You know how embarrassed you feel when you do something just stick-stupid? Well, welcome to my world right now. Yesterday I wrote a well-constructed diary designed to expand on points made in Glenn Greenwald's latest book, Great American Hypocrites. Specifically, to examine the specifics of the Republican smear campaigns against presidential candidates going all the way back to Jimmy Carter, and more specifically to smear the candidates as being closeted homosexuals (or at the least exhibiting "homosexual" behaviors). The diary ended with a warning that the Republican slobber machine, aided by witting and unwitting allies in the media, is doing the same to Obama, and that Obama seems to be responding as so many other Democrats have done in the past: running to the right, keeping his head down, and in general letting the Republicans and the idiot media sketch his picture for the American voters.

Then I did a most stupid thing. I titled it "Obama is a F*g." I didn't think it through. In fact, I hardly thought about it at all. It seemed like a clever title, shocking, inflammatory, and attention-getting. It was all of that and more. It was also a damn stupid thing to do. Apologies and arguments below the fold.

Okay, hold on a moment. I admit, this is a "made you look" diary title. But only somewhat. I'm impugning neither Obama, gays, or anyone else outside the mighty conservative scream machine. And I deliberately chose the insulting, character-smear term "fag" (without even the comforting asterisk: f*g, like that makes it more palatable) because that is the term Obama is being smeared with, whether directly (been on the Free Republic lately?) or more indirectly (every MSM news outlet whose anchor's name doesn't start with the letters "Olbermann"). Actually, this diary is all Glenn Greenwald's fault.

Edit: Okay, already, I added the asterisk.

Edit 2: Boy, I thought people would be a little ill, but damn! Let's just get it out and talk about the thrust of the diary.

The History Commons, formerly the Center for Cooperative Research, is working on History Commons 2.0. Why do you care? Because we're documenting history in a way that no one else is, and we need your participation. Not your money so much (we could damn sure use it, but that's not what I'm in here soliciting), but your time, your effort, and your writing and researching skills. I read your work in here, I know you've got mad skillz.  We need 'em.

Follow me below the fold for info on who we are and why I'm in here shilling my shameless ass off.

File this under Things that Will Never Happen.

Here's a flight of fancy that might be fun for you late-night Kossacks. You're the scheduling director for Stewart's Daily Show, and you land the biggest fish of them all for an eight-minute interview: Dick Cheney, the Prince of Darkness. Now you have some decisions to make. What do you do?

at least I think so.

Half of everyone thinks they can be film directors and campaign managers. We can, we believe, generate the terrific ideas that will make a great movie or a political ad (the thinking isn't that different--read Beinhart's American Hero, the book that the damnable film Wag the Dog was made from). Sometimes, some of us are actually right!

Trundle along with me on the flip for my brief but brilliant ad idea that will send the McCain campaign right over the edge into oblivion.

Here's the link to the Kos diary that gives full details of the Fox News "joke" about assassinating Obama:

http://www.dailykos.com/...

Read this first. Warning: there are almost 1200 replies, so if your browser or CPU is like mine, it may choke. PLEASE note the contact info for Fox and for its sponsors. (Hey, Lauren, I borrowed your tags, after removing the "recommended" tag. Thanks!)

Now, let me be damnably clear for all the Free Republic trolls out there:

I do not advocate assassinating John McCain or anyone else. I hope McCain gets to live a long, happy retirement on his wife's beer money in whatever super-rich Arizona gated community he chooses to inhabit after losing the presidential election and choosing not to run again for the Senate. This is strictly a what-if, alternate timeline diary taking Trotta's "joke" and turning it inside out.

Read through this little letter exchange and tell me: am I overreacting or is this the sign of a local Democratic Party organization that needs a swift kick in the ass?

This will be a short diary. I just watched Michelle Obama's Friday speech in Durham, NC, to what appears to be a packed house. I don't see a YouTube clip up yet, but here's the link to the C-SPAN video:

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/...

If anyone wants to call Barack Obama an elitist, an overprivileged, self-entitled little asshole who is riding a wave of arrogance and self-aggrandizement into the White House, they should ask Michelle. As the husband of the equally tough and plainspoken Mrs. Max, I can tell you--a man doesn't keep a wife like Michelle Obama without being real and down to earth.

A bit more on the flip.

Former CIA agent Larry J. Kolb has written his second book, America at Night, in which he says he helped foil a GOP plot to paint John Kerry's 2004 election campaign as accepting money from al-Qaeda. If this is true, this is a stunning revelation. But like anyone else with a functioning bullshit detector, I am skeptical. I found his first book, Overworld, fascinating as well, but had some of the same doubts.

This is a short and very pissed-off diary, from someone who does NOT consider himself a Clinton hater. More on the flip, but you get the idea from the headline. The DNC should withdraw its support for the Clinton candidacy right now.

Last night Hillary could have made the history books. In one fell, gutsy swoop she could have unified the Democratic Party, ensured McCain's ignominious defeat, and elevated herself to a leader in the Dems of the stature of Al Gore and Ted Kennedy. She could have done this by announcing her withdrawal as a presidential candidate at the beginning of the debate.

More...

This is, frankly, astonishing. Link to Progressive Mag article.

InfraGard. What the hell is InfraGard? Well, I've just done four entries for the History Commons using the Progressive article above, and it's very, very scary. Using a worst-case scenario, if you're some corporate yock who dreams about slapping on the body armor and shootin' him some street thugs and hippie radicals, then InfraGard is just what you need to join. Flip over for more, but read the article first.

Shocked, I tell you, shocked. I know you are. Uncle Karl is the soul of honesty and decency, and would never ever...

ralphs into flight bag

Okay, I'm better now. Max Holland from Washington Decoded has information on a new book by NYT reporter Philip Shenon that details the 9/11 panel commissioner, Philip Zelikow, "engaged in 'surreptitious' communications with presidential adviser Karl Rove and other Bush administration officials during the commission’s 20-month investigation into the 9/11 attacks."

Yes, you're as stunned as I am. Not.

re Buzzflash.org column. Short take before the fold: we can do a hell of a lot better in coming up with, uh, creative suggestions towards what Bush can do with his copious free time after he leaves the Oval Office.

Some suggestions from the Buzzflash boys:

Speculation has ranged from being commissioner of Major League Baseball to clearing brush on his Crawford ranch. We could easily see him pulling a Reagan and running to Japan to accept a lot of money. We can't see him being ex-presidential. [...] One suggestion would be for him to raise money to help take care of all the damage he has done (Katrina, Iraq, etc.). Another possibility is jail time, of course.

Just received an e-mail from Harry "Give em Hell" Reid about Republican filibustering. The e-mail, my response to it, and a bit of commentary is below the fold.

No shit, really. Find out for yourselves at Cinematic Titanic.

A bit more on the flip.

We intrepid researchers at the History Commons (formerly the Center for Cooperative Research -- you know this site) have busted our collective asses to put together a 74-item compendium of everything we can find, so far, on the CIA tapes scandal, going back to 2001. (I can't take much credit for this one, I only contributed a few entries.) We want to make you aware of it, and give you an opportunity to contribute.

Here's the link to the CIA tapes timeline.

More below.

"We" are the Center for Grassroots Oversight, formerly known as the Center for Cooperative Research and more generally, the History Commons. We've been around for years, and maintain one of the most comprehensive political informational databases I know of. The 9/11 timeline in our site spun off a book by one of the site's main folks, Paul Thompson, and provided critical research used by the Jersey Girls to pressure the administration to create the 9/11 commission. In other words, we're serious about what we do.

This is us. Come take a look.

We're looking for a few good contributors to write material--not blog diaries or opinion pieces, but factual extracts--for a new project on the 2008 elections. I can't think of any community better to ask than this one.

More on the flip.