What the hell is Israel thinking?

http://www.cnn.com/...

"JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli aircraft bombed Beirut International Airport Thursday, sending plumes of smoke into the morning sky, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The IDF said it targeted the airport because it served as a central hub for the transfer for weapons and supplies to Hezbollah.

The strikes at the airport came hours after Israel's Cabinet authorized a "severe and harsh" response to the abduction of two soldiers by Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas and declared Lebanon's government responsible for their safe release."

Did anyone see Steve Lopez's column in today's LA Times, lambasting Sen. Kennedy for the recent fundraising letter he sent out?  

According to Lopez, the current Democratic agenda can be summed up from the bumper sticker Kennedy included with his letter which stated "Had Enough?  Vote Democrat in 2006."

Apparently Lopez has fallen hook, line, and sinker for the meme that the Republicans are the party of "ideas" and all we Democrats can do is criticize them.

I wrote to him to express my beliefs regarding the Democratic agenda.

It goes without saying that American Democrats having very little in common (politically) with American Republicans at the moment.

But what do we have in common with each other, as Democrats?

check out wikipedia's classifications of Democrats, here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/...

So, are you a liberal, a centrist, a progressive, a conservative, or a "labor" democrat?

I personally identify most closely with the progressive democratic agenda.  

more, under.

Who will be replacing Vicente Fox, the first non-PRI Mexican president in Mexico in over 70 years.  Will it be Felipe Calderon, a fellow conservative and PAN member?  Or Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist Mayor of Mexico City running on a very solid campaign with the Democratic Revolution Party?

I'm rooting for Manuel Lopez Obrador, because I'd like to see the continent turn left.  If Felipe Calderon wins, we'll have conservatives in control of Mexico, the United States, and Canada.  A continent as strong as North America deserves more balanced leadership and Lopez Obrador reflects a significant voice amoung us which has been stifled of late.

The latest results, with 9% of precincts reporting, show Calderon at 40% and Lopez Obrador at 35%.  Third party PRI candidate is below 20% and not a threat.  Mexico City (the largest city in the world i think) will likely determine the race.  

http://www.cnn.com/...

I KNOW.  2006.  But for a brief digression.

Coventional wisdom has it that Hillary is a strong contender for the 2008 Democratic nomination, I need not cite the polls.

At the very least, she's got the most money of any potential Democratic candidate, not to mention name recognition.  Remember, we are an eerily over informed group.  Most people don't know Mark Warner from their next door neighbor.  

That said, Rasmussen's latest Hillary-O-meter poll shows that 27% of Americans will "definitely vote for Hillary" in the 2008 general while 38% of Americans will "definitely vote against Hillary in 2008.  The remaining 27% are undecided, and it depends on the Republican opponenent for them.  I'm knocking on wood, but Bill Frist could be a dream come true for us!

Someone help me figure out what these numbers (as of 10:29 PM) mean:

Total number of voters in the runoff:  40,415

Total number of voters in the Dem primary:  13,441

Total number of voters in the Rep primary:  20,965

Number of independents voting in neither party primary, but in the runoff:  6009.

Run off:

Busby:    17,329
Bilbray:  20,448
Griffith:  1,846
King:        792

Note: These numbers are absentee only returns

Governor:  Phil Angelides

Lt. Governor:  Undecided, either John Garamendi or Jackie Speiers

Secretary of State:  Debra Bowen

Controller:  Joe Dunn

Treasurer:  Bill Lockyer (the only option)

Attorney General:  Jerry Brown

Insurance Commissioner:  John Kraft (I find Cruz Bustamante to be very creepy)

A poll released today from SUSA shows that Francine Busby and Brian Bilbray remain in a statistical tie to replace convicted felon Randy Duke Cunningham in the House of Representatives.

Bilbray--47%

Busby--45%

Margin of error:  4.9%

Perhaps the most interesting finding from this independent poll is that "Voter turnout will decide whether this critical House seat remains in Republican hands, or becomes a Democrat pick-up."

More, under the fold

How humiliating must that have been?  

Calling every donor who RSVPed for the John McCain fundraiser to let them know the guest of honor wasn't going to make it.  All 108.  Of course not one person asked for a return of their $250 admission for the scheduled breakfast which was (will be?) held sans McCain.

Bilbray expected to make about $65,000 from today's scheduled fundraiser by selling photos with McCain for $1,000 a pop.

Of course it wasn't a TOTAL loss for Bilbray, as McCain's PAC made a $5,000 donation to the lobbyist-candidate's campaign.

How much will a Busby victory on 6/6/06 be worth?  

More than we can possibly imagine.  

A Busby victory will mean that at least 100 House seats are in play.  Imagine the Republican scramble to hold onto ambivalent corporate donors--you know, the extremely wealthy donors who are not actually connected to the Republicans' extremely conservative ideology but who will donate to whichever party is most likely to be in power--donors who will flood to Democratic candidates.

more, under the fold

Will there or will there not be a wave in November?  Will we, or will we not, retake the House this fall?

The election to replace convicted felon Randy "Duke" Cunningham in the House is just 11 days away and the results in CA-50 will undoubtedly have an enormous influence on the strategies of both parties in their attempts to make the most of the midterm elections.  We all know what a Busby victory would mean for the Democratic party...

more, under the fold

We need 6 more seats to retake the Senate in 2006, and it just might happen.

SUSA's latest approval poll of U.S. Senators shows that ten Republican Senators have negative net approval ratings.  Just 2 Dem Senators are in the negative.

And the best part:  The 99th and 100th least favorite Senators are Republicans, up for reelection in 2006.  Yep, you guessed right, the lowly Senators are Conrad Burns (R-Mont) and Rick Santorum (R-Penn).  

Just 40% of Montanans approve of Burns, while 56% dissaprove!  The situation is even more pathetic for Santorum, of whom 36% of Pennsylvanians approve and 57% disapprove.

More, under the fold

Barbara Boxer's PAC for a Change is now raising funds for Francine Busby's (D) bid to replace convicted felon Randy "Duke" Cunningham in the House of Representatives.

Francine won the online vote for challenger candidates and, with only 18 days until 6/6/06, this may give Busby the boost she needs to win the election!

The latest poll from Celinda Lake indicates that 47% of likely voters in CA-50 will support Busby and 40% will support Republican corporate energy lobbyist Brian Bilbray on election day.  12% are still undecided and Busby will need to win at least 1/4 of the undecideds in order to win (the poll's margin of error was 4.9%).

More, under the fold (including exerpts from Boxer's letter):

The latest poll from Busby's campaign shows that she now leads Republican Brian Bilbray by 7 percentage points! This is wonderful news coming from a congressional district with a R to D registration advantage of 50% to 32%.

From the Lake Research Partners:

"With three weeks to go before Election Day, Francine Busby has opened up a lead over Brian Bilbray, with 47% for Busby and 40% for Bilbray, with 1% for minor candidates Libertarian Paul King and Independent William Griffith and 12% undecided."

This poll was conducted May 12-15 and is the most recent poll of CA-50.

More from the LRP poll, under the fold...

John Kerry's latest email to his subscribers provides us with yet another reason to back Francine Busby (D) in the election to replace convicted felon Duke Cunningham on 6/6/06.

His reason:  Busby's Republican opponent--former Congressman Brian Bilbray--has spent the past 6 years lobbying for corporate energy interests (big oil??) in Washington D.C.!!!

We cannot allow a corporate energy industry lobbyist to replace a convicted felon in this republican leaning district.  We just can't.  As I've said about Bilbray before--wrong time, wrong man.

From the latest NRCC ad attacking Francine Busby (D):

On Screen: footage of Francine Busby applauding with screen text saying, "Praised teacher reported to have Child Porn."

Announcer: "Busby even praised a teacher reported to have child porn saying he was always willing to lend a hand. That's dangerous."

Announcer: "Liberal Francine Busby, poor management, poor judgment, dangerous."

In "very Republican" CA-50, SUSA's latest poll indicates that Francine Busby (D) is in a stastical tie to win the House seat vacated by convicted felon Randy "Duke" Cunningham, with 45% of likely voters planning to support her on 6/6/06.

Check out the poll results here:

http://www.surveyusa.com/...

Brian Bilbray, the republican candidate in the race, is also polling at 45%, and 9% of voters intend to vote for either the Green or Libertarian candidate.   This is horrible news for Bilbray, considering that 55% of CA-50 voters supported Bush in the 2004 election.  Apparently about 1/5 of the Republicans in the district have decided they cannot continue to endorse the party of Bush, enough to switch this seat into our column!

In the 7 years I've been eligible to vote, I've never missed an election and I've supported the Democratic candidate in every single race.

Sadly, I think that will chance with the November 2006 election.

But don't blame me (too much).  Blame the current executive office holders in California who appear to be playing musical chairs with their positions, presumably because they are term limited from maintaining their current posts past the current term but don't want to leave Sacramento just yet.