So I'm bopping around here and there trying to keep track of just how many superdelegates are endorsing Obama... it's enough of a deluge that various web sources are having trouble keeping up.

Right here on Kos, it's still 23.5 on the FP table (as I write), 22 in one diary, 10 in another.  The Obama website has 12 and 16.5 ON THE SAME PAGE.

All right, so I'm burying the lead.  USA Today has Obama at 2123 delegates -- 5 OVER the finish line.  If they're right... it's over.

Already.

Hi Kossacks:

I'm enlisting the aid/consultation of the Daily Kos community...  I was just contacted by a Japanese TV production company asking if they could use this image for a TV show.

They asked me what the fee would be and I have NO IDEA.  I've never sold one of my images to a TV studio, in Japan or anywhere else.

Any TV production, admin or management people out there who can tell me what's the "going rate" for this sort of thing?

So Hillary supporters, and the Clinton campaign itself, are claiming that they've raised... well, some number of millions of dollars in online donations in the last few days.

Others... have doubts.  (I take the word "claims" as expressing a certain skepticism... check the comments also.)

Now my feeling is that just as Kossackswere a significant part of the Obama money bomb... Hillary can't have received such a big online donation total without a big infusion from those among us who support her.

Reading Bob Johnson's diarycontending that there's a groundswell of disaffection among African-Americans due to one of the Clinton campaigner's "drug dealer" smear of Obama, I could see why that could well be the case.

The diary, however, cited a WaPo article that was not well-sourced.  As a journalist myself, I would never talk about a "building backlash" without directly quoting at least two or three average African-Americans in support of that interpretation, nor would I paraphrase any Obama operatives who said "some African American leaders detect a pattern" without getting names of said leaders and quoting them.

Nonetheless, many commenters on the diary said that there is indeed a backlash growing.  Since we're a big enough community to be our very own demographic, I'd like to measure how severe the disaffection is, at least among Kossacks.  So -- please! -- TAKE THE POLL over the flip.

DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS DIARY.  RECOMMEND LIVEBLOG MOTHERSHIP

Go to -- Liveblog #24

Welcome to the fourth day of 24/7 liveblog coverage of the fires in Southern California provided by the DKos community. If you are able to, please include information on evacuations, closures/openings, and fire-fighting progress in your comments.

Are things getting better yet?  The wind appears to be dying down somewhat, which would help the firefighters more than anything else, so that's a good sign.

Please do not post pictures (they slow things down too much) or frivolous comments.  If you are here to mock, gloat, blame the victims or give us your philosophical meanderings about the meaning of wildfires, go play with other trolls.  We've only had to troll-rate one person to oblivion so far, but boy was it fun.

Please use the first comment to post updates. Responses to the first comment should be updates only.

**PLEASE do not recommend this diary; RECOMMEND Mothership II by Liveblog**.  Mothership I here.

SoCal folks: does it help to know that people as far away as Canada care?  That's where I am... liveblogging knows no borders.

For those who are far away from SoCal, please volunteer to post a liveblog.  Probably you are more well-rested and your Internet connection and power are more certain than people in the area!

This horror may not be over for a few days  Please help!

The Rules:
1. Please do NOT use local numbers and websites, UNLESS you are in the area and are in need.

2. No pictures or frivolous comments in the thread, please. We are here to aid our brothers and sisters in SoCal and provide links and updates for them and the community. Confine your remarks to the SoCal fires and keep them helpful.  Pictures slow down the thread (on a site that's already slow) keeping useful info from getting to those who need it right now.

I know everyone doesn't love Arianna Huffington all the time, and myself I find there's far too much National-Enquiresque celebrity stuff on Huffington Post.  But she's at her snarky, snide best in yesterday's blog post, Cutting the Fat from the ISG Proposals.

It took us a day, but we finally plowed through all 79 proposals submitted by the Iraq Study Group. Now, we're all for thoroughness, but 79 seems like overkill -- it's hard enough to read through 79 proposals, let alone try to implement them. Here then is HuffPost's look at seven of the Group's suggestions that should be the first to go:

Chase Arianna and see the fruits of her painstaking labours over the jump...

Another case of mistreatment of a constituent who just wants to ask questions.

Here is a diary explaining the issue: Republican representative Joe Barton is single-handedly holding up a "Combatting Autism" bill.  This bill would enact a variety of measures to aid kids with autism.  He won't let it pass without his own reforms to the NIH.  Surprise, surprise, autism parents are mad at this legislative blackmail.

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/...

From Salon/Center for Investigative Reporting via Huffpo:

Thank you so much for considering me for that nice life-long judicial appointment, Mr. President... the check is in the mail.

Oct. 31, 2006 | At least two dozen federal judges appointed by President Bush since 2001 made political contributions to key Republicans or to the president himself while under consideration for their judgeships, government records show. A four-month investigation of Bush-appointed judges by the Center for Investigative Reporting reveals that six appellate court judges and 18 district court judges contributed a total of more than $44,000 to politicians who were influential in their appointments. Some gave money directly to Bush after he officially nominated them. Other judges contributed to Republican campaign committees while they were under consideration for a judgeship.

Via Think Progress --

ABC has refused to provide a copy to President Clinton's office. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Adviser Samuel Berger have also requested copies of the film from ABC, and both have been denied.

Meanwhile the most obscure right wing bloggers are receiving them.  I can't believe these people are still making like they're being even-handed either in the content of this propaganda piece, or how they're unveiling it.

On this day last year, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin did the most heartfelt interview by a politician I have ever heard.

Fully aware that it might get him "in so much trouble it ain't even funny," he demanded in blunt and earthy language that something be done by authorities higher than his own to save his city -- or else they should hand authority over to him -- a full five days after the storm, with people still unrescued and dying.

Towards the end of the interview, both he and Garland Robinette of WWL Radio, the interviewer, broke down in tears.  "The city of New Orleans," said Nagin, "will never be the same."

Since I comment only occasionally and diary even less, you probably don't know me unless you read DarkSyde's Science Friday posts, for which I often do digital illustrations.  But I am also a writer, having published three novels, several short stories and many news and feature articles.

Tonight at 8 p.m. EDT, I and about 24 other writers, on the signal of a bell, will begin pounding out as many words as we can manage, making them as trenchant and beautiful, or at least as coherent, as possible, before the bell rings again 48 hours later.  Caffeinated beverages will be crucial, sleeping and eating optional.  It's the Fifth Annual Muskoka Novel Marathon, in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada, and prizes will be awarded for best novel, greatest number of words written, most spirited, and most funds raised.

Why are we so harnessing our literary skills?

To help the person who can't even read this message learn how.

I don't post a lot of diaries, and it took me some time to nerve myself up to post this one.

Some people find "pie fights" fun but I think they are divisive, energy-draining, an embarrassment to this blog, and a contributing factor to the "circular firing squad" tendency in progressive politics.  In the last one, mild and reasonable arguments were getting multiple troll ratings, one poster was wishing diseases on people, a front pager was calling numerous commenters insane or liars -- and it all got onto the rec list.

I think something needs fixing here, and I also think the fix is relatively easy.

The whole recent Maryscott O'Connor fooferall was about how we are described, by mainstream media.  Some liked it, some disliked it; many seemed to resent the loss of power inherent in being described by a media outlet, especially one that's not exactly friendly to our goals or values.

So I suggest we take things into our own hands, and use the great outreach this community has gained to counter any memes about us we disagree with -- or at least add to them so as to create a truly complete picture.  In other words: let's describe ourselves (and each other).

I invite all Kossacks to do so in the comments, using the following rules:

The newly-elected conservative government of Canada is mostly keeping quiet, fully aware that its sinister motives are not welcomed by most Canadians.  Pushing an extreme right-wing agenda necessitates some stealth in the USA, but even more stealth in Canada.

But the silencing of a novelist because he's also a government scientist concerned about global warming shows that prime minister Stephen Harper and his gang (who are known to oppose the Kyoto accords) are reading right out of the Bu$hCo corporatocracy playbook.

The man's not even making authoritative public factual statements about global warming.  He's just pushing a freaking novel!

Seems they've found some sort of pretext to dismiss the case against Abdul Rahman, the Afghan Christian who was charged with apostasy, punishable by death according to Afghan law.

But good luck to him once he's freed.

Toronto Star 4:36 EST --

One official said freedom might come as soon as Monday for Rahman, who became a Christian in the 1990s while working for an aid group in neighboring Pakistan.

Muslim extremists, who have demanded death for Rahman as an apostate for rejecting Islam, warned the decision would touch off protests across this religiously conservative country. Some clerics previously vowed to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he was let go.

So maybe Box Turtle Ben isn't a professional, whom we should expect to get things right (not to mention not steal other people's writing)... but Howard Kurtz is supposed to be, right?

Whoops!  Posted on WaPo today at 3:30 p.m. EST:

Previous allegations of plagiarism about Domenech's writing for the College of William & Mary student newspaper surfaced Wednesday, but the 2001 review was the first instance found since his college graduation.

But Domenech didn't graduate.

Per CTV National News (Canada) --

The man accidentally shot by U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney said the quail hunting incident was nothing more than an accident, and he apologized to Cheney and his family for causing a ruckus.

This is why these Republicans becomes shells of human beings... the repeated insults to their dignity and personhood they are forced to swallow, so as to serve the needs of power.  Whittington quotes flip-side...