Bang the Drum Slowly

A newly resurgent Jeremiah Wright has been unleashed on the American viewing public, with cable network channels broadcasting, and subsequently rebroadcasting, his speech to the Detroit NAACP for several hours last night. Today, they'll do the same with his speech at the National Press Club.

It remains to be seen how this will affect Senator Obama's campaign, if at all.

It's likely, however, to be very effective in terms of self promotion.

The Faucet Opens

After capturing a ten-point lead in the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary, the floodgates to Senator Clinton's fundraising have opened, and her campaign reports that she has brought in over $2.5 million in the first two hours after being projected the winner by the major news networks.

Hope--Real, Not Audacious

The images are startling ones, from the time he landed on U.S. soil earlier this week, greeted by a First Family at Andrews Air Force Base, officially welcomed on the White House lawn and serenaded by Kathleen Battle, spontaneous eruptions of Happy Birthday sung by young children, sports stadiums and basilicas filled to capacity with various celebrations and liturgies, Benedict XVI addressing the United Nations or standing as a friend in a Jewish synagogue in Manhattan. But most striking are the comments, repeated daily, and actions emphasizing peace and reconciliation and the value of the human person in the human family, particularly the long awaited and overdue efforts to heal the wounds of scandalous abuse. As best expressed by some of the victims themselves, there can be real healing, and real hope.

Too Much Candy

Launching Mike Huckabee

Amid lots of suspense, the new Mike Huckabee website is launching at noon today.

Wills Gets His Wings

The future king of England, Prince William, received his pilot's wings today from his father, Prince Charles, after four months of training with Britain's Royal Air Force. The ceremony held at an air base in Lincolnshire was also attended by Will's girlfriend, Kate Middleton, and his father's wife, Camilla.

Katie, We Hardly Knew Ye

The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets are reporting that anchor Katie Couric will be excused from tenure at the CBS Evening News this coming January after a short one-and-a-half year stint, well before her contract expires in 2011. Couric and CBS are both denying the reports.

Your Song

Elton John hosted a high-end fundraiser for Senator Hillary Clinton tonight at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, which is reported to have raised over $2.5 million dollars, with seat prices ranging from $125 to $2300 per person.

Sir Elton has gone on record suggesting that mysoginy is a serious problem in this country, and is at least partially responsible for Clinton's uphill battle in the polls.

Anything You Can Do. . .

. . .I can do better.

Fundraising in San Francisco over the weekend, candidate Obama was heard boasting that he had superior knowledge of the world to either Senators McCain or Clinton.

Dylan Gets a Pulitzer

At really long last.

Loving the Paso Doble

The Children of Eldorado

The state of Texas has now removed 401 children, and over a hundred adult women, from the FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas, and been granted temporary legal custody of several of them, on grounds of possible abuse and neglect, or threat of the same. According to a news conference just held by the state authorities, the adult women came of their own volition and wanted to leave.

Finding foster homes to take and house all of them is a logistic nightmare for a state already stretched to its limits in the foster care system.

Greenspan Endorses McCain

Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan has come out and publicly acknowledged that he is, as a Republican, endorsing the candidacy of Senator John McCain, and oh yes, by the way, there's a greater than 50% chance that the United States economy is headed into recession.

Greenspan is married to NBC reporter and anchor Andrea Mitchell, who hosts a weekday program on politics for MSNBC.

Unlawfully Killed

The London inquest into the murder of Princess Diana has reached a verdict this morning, declaring that hers was an unlawful death due to negligent driving and the interference by the paparazzi, putting aside any conspiracy theories to have her murdered.

Leave the Torch Alone

There's breaking news from Paris this morning that the Olympic torch, on its relay from Mount Olympus to this summer's games in Beijing, has been extinguished after a difficult day yesterday in London amid protests over the violence in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama had spoken out against action directed at the torch, asking that people "not cause any hindrance to the (Olympic) games" and therefore stand down, and leave the torch alone.

The torch arrived in Paris late last night and was, sadly, extinguished sometime today. (Breaking as I am posting this--the torch has now been relit and is making its way, mostly inside a bus, along the Seine.)

Leave the torch alone.

Worth It

At a rally in Eugene, Oregon, yesterday, Senator Hillary Clinton, questioned by a young Obama supporter, defended her decision to stay in the race, saying the nomination was "worth fighting for."

Clearing the Cobwebs

Every once in a while you have to just clear out the cobwebs. You have to step back, put a little distance between yourself and your life, take a deep breath, relax, and float in a shimmery blue pool in the moonlight, staring up at a black curtain of constellations, listening to crickets, and waves on a shore.

When we were newly married, one of the priests who married us gave us a belated wedding present, a silver goblet with the words inscribed, "Sursum Corda," which translated from the Latin means, "Lift up your hearts."

He said we should take spaces in our togetherness, like Gibran advocated in "The Prophet," and refill our own cups so we could fill up each other's.

Sage advice. Sometimes it is only in our most aloneness that we can be most together.

The Goddess of the Three Directions Speaks

Renowned author and feminist Alice Walker, best known for "The Color Purple," has gone on record with her endorsement of Senator Barack Obama in a recent essay in TheRoot.com, which has gotten a lot of media coverage in Great Britain and Europe. In it, she details specifically her appeal to women to not turn their backs on Barack.

Taking Flak

In the wake of all the controversy over Senator Hillary Clinton's visit to Bosnia as First Lady in 1996, and whether or not she really arrived amid sniper fire, two staffers who accompanied her on that trip publish an op-ed in today's New York Times supporting Clinton's version of the events.