Sources: Washington Post Faces of the Fallen, The Charleston Gazette. In cases where two addresses were listed, I went with the Gazette's listing, which was based off obituaries, news reports and Department of Defense information.

Long ago there was a Kossack named Jimmy. You've never heard of him, he had a UID in the 40s, having joined the site in that summer of free love 1968.

Jimmy was a hard working activist. Jimmy would knock on doors and do sign waves and blog until 3 a.m. and then get up to open the soup kitchen for railroad hobos at 6 a.m. so they could catch the early train to their homeless sites.

But one day in 1969 Jimmy was struck down by an SUV - a Hummer 3 - driven by then Gov. Ronald Reagan as Jimmy was helping an elderly transgendered woman across the road to vote.

I was there with Jimmy when he pulled me down to hear his dying words, his final advice to me as my mentor.

Day 3 of my Nick Rahall fundraiser.
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U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D) of West Virginia's 3rd District (right) in the southern end of the state endorsed Sen. Barack Obama in March.
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Let me tell you a story about U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV03).

I'm outside of Rahall's district. My representative - and I use that word loosely - is Bush Republican Shelley Moore Capito in WV-02.

Now back in the days when the Republicans thought they'd be the party in power for the next 1,000 years, if I called Capito's office with my view, it was like talking to a wall for all the good it would do.

Basically if Bush and then Tom Delay and Dennis Hastert didn't tell her to do something, she didn't do it. And if they did, she did it. But if it was a constituent from her district, unless you held the same view as Bush, she didn't care what you thought.

That's the way I felt especially in 2002 in the runup to the Iraq war.

U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D) of West Virginia's 3rd District in the southern end of the state endorsed Sen. Barack Obama in March.

Rahall, chairman of the Arab American caucus, is in a district that went largely for Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Rahall did what he could do, but as kos and others have pointed out, Congressional representatives and senators do not have political machines to turn out the vote for other candidates.

But that didn't stop Rahall from trying and he deserves our thanks.

Now his Republican opponent is trying to use Rahall's support of Obama against Rahall. Do we got Rahall's back or not?

U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D) of West Virginia's 3rd District in the southern end of the state endorsed Sen. Barack Obama early on.

Rahall, chairman of the Arab American caucus, is in a district that went largely for Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Rahall did what he could do, but as kos and others have pointed out, Congressional representatives and senators do not have political machines to turn out the vote for other candidates.

But that didn't stop Rahall from trying and he deserves our thanks.

For years I've tried to make myself a thorn in the side of Bush Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito. The day after she won in 2006, Clem and I met at Waffle House in Martinsburg to plot out what we could do to see her defeated in 2008.

Seeing and hearing how John McCain treated her today, I didn't know whether to laugh or cringe. So I did both.

Sure it's a primary and not a general election, but in a year where the Republican brand has a lower approval rating than herpes it's something to consider:

Barack Obama with just 26 percent of the Democratic votes 91,663.
John McCain with just 76 percent of all Republican votes 89,654.

More good news to consider.

Anne Barth is going to face Shelley Moore Capito.

No matter how certain diarists try to couch it, they are bigoted towards a minority of people in this country.

Like the notorious Bell Curve authors, they extrapolate false assumptions from data to perpetuate negative stereotypes against this minority and take the worst anecdotes to use as an example of the whole.

The decision by some to mock, deride or write off an entire class of people is not just bigotry at its worst. It is stupid politically.

City dwellers and rural citizens share something in common.

The other day atrios linked to this

Some suburbanites might not easily understand what has made John and Flossie Gallagher stay in their Harper Street rowhouse for more than 40 years. Or why 30-year resident Pat Hill spends a good part of her time tending the corner garden oasis she and other volunteers rescued from "dump" status.

They might understand why the Gallaghers and Hill have stuck it out, but it would be harder to comprehend why Suzi Nash or Kendra Gaeta or Matt Wanamaker or Evelyn Sheared - all of whom are young enough to be my children - would choose to live in a rowhouse neighborhood where nonresidents think it's OK to relieve themselves wherever they choose.

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City living isn't easy. It never has been.

and atrios commented:

I think it's pretty easy. Obviously some neighborhoods are more problematic than others, but still.

Just some quick hits before I take a nap.

As I've mentioned for months, the Obama supporters have been much more active on the ground in West Virginia even though polls have shown Hillary Clinton with an insurmountable lead in the state. As Clem has pointed out so well, this state's demographics are perfectly suited for Clinton. But even more than the demographics, this state's personality is suited for her to win. West Virginians love politicians they're familiar with. We had Bill Clinton as our president and Hillary Clinton as our First Lady for eight years.

The last time I checked, Sen. Robert C. Byrd had not endorsed Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton for president, which I thought a good move considering how much I want him to keep focused on the election of his long-time state director Anne Barth to the House of Representatives in WV-02.

No really, there is one. A big one.
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(That's what she said...)

I almost went with the title DHinMI is wrong.

"Daddy, spin it around," the middle Carnacki girl said.

She sat on the board of a rope swing looped over the thick branch of a large black walnut tree.

I joined other Democrats at the Berkeley County Democratic headquarters to watch the debate. I only watched part of it. There were 22 people there at one time, though a few left early.

One of our Democrats brought a birthday cake for one of our other local Democrats. We also signed a get-well-sooon card for one of our older frequent volunteers in the hospital. I suggested we send in a phonebank list to keep her busy. She'd probably do it. Hopefully she's better soon.

I've been posting for quite some time now of the large gap in West Virginia in the grassroots support and county level Democratic activists for Sen. Barack Obama well out of proportion to the polls that showed Sen. Hillary Clinton ahead in West Virginia by a large margin.

Today in Berkeley County, one of the largest counties in the state, 50 of the 52 delegates elected at the county convention today to the state convention in Charleston were Sen. Barack Obama supporters.

You know you really want to support him. Why with his rugged good looks, his history as a maverick, his courage in violating his own campaign finance laws, I think we should all sign up at this McCain Google Groups site to give him all of the help he needs.

There's an even better way to support him.

You know those google ads you see on state blogs? West Virginia Blue has one up now because the McCain campaign must have had the highest bid for certain key words on sites.

Whenever you see one of those ads, give it a nice click to show your support for John McCain.