Granted, I'm not your typical atheist.  I received an M.A. from a Divinity School and spent three years working on a Ph.D. in New Testament studies.  So perhaps all of this exposure to Christianity has corrupted the purity of my secular allegiances.  Perhaps the unreason of religious faith has crept into my mind and skewed my understanding of the secular state supported by Jefferson's famous "Wall of Separation" interpretation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.  Or maybe I'm some fanatic devotee of the Almighty Obama, who will happily cast aside any and all principle to spread the Gospel of my political Messiah.

Yesterday I met with Congresswoman Lowey, who represents New York's 18th District.  Who am I?  I'm nobody.  I'm just a regular guy organizing a voter registration drive through Barack Obama's Vote For Change website.

But the day before I received an e-mail from Congresswoman Lowey's office inviting me to her neighborhood office hours (well, not me personally.  Presumably my e-mail address somehow found its way to her e-mailing list).  So I went, and met with her.  I mean, why not?  How often does a guy get the opportunity to meet his congressional representative?

I remember a time not so long ago when this image was an unambiguous sign for any person with liberal or progressive sensibilities that something is seriously wrong with the world:



But now many Democrats have become de facto Ditto-heads, gladly nodding their approval whenever Rush Limbaugh or some other right wing lunatic makes some derogatory remark about Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton (whichever one they don't like).

Take a little stroll with me below the fold.  I'd like to show you something.

This is a "Call to Action" Diary.

We are planning an enormous high profile Barack Obama Vote For Change voter registration effort in one town in Westchester, NY - the village of Ossining.  The event will take place on the weekend of June 14-15.  We began signing up volunteers for this effort last weekend, and we've already signed up 20 volunteers!  We were initially hoping to sign up 50 volunteers, but now we're thinking that we drastically underestimated the enthusiasm for this effort.

Ossining has a low registration rate compared to its neighboring towns.  The goal of this drive is to descend upon Ossining with a small army of Obama volunteers to register the entire town.  Yes, you read that right.  We are going to register the entire town (or at least everyone who wants to), and we have a detailed plan for doing just that.  

Join me below the fold to learn more about this insanely ambitious plan. (Or just click here to sign up.)

[Update] Please read at least the first 3 paragraphs before flaming ;-)

...According to the Head-to-Head tracking polls against McCain
...According to the snapshot electoral maps against McCain (Clinton // Obama)

This argument cannot be ignored.  By definition, the stronger Democratic candidate is the one who is most likely to beat the Republican nominee in November.  If, in fact, Hillary Clinton would perform better against John McCain than Barack Obama, then she is the stronger candidate.  End of story.  Discussion over.

The problem is that there are three significant overlooked factors that head to head tracking polls, as well as their corolary snapshot electoral maps, do not account for.  These make any such claim to Hillary's stronger candidacy problematic.

First, let me say that I think the flag pin "flap" is a non-issue and is completely absurd.  Having said that, I think the Republicans will make it an issue in the campaign.  I don't think it will have a huge impact, but it will come up from time to time and cause the Obama campaign a minor headache.

Second, as I have stated in previous diaries I am not a religious person.  I do, however, have tremendous respect for Bilblical literature and often find valuable insight contained within the pages of my NRSV translation (and my NA27, for all you Bible nerds ;-) ).

Actual diary below the fold.

Among the many reasons that I support Barack Obama, there are two that I want to discuss. Why? Because I have not seen anyone discuss them yet.  These two reasons are the following:

1. He is black
2. He has an Arabic name

More provocative discussion below the fold

If Obama wins the nomination (and it looks like he will now), everyone who voted for Hillary in the primary needs to vote for John McCain in November.  It makes perfect sense.  Hillary, as we all know, is a policy wonk. She has a firm grasp and is well versed on all the issues that matter most to Americans. That is the appeal of the Hillary candidacy.  It has nothing to do with the symbolism or historical significance of a woman president; it's not a white person thing; it has nothing to do with her husband's presidency. It's all about policy.  

So let's examine the issues and the stances taken by all three candidates. Afterwards you will all understand very clearly why Hillary supporters could never vote for Barack Obama and must defect to John McCain in November:

All data gathered from OnTheIssues.org, except where otherwise linked.  All Boldface print indicates where the candidates agree.

Hey, don't get me wrong.  This grueling and prolonged primary has been fun and all, but it's over now.  Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee.  It's now time to turn our attention to the general election, specifically to all those purple states whose hue in 2004 tinted somewhat red.

Funny thing about some of these "red states" - they're actually not red at all.  Elections reflect the will of the electorate (i.e., the people who vote), not necessarily the will of the people.  If we look at the demographic breakdown of individaul states by population and compare it to the demographic breakdown of those who voted in 2004, we see significant inequalities in representation between certain groups.

The following diary lays out a detailed plan for registering at least 1,000,000 voters in time for the general election through an online network of volunteers called VoteZip.org.  This project has been in development since early March, when a group of socially conscious and politically progressive graduates of Yale Divinity School (who currently are spread out across the country) conceived it.  

There is actually much more to discuss than what is covered in the present diary.  In the following days I will post follow up VoteZip.org diaries which will focus on the organization's egalitarian netroots power structure, how the service benefits people with disabilities, financial policies (including our forthcoming 501(c)(3) status), its immunity to legal challenges, plans and strategies for informing unregistered citizens of this service, as well as the occasional fun and interesting fact about voting and voter registration.

This is who we are.

Let me begin this diary with an observation. Between the two diaries I posted on Wednesday and Thursday to raise this incredible sum of money for a courageous Obama super delegate under fire, many of you had very nice things to say about me personally - my genius for organizing this effort, my devotion to our cause, how incredible I am, etc.  This was incredibly flattering, and it made me feel great.  I was flying high all day yesterday and into today.

But I need to set the record straight.  I did not raise this money for Chandler and Obama.  We did.  This is not just token humility on my part. There is a story here that requires telling, and it will shed some light on exactly how this phenomenal event took place.

I can't believe it.  We did it (Eyes getting watery).  $20,000 raised for Ben Chandler..

We raised $20,000 in 24 hours (many people commented that they were mailing checks, instead of donating online).  Tomorrow I will post my take on everything we did, and what this means for the strength and influence of the netroots movement.  

Great job everyone.  What we have accomplished is the realization of those three simple but immensely powerful words that have driven this campaign from the start:

Yes. We. Can.
 

$20,000 raised in defense of Congressman Chandler.

Every penny we raised here sent a clear message to undeclared Super Delegates who want to support Barack Obama.  We are behind you 100%.  Once you declare, we will not simply tally a notch on a chalkboard and forget about you.  This is what happens to Obama's Superdelegates when they are attacked, no matter where they are from.  We do not ignore our redstate candidates.  We do not pick and choose who is important based upon where we will win.  We see the value in every state in this nation, and we have the back of every Democrat in each one.  That is the Democratic Party we represent.  That is the Change that we are bringing to this country in November.  We are all Democrats, and we all have the same goals.  If one of us is under fire, we are all under fire.

Let us never forget that.

Has it really come to this?  Not only are Democrats bickering and flaming one another between the Hillary Camp and the Obama camp.  But now we have further dvisions as well.  

Now there's the Obama-should-not-have-appeared-on-Fox faction bitterly divided against the Obama-on-Fox-was-fine-or-even-a-good-idea faction.  What now?  Maybe one of the sides should begin a MyDD2.com site and can all flock over there and vent about how dumb and blind those other Obama supporters are.

But no, let's not stop there!  We need to subdivide further.  We also need two Democratic denominations according to which we all rally around whether Reverend Wright is a liablility for Obama and therefore Obama should reject and deonounce him, or whether Obama should remain with his former pastor  because he can no more disown him than he can disown his white grandmother

OK, let's get it all out there:

The ABC's "debate" was a debacle in terms of fall out.  Obama is now hemorrhaging support.  The tracking polls show a precipitous drop in the last two days alone.  Democrats are turning against Obama in huge numbers.  Obama will lose PA by at least a 15%.  The media will paint it as a huge blowout and Hillary will be dubbed the "stronger" candidate by every media pundit.  Obama will then proceed to a narrow victory in NC (less than 5%) along with a substantial IN loss (appx 10%).  What happens then?!?!?  OMG!!!

Yes, the title pretty much says it all.  Click here and see for yourself.  Click on the link at the top of the page that reads "Election Assistance Commission."  It directs the aspiring voter to an EAC webpage that does not exist

Over the past week, I conducted polls in both MyDD and DailyKos to see how people in both camps perceive the major news cable networks: CNN, MSNBC, and Fox.  I was interested because in the past few months, as mot of us are painfully aware, MyDD has become a bastion for Clinton loyalists while DailyKos is primarily an Obama destination.  Therefore, I reasoned that conducting polls on both sites would give a pretty good idea of how boosters for each candidate see media bias.  

More below the fold...

We polled perceptions of bias for MSNBC and CNN. Now it's time for Fox. I'm actually more interested in what people think about Fox's bias between the two Democratic candidates than the other two.  For those who participated in the previous polls you will notice an additional option that I think must be included when discussing Fox and Democrats.  Vote and discuss.

[This is my last brief poll diary (for all you "how is this a diary?" Nazis out there).  Maybe there should be a polling section for DailyKos where folks can post merely to get a sense of what others think without getting slapped on the wrist.]