At the end of the day

SC Democratic debate liveblogging by Josh Marshall with a video clip, too.

Who won the debate? "John Edwards seemed to stay above the fray and that may inure to his benefit." The Trail

Obama in SC, Hillary goes elsewhere: "South Carolina has become a must-win state for Obama since Clinton prevailed in New Hampshire and Nevada. He was expected to campaign here all week." AP

Wingnut Repub Rep. John Shadegg (AZ-03) has been accused of "using his political-action committee to skirt laws that limit the amount of money donors can give a candidate." Plus, Shadegg ignored the serious drinking water "problems of his constituents in Paradise Valley." He was too busy campaigning for John McCain in NH and SC.

Avedon spoke well of Obama's MLK speech and then noted, "That might go some way to making up for that nasty little business of letting a virulently anti-gay creep speak up against gays when campaigning on behalf of Obama... maybe." Pam Spaulding offers more insights.

GA campaign organizer Johnson leaves Fred for Mitt saying, “[C]learly Fred Thompson is not going to be the nominee.”

Also in GA, "Gov. Sonny Perdue has made a major list of mentionables in the underground Republican contest for vice president." AJC Political Insider

McCain leaps ahead of Rudy by 12% in... drum roll, please... New York! Stick a fork in Rudy...

Someone, please, make him stop -- Ralph Nader eyes another run at the WH in 2008.

MLK unremembered: McCain voted against making MLK a national holiday in 1983. He's "spending today at the inauguration of Alabama Governor Bob Riley who is a member of an organization that has been criticized for excluding African Americans."

Rick Perlstein -- "Conservatives still don't get Martin Luther King."

Cheney's emails -- "Waxman’s report said 'Vice President Cheney’s office showed no electronic messages on 16 occasions from September 2003 to May 2005.' Among the sixteen days for which email are missing from Vice President Cheney’s office 'is Sept. 30, 2003, the same day the day the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced they were investigating who outed former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.' " TP

Pentagon ponders Gen. David Petraeus for top NATO command. NYT

Inside Iraq -- Photos from the Army of Dude.

Bad news for the R-Noise Machine -- A new Pew study shows that "the number of people getting election news online has more than doubled since Bush first stole his way into the White House." Details at Down With Tyranny!

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At the end of the day

Take a deep breath and step away from the hyperventilating tent slung over "divisions" in the Democratic Party. History shows we've previously visited this scenario and survived. "The top three candidates agree on almost everything, they’ve each presented a progressive platform, and they each lead Republican candidates in hypothetical general-election match-ups." Check your pulse at The Carpetbagger.

Who's ahead in CT? According to the Hartford Courant, Clinton 41%, Obama 27%, Edwards 9%. On the other side: McCain 39%, Rudy 16%, Mitt 11%. Analysis at the link (h/t Josh).

Huckabee barbecues McCain in an "aged" sauce concocted by No. 1 Huckster fan, Chuck Norris.

AQ suicide bomber blows up in Fallujah -- Killed 3, wounded 8 among a US-supported tribal group in western Anbar province. "The explosion was one of the deadliest attacks in Anbar since the council drove most al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters out of the province last year." Monday's WaPo

"It's (Grandpa's) Economy, Stupid" -- "The press may think we're headed back to 1992, but the real worry is we may be headed for 1932, 21st Century style." Pachacutec

Paul Krugman distills Reaganomics. Bottom-line: It took a Clinton economy to correct the recession.

"The Week Ahead" for the Supremes via SCOTUSblog. No arguments.

Staying forever in Iraq -- The oblivious warmongering "liberal" media. Tsk, tsk. Scripting an Iraq war epic offers only one "Serious Option." Blood! Horror! Action! Glenn Greenwald

Peggy Noonan at O'Shilling's Tavern. Oh, me darlin', you also ain't got no soul. MTP video, transcript, and commentary by John Amato.

No! "McCain is the new Reagan." Clap harder, Tweety.

Remembering MLK -- "Let Justice Roll Down," by Martin Luther King, Jr., March 15, 1965, at The Nation.

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Yolanda Denise King Has Died At Age 51

The eldest child of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Yolanda Denise King, has died at age 51. The family does not know the cause of death, but relatives believe it to have been heart related.

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, King was a human rights worker and actress. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. (the official national memorial to her father) and was founding Director of the King Center's Cultural Affairs Program. She served on the Partnership Council of Habitat for Humanity, was a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a sponsor of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and held a lifetime membership in the NAACP.

King received a B.A. degree with honors from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, a Masters degree in Theatre from New York University and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Marywood University.

In 1978 she starred as Rosa Parks in the TV miniseries King (which was based on her father's life and released on DVD in 2005). She also appeared in "Ghosts of Mississippi," and founded a production company called Higher Ground Productions.

She was an author and advocate for peace and nonviolence.

Her death comes more than a year after the death of her mother, Coretta Scott King.

Yolanda King is survived by her sister, the Rev. Bernice A. King; two brothers, Martin Luther King III and Dexter Scott King; and an extended family.

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Keep On Fighting, Harvey, Keep on Fighting

Houston, TX does many things right. This time every year, one of its best activities occur, the Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition. Ten elementary students compose and give their own speechs on a selected topic. After the competition, the NPR affiliate plays the speeches. I have learned that if I am driving when they are broadcast, I had best find a parking lot and pull over.

Harvey Pittman II, a 5th-grade student from Lockhart Elementary won this years competition. This young man is brilliant and spot on.

If you do nothing else this week-end to commemorate this important holiday, please click this link.

http://www.kuhf.org/newsaudio/2007/01/070112mlkspeech.m3u

More info about the competition and excerpts from other speeches are here:

http://www.kuhf.org/newsaudio/2007/01/070112mlk.m3u


One more thing, IMHO Dr. King’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail is the best prose ever written by an American.

http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html

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