaries here on DK. I've registered my disapproval as I've noticed them, but at this point I felt like I had to say something a little more comprehensive.

To put it simply, a certain segment of the DK community seems to think it's perfectly fine to launch personal attacks against "the other side", and it's a trend I'd like to nip in the bud.

Just for fun, I dug through the exit polls from the Dem primaries, specifically looking for how many self-professed Republicans crossed party lines to vote for Democrats.

I'll warn you up front: there isn't too much value, if any, in these numbers. There's no guarantee of accuracy in exit polls, and no guarantees that every registered Republican even fessed up. Still, I wanted to take a look if for no other reason than to try and glean how much of an impact a certain increasingly irrelevant blowhard had on the primaries.

As a Discordian (hail Eris!) I've got a natural bias towards chaos. Chaos is just more entertaining than Order, when you get right down to it. But did the grandiosely-named Operation Chaos actually earn the right to that moniker, or had Limbaugh's knee-jerk sexism reached into a higher sphere and sullied the good name of a Goddess?

slinkerwink tossed this one out there and deserves whatever tips you want to give, but with everyone focused on McCain's "when the troops come home isn't important" crap this particular gaffe got lost in the shuffle.

On Friday during a campaign stop in Florida, McCain tried to paint himself as the 'green' candidate with the following:

Sen. Obama has no record of being involved in this issue that I know of. I will stick by my record and my commitment of many years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Strong words, Senator. Strong, stupid words.

More below.

Goddammit... I need to start doing more diaries. The only ones I seem to do these days are attempts at voice-of-reason rebuttals to pieces by front pagers.

I posted a shorter version of this in the comments to the story by BarbinMD, which in turn was picked up from Atrios, but the comment is buried way down and I think bears repeating.

More below the fold.

Right now one of the top main page articles (from smintheus) and the top diary (from Steve Singiser) are about Mike Huckabee's off-the-cuff bad joke when talking to the NRA.

Slam Huckabee if you need to for "hate speech"; if that's what gets your adrenaline pumping, go to town. Personally I think the joke wasn't evil, just dumb.

Both the article and diary have as one of their foundations an entirely faulty premise though -- that the crowd laughed at the joke.

They didn't. The joke died a miserable, lonely death.

Evidence below the fold.

OK, on the one hand this is so monumentally insignificant in the grand scheme of things that it's laughable.

On the other hand, it completely typifies the campaign that Clinton has run, and perfectly encapsulates why I don't trust her as far as I could throw her, and would never vote for her.

You'd think that would be self-evident, but apparently it isn't.

In his speech today, just broadcast on CNN, McCain let loose some real zingers.

I come neither to bury Charlton Heston, nor to praise him, but merely to have some fun at the expense of his hyperbolic press agent.

Upon Heston's death publicist Michael Levine was quoted as saying, "If Hollywood had a Mt. Rushmore, Heston's face would be on it." Which begs the question: if Heston's face is on there, who the heck are the other three?

I think the "right-wing Hollywood version of Mount Rushmore" is pretty easy to populate. Heston, Ronald Reagan, John Wayne and Walt Disney spring to mind immediately, although you could make strong arguments for more recent figures such as Schwarzenegger and John Milius.

A "left-wing Hollywood version of Mount Rushmore", however, might be a little more interesting to debate...

Who would you put on your personal "Hollywood Mount Rushmore"?

A quick chronology:

- Hillary steps into a pile of something unpleasant with her Bosnia "misspeakings".

- Gov. Richardson endorses Obama on Good Friday.

- Over the weekend, before the next week's media cycle has really congealed, Carville makes an outrageous statement referencing Judas and his thirty pieces of silver when commenting on Richardson's decision.

Which "story" dominates CNN's Monday afternoon and early evening coverage? Do you really need to ask?

And when Carville says in his defense that his comments about Richardson had their intended effect, do you really need to ask what that effect was?

The Clinton campaign needed to blunt the impact of her Bosnian brain cramp, and Carville stepped up. Good job, Jimmy.

Greil Marcus gives us a preview of Bush's obit, from 2018.

Mr. Bush's life after his presidency was marked by misfortune. He soon lost interest in his status as the standard-bearer of his party and its chief fundraiser; many believed he had again begun drinking, and in any case he seemed to spend most of his time at private clubs in Houston, where he established residence in 2010 after selling his property in Crawford, Texas. ("At least I won't have to cut that f--- brush again," Mr. Bush was heard to say after his last election.)

Chances are even speaking satirically about the death of God's Chosen Tool has landed us both on some government black list. Yay us!

Let's look at these overall numbers for a minute:

Before the polls closed, based on the overwhelming anecdotal evidence, the pundits were projecting a turnout of 120 million.

Instead, based on the current numbers, we're looking at 113 million.

This makes no sense.

In 2000, there were 209 million people of voting age, and 105 million of them voted -- roughly 50.25%.

Since 2000, the population has increased by about 13 million; and about 16 million kids have been added to the pool of voting-age people.

Based on my quickie napkin calcs, that means the voter turnout -- despite the massive GOTV efforts from both parties -- increased by less than 1%.

Someone please tell me where my math went wrong, because right now this makes no sense whatsoever.

Yup, I said 360. Full circle, if you will.

To get there Kerry will need not just the usual suspects (Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire, Colorado etc.), but also Virginia, West Virginia and Missouri.

Am I insane? On happy pills?

Nope and nope.

Elections are simply never this close, and when they are, no one sees it coming. Which leads me to think that whatever happens tomorrow, it won't be a nailbiter, the way the CW is assuming.

Republican bravado aside, all the signs pointing to any kind of landslide are pointing Kerry's way: early voting exit polls, expected record turnout levels, usual division of undecideds, even the lack of a 'bin Laden bounce' from the video.

As far as I'm concerned I'm being a bit conservative. I could see a couple of other states (a Dakota and a Carolina, for instance, or maybe Arizona) swinging Kerry's way as well.

But 360 EVs, and the accompanying vote percentage, will do.

They didn't lead with it, but following a laugh-worthy "there's no way to tell yet who this story has hurt" bit they flashed to a 'breaking development' in the missing explosives story -- which turned out to be the KSTP footage from April 18, 2003.

Included with that was an interview with an expert (didn't catch the name) who said:

1. The barrels the 101st opened on-camera contained HMX; and

2. The IAEA-sealed bunkers would only have contained the missing explosives. Otherwise there would have been no need to seal them.

And that, as they say, would seem to be that, unless ABC's expert turns out to be Michael Moore in disguise or something.

That rhythmic sound you hear is Karl Rove banging his head against a wall, over and over and over and over and over...

A classic Bush line that seems to have slipped through the cracks came very early in the second debate, in his response to the very first question posed to him. It's been overshadowed by some of Dubya's more egregious clunkers later on; nonetheless, this is one bit of idiocy that shouldn't disappear down ye olde Memory Hole.

Here's an amusing thought, following up on all of Josh Marshall's 'bitch-slap' talk:

If you strip away all the issues and scandals and blah blah blah... just about every presidential election of the television era has been won by the more dominant-seeming alpha male.

I want to be outraged by this latest 'terror alert', but it's just too ludicrously funny. Isn't it convenient how al Qaeda's nefarious schemes dovetail so nicely with Bush's domestic agenda?

I imagine the 'chatter' went something like this:

Terrorist Recruiter #1 -- Allah must be guiding that fool Bush's hand. I cannot believe they are trying to turn al-Sadr into a martyr!

Terrorist Recruiter #2 -- Is it true. It will be a shame when Kerry crushes him in November, like a camel crushing a wasp.

Terrorist Recruiter #1 -- If only there were something we could do to sway the election. But surely another large attack would just highlight Bush's ineptitude. Not even Americans are so stupid.

Terrorist Recruiter #2 -- Yes, instead we should (leaning closer to 'concealed' CIA bug and speaking slowly and clearly) POISON PRESCRIPTION MEDICATION BROUGHT IN FROM CANADA, THAT SPITS IN THE FACE OF BUSH'S WISE MEDICARE PROGRAM.

Terrorist Recruiter #1 -- Ha ha!

Terrorist Recruiter #2 -- My uncle the date merchant says the best customers are always those who arrive hungry.

Terrorist Recruiter #1 -- Truly, he is a wise man.

UPDATE: I take it all back. This is more serious than I thought. I'm not at liberty to divulge my sources, but more terrorist chatter has revealed a plot to use stem cell research to create an army of unstoppable super-terrorists, who regenerate themselves after suicide bombings. The bastards! Save us, Mr. Preznit!