One of the first comments I posted about Senator Barack Obama here on Daily Kos was "If he runs, he'll stir up some excitement, energize some new democratic voters, and raise the bar for public speaking. That can't be a bad thing even if he doesn't make it on to the ticket." I seem to have drastically understated things.

However, it remains true that one of the most exciting and most progressive aspects of Obama's candidacy is the incredibly wide range of people he continues to energize and inspire. The appeal of Obama, though, has already spread far beyond the borders of U.S. politics. He is a world figure now, and the people he is inspiring are not just those here at home, but people around the globe. One way this can be seen is in the music Obama is inspiring globally.

Below is a sampling of some of the tastiest worldbeat music currently being produced as tributes to the hope Barack Obama is bringing to people everywhere. It's hard to overemphasize how much a President Obama will mean not just here at home, but to the entire world. Enjoy!

Here is a nugget by way of Limited, Inc. and The Virginian-Pilot. It's a profile of just one of the current players involved in the tangled evils of Blackwater. His name is Joseph Schmitz, and he is the "chief operating officer and general counsel of the Prince Group,"  Blackwater's parent company.

It briefly traces his connection to scandals ranging from the predictable fraud and abuse at the Pentagon through a littany of less likely connections including Ed Meese, George Wallace, Joseph McCarthy, and Mary Kay LeTourneau!

I would have trouble believing one person could have connections to so many scandals, past and present, if this were a made for TV movie, yet our reality seems to have become exactly this twisted and unbelievable now.

I am ashamed. Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, who represents myself and the citizens of NC-05, was one of only 33 members of Congress to vote against extending the Voting Rights Act. I am ashamed. And I am angry.

Foxx has racked up many damaging and embarrassing votes during this, her first and hopefully last, term in Congress. She was one of only 11 representatives heartless enough to vote against Katrina relief money. Now she distinguishes herself yet again by voting against extending the Voting Rights Act. She is an embarrassment.

Help me. Help yourself. Help our country. Help get rid of Virginia Foxx...

The AP is reporting this:

NEW YORK (AP) -- The syndicator of Ann Coulter's newspaper columns rejected allegations that she had lifted material from other sources, saying a review of the work in question turned up nothing that merited concern.

There are only so many ways you can rewrite a fact, and minimal matching text is not plagiarism," Lee Salem, editor and president of Universal Press Syndicate, said Monday in a statement. "Universal Press Syndicate is confident in the ability of Ms. Coulter, an attorney and frequent media target, to know when to make attribution and when not to.

This diary is occasioned by the recent outpouring of response to the Libertarian Democrat discussion. While I am one of those who find this formulation problematic, I was also struck by the passionate response kos' original post provoked in so many here at dKos. Near the end of his post, kos writes:

The key here isn't universal liberty from government intrusion, but policies that maximize individual freedom, and who can protect those individual freedoms best from those who would infringe.

Clearly the idea of individual freedom moves a great many people very deeply -- as it  should. However, there is another concept that also incites the passions of many of us here in the dKos community. That is the concept of social justice.

Here's some humor for you posted over on Alternet. It's a video of Bush and Blair lip-syncing a touching duet to Lionel Richie and Diana Ross' Endless Love.

Bush and Blair have kept their love for one another more hidden than WMDs in Iraq. Until now. This clever clip from Atmo productions shows President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair attesting their love for one another in song. Set to the touching Lionel Richie/Diana Ross classic 'Endless Love,' Bush and Blair show that maybe their real talents lie in crooning, not leading the free world.

In an article published yesterday, John Dean, a man who knows dirty tricks when he sees them, takes a look at the wartime deceptions of both Nixon and Bush and argues that the Bush administration wins hands down. Dean writes, "it is clear that they plan to outdo all their predecessors when it comes to dramatic infringements of civil liberties in the name of wartime necessity."

Read more below...

Here is a speculation. There is no author more despised by the right in general, and by the neo-cons in particular, than Karl Marx. Given this, it is probably safe to assume that if Marx was for something, then the neo-cons will be against it.

At the end of the fiery second chapter of their Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels give a surprisingly modest top-10 list of progressive steps that would be "generally applicable" to "most advanced countries" of their day. The list includes such radical ideas as a progressive income tax and free public education for kids. In fact, most of the steps they proposed no longer strike modern readers as particularly radical, having long ago passed into the realm of political common sense. That is, until now.

Recently the far right has attacked, successfully in most cases, almost every item on this 19th century wish list for progressive politics.

Marine Lance Corporal José Gutiérrez holds the sad honor of being the first U. S. soldier killed in the Iraqi conflict. José Gutiérrez was not a U. S. citizen. He was an illegal immigrant.

There are so many tragedies, contradictions and ironies surrounding the story of José Gutiérrez; it is hard to do justice to them all. He was an orphan from Guatemala. He made his way 3000 miles to the U. S. on his own. He was arrested at the U.S. border but because he had no family and lied about his age, rather than being deported he was placed in foster care. He graduated high school. He got a green card. He joined the Marines. He was killed on the first day of the Iraqi invasion. He was killed by friendly fire. He is not buried in Arlington National Cemetery, but in Guatemala City.

The Raw Story has a post on Tom Delay's concealed handgun permit being revoked. This happened because, even under Texas law, indicted felons cannot carry concealed weapons. The story comes complete with a nice graphic of the court order.

I'm glad to see that this indictment continues to have at least some consequences for DeLay. Now if only indicted felons weren't able to get elected to Congress...

I posted an earlier diary on this topic, but Limited, Inc. has posted more on their do-it-ourselves approach to ending the war in Iraq through direct appeals to young men and women to not enlist in the military.

As we have said before, LI is extremely tired of the discussion about what the Democrats could do about the war. Or the Republicans. ... We wanted to know what we could do about the war. Which is the start of this project which I am tentatively calling: killthewarinyourgarage. You get a little taste of the army's plight in this oped at WAPO. ... we want to appeal straightforwardly to those potential recruits who may be Republicans, may be evangelical Christians, may be hardworking 4 H-ers, and most likely come from families that "support our troops." So, there is a no irony rule here.

Since every life saved is a victory, read more below...

For those of you who can't get enough Fitzgerald news, Jason Leopold has a new article out today discussing Woodward's source, an intriguing tape, and speculations about Hadley and Armitage.

In the article, Leopold writes:

There is an interesting post today at Limited, Inc. arguing that in order to resist the war in Iraq:

The easiest and most effective thing to do is to talk to seventeen and eighteen year olds and keep them from signing up. You don't have to attack the army. ... one must respectfully quote the Vice President himself about Vietnam: "I had other priorities," he said, making it clear that the patriotic thing to do is to avoid getting into pointless wars.

We don't need politicians to take us out of Iraq -- they need us to stay in it.  

The American Friends Service committee has a downloadable anti-recruitment pamphlet here.

The post goes on to argue...

I have always admired the Presidential Oath of Office for its brevity and clarity. Article II, section 1 of our Constitution specifies the oath to be taken by those who hold this most powerful office. It is wonderfully simple and clear. It is also very specific:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The oath is not to preserve the American way or life, or to protect the homeland, or even to defend freedom or democracy. It is something much more specific and profound. It is to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution."

Given this, let's look at some of the ways our current President has broken his solemn oath and violated the Constitution he is sworn to defend...