Browsing the NYT website, I stumbled upon War Torn and its accompanying articles including Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles. The NYT describes War torn as A series of articles and multimedia about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have committed killings, or been charged with them, after coming home. Reading some of these horrific stories can only leave the impression that we have failed our veterans when they return home. Some of these tragedies may have been prevented with adequate mental health care. I encourage everyone to read the series.

The story of Army Spc. Jeremy Hall is a particularly frightening one. While most Kossacks are aware of the Christian Extremist views of Erik Prince, the head of Blackwater, many may not be aware of the apparent pressure average U.S. soldiers receive to be Christians. Those members of our society who value religious freedom and tolerance should be particularly interested in how those soldiers who are not Christian are being threatened and maligned. We send our soldiers into combat to defend the Ideals of our country, one of which is religious freedom. To have those soldiers serving abroad subjected to death threats and devastating profession consequences if they are not Christian is simply not acceptable. Jeremy Hall is one of those soldiers.

If you have ever doubted the existence of the Military Industrial Complex this article in the Washington Post should end those doubts convincingly. The article Gates Urges Military to Focus on Current Wars, contains several important underlying concepts about the thought process that occurs inside this institution of war. There is a surreal quality that runs through your mind as you read the text. The most glaring question is why exactly Gates has to remind them about Iraq and Afghanistan.

Generational politics have come to the forefront this cycle. The standout surprise has been the continued impact of the youth voters in the Millennial generation. This generation includes people under 30 like Chelsea Clinton (28) and me (22). What is driving this vote and who are these voters? I want to explore that question about who we are as a generation in the broad sense and why we are coming to the polls along with what the implications of that are.  Is this turn out about us or is it about Senator Obama?

This is designed as a late night meta musing. I have been here at Daily Kos for just over three months now and have written tens of Diaries at this point. Certainly, I am no Kid Oakland or Jeff Lieber nor do I come close to the writing talent or skill of teacherken. Still, I have been rescued a couple of times and made the rec list once (for my happy birthday to Rachel Maddow, yea I know) and I have been generally happy with the response to my humble efforts. Once I was even linked to by a random person out on the web and that was really cool. I know that many here do not actually choose to write diaries or write only occasionally for lack of time or maybe out of reticence regarding criticism. I still have that feeling of anxiety before publishing, this time is no exception. Despite that feeling, my confidence has grown and I have come to find my own definition of a successful diary.

I was on yahoo a couple of days ago when I saw an article with the headline, Study of ‘Daily Show’: It’s a lot like O’Reilly. I was intrigued. After all, I watch the Daily Show and have seen O’Reilly and would not make many comparisons between the two. They are both hosted by men and feature current events and interviews. That is pretty much where the similarities end in my opinion. Beyond that though is the question of what people seem to expect from The Daily Show and from Jon Stewart. To me the Daily show has always been about satirizing the way news is distributed in the country and the people who make the news in the country. I read the study’s report, and brought it and its conclusions here to you.

The discussion that is making the rounds is that the Primary is over and we have a nominee. This comes complete with pictures on the cover of time blessed by the high priest of punditry Tim Russert. Daily Kos has exploded with diaries dedicated to the end of Clinton’s campaign, pleas for unity and speculation about paying off Clinton debt. I wonder though why we have this sudden and absolute switch from she has a good chance to she is mike huckabee.

I think we all know that we need to leave Iraq. The reasons have been chronicled by those who have a far better grasp of the situation than I do. I thought an interesting task though might be to argue for withdrawal of our forces using the words on John McCain. Many of you have probably seen the video clip and heard the quotes but I think McCain makes a compelling case for us to withdrawal troops, just substitute Iraq for Somalia or Bosnia.

If you have ever tuned into or read a piece on the presidential primary, you have probably heard of Momentum. To hear people tell it Momentum, or the Big Mo as it is sometimes known, is to the primary as location is to Real Estate. It must really be the end all be all of a political race right? Well ah, no. The ill defined but much beloved momentum that the pundits speak of does not exist. Once again pundits and commentators have taken one observance and blown it out of context and applied it to situations it has no business being applied to. This race has not had momentum, or if it has its not what the commentators are talking about.

I was reading my LAT online, perusing the writings by the like of Jonah Goldberg and co to see if anything interesting caught my eye. I found what I was looking for in Joel Stein’s Grand Old Party animal. It is all about trying to register new American citizens to vote. That is a laudatory goal and one I think we all support. This is what I took away from the article though.

Then stupid Bishop Mendez started talking about how the Republicans are the party of the poor. I countered that it was actually the party of the filthy rich -- people she wanted to be around. I told her that Republican country clubs are way better than Democratic ones. "I don't think Republicans are the party of poor people," she said to Mendez. "That would be a bad thing." She finished her cookie and filled in the GOP bubble.

One of the biggest surprises of this cycle has been the extent that the words and deeds of surrogates and acquaintances has played in the presidential campaign. From Bill and Michele to Samantha Power, Gerry Ferraro and Mark Penn people who are not the candidate have been the goats or distractions of the hour at various points in the process. Given this propensity for highlighting surrogates I should not have been surprised to see a piece on Chelsea Clinton in the WaPo. Chelsea has been touring the country speaking to young people and recently became a mini-headline herself when she refused to give an answer regarding how her mother dealt with the Lewinsky saga. However, I do not think that this piece was worth while and seemed somewhat spiteful.

We all know how the Bush Administration has failed deliver on the capture of Osama Bin Laden. What has now come to light thanks to the WaPo is that there has also been a complete failure to secure justice in the attack on the USS Cole. 17 sailors were killed in that attack on the Cole and although President Clinton promised justice it seems like neither he nor president Bush has delivered. The story told by the WaPo about the efforts surrounding the Cole is sad in many ways and should serve as a constant reminder of just how badly the War on Terror has been conducted.

I started out looking to write on the gas tax debate. I was quickly distracted though because the repeal of that tax via the Clinton-McCain plans is so stupid and there really is no debate. I also thought that enough had been written on that already. I ended up reading an interesting OpEd in the WaPo written by The Rt. Hon. Lord Waddington QC who is currently Chairman of the European Reform Forum. He is a former UK Home Secretary under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  He embraces the idea that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. What I found more interesting though is his idea about how to deal with this problem. His prescription for dealing with Iran is fomenting a popular rebellion against the Iranian government through supposedly pro democratic groups.

Any one who has been paying attention to the rhetoric coming out of the current administration regarding Iran cannot help but see their attempts to integrate Iran into a larger conflict. While it might sound to some like a conspiracy theory, the theme is clear. Iran is a threat that needs to be dealt with. That dealing, knowing the history of this administration, will be via force. There is a constant saber rattling almost daily designed to heighten tension and increase the justification for going to war with Iran. The latest and most dangerous is that the war against Iran is just another part of the War Against Terror.

Over the course of the past week I have come to the decision that John McCain is not especially relevant. The coming election will be Obama versus the Republican Party and the traditional Media. McCain is more of a stand in than anything else. I know that sounds somewhat strange and many might disagree but I feel that he will not be the determining factor for this election.

In fund raising. I recently did a comparison of Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton’s fund raising. They have both built fund raising machines that now rely on the low dollar donors to fund their campaigns. Now I want to examine the different course taken by Sen. McCain. The state of his fund raising has been somewhat less impressive when compared to the Democratic side. His distribution of donations is similar to past campaigns and reveals little in the way of a major internet donor push. When compared to the machine of Senator Obama it does not look positive for McCain. In machine comparison, Obama is the $6bn underground particle accelerator and McCain is a button maker.

Multiple diaries and articles have been written about the fact that the media refuses to ask why Clinton cannot win Obama voters. I must say that I view these diaries with some skepticism. We all know the reason that the tm will not ask Clinton those questions. The answer is that once they ask questions like that it becomes obvious that the Clinton candidacy is really over. The media, as Chris Mathews pointed out the other night, is holding up the Clinton campaign and the idea that she still has a legitimate shot to win.

Campaign finance has become a hot topic in this election. The ability of Sen. Obama to draw on small donors has become a big story and underlying justification for his avoiding public finance. Much has been made of the role that Pac’s and Big time donors play in the Clinton campaigns while nothing has been talked about in terms of McCain’s fund raising. The prominence of this issue demands that serious attention be paid to how much money candidates get and where it comes from. The New York Times recently delved into this topic focused on the problems surrounding the Clinton campaign’s continued fund raising efforts. What follows are my observations about the current state of the campaigns fund raising, as objective as I can make them.