Scalia, in short:

"They're out there.  Be afraid.  Be very, very afraid."

Riddle me this:  Where is it written in the law that this is grounds for suspending Constitutional rights?

I've seen several theories put forward about the similarities between McCain's new messages (website, slogan, and focus on "change") and Obama's:

1. It's to mute the perception that McCain = Bush

2. It's to use something that's been shown to work

3. It's to look less Republican and more Democratic

While elements of these things may be relevant, I think those reasons are all wrong, at least as far as the central reasoning goes, and I think the real reason is much more cynical -- and ties in with current Republican thinking and operations.

It's voter suppression again.

Seriously unreal.

A sheriff's deputy responds to a 911 call about an assault.  Through what sounds like a comedy -- no, a tragedy -- of errors, the woman victim of the assault is taken to prison, strip-searched by a large number of deputies including at least two men, and left lying naked on her jail cell floor for six hours.

Part 1:
http://www.wkyc.com/...

Part 2:
http://www.wkyc.com/...

Anybody else out there who doesn't like wearing belly-shirts?  Y'know, I'm trying to do y'all a favor, not flashin' mah hairy navel around in public...

So I'm making a request that the DailyKos store stock some tall size shirts -- XLT would be great, XXLT's good too...  anybody else out there?  I know there've been some height discussions before...

I was at a Dem organization watching a Bush/Kerry debate in 2004 and one of the strongest memories I have of that debate is scratching my head when Bush, talking about the Supreme Court, brought out the Dred Scott decision.  I would have bet money before that point that Bush's knowledge of something so factual and historical as that case would be zilch -- so naturally when he brought it up in casual conversation I was rather flummoxed.

Well, I wasn't the only one.  But we eventually figured it out:  it was a shout out to antiabortionists that only they would recognize.

Well, it's happening again.

You'll recall Mike Huckabee having made this Shemanesque statement on abortion a day or two ago (covered at Blue Hampshire among others):

"It's the logic of the Civil War," Huckabee said Sunday, comparing abortion rights to slavery. "If morality is the point here, and if it's right or wrong, not just a political question, then you can't have 50 different versions of what's right and what's wrong."

But wait --

I got on the American Family Association email list a while back and haven't unsubscribed for the pure humor value.  Today's call to action:

Hotels replace Gideon Bibles with "sex kits"

Now is the time to let the motel chains know that you want them to keep the Gideon Bibles

And I'm thinking, this must be about some by-the-hour rat trap which has started putting condom dispensers in the rooms... but no...

I took some flak recently for posting a diary which was a bit of a parody reaction to a concurrent Edwards Top 10 list -- I took only a half-serious stance because the Edwards diary, which included such reasons as "good looking" (counted twice!), hit the top of the Recommended list, which made me utterly sick.  People complained I could have done a much better job if I'd left out the Edwards stuff, apparently not realizing that the top 10 reasons I picked there were picked expressly not just to compare Edwards with Dodd, who I feel is a much better candidate, but more to excoriate the poorly-written yet ecstatically received earlier diary itself.

But I do support Senator Dodd quite seriously -- I even sent a nice chunk of money, which is a stretch because I'm unemployed -- and I think there are a lot of good reasons to do so.  Actually I had to pare down this list while I was writing it, rather than look for filler, so it really is a Top 10.

So without further ado, here you have it:  the REAL Top 10 Reasons I'm Voting for Chris Dodd (and Why You Should Too!)

I couldn't believe the paper I saw today.  The headline reads,

Did Souter Cry Over 2000 Recount Vote?

This is the top headline on the front page of today's Manchester Union-Leader.  Image below the jump.

Yes this is a takeoff on the Edwards diary.  I thought it was a bunch of pretty silly reasons, actually, and I disagreed with several of them.  "He's handsome"??  Come on now.  There are much better reasons to support a candidate -- and I've found one who fits the bill.

So I thought I'd give a more significant candidate a leg up.  Without further ado, the Top Ten Reasons I Support Chris Dodd:

(P.S. If you, like me, are tired of only seeing Edwards, Clinton, and Obama diaries on the rec list, rec this now! ;) )

UPDATE:  So sad.  Somebody's used the same domain name to spoof Talon News.  Did a damn fine job of it too. :)  Thanks for the tip, commenters.

For those who may have missed it, Talon News is back on the air, apparently since May 10 (or at least they have archives back to that point.)

But with the imminent arrival of his tell-not-very-much book I took a quick cruise through the site, and found the amazing headline "Gannon Threatens TALONNEWS" which I just had to read (Note: all comment-type punctuation is original:

August 26, 2007
NEW YORK: Former journalist(?) for Talon News and (former?) gay prostitute Jim Gannon is now trying to spread self-serving rumors that he used to work for the publishers of this web site.

Talon News is disavowing that Gannon/Guckert ever worked for them???  Rest of the article after the jump...

Got an email from the Dodd campaign today -- Senator Dodd will be on The O'Reilly Factor tonight, 8pm Eastern, "to stand up to its host, Bill O'Reilly, for his unfair attacks on progressive bloggers."

Dodd's my 2nd-choice guy (Gore's first) and I'll be looking to see what kind of backbone he can present to the right's leading blowhard.  My expectation is that neither one will give an inch -- but this could turn out to be very good or very bad for Dodd.

I've never asked for recommends before but I think this is something people should see.

I ran across this on a video blog of "funny and unique" stuff.  

The description reads, "How the american soldiers have to drive through Iraqi streets to limit risks of attacks."  Given that rationale, I can certainly understand what's going on here -- but it's still not likely to be  very popular...

Mary Cheney had her child this morning:  Samuel David, 8lbs 6oz.

Best of luck to him.  I think he might need it.

I got an email this morning:

Democrats Abroad, the worldwide arm of the Democratic Party, is looking to revamp their computer systems.  To do so, they're looking for people to help from anywhere in the world -- development will be distributed.  They've hired the project manager, and they're looking for people with the skills to help.

Details are at http://www.democratsabroad.org/... but the nuggets are below.

Got an email from Novica, previously identified as an anncoulter.com advertiser, in response to my emailing them about their ad.

The short version: as strong a positive response as you could ask for.  A third party advertiser did it and they're pulling it immediately -- and lodging a complaint with the service -- and "we have taken steps to ensure that we will not pay a single dime related to the placement of our banner on that website."

How about them apples??? Full text of messages below.

Update: My first-ever recommended diary!  Thanks everyone.

The Middle East has attained vast importance over the last half century by being the major supplier of oil. But someday -- and by "someday" I mean "within this generation" -- oil will start to become scarce. The area is already volatile and a center of religious strife; we really don't need 150 other nations fighting over it too.

I'm not a nuclear physicist or engineer but I've always been curious exactly how this thing is going. Well, in an engineering sense they're getting close:
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But there are other problems -- and for a change, they're not political or engineering. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to revisit my hopes for fusion; it may not be here fast enough to save us from energy shortages.

Today I ran across an excellent review of the current state of the art. Follow the jump for the Readers Digest version and the link.

An 18-year-old autistic kid was signed by a recruiter in Oregon.  When the mother called the recruiter and told him that her son was ineligible because of his autism,

"[The recruiter] was real cocky and he says, `Well, Jared's an 18-year-old man. He doesn't need his mommy to make his decisions for him."'

And get this:  when the recruiter's commander was interviewed,

Velasco initially denied knowing Jared, but later said he'd spent a lot of time mentoring him because Jared was going to become a cavalry scout. The job entails "engaging the enemy with anti-armor weapons and scout vehicles," according to an Army recruiting Web site.

After he'd spoken for a few moments, Velasco suddenly grabbed the reporter's tape recorder and tried to tear out the tape, stopping only after the reporter threatened to call the police.

*Update:* changed title to avoid distraction of terminology!