This has been on a lot of blogs already, but since the message is so important, I’m posting it here as well.  Please share it on your own blog or send it to your friends.

P.S. For the record, Ellen has publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton, but that’s not the message here.

Well kids, it look like our fearless Democrat leaders in Washington are about ready to cave again. 

Democrat House Intelligence Chair Sivestre Reyes expressed a willingness to vote on legislation that includes retroactive immunity for the big telecoms that helped the Bush administration spy on Americans without a warrant.  This despite the fact that just two weeks ago, Reyes sent a letter to President Bush stating his opposition to retroactive immunity.

Keep in mind that the wiretapping in question occurred before 9-11 and the Patriot Act and in complete defiance of the law!

The House needs to hear from the American people again this week urging them not to cave. They must hold firm and stop retroactive immunity from getting a vote.  Democrats in the House have been a bulwark against retroactive immunity. The Bush administration is putting tremendous pressure on them to pass immunity, but we need to remind them that it’s their job to uphold the rule of law.

Since a vote on accountability could come as early as tomorrow, Democrats need to hear from us right away. Won’t you please call your congressman/woman today?  You can make this call even if it’s after hours.  Simply leave a message if no one is available to speak with your personally.

Tell your congressperson: "Democrats must keep standing up to Bush and opposing immunity for illegal spying. Voters will support them."

That’s it.  You don’t need to explain your position any further, nor will the person who takes your call ask you to.  You will probably be asked your name and address so they can record the call and verify it is from one of the congressperson’s constituents, but other than that you’re done.  See how easy it is to be active and make a difference?

If you’re not sure who your congressperson is, or what phone number to call, this web site can tell you.  Simply enter your zip code in the top left corner.

After you’ve made the call, leave a comment letting us all know that you did your part so I (we) can say ‘thank you.’

*Portions of this blog post were copied from a CREDO Action e-mail alert.

For those of you who missed SNL this past weekend, they had a dead-on parody (except for Fred Armisen’s take on Obama) of the CNN-Univision Democratic Debate last week which I covered here:

Tina Fey was the host of the show, and she had a spot at her old position on Weekend Update:

Have I mentioned how much I love Tina Fey?  Bitch is the new black!

Here’s another one of the newer models at All American Guys, Kobi:

Photos used with permission. Click on images for a larger view.

You can see more of Kobi, including full galleries, interviews, videos, and live video chats, at All American Guys.

This man has already cost the Democrats the 2000 election (and most likely 2004 too).  Doesn’t he understand that all he does is put Republicans in office?

Nader Could Be Launching Third Party Bid

WASHINGTON - Ralph Nader could be poised for another third party presidential campaign.

The consumer advocate will appear on NBC’s "Meet the Press" on Sunday to announce whether he will launch another White House bid. Nader kicked off his 2004 presidential run on the show.

(continue reading)

If he was to "dissapear", I don’t think I’d shed a single tear.*

UPDATE: It’s official.

*I mean that only as a snarky comment, so to any Secret Service agents reading this, please stand down.

I watched the Democratic debate in Texas tonight.  It wasn’t because I needed to hear the candidates’ stances on the issues again; I already have a pretty good idea what their positions are (and they’re actually quite similar).  No, tonight I watched the debates to really watch the candidates themselves, specifically Barack Obama.  I wanted to see if I could be inspired by him like so many of you are.

As I sat in front of the TV, I took notes on a yellow note pad.  Up until a few minutes ago I was planning to write a blog post with my take on the debate question by question.  I had mentally scored each candidates’ answers and performance in my mind while trying to remain as neutral as possible.  After quite a bit of contemplation, I’ve decided to write something different and hopefully a little more insightful.

First a couple of quick thoughts about the debate.  I thought Clinton was stronger on foreign policy issues whereas Obama floundered and seemed a bit naive about Cuba.  Obama however scored big in his defense of the attacks against him on substance. experience, and plagiarism.  Both spent a fair amount of time debating their proposals for universal healthcare, but the difference between their two plans really comes down to whether or not you believe participation should be mandatory like Social Security (Clinton’s view) or voluntary (Obama’s view).  In theory Obama’s plan could leave millions of Americans uninsured, but that’s if they decline to participate.

It was my observation (and I’m sure many will disagree) that the questions posed to Hillary, particularly those by CNN’s John King, were somewhat harsher than those posed to Obama.  For example, questions about Obama’s experience as well as ‘rhetoric versus substance’ were directed to Clinton and not to Obama.  This made Clinton out to be the attacker and Obama the victim of those attacks.  I would have preferred if questions regarding Obama had been posed directly to him.

When I have asked people (including you my readers) why they support Obama, I hear the answer over and over again that he inspires them.  Surprisingly I found the most impassioned moment of the debate in Clinton’s answer to the final question asking her to describe the moment in her life when she was tested the most.  Obama’s answer to this question started as a life history and kind of meandered.  It didn’t shine like I expected it to.  Hillary’s answer seemed more heartfelt and really led me to believe she wants to help people.  Judge for yourself:

Unfortunately at the very end of her answer, Clinton used some of the same lines as John Edwards did in an earlier debate when she  talked about her and Obama being all right but she worried about the American people.  When accusing people of plagiarism, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

The point of this post isn’t about the debate though.  It’s about the decision that I’ve come to.  If I was a politician, I guess you could call this my concession speech.

I’ve decided to support Obama.

What?!?  I can hear throngs of Hillary supporters out there getting ready to tear me a new one in the comments.  Before you do though, hear me out.

First off, I still think Hillary would make an excellent President - perhaps better than Obama.  She is smart, tough, and determined.  In the debate tonight she really reinforced the impression that she knows what she’s talking about.  I have much more confidence in her on issues like foreign policy than I do with Obama.  I agree with her approach to healthcare more than I do that of Obama.  She has been a loyal friend to the GLBT community.

So why then my change of heart?

In a perfect situation, Hillary could run and win.  People would listen to her with an open mind and not prejudge her because she is a woman or her husband is Bill Clinton.  They would see her intelligence and desire to help people as President.  This is not a perfect situation though.  The Democrats are up against a tough opponent in John McCain.  Hillary might make the best President, but I now feel strongly that Obama has the best chance of winning.

And I want to win.

The question I’ve wrestled with is do we elect the person who will make the best President, or do we elect a person who can win?  Obama showed me both tonight and in recent weeks (and also through his book I’m listening to) that he is a very intelligent, capable man.  My concern about him being "Republican-lite" has been alleviated for the most part by looking at his voting record which reveals he’s been very loyal to the Democrat party.  Though Obama may lack the same experience as Hillary particularly in foreign relations and policy, he can still surround himself with people in his cabinet who have the experience in any areas he lacks.  Perhaps he would even consider Hillary for Secretary of State (a role I feel she’d be better in than Vice President).  I feel with the right people and advisors on his team, Obama could be a very strong President indeed.

More importantly Obama is incredibly popular.  The enthusiasm of his supporters is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.  It seems Obama will bring more voters to the polls come election day.  Furthermore I believe that Hillary’s supporters will vote for Obama should he be the nominee (if for no other reason than to keep McCain out of office), but Obama’s supporters seem more likely to just stay home than vote for Hillary.  Is that right?  No, but I believe it to be the truth.  I’ve witnessed it firsthand by talking to Obama supporters and the comments they’ve left on this blog.  I don’t understand all the venom that exists against Hillary, but I can’t deny its existence.

Strategically Obama does stand the best chance against McCain.  A recent poll by SurveyUSA showed that in a hypothetical matchup against McCain, Obama would win the key swing states of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Virginia by ten, ten, and six points repectively.  In a hypothetical matchup of Clinton versus McCain, she would lose in those same states by seven, eleven and three points.  I know, I know… you can’t trust polls completely, but I do think that this does give an indication of what would happen in a general election come November.

This is not to say that Obama is getting there home free.  John McCain and the Republican machine are going to be tough -very tough- to beat.  Just look how quickly this scandal about his possible affair with a lobbiest is being buried.  It will take the effort of every Democrat out there,  but I think we can win if we’re willing to put in the work (and this means you!).

Finally I have to share a very revealing and personal story about myself with you that I’m not proud of to explain some of my original opposition to Obama.

Back when I was growing up, I lived in an overwhelmingly white community.  Of the local high schools, mine was the whitest.  In my graduating class of about 600, i would say that only about 10-12 students were black.

There was one African-American student however, a guy, that was very popular.  The more I tried to figure out why this guy was so popular, the more I became convinced that other students were befriending him because he was black.  It was kind of a rebellion of sorts: the other students were trying to prove how open-minded they were about race.  It seemed to me that it had become cool to be friends with this guy not because of who he was as a person, but because of his race.

My sense of fairness kicked into play.  The more I saw this kid get popular, the more it angered me.  It was my belief then, and still is today, that we should be colorblind when choosing our friends.  How can we ever be free of racism if a person’s skin color is more important than what kind of person they are?  My resentment towards this guy’s popularity though was yet another form of bigotry, one I didn’t realize until years later.  I’m ashamed of it now, but at the time I thought I was being a better, less-racist person than those who were his friends.  It was still a form of racism but flipped on its head.  (I should mention though that I was friends with a couple other black students and have been good friends with many people of all races since then.)

I accept now that I may have been doing the same thing in regards to Obama.  I have scrutinized him relentlessly, but I may have been doing so because I didn’t want my reason to be supporting him to be simply "because he’d make history as the first black President."  That sounds really stupid and silly, I know, but in my overly ambitious efforts to be open-minded in regards to race, I sometimes become very close-minded.

What this all boils down to is that I’ve chosen to support Obama because I want to win in November.  I see the writing on the wall; the momentum is toward Obama.  As much as it pains me, I can’t continue to say Hillary is the better choice for victory.  I think she’d put up a hell of a fight against McCain, but I’ve come to doubt she could overcome the sexist attitudes and deep-seated hatred of all things Clinton.  If Obama leads the delegate count after the primaries but before the convention, Clinton should graciously step aside so that the party can reunite and move on.

I’m okay with that though.  Barack Obama is a candidate worth supporting.  I’m proud to do so and hope you will be too.

UPDATE: The AP is reporting today that many "superdelegates", i.e. those delegates (party officiials, etc.) who are not bound to a candidate by the voting public, are switching their support to Obama.  See the influence I have?