Barack Obama is hoping that a massive expenditure of cash on advertising will buy him the vote in PA and end Hillary Clinton's campaign:

Barack Obama is to mount the biggest advertising blitz of the presidential campaign this weekend ahead of Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary to try to force Hillary Clinton out of the race.

....Obama hopes to deliver a knock-out blow by outspending her in advertising. With tens of millions from fundraising at his disposal, he plans to spend well over $2m (£1m) on ads in the run-up to the primary, at least twice as much as the cash-strapped Clinton campaign.

Obama has earmarked $465,000 for Philly alone in the final days to Hillary's $91,000.

Obama's strategy, which he has deployed time and again during his political career, is that the more money spent on advertising, the higher the odds of winning an election.

If you want to help Hillary out, go here.

Jose Padilla has been shipped to Supermax in Florence, Colorado, known as Alcatraz of the Rockies. He'll be joining Ted Kaczinski, Eric Rudolph, Zacarias Moussaoui, Richard "shoe bomber" Reid, OKC conspirator Terry Nichols and others. Padilla was convicted in August and sentenced to 17 years. He's got 13 years left.

Padilla attorney Michael Caruso said in an e-mail Friday that Supermax is "a living hell" where inmates spend most days in 7-foot-by-12-foot cells and have little contact with the outside world. Caruso noted that others convicted of supporting terrorism, such as the "Lackawanna Six" group in upstate New York, were not sent to the nation's toughest prison.

Caruso called the decision "yet another example of Jose being treated differently and in a more punitive fashion than others who have been accused of similar crimes. I genuinely fear that Jose's mental health will erode to an even greater degree."

More on the life awaiting Padilla at Supermax below:

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

In a response I took to be directed at Jerome Armstrong, Tom Watson and me, Markos writes:

You know those rabid Clinton supporters who think everyone is a sellout because of inadequate Hlllary worship (like this site, Keith Olbermann, Howard Dean, Stephanie Miller, etc)

I do not know what Howard Dean and Stephanie Miller have to do with it, but if Kos is equating his site to Olbermann's antics, that is saying he is proud to be a Hillary Hater. But to bring Markos back to the point, he endorsed this:

It's bizarre, but I don't really consider [Hillary Clinton] a Dem any more.

If refraining from saying Hillary Clinton is not a Democrat constitutes Hillary worship for Daily Kos, I think he confirms my point - the destruction of the Clinton Wing of the Party, Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Legacy is what his web site is about now. Drumming Clinton supporters out of the Democratic Party is what his web site is about. If that is what Barack Obama's campaign will be about in November, he will lose. The Creative Class Wing of the Democratic Party is not enough.

Bump and Update: There is joy in the Tony Rezko household tonight. The Judge ordered him released on bail, with a condition of home confinement.

*****

Tony Rezko's friends and family have put together $8 million for his bail. The Judge has said she will rule today on whether she will grant him bail with a condition of home confinement.

By Big Tent Democrat

Paul Krugman speaks for me:

[T]he suggestion that the American heartland suffered equally during the Clinton and Bush years is deeply misleading. In fact, the Clinton years were very good for working Americans in the Midwest, where real median household income soared before crashing after 2000.

[I]f I were a Democratic Party elder, I’d urge Mr. Obama to stop blurring the distinction between Clinton-era prosperity and Bush-era economic distress. . . . [L]et’s hope that once Mr. Obama is no longer running against someone named Clinton, he’ll stop denigrating the very good economic record of the only Democratic administration most Americans remember.

To the "Creative Class," that might mean I am "not a Dem." But it is what I think. I am glad to be in Krugman's company on this.

By Big Tent Democrat

There is something incredibly galling about all the new harrumphing from these august figures about what ABC did in Wednesday's debate. The galling part is not the protest of the ABC Debate, which was a travesty. The galling part was the shameful and inexcusable silence from these same figures when it was NBC performing the travesties. Shame on the signatories to that letter, not for signing that letter, but for not signing one about NBC earlier. You have no credibility to complain now. None.

It is obvious that each and every one of those signatories do not give a fig about good journalism. The only thing they care about is St. Barack Obama and not blowing their chances to be on Countdown. This is Boehlert's Revenge:

By Big Tent Democrat

If Chris Bowers is right about this:

In summary, Michigan and Florida will be seated, and there is only one delegation from each state for the credentials committee to consider. Not only is the Obama campaign not proposing different delegate slates, but they are actively working to make certain of the above delegate slates. Given all this, you tell me--what will the Michigan and Florida delegations look like at the convention?

We can sit around and debate whether or not this result is fair or acceptable all day. Hell, we have already been doing just that for three months now. However, this is not an abstract argument anymore. Michigan and Florida will be seated, and their delegations are taking shape as you read this. If the Obama campaign plans to dispute these delegations at the credentials committee, then it should say so and offer up a counter delegations. It has done neither. Until that changes, I am assuming pro-Clinton delegations of 73-55 from Michigan, and 105-67-13 from Florida.

Then never mind about all my dire predictions. But if Bowers is right, why doesn't Obama say so? The good will he would reap would be tremendous. I'll tell you why, cuz it is not true. That's why.

By Big Tent Democrat

A great favor has been done for those who seem not to realize that the not all polls are equal. The key to polling is the likely voter model. But polling method is also important. An Indiana university poll that used SUSA to do its fieldwork with a poll it designed came out, with a strikingly different result than SUSA did with its own poll. Thus while SUSA has Clinton up 16. The alternate Indiana poll has Obama up 5. How could it happen? Turnout models. Polling methods. Definitions of the relevant universe. Etc.

SUSA explains:

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

If Obama wins the Pennsylvania primary, the race for the Democratic nomination will end. And if you believe Rasmussen, Zogby, LATimes and PPP, he has a great chance of doing that. These four polls have Obama down 3, 4, 5 and up 3 respectively.

Personally, I have no confidence in those polls, and will continue to trust SUSA, which has Clinton with a 14 point lead. But make no mistake, if Obama wins PA, it is over. And then perhaps, the Clinton hate will stop. It is imperative for Obama's chances that it stop. Obama's worst enemies now are his own rabid fans.

The new Gallup poll, taken after Wednesday's Philadelphia debate, has Hillary Clinton tightening Obama's lead. She moves to within 3 points of him.

These results are based on interviewing conducted April 15-17, with Thursday night's interviewing the first conducted following the April 16 debate in Philadelphia. The initial indications are that Obama may have been hurt by the debate, which was noted for its negative tone and focus on the candidates' recent "gaffes" and Obama's associations with the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers (a former member of the radical Weather Underground group).

In Thursday night's interviewing, Clinton received a greater share of national Democratic support than Obama, the first time she has done so in an individual night's interviewing since April 3. That stronger showing for Clinton helped to snap Obama's streak of statistically significant leads in the three-day rolling averages Gallup reports each day. Until today, he had led Clinton by a statistically significant margin in each of the prior 11 Gallup releases.

As to McCain and the Democrats: [More...]

Cynthia Sommer spent the last 2 years and 4 months in jail. She was convicted in 2007 of murdering her Marine husband by poisoning him with arsenic.

She left jail today after new tests showed there was no arsenic. The prosecution moved to dismiss all charges against her.

Her defense lawyers point out:

“No one should say that this system worked,” he said. “This dismissal wasn't because of the prosecution's efforts; it was done because the defense demanded it.”

Lots of work for me today, which means an open thread for you. What's on your mind?

You pick the topics, I'll be back eventually.

(Update:Comments now closed. You all made me hungry, I'm going to the grocery store and will be back in a few hours. Also, for those of you who like to put urls in your comments, check out the comment below about tinyurls where you can make them short enough they won't skew the site and get your comment deleted.