The Broad View

"Because he's black"

H/T to Andrew Sullivan for this extraordinary video of the AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka speaking on racism and Obama. As Sully says, "Something truly profound could happen in this election, if we want it to."

A Ray of Hope

Sounds like Obama's getting tired of the Death-by-a-Thousand-Cuts. Notice how the audience bursts into applause as soon as he talks about "lies, and outrage, and phony Swiftboat politics," as soon as he hits back hard.

Now he needs to get this into an ad, stat. And he must stop talking about "the debate I intend to have." He must communicate the urgency of the fact that this is a debate that's on now, and it's a debate in which McCain is hiding under the podium and behind smokescreens.

Almost as good as a "Mister Fusion"

One of my favorite scenes from "Back to the Future" is the one where Christopher Lloyd, as Doc Brown, is frantically stuffing random items of garbage into a gizmo mounted on the back of his De Lorean time machine. It's a "Mister Fusion" powering the car's flux capacitor. It's a clever and funny notion that optimistically makes today's Holy Grail of cheap, non-polluting energy into an everyday appliance of the not-too-distant future.

I wonder if the future has arrived. Take a look at what the Japanese have unveiled [H/T to Ken Admas on Altercation]:

Could this little car truly go into mass production soon? Does it perform as described? Would American drivers be willing to trade in their gas guzzling behemoths for a petite car that goes 80km/hr for an hour on a liter of water? Or do we prefer $5 gas by July 4 and the sky's the limit?

The concept is the opposite of the hydrogen fuel-cell cars we've been promised but never seem to get because the cells weigh a ton, don't get very much mileage and have no infrastructure to support refueling. While the hydrogen fuel-cell engines take hydrogen and produce electrons and water vapor, the Genepax car takes the water to produce electrons and, I suppose, hydrogen and oxygen. If this technology can be ramped up to production levels, we're looking at the first real contender to take on petroleum-based transportation.

My final question: Why wasn't this developed in the United States? Well, thirty years of Republicans pushing laissez-faire capitalism, of shrinking R&D budgets unless it's defense-related, of offshoring, of the triumph of finance over actually making things -- all that will finally hollow out even the most robust and innovative economy.

At last!

Score one for the Constitution! As infuriating as the Roberts Supreme Court can be, there still is the occasional outcome that gets it right:

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts. [...]

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times." [...]

The court said not only that the detainees have rights under the Constitution, but that the system the administration has put in place to classify them as enemy combatants and review those decisions is inadequate.

This was a 5-4 decision, as has become the norm in the Roberts court, with the liberal members prevailing for a change. The chief justice, in all his majesty, agreed with his sovereign king and "criticized his colleagues for striking down what he called 'the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants.' " I guess even he couldn't make this pig fly for Justice Kennedy.

Scalia, in what can only be termed a partisan Republican talking point devoid of actual legal reasoning, wrote that "the nation is 'at war with radical Islamists' and that the court's decision 'will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.' " Way to play the fear card, Scalia.

Some really good news: Aaron Brown is back!

According to today's Los Angeles Times, Aaron Brown — sorely missed during his time in the wilderness — returns to television in a spot just right for him: a new public affairs show on PBS called "Wide Angle."

It is to debut on July 1. Can't wait!!!!!!

Every once in a while, something gladdens your heart

And this is surely one of those times:

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Google has made an announcement that could help hundreds of homeless people in San Francisco get back on their feet.

Every single homeless person in the city will be given a life-long phone number and voicemail, should they choose to accept it...

Read the whole story here, and do whatever you can to sing Google's praises.

Filly Rags to Riches Takes The Belmont!

Photo: AP/Julie Jacobson

I'm ferklempt! Filly Rags to Riches edged out Curlin in a thrilling stretch duel to win the 139th running of the Belmont Stakes. If you're not a horse racing afficionado, you can't imagine how wonderful this is.

Only 22 fillies have ever run the race, the longest and hardest of the Triple Crown of stakes races for three-year-olds, and only three have won. The last filly winner was in 1905. There's a reason the Belmont is called the Test of Champions; it's a grueling mile-and-a-half race that comes at the end of an exhausting spring of racing for these horses.

Not many people know that I used to be a real railbird. My dad introduced me to horse racing and you know how girls love horses! I was a pretty decent handicapper too. I still have an uncashed Win ticket on Secretariat in the Belmont.

Over time, though, I became alienated from the greed and cruelty in racing. My dad was getting older and sicker, so our trips to the track had trailed off. By the time Ruffian, another great filly, broke down in a famous match race against Foolish Pleasure, I couldn't bear to see another horse break down. When Barbaro went down last year, I studiously avoided reading anything about what was sure to be a futile attempt to save him.

You see, these animals are big. And heavy. And they've been bred for speed on impossibly slender legs. When they're running their hearts out at full tilt down the track, any misstep can spell disaster.

Today, though, I won't think about all that. It's a great day because today a beautiful filly won the Belmont.

The Big Dog and the General are both Big Draws

Bill Clinton is coming to Santa Barbara next week in support of the new Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at UCSB.

What is billed as a public dialogue between Pres. Clinton and Paul Orfalea (local boy made good; he's the founder of Kinko's) is slated to last about an hour at our great old movie palace, the Arlington.

The Arlington Theater seats 2,000 people. Tonight's local news said that tickets for the event, which went on sale this morning at $75 and $45, sold out in 90 minutes. (Six hundred free seats were held for distribution to UCSB students. These, too, were immediately snapped up.)

Our 400-guest Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, with Wes Clark as the keynote speaker, had been all the buzz before news of Bill's appearance hit, with people telling me and my co-chair that it was one of largest and earliest-to-sell-out political fundraisers in Santa Barbara memory.

Well, maybe it still is, since the Clinton event is not, strictly speaking, political. I'm sure that Gen. Clark would not quibble with being topped by his old boss — though when it comes to 2008, he surely won't want to be outdone by his old boss' wife.

President Clinton confers the Medal of Freedom upon
4-star General (Ret.) Wesley K. Clark

But, still, there are heroes . .

. . . political and cultural.

Wearing my other hat, as president of the BE for Change PAC in Santa Barbara, I'm pretty damned delighted that some of them are on the roster for our Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, October 27. (And maybe next year we can snag Keith!)

Please click here for more.

How fine!

Jane Hamsher (firedoglake) interviewed by KeithO. The video is here.