I'll be at the jail the rest of the afternoon. Here's an open thread. Just step over the hate-stuff that is really piling up out there in the blogosphere. They manufacture and misrepresent what others write when the others don't share their views. Tolerance? Unfortunately, it's sorely lacking. [More...]

Hillary is not conceding seating Florida and Michigan by any stretch of the imagination. She is fighting as hard as ever. Here is the letter her campaign sent out today.

• The Rules and Bylaws Committee has the authority to seat all of the delegates from Florida and Michigan with full votes.
• Actual election results must control the allocation of Michigan's delegates.
• Although they oppose any 50% solution, seating all the delegates with 1/2 vote is less harmful than seating 50% of the delegates and giving those 50% a full vote.

The campaign asks the committee to rule promptly rather than waiting for the Credentials committee to act.

Comments closed

Via Politico, the Pew Research Center has a new report, available here, finding 49% of white women and 35% of Democratic white women now have a negative perception of Obama. Politico summarizes:

Forty-nine percent of white women view Obama unfavorably, while only 43 percent hold a favorable opinion. In February, 36 percent of these women viewed Obama unfavorably, while 56 percent had a positive perception of the likely Democratic nominee.

Over the same period, Democratic white women’s negative view of Obama increased from 21 percent to 35 percent, while their positive view decreased from 72 percent to 60 percent — roughly the same rate as white women overall.

For men,

In today's conference call, the Clinton campaign conceded any rules-based or fairness-based argument for the full seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations. The Clinton campaign declared that, unlike Iowa, NH and South Carolina, Florida and Michigan did indeed break the DNC rules and without justification. The Clinton campaign expressly disagreed with the Michigan Democratic Party's contention that the DNC had selectively enforced its rules by allowing New Hampshire and South Carolina to break the sanctioned primary schedule, that Florida was not entitled to a safe harbor or waiver, and that the DNC had acted properly and within the rules when it stripped Florida and Michigan of its delegates.

The Clinton campaign's only argument now seems to be that yes, rules were broken, but to help us in November, the RBC should seat the delegates anyway. It seems to me that the obvious response by the RBC is to rely on its staff memo which says it can only restore half of the delegates, and that to honor the voters of Florida and Michigan, it will magnaminously do so. [More...]

The South Dakota Argus Leader has endorsed Hillary Clinton in the state's June 3 primary. Its reasons:

Clinton is the strongest Democratic candidate for South Dakota. Her mastery of complex policy detail is broad and deep, and her experience as a senator and former first lady matches that.

Measured against her opponent, Clinton is philosophically more moderate. That is likely a good thing for South Dakota.

....Clinton has demonstrated a real commitment to Native American issues and will have visited several South Dakota reservations before the race is over. Clinton is precisely correct when she says that people outside the region have a poor understanding of the troubling trends on our reservations. Federal attention could help. That includes but is not limited to higher-ranking posts in the federal bureaucracy.

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A heads up. At Noon EST, I will be live blogging the Clinton conference call on the May 31 DNC Rules and Bylaw Committee hearing on the Florida/Michigan Fiasco.

Let me tell you the question I hope to ask

In reading the DNC Staff Memo on the FL/MI situation, I noticed it did not discuss some critical issues. First, it did not address Florida's argument that it was entitled to a "waiver" or "safe harbor" pursuant to Rule 21. Second, it did not discuss the validity of the RBC's granting of "waivers" or "safe harbors" to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina for violating Rule 11, the primary schedule rule. At the same time the memo stated that a 50% penalty was the automatic and mandatory penalty for violating Rule 11. Can you explain to me the Clinton campaign view on this seeming contradictions in the treatment of Florida and Michigan as compared to Iowa, NH and South Carolina? As you know, Michigan has submitted a letter which emphasizes its objections to this unequal treatment. If the DNC Staff argument is that the RBC does not have unfettered power to reinstate the Florida and Michigan delegations, isn't the logical conclusion then that the RBC did not have the power to grant waivers to Iowa, NH and South Carolina, and thus their delegations must also suffer the 50% penalty?

The live blog will be below the fold.

By Big Tent Democrat

Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr has a new Judge. The Pentagon replaced his old one, Col. Peter Brownback, apparently displeased at some of his rulings favorable to Khadr.

At a May 7 hearing, Col. Brownback threatened to suspend the entire case over the prosecution's failure to hand over Mr. Khadr's Guantanamo confinement records.

Navy Lieutenant-Commander Bill Kuebler, Mr. Khadr's chief military lawyer, sought the so-called Detainee Information Management System records, or DIMS, to develop a detailed picture of Mr. Khadr's treatment during detention.

Khadr's lawyer says the records would support Omar's claim he was subjected to torture or abuse while being interrogated. [More...]

I turned on the TV this morning and came across MSNBC and Mika Brzezinski was playing host. And she has Mike Barnicle, and later Chris Matthews on, and she wants to ask about the impact of Rev. Pfleger. Being Grade A Hillary Haters, they were not bothered by Pfleger's comments about Hillary Clinton and did not want to talk about Pfleger, treating Brzezinski with a disrespect that was simply of a piece with the nasty sexism that MSNBC has generally fostered. A sad but expected episode in a long litany of sexism from MSNBC. They just have embraced their inner pig. And NBC is fine with it. But here is what gets me - they pretended as if they wanted to talk about something actually important - like Michigan and Florida.

This is what burns me up - there is not a NBC newsreader or bloviator - I know for sure Mike Barnicle and Chris Matthews have not - who has taken the time to actually learn the facts about the Florida and Michigan situation. NOT one. Now NBC has one of the sharpest guys around as political director in Chuck Todd. Chuck knows the whole story. I KNOW he does. But either Chuck is not imparting his knowledge on the Michigan and Florida situation to the NBC newsreaders and bloviators or they do not want to hear it. [More...]

Pinball Wizard by the Who.

This letter from the Michigan Democratic Party to the DNC Rules Committee explains the history of what happened very well.

Update: Hillary picks up superdelegate from Washington. The state total now stands at 7 for Obama, 6 for Hillary and 4 still uncommitted.

This is an open thread.

Via Suburban Guerilla and Reuters:

During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama — a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School — was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.

“I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution,” said Obama.

He'll overturn laws? What about the separation of powers? How can a President overturn a law passed by Congress?

Presidents issue exective orders. It's Congress that passes and repeals laws. Our courts decide the constitutionality of laws passed by Congress.

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Washington Post reporter Paul Kane had an online chat today. He was asked a few times why the Post didn't report on Rasmussen daily tracking polls and the recent Gallup poll showing Hillary doing better than Obama against McCain in the swing states.

His answer: He's covered the superdelegates extensively and he knows they don't care.

Question 1 on the topic:[More...]

Colorado will be a hotly contested race in November. It's considered a toss-up, a red state that has trended bluer in recent years, although Bush won it in 2000 and 2004. How will this affect voter turnout, and which way?

In November, Coloradans will be asked whether they favor amending the state constitution to include a provision that defines a "person" as "any human being from the moment of fertilization."

Colorado for Equal Rights, the grassroots group seeking a measure to extend constitutional protections to the earliest individuals, fertilized eggs, succeeded in submitting more than enough valid voter signatures, the secretary of state said Thursday morning.

Not surprisingly, the group believes this amendment could result in legislation reversing Roe v. Wade:

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