Pennsylvania: Bill Clinton

President Bill Clinton will be giving the keynote speech at Netroots Nation 2009 this Thursday. Those not living under a rock know that NN 2009 (formerly known as YearlyKos) is being held in Pittsburgh this week (August 13-16 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center) and that it's a national convention for progressive bloggers.

Other pols and local luminaries participating in various panels include:
Gov. Howard Dean
Sen. Arlen Specter
Gov. Don Siegelman
Rep. Joe Sestak
Rep. Jerrold Nadler
PA Rep. Chelsa Wagner
Mayor John Fetterman
City Councilman Bill Peduto
Witold "Vic" Walczak
Dr. Cyril Wecht
Rev. Janet Edwards
Khari Mosely
Celeste Taylor
Paradise Gray
Kimberly "Dr. Goddess" Ellis

Full Speaker list here and agenda here.
I am looking forward to hearing from some of the rock stars of my world including:

With this week's column, Jack Kelly gives us all a valuable lesson in rightwing psychobabble. The topic: President Obama's supposed "narcissism."

Sometimes deconstructing Jack Kelly is difficult (i.e. last week) and sometimes (i.e. this week) it's easy as easy can be.

Jack begins by defending (yet again) the Alaskan quitter, Governor Sarah Palin:

In his hit piece on Sarah Palin for Vanity Fair, Todd Purdum wrote:

"More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin's extravagant self regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of 'narcissistic personality disorder' in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -- 'a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration and lack of empathy' -- and thought it fit her perfectly.

Let the analysis begin. First from S. A. Miller of the The Washington Times:
Social conservatives, the once-powerful force that focused the Republican agenda on moral virtue and family values, have suffered a diminished brand on the national political landscape as a steady stream of their icons have fallen prey to the vices they once preached against.

Extramarital affairs, gambling, alcohol abuse, prostitution and sexual pursuit of minors have taken a toll on the GOP.

A tearful South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford became the latest social conservative to fall, confessing Wednesday to an affair with a woman that ended with a bizarre episode, in which he disappeared from his security detail and flew to Argentina for a visit, leaving his four sons and wife on Father's Day weekend.

I heard part of Fred Honsberger's show today.

I am not sure how the discussion started but by the time I turned on the radio, a caller named "Dave" (though it was NOT me - I go by "David" exclusively) was trying to convince my friend Fred that; No, Governor Casey (our current Jr. Senator's father) was NOT denied a slot to speak at the 1992 Democratic Convention on because he was pro-life.

Fred said that Governor Casey himself told him he was in 1992. That part may be true but it's irrelevant. As we'll see considering that an important source of the myth is Governor Casey himself it's hardly surprising that he'd tell Fred that.