There's an unstated assumption in all of these discussions--including Hillary's statements--that when we talk about "blue-collar Americans," we're talking about white blue-collar Americans (or, as Chris Matthews put it, "regular people"), and that blacks and hispanics have a completely different set of issues. This is dead wrong. Let's get one thing straight: most blacks and hispanics are blue-collar workers, and they have exactly the same class-related issues as white blue-collar workers.

This is what Obama should focus upon for the necessary work of shoring up his support among working-class whites. Not necessarily by picking up on the right cultural tropes (bowling, anyone?), but by emphasizing that working Americans of all colors have, mostly, the same set of problems.

The assumption is borderline racist (again: see Chris Matthews' comment) and Obama needs to put it to bed.

This may backfire on the Rethugs disastrously. We're likely to have record turnout in this election. "Yes, Bob, we've had over 70% turnout across the nation in this election."

"All except in Missouri. They had 30% of the electorate show up, a record low."

And who'll be able to vote? Let's see,

Q: Who's more likely to have their birth certificates?

A: The young.

Q: Who's more likely to have passports?

A: The college educated, especially those with graduate degrees.

So, this election, the election in largely rural, Red-state Missouri could be decided by those obnoxious, rap-loving, sex-mad kids, and those latte-drinking, Prius-driving, snotty liberal elitists. Good job Missouri Republicans!

"Well, yes, Anne, and those 30% of voters approved measures legalizing pot, and setting up universal government health care, and all those Republican legislators that approved the voting law are now unemployed."

McCain has said that (or versions of it) at least twice, most recently on The Daily Show. It scares the daylights out of me. He's promising that any foe of Israel will automatically be a foe of the U.S. if he's elected. Why are we handing over control of our foreign policy to Israel? I don't have a vote there. Firstly, he's abandoning any attempt on our part to act as objective mediators between the Israelis and Palestinians (a role badly tattered in recent years, true, but there's no one else in the West or Middle East that can take our place. Are we going to have to wait for China to step up?). Secondly, ironclad oaths of allegiance sworn between individual states are the sorts of arrangements that made WWI inevitable. If an alliance doesn't have a degree of flexibility, then regional conflicts can blow up into global ones all too quickly.

Senator McCain, try running for President of the U.S. instead of anyone else, OK?

He came down here (Brownsville) for a Congressional hearing on the wall and, well, basically insulted everybody. First he was bitching about the "multicultural beliefs" of the landowners that were fighting to keep the wall from cutting their land in two. Yeah, nothing says "elitist multi-culti types" like fuckin' farmers.

(Oh, you thought the wall was supposed to be "on the border?" No--that would be in the middle of the Rio Grande. The fence's proposed path is basically tangent to the river's meanders, cutting off the southward loops.)

And then, seeing that the whole crowd was against him and his little wall, he sneered that, "maybe we should build the fence on the northern border of your town." He was roundly booed. The local morning DJs the next day were calling him an "A-hole" on the air!

And as for our northern border: There was a report the other day about the DOD getting involved with security up there. They were talking about using UAVs for patrolling--an idea that actually makes some sense, certainly more than another wall. But then they were warning that, with Arctic waters opening up due to global warming,we were "vulnerable" to terrorists entering Canada along their Arctic coast, and hightailing it down to the US border!

Umm...no. Al Queda is not going to be rowing some dinghy to Nunavut and hiking 1000 miles across the muskeg to get to a road. (That's what it would take.) We're at greater risk of terrorists swimming the Atlantic.

Thanks for the historical clarification, Alex. It's all too appropriate.

Again, Mr. Bush: Borah didn't say that because he was a Nazi appeaser, he said it because he was a Nazi sympathizer.

Like Henry Ford. Like Charles Lindbergh.

Like your grandfather.

And let me emphasize once again: that Nazi-sympathizing Senator was a Republican.

I sincerely hope the Israeli press is picking up this.

"Oh, did I say 100 years in Iraq? I meant 100 days."

I love McCain's little fantasy ad. If he goes on like this, he's going to make Obama look like Mr. No-Nonsense Realist in comparison.

You intend to shoot someone (or to be fully prepared to shoot them), you point a gun at them. You don't intend to shoot someone, you don't point a gun at them. Period. "Joking" like that gets people killed.

Funny, I learned that from the NRA.

I was going to complain about the lack of a picture, too, Alex. But I found one (thank you Google!), of Lei posing with his model. Click on my sig.

I quite like the design, personally.

Maybe they searched for an internationally-renowned sculptor.

Just like China is getting internationally-renowned architects to design buildings in Beijing, Shanghai, etc. (Don't know about their monuments, though.)

But while we're complaining about statues made by furriners, I unnerstand there's a statue right in New York City Harbor made by some damn Frenchman! How'd that get there?