From the same AP story: 

Bush raised $3 million for his re-election effort at fund-raisers in Miami and Tampa, Fla., while Vice President Dick Cheney helped the campaign collect at least $500,000 in Grand Rapids, Mich., and $600,000 in Akron, Ohio.

The Bush campaign expected to raise around $30 million by the close of the second quarter at midnight Monday after six weeks of fund raising. Bush entered the race in mid-May.

Of course they're in two different races at the moment, and the incumbent can always raise a lot more, and the R can (nearly) always raise a lot more. But they--whatever they the D's nominate--sure are going to have their work cut out for them next fall.

But I'll think about that tomorrow.

From the AP story:

I'm looking around for stories and don't see a whole lot yet. I was hoping my buddies at Salon would do something, but apparently not. Tomorrow? Nothing at Slate either. Just the wire stories and some prominent placement in a great W Post piece summing up this round of the "money primary." It opens:

After a final day of online fundraising that netted more than $500,000, former Vermont governor Howard Dean closed the second quarter of the presidential fundraising year atop the Democratic field. Meanwhile the early money leaders -- Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and John Edwards (N.C.) -- battled to keep up, the campaigns said yesterday.

It's about the whole field and does a really great job of laying everything out. If the numbers it and AP are reporting hold, it will look about like this for Q2 (in millions):

Dean: 7

Kerry and Edwards: 5

Gephardt: reaching toward 5

Lieberman: reaching toward 4

Graham: 2-3

Kucinich: in seven figures (meaning, probably just barely)

Moseley Braun: .15

Sharpton: no comment

AP posted a story about the money primary as well, with the latest update at 12:30 a.m. (But the eastern papers probably went with an earlier version with lesser results). Lead:

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean took in at least $802,000 over the Internet on Monday to lift his second-quarter fund raising to roughly $7.1 million. Rival Joe Lieberman made a dramatic plea for last-minute money as he and others scrambled to catch up in donations.

Reuters doesn't seem to have updated since 7:15, with a story putting him at $6.8 total, 500K on Monday.

More from WP:

Dean's online gold mine -- he also has signed up 45,000 supporters to attend "meet-ups" across the country Wednesday night -- stunned his rivals.

An adviser to another candidate said: "Ever since 1996, people have been talking about the potential of the Internet to organize and raise money, but no one figured out how to do it. Not even Al Gore. The thing about Dean is, not only is he using it, he is building an organization through it and he is raising money through that organization."

NYT just posted the AP story to their site. Does that mean that's all they'll have? Perhaps the day after.

So far, it's slightly better than I predicted: a bit more than a few paragraphs in several stories already set to round up the money primary as the quarter closes. No dedicated story yet that I've found.

If you want more info on the Dean campaign, check out Jason's xtra-rant. He had better spreadsheets than I did, with better predictions than me all night. He's a highly-enthusiastic supporter, so I imagine you'll find more from him on the topic there over the next year.

This is about 24 hours late, but since it's been Dean-day, here's the NYT piece from this morning.

Key quote:

"He'll beat everybody," Steve Elmendorf, a senior adviser to Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, said of Dr. Dean.

That's when he was anticipating a $6.5 mill quarter.

It will be very interesting to see how the rest of the money pans out. I guess we'll start hearing in the next day or two what everybody raised.

Wow, the rate is actually rising again. $25K in the final half hour--although apparently it's not quite so final anymore (they're now saying you can contribute up till midnight in your timezone--how often has that been an issue before?)

Sort-of final tallies:

$7,109,311 for the quarter.

$802,083 online today.

That's it for me.

Wow. Another 20K at 11:30. Up to 7.084.

Looks like he'll break 7.1 mill, though it could be close if things drop off suddenly. But they're not so far. Very interesting.

I'm suddenly sick of doing this, but said I would, so here's the brief 11 p.m. update:

20K in half an hour, that's not bad. That's more than 2/3 of what he was getting just before the final push. Well above than I expected.

Could finish close to $7.1 mill. Probably 10-20K shy.

Oh my God, that little Dean frenzy almost cost me $1500. This was the final day of Colorado Tax Amnesty month, and I was just getting everything caught up this year (got caught up with the feds in January.) No penalties and half the interest on any old returns you filed today.

And I almost blew it. That mag assignment came up suddenly and I didn't have a chance to do it before I left, so I knew I had one day when I got back. Got in late last night, went to sleep at 3, woke up and started blogging! This freaking addiction. Didn't pull the taxes out until 3:30, and then I had to figure out where I had everything, reprint the forms, redo one year, figure out where to take it ...

I ran in at 4:27, three minutes early, though of course they had their clocks three minutes ahead, bastards. But their website was also wrong, they were open till 4:45, so I was way early. Shew!

I cannot tell you the relief of having all that behind me. Saved $850 in interest and maybe $500-600 in penalties. (They have brutal interest here: about three times the rate of the IRS.) Thank God it's all in. I'm totally up to date. Except for my 2003 estimated payments. Blast. Plus I put today's bill on a credit card. But still, it's filed, they're paid, I'm no longer delinquent. Feel lighter already.

But not thinner, because I missed my workout entirely. These addictions.

Tomorrow, back to writing. The other kind of writing. I've got a magazine story to compose.

10:30 numbers up, and he just had his best hour of the day (by 1k over the 5:30-6:30 numbers, though I'm rounding to the nearest 1k each time).

Hard to know how to read the intevening numbers, because I'm sure the $7 mill was actually before 10 p.m., since there has always been a lag. But he is still sailing well past 7 mill. $45K over the goal now.

The next set of numbers will be most interesting. Will it drop off a cliff, or keep going fairly strong? Somewhere in the middle, I'd guess, but closer to the cliff.

(I may be the only one, but I find the psychology of how this all works fascinating. I know it's the same basic principle as NPR fundraising week, but that bores the crap out of me. They do it too often (for my amusement) and there's so little at stake, relatively. I could study this all night. But I've GOT to get to the gymn.)

As the Secretary of the Colorado Democratic Party, I have been reluctant to endorse any candidates, at least this early. I don't mind saying that I have gone back and forth in my mind between Dean and Edwards several times in the past few months, and will likely do so several more in the following months.

... That being said, I am SO EXCITED by this raw outpouring of support for one of our Presidential candidates. It truly gives me hope in the future of our Party -- indeed, our Nation -- that Howard Dean can trigger such an emotional reaction among people who had previously been jaded or silent.

Regardless of candidate preference, every Democrat and progressive-minded person has to feel bolstered by what is going on here today. This is America. This is what our forefathers died for. This is Democracy.

And this is why we're going to beat Dubya next November.

From a Cynthia in Massachusetts at 9:47:

Mr. Slater, pay close attention to what has happened here and talk to your higher-ups at the national level. Something is truly rumbling out there....

As Charlie Pierce, a reporter for The Boston Globe Magazine, one wrote:

You can hear the great river of the country’s counter-narrative echoing like something deep in the rocks.

Dan Slater, 10:02

Cynthia in MA:

After the past 72 hours, I assure you that the whole Democratic political establishment is getting "the message" you're sending. Just an FYI, though, only two of our Colorado State Party officers have endorsed candidates - and one of them endorsed Dean.

You all are making a difference.

I'm sure the Dean people have been alerting the media all day to this little Dean explosion, but the question is, will they cover it?

I hope you had a chance to head over to his blog, and read through a few of the postings on the comments area. Several hours ago, they maxed out the capability of the comments system and had to start a second thread. Amazing enthusiasm over there. And they'll have raised $700k in one day on the web, in June the year before the primaries. That's pretty amazing. Especially for an effort that started at 10 in the morning, ended 12 hours later. This really is a new age of web mobilization for political candidates. Amazing no one figured out how to do it sooner.

(Or was it just that no one appealed to this audience before. McCain did, and he used it like no one can, but that was only a hint of what's happening now. And clearly, this is only the beginning.)

Love Dean or hate him, there is definitely a grassroots phenon going on here. It certainly didn't start today, but it reached a new level today. But the goofball political press? A true groundswell of support may mean nothing to them. Which is odd, really, because they have SO much time and space to fill. What the hell are they going to do with it?

But they already have their list of Important Events, and just can't be bothered. I predict it will get a paragraph here and there, and a handful of outlets will bother with a story. I hope they prove me wrong. But I don't have much faith in my own profession.

Well, they announced the breakthrough right about 10 p.m., so it probably happened at least ten or fifteen minutes earlier. They're showing $7.004 million, and I'm sure they'd love to go a little higher, but the momementum will fall off fast now, I assume.

I will be very curious to see how high it goes. I assume it will drop off pretty fast, after a bit of extra steam runs out--all those people still contributing, unaware the goal has been reached. But maybe some will also be motivated by the excitement of it. I doubt there will be TOO many in that category, as most are probably spent, but I've been surprised before. It will be interesting to see how quickly or slowly it dies down.

Well they made a liar out of me but quick.

They just posted two new sets of numbers posted, all the way to 9:30 and only $18K to go. They're actually picking up steam as we approach the goal, so they'll easily hit withint the next half hour.

At the current rate it would be about 9:48, but I have a feeling things will speed up drastically as the big moment approaches. It has probably already happened, though the tabulation is behind. I imagine they'll announce it any minute now.

Up to $6.93 million at 8:30. The deterioration improved significantly. (Maybe it was just a really weak half hour in there).

He might hit it by 10:30, though it's really hard to predict how the bedtime falloff will affect things (and not just bed, but relaxing before bed, putting this stuff away for the night).

I guess I'll go with 10:30--everything has to be a game with some people, doesn't it--though it's also hard to know how much they're holding back on calling fat cats and when they'll make the last big push.

I'll go with that, though. More analysis here all night. (They're running about 45 minutes behind in posting the data, by the way. I was a bit late in my previous post, but this info must went up.)

8p.m. update:

He's slowing down, $100K to go. Down from $59/hour to $48/hour in the last hour. At that rate he'll still make it. But that rate will probably fall off as bedtime looms.

He dropped 19% in the last hour, and if that rate of decline holds hour over hour, he'll hit $7 million around 11:09 p.m.

But of course we would expect the decline to accelerate, but of course the x-factors are:

1) a last-minute push by enthusiasts eager to see him make it, and

2) staffers working the phones like crazy.

I have no doubt that #2 will put them over. I just spoke to a friend who has contributed several times, and he got two calls today. But he's also approaching the limit, so they won't be able to go back to that well in the future. But the theory is, as the support-base widens, you develop more and more wells to go back to. And then you lean on people who are tapped out to work 10-20 rich friends ...

And it's hard to bank too much on a one-hour drop anyway. Maybe that was the hour the staff all went on dinner break.

Hmmmmm. A friend just emailed about Wesley Clark.

That could potentially torpedo Dean, because he shoots just as straight and might develop a strong following. And he would sure put the security question to rest. Wouldn't it be great to see the R's have to go up against a general?

And I love that guy. Would love to see him president. But isn't it getting really late? What's he waiting for? Seems like it's too late already. He's got a lot of catching up to do. I guess I had written him off as not stepping in, if he hadn't by now. But he might really shake things up if he did. Maybe. I'm not sure how many Dems are as eager to embrace a general as I am. Too many hardheads over there, too, where General = fascist. That is so dumb. But that's reality. That's why I figured he'd especially have to dive in early and build a following. Who knows, though. I don't know all the tactical issues. Wouldn't it be great to have TWO great candidates, with people in love with both of them. That's probably asking a lot.

Nader told USA Today he is "seriously considering" running again in 2004. Ugh.

Unless, perhaps, the choices I really awful. I voted for Nader in 2000, though I did so from a safe Shrub state. And I just couldn't bring myself to pull it for Gore. If they nominate someone that lame again, maybe, but ...

Here's his explanation, from the UT piece:

''It is quite clear that the Democrats are incapable of defending our country against the Bush marauders,'' Nader, 69, says. ''They have been unwilling to go all out to stop the destructive tax cuts for the wealthy. They have been soft on corporate crime. They have gone along in almost every issue except judicial appointments. They have cowered, surrendered or divided themselves."

If they nominate a Lieberman or Gephardt, there's definitely some justification to that. But there are several non-wimps in the field. It's way too early for that argument to hold water.

I was thinking Dean would not make his $7 million goal for the quarter, by raising $625K in 14 hours. But he seems to be on track--I think. Hard to know what will happen in the evening hours. I thought he'd fail because I thought the numbers would drop off dramatically after 5 on the east coast, when web traffic starts to plummet. But it has actually increased 20% since then.

Here's the deal:

As of 7 Eastern, he's at $6.853 million. $147K to go.

In the early afternoon, he was averaging about $55K/hour. It peaked at $60K between 1-2 p.m., then drifted downward into the 40s. That's when I figured it was over. Trending down and nearly out of working hours. But perhaps word is spreading, or momentum building as the goal appears more attainable. (Or a handful of big donors? I just realized the obvious. More on that below). In the last half hour before 5p.m., he only got $47K, and the last half hour was worse: $22K.

But it picked up again right after 5. He's averaging a steady $60K per hour now, so if he can keep that up for just 2.5 more hours, he's over the goal line.

Of course I just realized what a few big donors can do. (What's the limit, though: $1,000 still? Or did the new rules push it up to $3?) Regardless, I guess they could gather up some friends in a pinch. Surely he's got some reserve people lined up in a pinch to put him over the top at 11:59 if he needs it. You would hope they thought that far ahead.

Anyway, it is quite fun to watch. A bit like watching election returns come in on election night, which I always love, except without all the asswipe commentators, whom I generally loathe. Very cool of them to have the running tally. Obviously they've got people who get the web and know what we want.

(My analysis on why he'll win the nomination here.)

... Howard Dean.

Shit, I should have done this weeks ago. I've been telling friends for weeks that I think Dean is going to get the nomination, mostly of course provoking a "Dean who?" But I do think it's going to happen. So I'm officially putting it in writing. I'm also predicting him to beat Shrub in November, though I'm not nearly has sure about that.

I rarely predict this early. Typically I start making my first real guesses around January. But this one is going to be very different, I think. And it could all still go very wrong a hundred different ways. He could well peak 6 months too soon. He could grab the dreaded front-runner mantle one of these days, and that could cause innumerable difficulties. (Especially for such an underdog kind of campaign.)

The main reason is that I went to see him at a pretty small house-gathering in Denver in the early spring (March?) and was really taken aback by his style and presence. He's not a bullshitter. That's so rare in politics, and so incredibly refreshing. I was prepared to vote for John McCain in 2000, in spite of so many conservative portions, because I was just relieved to have someone I could believe, could trust.

I was just answering a comment on my absence, thought I'd expand upon it up here.

Andy made a joke about me leaving for a week, needing to get a laptop. I did bring it, but didn't load the remote software. Thank God. Don't know what I'll do once I have it available.

I don't tend to go off on assignment too often (though I hope to more, but even in my fantasies, it will only be one 3- to 5-day trip a month), but when I am, I'm totally on assignment.

This time was typical: I had this tiny little window to get nearly everything I'm ever going to get on this event. It went on for basically three days (plus two traveling), and I had 72 hours to soak up every damn bit of data I could gather. There were so many people I still wanted to interview, or re-interview. Day One I got back to my room with a list of a dozen people I had to connect with over the next two days. Unfortunately, it just got longer as I tried to work them off. Each person just led me to several more. Sunday morning I made a must-interview list for the final 10 hours, then relaxed for five minutes for lunch outside by the lagoon, and made the most unexpected contact. Just said hello to this conventioneer to be pleasant. She said something brief, I said something brief, she said something tantalizing. I responded briefly, intent on gathering my stuff and moving on. She said something even better. I pulled out my notebook. Best not to fight these things. Literally 2.5 hours later we got up. And then I went to track down and interview a guy she had told me about. By the time that was over, most of the sources on my must-interview list were on to another activity and much harder to track down. But it didn't matter. The people on that list were just people I was hoping could give me the insights I wanted. They were just rolling off this woman's lips like a freight train.

Still didn't get all I wanted, and I have to stay absolutely focused on these assignments to get all I can. Worked from about 10 a.m. to 1 or 2 a.m. each day, with just two 20-minute meal breaks. And that's an exhausting day, because interviewing is the most draining activity I've ever performed. Just a handful can wipe me out. This was just unbelievable. I was chatting with a source I've gotten close to Saturday night, and said, "I am just so SICK of asking questions."

But I had a day without questioning yesterday, and I'm invigorated again. And came home with so much data. About seven 3x5 notebooks filled up.

Howard Dean claims to be making web history this week, raising unprecedented amounts of money on the web. I don't have the historical data to know how impressive this week's run is, though I do know he has had the other contenders astonished and envisious with what he's been doing on the web for awhile now.

I keep getting these emails bragging about what they've done the past few days. Half a million on Friday, which must have been related to the Moveon primary. He's shooting for 3/4 of a million today, to hit $7 mill for the quarter, which ends at midnight. He's got a blog going with a play by play every half hour on how close they're coming.

Very interesting.  I have a feeling he is rewriting the rules of how you fund a pres campaign.

Well this is just unbelievable. I read this post at "Mike's Weblog" thinking it had to be an urban myth. But he links to a story in The Observer, out of the UK.

What people will do. Some asshole probably started the myth to justify his own child molestation, and innocent people bought into it.

You people. What are we going to do with you?

Just read this fun little AP story: "Virgins meet in Sin City, tout abstinence." Such a shame AP is so clueless covering this kind of story. What I could do with that material.

And I don't mean trashing them. I tend to trash this kind of stuff when I read somebody else's account of it. Any time I actually go there, meet the people, get to know them, I come back with a much more complex picture. These people have some really virtuous intentions, and I bet at least 65% of them are really sweet, wonderful people at heart. I'd just love to hear what they're all about.

Wish I had known about it, wish I could have been there, maybe I should still head out.

Guess I've got to finish the story I'm on first. Can't cover everything. Maybe next year. I'll put it on my calendar.

Andy at world wide rant has a nice little response to my Frist post, called Bill Frist Is An Idiot. He trenchantly deconstructs Frist's dubious logic and concludes:

Have you ever had a consistent line of thought occupy that tiny space between your ears, you intolerable nitwit?

Very nicely put. Still has me snickering. But wondering.

I think some echo of that was what got me so hacked off about the Frist comments in the first place. He's not a nitwit. I've seen him for (30 minutes at a time?) on Charlie Rose--where you actually get to explore interesting questions thoughtfully, not answer a list of stock Beltway questions we all know each side's answers to by heart.

The guy's a doctor, and apparently a good one, and a deep thinker. I've heard him think out loud. And I've heard a lot of compassion coming out of his mouth. And I've seen a willingness to consider multiple points of view.

That's why it was so troubling to read his latest, and perhaps revealing that his phrasing was as jumbled as a Shrub, and his logic preposterous. (You could obviously build a logical case for his argument, but that sure wasn't it.)

So you have to wonder--or at least I do: Was he stumbling around for way to justify something he wasn't 100 percent behind? He's got a party to be responsible for now, and they've got this great big constituency that's highly organized, better at turning out its membership on election day that the old labor unions, and will vote single-issue every time. And they're tithing their way to heaven, and offering a good chunk of that to his party.

So is he bought and sold, or is this what he really believes? I'm betting he has SOME inclination those views anyway, thought he's wise enough at heart to reject a theocracy and probably wouldn't go nearly as far as those statements on his own. Bought and sold, that's my guess, though we'll never really know for sure.

(p.s. Andy also has a really insightful response to my post on voting Repub below, in the comments, and more on his blog. I'm really starting to like what he has to say. I mean I really liked it from the start, but am growing ever more eager to hear his reactions to what I say. And for little nuggets I had not stumbled upon. Go read him.)

I woke up wondering if I was a big hypocrite in my little rant last night. Too vicious in my own attacks on those bastards trying to (re)make me a criminal?

I actually thought about it while I was writing it, but just couldn't contain my rage. Those wabbits just make me vewy, vewy angwy. (Or was it my hulk phase?)

I suppose the gayhating supremes are just following their religious code, twisted though it may be, and appalling that they would try to impose that on me, considering their chief mission in life is to defend a constitution dedicated to liberty for each of us, particularly in areas like religious belief.

At least I know they're standing up for what they believe in. Thank God for lifetime appointments to The Court. No telling what Bill Frist is standing up for. Hanging onto his job, perhaps, the little weasel.

And of course no good deed goes unpunished. Just as I post those exciting words, I come upon this:

The headline reads, "Senate majority leader endorses gay marriage ban," but the text is much worse. This was the paragraph that really made me shudder:

Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said the Supreme Court's decision last week on gay sex threatens to make the American home a place where criminality is condoned.

So he insists on calling us criminals. I can't say the same: he's not criminal, just utterly immoral. How these guys who purport to support religion can continue their vicious campaigns so relentlessly … I'll just never get it. Did they never actually read the gospels or are they just incredibly slow learners? Or hard-heads.

And this is where I have a problem with people voting for Republicans. I know you may feel you're voting for a particular Republican who's not an asshole, and he may not be. And you may be voting for tax cuts or defense spending or various economic issues. But you're also installing a Senate Majority Leader and a House Speaker, and a whole slate of powerful committee chairs, who may really feel these horrible things, or may just be beholden to a right-wing "religious" community forcing an anti-Christian agenda. Either way, you're still installing despicable men like Bill Frist, who are willing to demonize a large minority just because he can get away with it. I don't think he has any idea how much damage he does with words like those, but if he really does believe in Jesus, he's going to have one hell of a price to pay one day.

Wow. What a landmark moment. Can't believe I wasn't here to share it with you. Would have liked to be with ANYbody I knew to celebrate it with, but would have loved to be here to write about it.

I think Andrew Sullivan was right that it could prove to be an important stepping stone to gay marriage, but there are still an endless number of stones left in that path. This is not Canada. Or even Vermont. And frankly I don't think America is ready for gay marriage--the backlash could be devastating if we reach too far too soon. But it was certainly ready to legalize homosexuality years ago. Sure took those cranky old farts a long time to get it.

That's one unfortunate factors gays and the courts: we've seen the most radical (radically fast) acceptance among under 30s, who grew up with gays--on TV shows, occasionally in their schools ... mostly on their sitcoms, though, (and we can squeeze Real World in as a sitcom). Might take a few decades to filter up to the geriatric Supremes set.

But what a relief to not be a criminal! As luck would have it, I was legalized while in Florida, one of 13 states where I could have been arrested for getting lucky with a guy, but not with a woman. I got lucky with no one, though I did get a great story.

So here's my little related anecdote, from my return trip: I'm riding the local version of SuperShuttle back to the airport, taking about 90 minutes for a 20-minute trip, and in a stunning break with tradition, I actually make conversation with a fellow passenger. She started it, and she seemed lively, yet unneedy, and I just happened to be giddy about my new book idea, and engaged her. We chatted much of the trip, despite of her sudden fawning over Oliver North. She went to see him at some local Memorial Day celebration in her area, and 6 weeks later, it's apparently still her best material. She's a funeral director from upstate NY, and was wrapping up a vacation with two junior high daughters. Seemed pretty conservative. Just as we were getting to the airport, she asked if I had kids. No. Married? No. Just dedicating your life to work? No, I'd love to get married, but I'm not allowed, actually. I must have felt awkward letting that one hang too long, so before it could, I rushed in with, "--just had a breakup, actually." "I'm sorry. Long-term relationship?" "Yeah, six years, off and on." "That's a shame." Still no pronoun in sight. It is still kina wierd, before it gets out there. That delicate balance between feeling too pushy with the info, versus deliberately hiding it. But we were at her airport, and the kids were clamboring for the door, so that conversation would never be consummated. She checked her ticket, directed her kids to gather up all the knickknacks they'd spread over the seat. Just before the door opened, she leaned back over the seat. "What did you mean 'not allowed?' " "Oh. I'm gay." "I THOUGHT that's what you meant. You need to go to Vermont, up by us, that's where they're getting married." "Yeah, I probably will, eventually." "You should go to Vermont. Definitely Vermont."

I hadn't expected such cheerfulness, much less helpful hints on defiling her institution. The older daughter, who had completely ignored our conversation through the journey, turned to give me the once over. Exceptionally curious look on her face, apparently fascinated to glimpse what we actually looked like.

It's getting easier and easier.

I'm frequently oblivious, though. It was beautiful out one night a couple months ago, so my then-boyfriend and I decided to walk the six blocks to return the video. It was maybe 8 or 9 on a Sunday night, and the whole trip ran along 6th Avenue to Broadway. It's a busy one-one about six lanes long: an expressway into Denver just after it has turned into a stop-lighted thoroughfare. Broadway is the central north-south avenue. I held his hand the whole way, out of habit, and because I like to, and never gave it a second thought. Halfway there, he pointed out all the looks we were getting. Every third or fourth car, you could see heads turning as they drove past. Like they never saw two people holding hands before. What do they expect, a bunch of gay ice princesses?

As for the decision, it's about time, though it was more sweeping than anything I had hoped for. And Scalia, what a freaking bigot. That is one repulsive human being. He and Rehnquist and Thomas are going to do some time in purgatory for that one. 

(I nearly forgot on Andrew: fun column, but didn't he distort the hell out of Scalia's dissent? He did his standard Andrew tactic of summarizing it with two simplistic, misleading summaries of his arguments, and then whacked the pathetic little straw men down. Dickhead.)

I'm baaaaaack.

Hard to resist saying that each time. What am I supposed to say?