I know there has been a lot of speculation about how Hillary can surmount Obama's advantage in delegate count. Her detractors say it's impossible and she should step down. She herself responds that she's in it to win it, and will hang in there until the convention, thereby forcing a credentials challenge.

But what if there were a much simpler route to unseating the current leader? One that involved targeting Obama's presumed strongholds and bleeding delegate support for him from these areas? Has the Obama campaign badly misjudged their supposedly insurmountable lead? As Hamlet notes, "tis most sweet when in one line, two crafts directly meet..."

This is an inherently thin diary, but I'm on deadline and am distracted by the kids too much to compose anything decent or penetrating. Nevertheless something important happened on the teevee today, and Kossacks need to take note. Tucker Carlson was dismantled on his own show after attempting to call his own guests sexuality into question. Michael Rectenwald of a group called Citizens for Legitimate Government was the guest. I had never heard of the group before today. He gave an object lesson in how to dismantle a conservative toady without coming unhinged when they attempt to go below the belt.

Here is the video. It is jaw dropping. I know Tucker Carlson is low rated and a walking joke, but the story is important as an example of what it takes to fight the progressive fight on TV and win.

My brain is aflame with righteous ranting, but I have to go back to my paying gig. Please check out the vid. Peace out.

Check out this layout from Rush's homepage of today, Tuesday, November 14th. Observe how Rush is attempting to openly mock Rev. Jackson and Andrew Young for demonstrating emotion at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. As I'm sure 99.999% of Americans are aware, both men were with King at the moment he was shot dead with a high powered rifle to the throat. For some reason, Rush views this as the cue for hilarity to ensue.

The short version? Suffice it to say that I am a lifelong fan of obscure punk/cult legend TV Smith but had lost touch with his recent output. While trolling around on You Tube, I stumbled upon a concert video of Smith performing his stunning protest epic Not In My Name, which I had been unaware of until that moment. This solo acoustic performance is a searing rallying cry and should be required viewing as far as I am concerned. From the intro:

All the power of the establishment, all it brings us is fucking war, hatred, inequality...and they say they do it "for us," well I don't believe that, and this is one I call "Not In My Name..."

Need more convincing before you'll check it out? Hit the extended for more random thoughts...

Well the results are finally just about in. With 92% of the precints reporting, Democrat Tom Finsterdale has failed in his bid to unseat entrenched ex-tobacco lobbyist/real estate developer/convict/poker enthusiast Jerry Swizzletits.

The pundits had this election earmarked as a "bellwether" but the forecast has now become decidedly cloudy with a chance of intemittent rain until 6 PM. Some will say it's too early for post-mortems, but if we are ever going to take back the House, we have to decide if we're really serious about winning. I'm tired of so-called moral victories. I'm ready for some amoral victories.

Who is Brian P. Tierney, and why does he want to own the Philadelphia Inquirer? NY Times business section attempts to fill us in.

Mr. Tierney, who will be the chief executive, has been involved in Republican politics, served as a corporate spokesman for Sunoco and has represented the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

"Involved in Republican politics?" Sounds harmless enough. I'm sure if Tierney had been once on the GOP payroll, had defended abuser priests, and ran a church funded marketing campaign targeting 3 million pro-life Catholics for Bush, they'd let us know. 3 million pro-life Catholics for Bush. Follow me below the jump and we'll do some novenas together.

What's a swirlie, you ask? It's pretty much when you take your beaten and submissive opponent's head, stick it firmly down the gaping hole of the nearest toilet seat, and proceed to flush. Repeatedly.

Well that's precisely the maneuver Randi Rhodes performed on CNN's Larry King Live tonight, to 24-year old conservative talk radio puffball Ben Ferguson.

What happens when you're young, conservative, on a national talk show, and complain that liberals are the reason we are "losing" the war on terror? You get your under-exercised ass handed to you, with a dollop of public humiliation thrown in for seasoning. Transcript below.

"I can't even describe his face," the New York radio-show host said. "If he'd had a gun, he'd a shot me. I was talking to him like I was sitting next to him on a bar stool..."

Since Plamegate, White House press briefings have suddenly become a kind of bloodsport. They usually result in a bunch of spirited diaries around here, each running down the lies du jour, everyone marveling at the credibility-challenged WH press secretary Scottie McLellan as he performs his minutely detailed impression of a pod person.

Today was a departure from the norm. As a special bonus, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director, National Economic Council Alan Hubbard was trotted out to blather endlessly about how quietly cooperative the reaction of our nation has been as he and his friends take turns raping it. This led to two interesting exchanges, one frightening and one encouraging. The bitchslap was the encouraging one. Apologies if someone else has beaten me to it.

If a woman in Aran is milking a cow and the milk is spilled, she says, "There's some are the better for it," and I think it a very nice thought, that they don't grudge it if there is any one it does good to.

As I collect my thoughts on this national day of feasting, I am reminded of my roots. Of what once was, and what might have been. On the pain of loss, and the unforgiving march of time. On the price of butter, and on dirt behind my fingernails. On George M. Cohan and longshoremen. And what people really mean when they say "so long."

I hope you enjoy your peaceful family gathering, but before you set down to eat tonight, just remember the millions of my people who perished never having known buttered mashed potatoes. In the extended, you will also learn how to arrange for reparations to be delivered to me, personally.

Dear Judy:

I read with interest newspaper accounts of your recent meetings at the Special Prosecutor's office, and the several days of follow up testimony before the Grand Jury. My reaction was one of surprise to say the least.

You will recall my earlier letter to you prior to your release from prison. I call your attention to the closing paragraph which I will now cite:

"You went to jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover -- Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work -- and life."

Upon reflection it appears you may have failed to catch the gist of my original intent.

An top secret electronic memorandum recently discovered at the White House and sent for linguistic analysis prior to being classified, have been examined and deciphered.  A leaked copy sheds new light on the government's internal attempts to craft a message of reassurance to Americans, at a time when anxiety about the reliability and security of the nation's critical infrastructure runs high. The following is a redacted excerpt, for the purposes of protecting confidential government information:

If this AP report takes off here, I'll delete. But in the interim, here's what FEMA director Michael Brown, the dithering ditz who failed to launch a thousand ships, had to say about his reassignment to pushing pencils back in Washington D.C.

WASHINGTON - A beleaguered Michael Brown said Friday he doesn't know why he was removed from his onsite command of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, but he does know the first thing he'll do when he returns to Washington.

"I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife, and maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep," Brown told The Associated Press. "And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help these victims."

Senators Collins (R-ME) and Lieberman (D-CT), joint chairs of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs have announced that they will investigate hurricane relief efforts in the wake of the loss of New Orleans. As I will outline in detail below the fold, anybody drawing a sigh of relief that FEMA and DHS officials will be held to accountability are fooling themselves. FEMA has been called to the carpet numerous times this year to respond to well documented claims of widespread fraud and abuse. Caught-in-the-cookie-jar kind of abuse. The kind that should have made heads roll. Only it didn't. Which now has led to thousands dead.

Let's follow the trail of debris and see why American taxpayers been given no better option than to hide in the attic to avoid drowning in FEMA's sea of corruption.

Seen at Crooks and Liars.

Why the intense need to call for Brown's head on the block at the time? Months before Katrina was more than a puff of vapor over the Atlantic? Seems some money went missing. More below.

This recipe came to me while thumbing through the MojoRaveFestWhoringBachannalia Part 4. The diarist asked for commenters to earn ratings by posting recipes, the standard method for combatting troll infestation. I don't know if it was the recent appointment of the new White House chef that did it to me but somehow inspiration struck.

After the powerful presentations from the Conyer's hearings of last Thursday and the subsequent wave of media attention belatedly bestowed on the "Downing Street" secret documents, there was much excited musing on the subject of impeachment over the weekend, here on DKos and elsewhere. This diary is not an analysis of the likelihood of Democrats gaining the House of Representatives in 2006. It's not an overweening juggernaut of triumphalism, as sometimes crops up around here. It's not really a rant, because the events of the last few days have served to set conservatives back on their heels a bit, more than I expected at any rate, so how mad can a liberal guy be right now? Well, pretty fucking mad, but I'm keeping my lid sensibly on for this one. So let's place this diary in the category of "Just Suppose." So come, let's play pretend...