Are you a Christian?  Are you a Manchurian Candidate?  Have you been raised a Muslim?  Take the Saddleback Quiz and find out if you are a genuine Christian.

All of us have burdens, but each of the Presidential candidates has a man who is a special burden to them.  That man represents an association which is likely to engender an industry of negative political advertisements.  This diary is not intended to suggest that the burdens have comparable positives or negatives but it rather outlines how the candidates are challenged with a burden they didn’t necessarily bargain for.

I love the Giants.  Always have.  They are as great this year as ever, except for one thing: they are losing too many games.  But this year, I think the Giants are really entitled to go to the World Series.  They got rid of Bonds, they have a great new attitude.  It is their time to go to the World Series.

Now we have the second video by the McCain Girls which seems to give more evidence that they are really Democratic operatives.  The "Peeping Tom" McCain pretty much confirmed it for me.

But if this is a work of Democratic operatives, they have the look and feel of GOP hacks rendered so well...it's a little scary.  What do you thing?

She says that she is not and I take her at her word.

George W. Bush is not a rejected character out of a Pixar movie. He says that he is not and I take him at his word.

Dick Cheney is not an evil overlord from a distant planet. He says that he is not and I take him at his word.

Ralph Nader is not a preening egomaniac who is running for President only because he couldn’t get a shot on American Idol. He says that he is not and I take him at his word.

Hugo Chavez is not a newly signed model for Speedo. He says that he is not and I take him at his word.

Vladimir Putin is not a spy planted long ago by Mother Teresa.  He says that he is not and I take him at his word.

John McCain is not going to select Vicki Iseman has his running mate. He says that he is not and I take him at his word.

One of the most curious comments I have heard about the so-called "Superdelegates" is that if they should not express their independent judgment about the two candidates, what purpose do they serve?  Why not just have a popular vote and be done with the Superdelegates?

Now, after years of hiding under a blanket of silence, the truth is revealedby the man who’s name is synonymous with integrity: Karl Rove.

The California Republican Party is slowly dying.  It may be that November 4, 2008 will be the time of death.

The only relevance that the Republicans have now in California is the requirement that a budget receive 2/3 vote of both the Assembly and the Senate.  As long as Republicans have a third of one of those legislative bodies, they have some relevance.  

The Democrats have a credible vision for ending that one third tyranny.

Of course it’s a bit early, but the 2008 Senate elections are starting to form up.  At this point, things look promising.  Lots can happen between now and November of 2008, but the GOP looks like a terminal patient right now.

Let’s stipulate some things.  First, we can probably agree that Senator Craig has been a terrible Senator.  Although his ideology is representative of general thinking in Idaho, he has supported indefensible actions during his time in the Senate.  I make no defense of his public policy record.

Yesterday Paul Gigot, Editor of the Editorial Page of the Wall Street Journal, moderated a discussion of Dick Cheney on Fox News.  What follows is my letter to him about it.

"One of the frustrations is that there is more attention on Britney Spears getting out of a car without underwear than there is about who is going to be the next president."

-- Mike Huckabee, quoted by CNN, complaining about the lack of media attention to his campaign.

Disclosure: I support Barack Obama.

As anticipation builds over a Bush pardon for Scooter Libby, it is worthwhile to go through the administration's policy on pardons just to make sure that there is a consistent application of policy.

LA Times Article

The LA Times reports that the Justice Department has been promoting Republican loyalists as immigration judges.  We know what it means to have party hacks running FEMA or the Iraq reconstruction effort.  This diary examines what it means to have immigration judges who "do a heck of a job".

Richard Gere, traveling in India to promote AIDS awareness, kissed the beautiful and glamorous Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty.  Shetty built her fame on the reality show "Big Brother".  Following the kissing event, a Jaipur court summoned Shetty and issued an arrest warrant for Gere.  The crime that they are accused of is "committing obscene acts in a public place to the annoyance of others."

Appearing on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Gere said that he had kissed Shetty on the cheek and that a small right wing political party was out to score points as the moral police.Gere on The Daily Show

The Bush Administration has managed to prosecute a very expensive war without making any spending cuts and without any tax increases because the Chinese have stepped up to buy US Treasury notes.  The proceeds from these notes fund the war.  The debt that we owe the Chinese is staggering.

One of the reasons that we are able to do all of this and still maintain relatively low interest rates is that China has valued safety and stability over all else.  Their investment policy results in China owning somewhere between $700 B and $1 T of US bonds.

Things may change soon.

In writing about a collection of essays, the challenge seems to be to find a common thread--is there a way to take the various threads and see an entire tapestry?

The title of the book comes out of a Thomas Paine pamphlet in which he talks about "sunshine patriots".  If there is an overall theme it has to do with finding our patriotism within the context of a modern American life.

The book as an overall meal might not be as satisfying as the morsels found in the smaller servings.  

21 GOP Senators are up for re-election in '08 compared to only 12 Democrats.  What can these GOP Senators do to avoid a complete collapse of the GOP in 2008.  There are few options and that light at the end of the tunnel in Iraq is looking more and more like a train.