VoteVets is with General Clark:

General Clark,

We the undersigned thank you for speaking up forcefully and honestly about what it takes to lead this nation, and the kind of judgment we must look for. You were right to say that Senator McCain has not shown good judgment, despite his extraordinary service to America. Just in the past few years:

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From Obama's patriotism speech:

[W]hat is striking about today’s patriotism debate is the degree to which it remains rooted in the culture wars of the 1960s – in arguments that go back forty years or more. In the early years of the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War, defenders of the status quo often accused anybody who questioned the wisdom of government policies of being unpatriotic.

Meanwhile, some of those in the so-called counter-culture of the Sixties reacted not merely by criticizing particular government policies, but by attacking the symbols, and in extreme cases, the very idea, of America itself – by burning flags; by blaming America for all that was wrong with the world; and perhaps most tragically, by failing to honor those veterans coming home from Vietnam, something that remains a national shame to this day.

Constrast with John Kerry's 2006 speech on patriotism and dissent.

(UPDATE) Josh Marshall thinks Obama made a mistake in rejecting Clark here. A man bites dog day on this. Me defending Obama and Marshall criticizing him.

An e-mail to me:

Your hero [Obama] threw General Clark under the bus. Now, Clark happens to be right and if Obama had any guts he would have stood up for Wes Clark, but alas, he has none and he didn't.

The e-mailer also calls Obama "my guy." Well, anyone who knows me knows that actually Wes Clark is my guy. If I had my drothers, he would be President of the United States. But I do not want Obama defending Wes Clark. Wes Clark will defend himself just fine.

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Update: Here is the prepared text of his speech.

Around noon today ET, Sen. Barack Obama will give a major speech on patriotism in Independence Missouri, Harry Truman's home town.

The Democratic presidential candidate's campaign says he will talk about "what patriotism means to him and what it requires of all Americans who loves this country and want to see it do better."

The speech in Missouri Monday comes in the run-up to the July 4 holiday and as Obama seeks to reassure voters about his commitment to the country as well as to counter questions about his patriotism. He's recently started wearing a flag pin on his lapel.

Tuesday he will give a speech on faith and Wednesday and Thursday on service to the country.

He'll spend the 4th of July in Butte, Montana.

Comments now closed.

Part one of a three part series tells the story of a Texas Tech sophomore and of other women who were abducted and raped in Lubbock, and of a police investigation that focused on Timothy Brian Cole after he flirted with an undercover police detective. A victim identified Cole's picture in a photo array, then identified him in a lineup. Another victim identified a different suspect who had been arrested earlier. A search of Cole's property found nothing that incriminated Cole, and the forensic evidence was inconclusive.

The one identification was enough to convince the DA he had a good case:

"Is identification a bad way to prove a case?" District Attorney Jim Bob Darnell would ask the jury more than a year after the lineups. "If it is, 90 percent of the people that are in the penitentiary, you just let them go."

The innocent ones, anyway. Cole maintained his innocence, but he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years. Part 2 reveals that the true rapist, Jerry Wayne Johnson, kept silent as Cole went to prison. [more ...]

MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski and Andrea Mitchell are upset about this:

[CBS News' Bob] SCHIEFFER: . . . [Barack Obama has not] ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.

Gen. [Wes] CLARK [former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and decorated Vietnam War veteran]: Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.

SCHIEFFER: Really?

Yes Bob Schieffer, really. Do you think it is a qualification to be President? Does CBS News think it is? Why? I think Bob Schieffer has some questions to answer on this point imo.

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To the chagrin of our friend DemfromCt, Paul Krugman chooses to present a clear and fair picture of the Obama campaign, a view you will not find in the blogs for the most part:

It’s feeling a lot like 1992 right now. It’s also feeling a lot like 1980. But which parallel is closer? Is Barack Obama going to be a Ronald Reagan of the left, a president who fundamentally changes the country’s direction? Or will he be just another Bill Clinton? . . . [T]he odds are that this will be a “change” election — which means that it’s very much Mr. Obama’s election to lose. But if he wins, how much change will he actually deliver?

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Amsterdam without marijuana coffee shops? Is nothing sacred?

On July 1, the Netherlands becomes one of the last European countries to ban smoking in restaurants and bars.

The Health Ministry says the ban will apply to cafes that sell marijuana, known as coffee shops. But this being Holland, which for centuries has experimented with social liberalism, there's a loophole: The ban covers tobacco but not marijuana, which is technically illegal anyway.

It gets more complicated. [More...]

Alex Gibney's new documentary about Hunter Thompson , "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson," opened Friday. Gibney's last film was the Oscar winning documentary about torture techniques, "Taxi to the Dark Side" and before that, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room."

The film focuses on Hunter in the 60's and 70's: [More...]

On December 13, 2006, Angel Diaz of Puerto Rico was executed by lethal injection in Florida. It took 34 minutes to kill him.

An autopsy later revealed that the IVs inserted into Diaz were faulty, the drugs were injected into his tissues, not his veins, and they also were released in the wrong order so that Diaz received the last, painful drug before he should have. The autopsy revealed a foot-long chemical blister in his body tissue.

Gov. Jeb Bush ordered an investigation and a moratorium on executions ensued. Fast forward to Tuesday when Florida will resume killing inmates by lethal injection. [More...]

My fanboy moment, General Wes Clark on Face The Nation today:

By Big Tent Democrat

I normally find myself in almost total agreement with Digby but this post just seems wrong to me:

Under the system as it exists today, you can hardly be surprised that the first black Democratic nominee would be reluctant to break much more new ground than he already has. . . . I wish that he would use some of his rhetorical gifts to challenge conservative assumptions more and I'm hopeful that he will, as president, work to redefine the conventional wisdom. . . . [But] [w]e chose serious symbolic change that has deep cultural meaning over serious ideological change that has deep political meaning. . . . But nothing comes free and having a politically moderate president at a time when a more explicit progressivism might have gotten a boost is the price we pay. The Village will only tolerate so much change at one time. If we want real political change, it's time to change the Village.

Excuse me, this is a cop out. There is no reason, none, not to demand "serious ideological change that has deep political meaning." I do demand it. I reject Digby's premise here and I will not settle. Obama owes the country the change it desires. He should not be afraid to run on it and deliver it as President.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only