The New York Times says that Muslims in America feel snubbed by Barack Obama. Well, I don't feel snubbed. I don't feel snubbed because I have never been courted for my "Muslimness". I am not used to being courted so I don't know what being politically snubbed feels like.

I have never written a diary before directed at the Daily Kos community. This one is a first.

I had to rush home early from work today to run an errand. While sitting in traffic on my drive home a little after 4PM I pulled up politico.com on my PDA. There I saw the shocking news that Tim Russert, moderator of Meet The Press, had passed away from an apparent heart attack. That news knocked the wind out of me.

The Barack Obama campaign has launched a website to fight the right-wing smears against Barack Obama. The website is called "Fight The Smears".

Since the Obama campaign is a people powered campaign, I suggest that we the people join Barack Obama in combatting these Internet smears. With your help, we can push these smears into the Internet memory hole.

Today I am launching the "Fight The Smears" Blogroll. If you have your own blog, I urge you to join us and become part of the blogroll. By doing so, you will be helping spread the truth about Barack Obama while helping push the smears into Google search oblivion. As more people join the Blogroll and add the blogroll to their blogs the more prominent the blogroll will become. So join and do your part in stopping the smears.

Yesterday Liz Trotta of Fox News made a dangerous mistake on air. Today she apologized. Unlike Hillary Clinton, she did not say she "regretted" if "anyone was offended". She said she was "sorry". That is how it is done. Contrast her apology with Hillary Clinton's non-apology for the RFK assassination remarks.

This morning Hillary Clinton has an op-ed in the Daily News. In it she remains unapologetic about her RFK assassination comments. Instead she says that those who were offended took her "entirely out of context". She is "dismayed and disturbed" that we would misconstrue her comments. In other words, she stands by what she said and regrets that we have twisted her words. If people were holding their breath for an apology for her ghoulish behavior this is not it:

Hillary Clinton has a habit of planting suggestions into the political landscape. Today she suggested that Barack Obama might be assassinated, with her waiting in the wings to take up the Democratic nomination. She invoked Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in June 1968 during the Democratic primaries as a reason for her to stay in the race - you know, just in case.

Barack Obama needs approximately 15 super delegates to win the Democratic nomination. With today's results in Kentucky and Oregon Barack Obama has 1961 total delegates according to DemConWatch. There are still 17 more delegates outstanding from Oregon according to CNN's count. Obama will probably get 10 of those when all the counting is done. He then needs another 54 delegates to reach 2025 delegates required to become the nominee.

They scrawled the words "Fuck yeah" on the pages of the Holy Koran and then they shot it full of holes. Last week a few American soldiers in Iraq thought it would be cool to use the Koran for target practice. The US commander on the ground, Major General Jeffery Hammond, has quickly apologized to try to repair the damage. I hope it will be enough, but I seriously doubt that fallout from this act of stupidity by a few soldiers can be contained.

I am reposting the diary I wrote last January about Senator Kennedy. The Senator has had a major impact in my life and the lives of millions of Bengali people. He is of course known in the United States by his great achievements in service of the liberal cause and the common people. However, Ted Kennedy has also made a difference in the lives of millions of people around the world. Today as our thoughts and prayers are with the Senator and his family, I wanted to share with the Daily Kos community another side of this great human being.

----------------------

When we were being silenced, he lent us his voice. When we found freedom, he came to us.

A generation later I want to say thank you.

To: David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

Dear Mr. Plouffe,

I have read with great alarm press reports that the Barack Obama campaign is in discussions to pay off the approximately $25 million campaign debt Hillary Clinton has generated in her increasingly desperate and destructive bid for the Democratic nomination. As one of over 1.5 million loyal contributors to the Obama for America campaign, I want to strongly and unequivocally express to you my opposition to any such plan.

Through the race-stained lens of the Democratic nomination race I am a Brown American. I have many American friends. But today they are apparently White Americans, Black Americans, Brown Americans, Red Americans, and Yellow Americans. I do not have enough buckets to store and segregate my friends of many hues and many colors. Repeatedly and often I mix colors and leave out the qualifier and focus on my American friends.

Tonight on Larry King Live, Christine Pelosi, a Democratic super delegate, indicated that she would endorse the winner of the pledged delegates. For all intents and purposes that is another super delegate vote for Barack Obama.

It is once again time for the familiar parlor game. Tomorrow North Carolina and Indiana go to the polls. The race is no longer about delegates. Barack Obama has an insurmountable lead in elected delegates. The race is about whether Hillary Clinton can convince Democratic party insiders to steal the nomination for her. To achieve that she must destroy Barack Obama as a candidate. Tomorrow is her last chance.

So on to the predictions.

Today Hillary Clinton entered the clueless world of George W Bush. She displayed her "my way or the highway" modus operandi that made her 1990s healthcare foray into such a debacle. Back then she didn't care to listen to healthcare experts, this time she doesn't care to listen to economists.

Hillary Clinton, in a shameless pander, is trying to convince the voters in Indiana and North Carolina that her proposal to suspend the federal gas tax is good for them. It is not. It is good for the oil companies.

Hillary Clinton, in a shameless pander, is trying to convince the voters in Indiana and North Carolina that her proposal to suspend the federal gas tax is good for them. It is not. It is good for the oil companies.