Tonight, our 4th of July Rescue Rangers Marching Band is comprised of vcmvo2 on clarinet, srkp23 on trumpet, ezdidit on trombone, dopper0189 on sax, grog on drums, and jlms qkw on flute, with watercarrier4diogenes on tuba, bringing up the rear.

Tonight's diaries decorate the skyline with starbursts of ideas, highlighting, each in their own way, why this day carries so much meaning for all of us.

CELEBRATING OUR INDEPENDENCE

• Purple Priestess provides a great recommendation for 4th of July viewing in Don't be a Fribble - Sit Down and Watch "1776" Today. (jlms qkw)
• FoundingFatherDAR asks for our assistance in Some Firefighters Won't Get to Celebrate the 4th of July. (vcmvo2)
• You can only vote for Democrats if you're alive, as Gramarye reminds us in Please, Preventive Healthcare Starts at Home. Yes, even couch potatoes can lose weight and live healthy. (grog)

THE MEANINGS OF OUR INDEPENDENCE

• PvtJarHead provides a quick biography of a netroots ancestor in Resurrecting Samuel Adams the Prototype Kossack! Are we positive Markos isn't related? (grog)
• don mikulecky looks back on a personal experience with civil disobedience, and the meaning of a movement, in We need to declare independence again! Where is Jefferson when we need him? (srkp23)
• From Sand in Florida comes a wonderful, personal diary of an Iranian family's rise through persecution in their homeland to emigration and finally, to U.S. citizenship (through the granting of a habeas corpus petition), in Blinded By Hope: An Average Man's Vote for Barack Obama. (ezdidit)
• jpspencer reflects on the future development of this nation and the futures it holds, in My Son Turns Two Today. (srkp23)
• Rimjob gives us the latest news on the long-delayed redevelopment at Ground Zero. (srkp23)

KEEPING OUR INDEPENDENCE

• ScottyUrb asks and answers Are You A Patriot? (jlms qkw)
• two roads reminds us why we fight the FISA bill in When they came for the fifth amendment... (dopper0189)
• In McCain flip flops - embraces Swift Liars, AllDemsOnBoard reports on the latest version of the "straight talk express." (vcmvo2)
• tc399 offers a rant in a diary with political overtones. Insurance? ...um, Was someone discussing insurance? (ezdidit)

RESPECTING OTHERS' INDEPENDENCE

• VoteHope08 heartbreakingly explains why Sometimes I Worry About This Country. (srkp23)

jotter has High Impact Diaries - July 3, 2008 and emeraldmaiden has Top Comments 7-4-08 - And the People Spoke.

Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread (even if you're the author! Here's where that's actually appreciated). And, of course, since it's an open thread, PLAY NICE, OK? 8^)

If you enjoy Diary Rescue, please consider joining the Rescue Rangers. It's a great way to become more involved with the Daily Kos community. Did we mention it's rewarding and fun? To volunteer or learn more, please contact us (don't forget to tell us your screen name) at: dkos.rescuerangers@gmail.com

July 4, 1826
On that date, our nation's second president lay dying. Over the difficult course of his presidency and the years that immediately followed, his friendship with Thomas Jefferson had been terribly strained. But a bit at a time, through voluminous correspondence that stretched over decades, the bond between the two men had been restored.

In his last moments, John Adams' thoughts turned to his friend. His final words were "Jefferson survives." He did not know that Jefferson -- his rival, his enemy, and his great friend -- had preceded him in death only a few hours before.

It was the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

Coming Up on Sunday Kos ....

• georgia10 will explore the new face of activism and what it looks like for the millennial generation.
• DemFromCT will review recent polling on health care as it relates to the 2008 campaign, and the chances for health reform after the election.
• DevilsTower will take a look back at Freedomnomics, sockpuppetry and misleading economics.
• Think the Cold War ended? Think again. Plutonium Page will take us on a tour of one of the most contaminated nuclear sites on Earth... right here in the United States.

• Swing State Project has been gathering 2Q fundraising reports as they come out.
• Florida Governor Charlie Crist is engaged. For the fifth time. (He was married once, for 6 months.) Obviously it's not like this could have anything at all to do with his vice-presidential aspirations.
• Matthew Yglesias explains how Cindy McCain's designer suits equip the McCains to understand the struggles of ordinary Americans. Jed Report's Google Earth tour of the McCains' 10 or so houses is another valuable reminder of how absolutely non-elitist they are.
• Al Giordano unravels the links between a McCain visit and a major hostage  release in Colombia.
• Ezra points to an article on Utah moving to a four-day work week due to energy use concerns.
• For most congressional candidates, the Fourth of July is a big day to gain visibility in local celebrations. For obvious reasons, Darcy Burner won't have that chance this year. We can't give her back the Fourth, but we can buy her some respite on the 20th and 21st and all the days until then by relieving her of the necessity to fundraise.
• The Bush administration extended the tours of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan fighting in the bloody Helmand province because there are no troops available to send as reinforcements. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the JCIS, said on Wednesday that more troops are necessary but "I don't have troops I can reach for...to send into Afghanistan until I have a reduced requirement in Iraq." - smintheus

This evening's Rescue Rangers are Yashua, ybruti, Got A Grip, dadanation, YatPundit, and joyful, with shayera as editor.

• MA Voter highlights the joys of volunteering in Community Service: Impact from the inside out. (ybruti)
• donnasicko finds little to celebrate in SiCKO Effects: A Birthday Wish from Your Insurance Company. (joyful)
• Jeff Huber explains how he lost his last drop of respect for pundit class in the traditional media in Mission Accomplished ala Lieberman and Schieffer. (Got a Grip)
• In a moving tribute to the people of New York, ArthurPoet describes their Path of Service: WTC - 9/13/01 - 1/2 Mile No, W.S.Hwy. (ybruti)
• pmorlan examines an important example of the common phenomenon of our traditional media clucking away as they knit the scandal du jour while ignoring the rampaging elephant destroying the room in Clark & Taguba - A Media Tale of Two Generals. (Got a Grip)
• What at first blush seems to be just too blatant to be true actually is borne out by the facts in dhonig's troubling diary FOX News Anti-Semitism. (dadanation)
• In a moving tribute to the people of New York, ArthurPoet describes their Path of Service: WTC - 9/13/01 - 1/2 Mile No, W.S.Hwy. (ybruti)
• Detroit Mark shares a sense of healing at the impending end of the BushCo Reign of Terror and the hope of a better president in I Can Not Tell A Lie: I've Never Felt More Patriotic. (Got a Grip)
• Just in time for the 4th of July weekend, Milos Janus Outlook carefully disentangles fact from fantasy in Remembering Our Roots by looking at the actual religious perspectives of many of the famous "Founding Fathers (and Mothers)." (dadanation)

jotter has High Impact Diaries - July 2, 2008.

noweasels has Top Comments: Duck & Wabbit Season Edition.

If you enjoy Diary Rescue, please consider joining the Rescue Rangers. It's a great way to become more involved with the Daily Kos community. Did we mention it's rewarding and fun? To volunteer or learn more, please contact us (don’t forget to tell us your screen name) at: dkos.rescuerangers@gmail.com

Welcome back for more veep speculation! Last thread we considered the top military veteran candidates to be Obama's v.p. Averaging in those votes yielded the same top 14 average vote-getters overall as the thread before that, so we'll consider them again in today's poll.

I'm still alternating "break-out" polls with the top 14 average vote-getting candidates in these threads' polls, averaging in each day's votes as we go. I'm going to do the top possibilities experienced with foreign policy/national security issues and governors/former governors before cutting 14 names to narrow the field to just two tiers--that's if Obama hasn't decided by then, of course. I'll reset the averages then, too. So that would be three or four more threads away from today.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The correct format would be to simply state their name, unless you have further comments, in which case, "I believe ___ ___ should be Obama's v.p. running mate because..." "Oh my God, where's Johnny/Jane Politician?!" would be a bit alarmist, don't you think? I'm sure they're fine. I'm happy to hear all ideas, and of course I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

So my plans for the Fourth fell through when gas prices killed the journey of houseguests to my abode. Let me live vicariously through your plans.... What do you guys have on deck for the holiday?

• Another blurb for Taking on the System, now available for pre-order at Amazon and other online retailers.

  A guerrilla manual for political insurgency, a motivational guide to personal action, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga’s Taking on the System lays out the map on how to transform social networks into a power grid and send the funeral directors of our archaic institutions packing. Written with the high-velocity enthusiasm for a healthy shellacking that has made Daily Kos the Battlestar Galactica of the blogosphere, Taking on the System, studded with practical tips and inspirational tales, teaches and preaches how to turn your voice into a force-multiplier without losing your soul in the process. This is a book that conservatives could learn from too, if they could tear themselves away from Rush Limbaugh long enough to take a jab at something new.

  --James Wolcott, Vanity Fair columnist and author of Attack Poodles (Miramax)

  Pre-orders help build buzz, so your help is hugely appreciated!

• A coalition of California groups are suing the State of California to throw this fall's anti-gay marriage hate initiative off the ballot.

  * "The proposed initiative is invalid because it is a proposed constitutional revision, not a proposed constitutional amendment and, as such, the California Constitution provides that it may not be enacted by initiative"

  * "The description of the proposed initiative in the petitions that were circulated for signature was materially misleading and materially misstated the effect of the proposed initiative to the electors signing the petitions to qualify the measure for the ballot.

  UTBriancl explains in the diary that the case is a long-shot. We'll likely have to defeat this hate initiative at the ballot box.

• WALL-E is easily the best animated flick ever, in both story, "acting", and animation quality. Interestingly, the biggest challenge for the movie's animators was to make the movie less perfect.

  Stanton adds that the new virtual camera system was set up to make both the robots and the environments look more believable. "Life is nothing but imperfection and the computer likes perfection, so we spent probably 90% of our time putting in all of the imperfections, whether it's in the design of something or just the unconscious stuff. How the camera lens works in [a real] housing is never perfect, and we tried to put those imperfections [into the virtual camera] so that everything looks like you're in familiar [live-action] territory."

  The movie is stunning, through and through.

• What's funny about the crazy Republican in the Montana Senate race is that he thinks Baucus is paying any attention to himat all. Still, the dude spills his family's secrets anyway.

  As a 23-year-old man, Kelleher was a friar in a Carmelite monastery 18 months away from ordination into the priesthood. He dropped out, Kelleher said, because he couldn't handle the vow of chastity.

  He has been married and divorced three times. He has seven children and regrets the impact his absence had on their lives. Kelleher said he particularly regrets the way he walked out on his first wife, Gerry, mother to his six oldest children and to whom he was long married.

  “I wanted to have fun,” he said, but his fun hurt his children and his wife, whom he described as “wonderful.”

  Umm. Okay...

• Sonics leave Seattle for Oklahoma. Seattle gets to keep the name and team's history. Lawsuits abound.
• Why is no one polling South North Dakota? Obama is visiting today, and it's clearly looking in play. Yet we get lots of silly polls like Massachusetts and New York.
• Speaking of South North Dakota, the Fargo Forum, which endorsed Bush in 2004, is flirting with Obama.

  It’s a rare presidential election year when a candidate of any political party visits North Dakota more than once. In some elections, even once is a big deal. So Sen. Barack Obama’s stop in Fargo today could be a hint of what’s to come, not only from the Obama camp, but also from Sen. John McCain, the Republican standard-bearer.

  Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton packed ’em in during back-to-back campaign rallies in April in Grand Forks. The 1,000 available tickets for Obama’s visit today were hot commodities. If there were space at Fargo’s Yunker Farm, he could attract 10,000 or more. McCain supporters should pay attention [...]

  No one should conclude that Obama has a lock on North Dakota. He certainly does not. But given the surprises in this year’s presidential campaign, it would be unwise to assume McCain has the lock. That’s the dynamic the Obama campaign senses, and that’s one reason he’s in North Dakota today.

• Meanwhile, the McCain campaign is purchasing ad time in Virginia. Homeboy will be playing a lot of defense this year.

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are Avila, BentLiberal, jennyjem, jlms qkw, Louisiana 1976, watercarrier4diogenes, and YatPundit, with srkp23 as editor.

• jhutson asks for your help to stop torture in Why Leanh Took Up Chain-Smoking. (jennyjem)
• shellac tells the tale of public healthcare in Brooklyn in "The County" And Its Woes. (YatPundit)
• iampuhna reminds us that today is really the anniversary of our break from King George in July 2, 1776: the resolution of independence. (YatPundit)
• In His Military Service Was Not Honored, karateexplosions laments the lack of care and compassion for the average war veteran and the hypocrisy of the deference to McCain. (BentLiberal)
• Rimjob posts an impeccable (and totally relevant!) diary on a Disastrous Month For The Auto Industry. (BentLiberal)
• gjohnsit chillingly describes a failure of the world's richest nation in Hunger On The March: Then and Now. (jlms qkw)  
• Phil In Denver wonders if an under-represented sector of the voting population could be the ticket to a Democratic victory this fall in The Coming Democratic Earthquake Part II: Can the Millennials Save Us From Ourselves? (jennyjem)
• Crashing Vor writes in vivid detail about being a little blue drop in a sea of red, and gives this community some much-needed perspective in Political Geography for Kossacks: Crimea River (jennyjem)
• cityvitalsigns says Thanks dKos, Obama, the Democratic groundswell, Bill Moyers, and more, for making me a better mother, and means it. (watercarrier4diogenes)
• cskendrick delivers a thoughtful treatise on the Constitution and watching our leaders closely, in Regarding The Big Picture. (BentLiberal)
• Chris Rodda describes David Barton as a Christian nationalist and historical revisionist whose work on behalf of Republicans has flown under the left's radar, in David Barton: Bobby Jindal is "One of the Really Cool Guys." (BentLiberal)
• mwmwm explains why international environmental leadership from the US is essential in Dole, Del Monte, Endosulfan, and the Ferry. (YatPundit)
• Are arthouse films and other smaller films, compared to major Hollywood films, financially unsuccessful? In On the Success of Big Blockbusters and Independent Films, AgnosticTheocrat says there's much more to the story than that. (Louisiana 1976)

jotter serves up High Impact Diaries - July 1, 2008.

brillig brings Top Comments- 7/02/08 Fill-In Edition.

If you enjoy Diary Rescue, please consider joining the Rescue Rangers. It's a great way to become more involved with the Daily Kos community. Did we mention it's rewarding and fun? To volunteer or learn more, please contact us (don’t forget to tell us your screen name) at: dkos.rescuerangers@gmail.com

Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread.

Welcome back for more speculation! Today we'll be polling the the top military veteran possibilities for Obama's v.p. This includes all candidates who served in uniform (service branch is indicated after names in poll), not including state chief executives, who are commanders-in-chief of their states' National Guards, but who will be considered separately.

I'm still alternating "break-out" polls with the top 14 average vote-getting candidates in these threads' polls, averaging in each day's votes as we go. I'm going to do the top possibilities experienced with foreign policy/national security issues and governors/former governors before cutting 14 names to narrow the field to just two tiers--that's if Obama hasn't decided by then, of course. I'll reset the averages then, too. So that would be four more threads away from today.

Please discuss any v.p. candidates in the comments. The correct format would be to simply state their name, unless you have further comments, in which case, "I believe ___ ___ should be Obama's v.p. running mate because..." "Oh my God, where's Jane/Johnny Politician?!" would be a bit alarmist, don't you think? I'm sure they're fine. I'm happy to hear all ideas, and of course I'm no official gatekeeper, so play nice.

(continued below the fold)

Nancy Pelosi discusses her favorite political blogs.

This thread--featured on one of her favorites--is now open.

• My upcoming book, Taking on the System, is now available for pre-order at Amazon and other online retailers. I'm proud of this book, guys. I just got a blurb from Elizabeth Edwards:

  As the founder of the blogosphere's most lively town square - a place where Americans come to debate ideas, discuss policy, and yes, plot to "crash the gates" - Markos has already permanently altered the landscape of American politics. DailyKos and the progressive blogosphere have inspired a new generation of American patriots, determined to rise up and make their voices heard. In Taking on the System, Markos provides both a call-to-arms, and the rules of engagement, for getting active in our newly networked age.  With passionate and accessible prose guaranteed to inspire and empower anyone who has ever struggled to make a difference, this book captures the spirit of our nation's modern-day pamphleteers.  - Elizabeth Edwards

  Yeah, I'm blushing. But it really is a good book. Better than Crashing the Gate, I think. Your pre-orders help generate buzz for the book, which does things like help it get on the best seller list and onto the hands of more people who could make use of its message of empowerment. So if you are so inclined to purchase the book, considering pre-ordering it. Publication date is September 2.

• Why does Chris Matthews continue to insist that only white people are "regular people"?
• We have raised about $25K $43K for Darcy Burner this morning as we try and give her some breathing room to take care of her family and home situation. Every $5,000 we raise is one day she doesn't have to focus on fundraising. So this morning, we gave her five eight days of respite. Our goal is $150,000 (for a total of $400,000 raised across all of ActBlue), so she can spend the entire month rebuilding her life before she goes back to defeating Dave Reichert this November.
• Imagine that -- waterboarding is torture. Not that it matters to the morally debased panic-stricken bed-wetters on the Right.
• Everything you've ever wanted to know about the Tour de France, without having to pay $8 for a preview guide.
• Took my kid to see the Giants-Cubs game last night. He ate a hot dog and cotton candy. And then spent half the night vomiting it back up. Reminded me of this:

  [Scene: Madison Cube Garden Corridor. Zoidberg comes out of the Gents and approaches a vendor.]

  Zoidberg: I'd like a jumbo squid log, please.

  Vendor: We don't sell those.

  Zoidberg: Alright, alright. Let me have one of your young on a roll.

  Vendor: We're outta rolls.

  Zoidberg: Fine! Just give me something crawling with parasites.

  [Cut to: Madison Cube Garden. Back in the bleachers, Zoidberg eat a hotdog and purrs. The others have hotdogs too. Fry takes a bite.]

  Fry: Mmm. At least hotdogs haven't changed.

• I wrote about GOP sockpuppets this week in the Hill.

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are vcmvo2, Painty Kat, jlms qkw, dopper0189, shayera, srkp23 and grog.

If you enjoy Diary Rescue, please consider joining the Rescue Rangers. It's a great way to become more involved with the Daily Kos community. Did we mention it's rewarding and fun? To volunteer or learn more, please contact us (don’t forget to tell us your screen name) at: dkos.rescuerangers@gmail.com.

• Not lions and tigers, but polar bears and Penguins Dying Out, highlight this stark picture of the world's oceans by prestochango. (jlms qkw)
• srkp23 continues to witness the struggle to bring justice and accountability to BushCo and its affiliates in Abu Ghraib Detainees Sue U.S. Contractors for Torture. (vcmvo2)
• Gemina13 explains why the Johnson family, like the Tillmans before them, are fighting the military to obtain justice for their daughter who was murdered and raped in Justice for Pfc. LaVena Johnson. (PaintyKat)
• MrBurns17 snarkily speculates about the Republican National Convention Schedule. On second thought, perhaps this isn't snark. (jlms qkw)
• America has a mixed history on tariffs. In Tomatoes Are Like Motorcycles, Daveparts looks at their success in saving Harley Davidson. (dopper0189)
• Last Years Man shares this diary-shortcut tool in Daily Kos Mad Libs. (jlms qkw)
• MotleyPatriot notes that some Swift Boat Veterans are now complaining that the name of their group has become associated with liars in SwiftBoat Veterans speak out 4 years later? (vcmvo2)
• kyledeb reminds us that despite progress, prejudice remains even in unlikely places, but still he finds hope in The Intolerant States of America. (srkp23)
• Pragmaticus tells Kossacks some things about Alvaro Uribe in The Truth About McCain's "Friend" in Colombia. (shayera)
• RoddieH presents a thorough discussion of his own experience in the Navy and how it relates to Presidential qualifications in On Patriotism, Military Service, and Executive Leadership. (PaintyKat)
• sunflight provides the means and inspiration to answer the question Are We Ready to Govern? (vcmvo2)
• In On Turkish Politics, Or, Are Headscarves A Constitutional Threat?, diarist fake consultant looks at the issue of separation of religion and the state in a strategically important, majority Muslim country. (dopper0189)
• homoaffectional presents a timely summary of GLBT-related events in Round-up of recent GLBT-related events (including Pride NYC 2008 report). (PaintyKat)
• gmoke educates us about New Alchemy Institute founder John Todd's prizewinning project to move From Coal to a Carbon Neutral World: Ecological Design for Appalachia. (srkp23)

jotter gives us the day's High Impact Diaries - June 30, 2008, while brillig has Top Comments- 7/01/08 Flag Edition.

Shamelessly promote your diary or pimp for a friend in this Open Thread!