This diary is going to be a little counter intuitive. Obama doesn't have a good chance to win Utah or Wyoming. Texas is a reach unless this election reaches blowout proportions. So why am I argueing that turn out in these states will make any difference?

1. THE KEY TO CHANGING DIRECTION IN AMERICA IS GETTING A MANDATE.

2. THE KEY TO GETTING A MANDATE IS RECEIVING A LARGE SHARE OF THE POPULAR VOTE.

For those of you who are familar with my diaries you know I'm very carefull about calling a person a racist. I find it's more like to end conversations then to start them. But I find this story from the NYT is loaded with politics and racism masked as concern. I have developed a deep loathing for the word CONCERN in politics. More often then not it's a code word, because it's never elaborated on. Concern about what?  Concern usually masks racism, sexism, politics, or homophobia. The reasons expressed for this concern always seem flimsy.

In this case the CONCERN is over the large number of black people registering to vote in Louisiana. You see the Democrats’ Vote Drive in Louisiana Stirs Concern. Why is it stirring concern?

This is just a quick story I had to pass on. Zvika Krieger at the The New Republic, brings us even "More Bad News For Republicans" It seems NPR hired GOP pollster Glen Bolger and Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg to answer the question: Is it the GOP's horrible reputation (in light of Bush, Katrina, Iraq, etc.) that is making voters not like them, or is it actually just their positions that are making them so unpopular?" The findings were astounding!

I have always been a fan of Howard Dean. I love the way that after he lost the nomination he proved his love for the party by helping to rebuild it. Now this story in Politico "DNC blunts GOP microtargeting lead" make me realize how fortunate we are to have him as our chairman.

After years of struggling to catch up to the Republican Party’s sophisticated microtargeting efforts, the Democratic National Committee appears to have come close to parity.

The DNC has now reorganized its data banks into one centralized file that goes a long way toward neutralizing the GOP’s advantage in drilling down and identifying crucial constituencies of voters.

In the past two presidential cycles, the Republican national voter file allowed the party to more efficiently locate, communicate with and galvanize voters. Democrats, by comparison, relied on a disjointed compilation of national and state party data files that varied widely in quality. To boot, said one DNC analyst, many of their files would vanish after each election year.

I was having trouble sleeping and I found this bit of frightening news in the Energy Bulletin.

Speaking exclusively to Aljazeera, Simmons came out with a statement that, if proven true over time, could herald by far the biggest energy crisis mankind has known.

"If Saudi Arabia have damaged their fields, accidentally or not, by overproducing them, then we may have already passed peak oil. Iran has certainly peaked, there is no way on Earth they can ever get back to their production of six million barrels per day (mbpd)."

The technical term for damaging an oilfield by overproduction is rate sensitivity. In other words, if the oil is pulled out of the ground too fast, it damages the fragile geological structure of the field. This can make as much as 80% of the oil within the field unextractable. Of course, at the moment, virtually every producer is at full tilt. The most important among them is Saudi Arabia; their Gharwar field is the world's biggest.

One of the first hints that Simmons got over possible Saudi Arabian overproduction was from researching an obscure US Senate committee meeting in 1974

As it's now safe to say Sen. Obama will be the Democratic Party nominee for president it's time to start looking at what we need to do to win. Since the focus has been on white working class voters for the last month, I'm going to start there.

First I want to link to dairy I wrote about a year ago. It's on a story by Noam Scheiber of TNR and it's profound.  Why Conservative's fake populism works. It deals with how G.W. Bush, Fred Thompson, and other wealthy republicans win over the white working class.

I don't have much more to add to this story, except this is the after shock of xenophonbia. Even though Sen. McCain has been a moderate on immmigration here is hoping the rest of the GOP ticket continues with their twin campaigns of racism/xenophobia. POLITICO Hispanics may put Fla. in play for Dems

Democrats are poised this week to pass a crucial milestone in Florida: For the first time, the number of Hispanic Democrats in the state is expected to exceed the number of Hispanic Republicans.

The Florida secretary of state is expected to release the month's voter registration figures to the state Democratic and Republican parties. The last set of figures, released in April, showed a bare majority of 212 Republicans over Democrats among the state's roughly 1.2 million voters who describe themselves as Hispanic on their official voter registration forms. In each month since the state started tracking Hispanic registration more than two years ago, Democrats have gained.

First of all I'm not a major supporter of Ethanol made from corn. I believe our ethanol supply should come from Sugar Beets not corn. Never the less, a talking point has become conventional wisdom that ethanol from corn is the major cause of rising food prices. It's not true argues Businessweek! Corn-based fuel isn't the villain critics contend. This crisis is much deeper then this.

Last year, American farmers grew a record 13.1 billion bushels of corn on 85 million acres. Of that, 22% went to make about 7 billion gallons of ethanol. That still left enough corn to supply the domestic market, increase exports to record levels, and stockpile a 10% surplus. McKinsey principal Bill Caesar estimates farmers will be able to keep increasing corn-based ethanol production to 15 billion gallons in 2015 (a level of output mandated by federal policy) without reducing the amount going for food and feed, and without increasing acres planted. The secret: continuing improvements in yields.

This is really a diary to start a discussion on a subject that I think hasn't been debated much in the blogosphere. Do we need to amend the constitution to prevent another unitary executive president? Before people react negatively to the politically difficult idea of amending the constitution consider this. A number of amendments were added to the US constitution after presidents pushed "current" (then) accepted constitutional boundaries, or constitutionaly elected official created chaos.

I have grown more callous as I grow older and keep hearing bad news from around the world. But every so often a story still finds a way to break my heart. This one is from Africa's broken heart Congo. I have been mostly following Zimbabwe's conflict, Congo unfortunately, has been fighting so long it has moved off to the back burner. But today on NPR I heard a number that shocked me. 5.4 million have died in Congo civil war!  5.4 million people have died since 1998 and the world has barely noticed! Before you say it's because it's not part of the world economy I have news for you, you couldn't read this without Congo.

This is the most personal journal I have ever written. I did a lot of second guesing before I started writing it. "They" say that you should be carefull about what you post on the internet for the whole world to read. "They" say it could come back to haunt you. I just felt it was time to tell this story. You see I'm Black Jamaican-American from a pretty religous back ground who became a homophobe, then stopped being one. I wish the reason I stopped being one was a great a shining moment but it was rather a wierd way to have an epiphany. But I also think my friend JA who helped me along the way knew that was the best way to reach me. Well here goes.

Commentary
Robinswing, Black Kos Editor

It’s been a tough week for a blackwoman.  If my sons had not already done so years ago, the media and its relentless harping on Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama would have tap-danced on my very last nerve.

Then I look up today and see this.

Talk about open season on black males, this is the week that was.  I love my brothers and this has been a pretty big dose of black as boogie man manic trying to be depressive.  It’s been a week of you can do anything you want to my brothers.  I’m not having it.  Not any of it.

For Friday Black Kos extended
Sen. Obama's much anticipated speech on race was made today. Ironic isn't it that mass culture that for years told Black people just get over it can't seem to get beyond this issue of race? Yeah, the Black guy who wants to get over it, keeps on getting dragged INTO IT by the media, pundits, talking heads, and yes ex-presidents. Who needs to get over it? I find Reverend Wright’s talk inflammatory, don't get me wrong. I was "schooled" in the economic self help, proud of African heritage, universe of Black thought. I have over and over told Blacks people and progressive of all striped to do the following:

The last 2 months of the democratic primary has left me with a deep sadness. 6 months ago, I was overwhelmed with pride at being a Democrat. Looking at our field presidential candidates and seeing America. Working in Massachusetts and seeing the same areas of South Boston that onced stoned my Aunt's car for turning down the wrong street voting 3:2 for Gov. Duval Patrick an African American. Looking at states like not only blue NJ and IL elect racial/ethnic minorities to the senate, but also purple CO and FL, I felt America was at last ready to overcome it's original sin. Don't get me wrong I'm still comitted to the party and I still believe as strongly as I ever have in the same ideals, but what so many bomb throwing pundits, and over zealous HRC supporters don't realize is that some of their tactics have tarnished some of the idealism many of us had this campaign. No amount of crap the GOP could have thrown would have done that (look at what they called Max Cleland it's just their nature), but it hurt more coming from our own heros. Look I love tough primaries. I think testing our own candidates makes them stronger and more responsive. But I would like to think we can have a fair fight by swinging above the belt.

when pigs fly! Remember how the media handled that case? The GOP didn't ask for him to resign. The judge refused to reveal the client list. It was only revealed because of Larry Flynt 'Hustler' Call May Have Prompted Vitter Admission. The girl from this case can sell her story, but the DC Madam couldn't sell her list or reveal it? Even to pay for her defense! OK so when will some one raise this point on TV? I have been waiting for several days? Why are they thinking of trying to prosecute him now that he is exposed? At last The New Republic has in "Was the investigation of Eliot Spitzer politically motivated?" But I can tell you how the corporate media will spin the story.

William Jelani Cobb a blogger at Ebonyjet.com wrote this poignant piece. Prayer For A Random Black Man.

I have been high on Obama for the last month, rambling on about new eras and dividing lines of history. And these are intoxicating times, days when hopes we were afraid to harbor have come so close to harvest.

But I crashed hard last week the day I was told that a student I knew, a brilliant, beautifully gifted young Morehouse brother was dead, the victim of a gunshot wound that resembled a suicide. Two days later I learned that my first cousin, a member of the Bloods, had been shot dead in his home and the house set ablaze. It was then that I remembered that the world is not so well choreographed, that we drag fragments of awful into our dreams and the bitter past is always, always with us. This is the second time I've had to pick up my pen to exorcise the grief of two black men killed in the same week. Forgive me if I repeat myself.

In case you missed it this is an important cultural event. State of the Black Union.

Some of the most influential thinkers, entertainers, and political leaders of our time gather each year to discuss the State of the Black Union during Black History Month. Presented annually in February by Tavis Smiley Presents, the symposium was created to educate, enlighten and empower America by bringing people together and engaging them in thoughtful dialogue, leading the way to constructive action.

Yeah this scumbag cost many lives. A Culture Warrior's Impact on AIDS in Africa

Jesse Helms, former six-term Republican senator from North Carolina and de-facto leader of his party's "culture wars," found a way to make HIV-AIDS the communism of the 1990s.  As chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Helms did not simply use his power to cut  U.S. government assistance to international HIV-AIDS programs, he leveraged his political position to create an environment that sought to stigmatize and shame AIDS victims both at home and abroad.