Spring is busting out all over here in Tennessee. The first sign of Spring in Tennessee is the blooming of the redbuds, followed by the dogwoods.

The first signs are often followed by brief cold snaps that the natives call Redbud Winter, Dogwood Winter, and Blackberry Winter. Redbud Winter this year was very mild. The dogwoods are already in bloom.

Candace and her friend Janne Henshaw wrote a song about the redbuds, When the Redbuds Bloom. Janne and Candace’s other bosom buddy Carol Levack sing harmony, Candace’s long-time brother in arms Al Goll plays dobro, and it was recorded at Rich Adler’s studio, another of Candace’s favorite people.

Barack Obama said, at a fundraiser in San Francisco on Sunday, explaining working class voters’ frustrations, “You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them, and they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

How profound! How compassionate! How condescending!

What is really mind-boggling though, is reading the comments on the above linked SFGate.com blog post. Over half of the commenters have no idea why anyone would consider his remarks to be offensive. After all, Obama is just telling the truth. Why would anyone be offended? The commenters are not being sarcastic or ironic. They really don’t know.

UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this, SFGate.com took the link off the front page and replaced it with an AP article that downplays what Obama said and features his apologia. The links above have been revised to point to the original blog post and comments.

My cousin Andy thinks it was a draw (see comment on previous post). it looks to me like the Iraqi Army came out slightly ahead, but what do I know? The New York Times has reported it as more like a defeat than a draw. Draw, slight victory, slight defeat, in any case it looks like the government of Iraq is closer to having a monopoly of force against Iranian-backed militias in their country than does the government of Lebanon against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in that hapless country.

Lebanon is an example of a situation to Iran’s liking, is it not? If they can achieve a similar situation in Iraq, controlling a private army stronger than the national army, that would also be to their liking. Now that what is left of Al Qaeda is on the run in the North, thanks to the Sunni awakening (cheap at the price), it is time to deal with the Mahdi Army and other gangster Shia outfits in the South. Iran is experimenting, trying to figure out which one of the militias to christen (er, uh, designate) as their private army in Iraq. It is in the interest of the United States to prevent the creation of another Lebanon in the Middle East. This, it seems to me, is the game board.

If Sadr had thought he was winning, he wouldn’t have unilaterally told his boys to go home. If Maliki thought he was winning, he wouldn’t have let them. Nevertheless, it is now Iraqi troops who are patrolling Basra, not the Mahdi Army or other militias.

Yes, yes, I know. This is all George Bush’s fault. If only Saddam were still in power, everything would be so much better. Maybe so, but that is beside the point now. As we slog forward, this latest development looks to me like a necessary milestone on the way to disbanding the Shia militias. If that can be accomplished as thoroughly as the defeat of Al Qaeda in Iraq has been accomplished, the monopoly of force will have been largely achieved. Big ifs I realize, but that has to be the goal, does it not? And haven’t there already been a number of big ifs that actually panned out?

The Democrats have already warned General Petraeus not to say anything good about Iraq in his upcoming testimony. “I hope we don’t hear any glorification of what happened in Basra,” said Pelosi. The audacity of hope. I pray her hopes for Iraq are dashed.

Who won the recent battles in Iraq? It is clearly too soon to tell. The military and political complexities are sufficiently murky that both sides are laying claim to possession of the Iraq political football. Democrats, surprise, surprise, are calling it a failure, Republicans are alleging progress. Not much is known yet, and I know much less than some, but I think the tea leaves do reveal a few patterns:

The Maliki government initiated the crackdown on the Shia militias. It was not a response to a provocation. The militias have been laying low, not looking for a fight. This aggressiveness on the part of the government is a good sign. Pundits and politicians of all stripes have been saying for some time now that the real test of the infant Shia-dominated government of Iraq, will be taking on the Shia militias, especially Muqtada Al Sadr’s Mahdi Army. Now they have.

Al Sadr fairly quickly ordered his fighters to stand down. The Iraqi Army then did not go after them, but stood down themselves. This is good and not so good. If the intention was to destroy the Mahdi Army, it is not so good, but who knows if that was the objective? Maybe Maliki was over-optimistic, or maybe he just wanted to knock Al Sadr back a bit, kill a bunch of his guys and show everybody who’s boss. Who knows? Not me, that’s for sure. It is somewhat reminiscent of the Israel/Hezbollah mini-war in Lebanon. Israel didn’t achieve their objectives, but on the other hand, Hezbollah suffered far greater losses than Israel. Who won? Hezbollah still exists, but they’re probably not very eager to get into another fight with the Jews.

Muqtada Al Sadr made demands to be met in exchange for a ceasefire, but he then withdrew his forces before his demands were met. So Maliki has not had to promise anything publicly in exchange for the ceasefire. This is a pretty obvious sign of weakness on Al Sadr’s part, visible to all observers, and therefore a good thing.

All in all it looks like to me like Al Sadr has been weakened and the Iraqi government has been strengthened to some degree. The militias have suffered heavy casualties, but they still control most of Basra. The long-run objective is to attain a monopoly of force for the elected government of Iraq, a worthy, as yet unrealized, goal, but they look closer to it than the government of Lebanon, or even maybe Pakistan for that matter.

It took the United States government until 1865 to establish a monopoly of force, 78 years if you date from the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Events proceed at a much faster pace these days, so, one way or another, it will probably not take near so long for Iraq’s national fate to be determined. Our own history should at least inspire a willingness to grant Maliki and the government of Iraq a little bit more slack than the Democrats are willing to yield, or the media, or, unfortunately, most, perhaps, of the American people.

“Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.”

— Barack Obama

In other words, saying that the Goddamn United States developed the AIDS virus and crack cocaine for the express purpose of infecting and addicting black people, and that 9/11 was just chickens coming home to roost, is more or less equivalent to Geraldine Ferraro making the obvious on its face statement that Obama wouldn’t be in the position he’s in if he weren’t black.

A substantial number, if not a majority, of black Americans go along with the Reverend. These crazy, delusional beliefs that the black community suffers from, which the Reverend Dr. Wright and others gain money and power from, are the real current obstacles to the hoped-for transcendence of race in America that Obama supposedly represents.

Obama may squeak by and get the Democratic nomination. It may be too late for the Democrats to deny it to him. But he’s toast in November. There aren’t enough paranoid blacks and guilt-ridden whites to elect him President.

It looks to me like Hillary is being drummed out of the Party for being too right-wing on Iraq and NAFTA. And this despite that fact that she is against the war and has agreed to undo NAFTA. But she hasn’t gone far enough, nobody really believes her, so she’s out.

The Democratic Party has moveoned beyond its rejection of Joe Lieberman. Now the merest hint of responsible acquaintance with reality is enough to trigger excommunication.

I really like this article: Hillary’s Close-Up

Here is a great video made by my good friend Jim Irwin, for the San Francisco Chronicle website sfgate.com. It covers the opposing demonstrations in connection with the Marine recruiting station that has been unwelcomed by the Berkeley City Council.

Here’s a picture my father took of me and my two younger brothers, circa 1959.

The super duper Tuesday results are in, and certain conclusions can be drawn.  African Americans are the most racist segment of society, followed by Hispanics.  Evangelical Protestants are the most religiously prejudiced.  And white women are the most sexist.  The title of least racist, least sexist, least prejudiced group in the American electorate belongs to white, non-evangelical men.

Just finished watching the Republican debate in Boca Raton. Well, I missed a few brief segments when I went out to get more wine, and drain the dragon. I hate to admit it, but I loved it. I haven’t watched one of these things in awhile, and I was prepared to be cynical and ironic, but it was great. I loved every one of these guys, even Ron Paul. I agreed with every one of them, except Ron Paul. Tim Russert and Brian Williams had prepared a structure of questions designed to create maximum smack-down. And nobody fell for it. They were all too smart. In a way, the entire debate was a series of artful dodges of the attempt on the part of the “moderators” to start a fight.

The questions were all from a liberal point of view, but I didn’t mind that. They were tough, relevant questions. And they were handled brilliantly. Nobody took the bait. NBC News wanted, desperately it seemed, to foment the kind of dog fight that is presently ocurring between the Clintons and Obama, but they had no such luck.

Romney has gotten into the groove of being the competent manager who knows exactly how to do it, whatever it may be. He has all the facts. He’s done it before. He’s money, as they say.

McCain is, whatever you may think of his various pronouncements, a straight talker, at least relatively speaking. And it is not just a politically required cliche to say that he is a true American hero. He is.

Huckabee is a fricking genius! He’s the best politician I’ve seen since JFK, and that includes Bill Clinton.

Giuliani is my first love. Since then I have slept with Thompson, McCain, and now Romney. What a slut. I am so ashamed. Rudy was great. I could easily settle down with him, in the unlikely event that he will be resurrected from the dead.

Even Ron Paul. I think he is a wacko about America’s position and responsibilities in the world. I can’t believe nobody is asking him about all the racist, anti-Semitic, paranoid garbage that went out under his name in the Ron Paul Newsletter. But he’s no dummy.  He is inspiring, even entertaining.

But if you want the real skinny, I can’t compete with the drunkblogging from Vodka Pundit.