It appears that a delay on the FISA bill has been thwarted and will proceed to a full vote on Thursday, as reported by the AP:

http://news.yahoo.com/...

OR-5 is one of the most vulnerable Democratic-held seats this cycle, as the current Democratic incumbent Darlene Hooley has decided to resign. Rep. Hooley won this swing-district, which actually has a Republican registration plurality, by typically about 10% based on her moderate voting record, and as an open seat it is being hotly contested in the Republican primary.

For more background, see my previous diary on this topic: http://www.dailykos.com/...

Today, the strongest and most well-known Republican candidate, Kevin Mannix, made his official declaration, setting off what will likely be a bloody primary on the Repubilcan side.

Update: The MSM is finally starting to report this: blog.oregonlive.com/politics/2008/03/mannix_makes_it_official_hes_r.html

as is the most prominent Oregon political blog:

www.blueoregon.com/2008/03/the-trouble-wit.html
www.blueoregon.com/2008/03/mannix-running.html

OR-5 is one of the few Democratic House vacancies this cycle that will be closely contested by Republicans, as the Democratic incumbent who is retiring, Darlene Hooley, has typically won about 55-45 or tighter since she first won the seat in 1996.

With Darlene's abrupt announcement of her retirement this month and the primary on May 20, the clock has been ticking on who will be the Democratic candidate to declare for the race, until now: State Sen. Kurt Schrader.

This diary is to serve as an "Open Thread" for thoughts on the Presidential 2008 race. I personally have a few disparate thoughts I would like to toss out there, and don't see an appropriate forum for that as there is no current "Open Thread" on the front page (the most recent one is about 5 hours old and way down), and I'd like to invite others with substantive thoughts on the Presidential race to contribute them here in lieu of starting an equally "lightweight" diary."

My thoughts: 1) Media narrative developing about Obama as front-runner? 2) Morbid thought on primary race 3) Question about Romney's dough

As we wade through the results of the first elections of the primary season, it seems to me that one glaring outcome is being overlooked, one with tremendous implications for the course of the rest of the primary season and, indeed, the general election:

The strong possibility of a brokered convention for the Republicans and, much less so, for the Democrats (see wikipedia quote).

This would be the first for either since 1948 (Thomas Dewey) and 1952 (Adlai Stevenson), respectively (both of which they lost). Notably, the last contested convention for the Republicans was in 1976 (when Reagan narrowly lost to incumbent Ford who went on to lose to Carter) and the Democrats since the disastrous 1968 convention, after which the present-day primary system was established.

It's beginning to look like this story has legs, as it has made the New York Times today in a column by Gail Collins:

http://www.nytimes.com/...

Highlights below the flip, although honestly the story seems to be more of a pop-psychoanalytic piece about Rudy's obsession with security than really dealing directly with the scope of the scandal unfolding.

I also saw a brief mention of this story on the back page of the front section of the Friday edition of The Oregonian, although I have yet to find a link.  Feel free to provide any links to other mentions of this story in the "traditional media" in the comments.

Update: Here's the link to the NYT article, released about 12 hours after I wrote this diary: http://www.nytimes.com/...

Update: The summary (abstract) from one of the two research articles published today (11/20/07) on this topic is included at the very bottom.

Stem cells were a significant election year issue in 2006, especially in Missouri, and they promise to be even more so this upcoming year with the advent of a landmark breakthrough that will be announced this week.

For background, last week saw the announcement of a significant achievement with the production of embryonic stem cells from primates (see  http://www.dailykos.com/... ) that was featured on the front page of the NY Times and newspapers all around the world.

A startling scientific breakthrough is being reported regarding the cloning of an adult primate in Portland, Oregon.

For a brief background, the possibility of cloning mammals was thrust upon mankind just 10 years ago when Dolly the sheep was produced in Scotland, and since then many other species have also been successfully cloned, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats, cows and horses.

However, this had never been achieved with primates, either human or non, despite many years of effort and there was ample speculation as to whether some unknown technical barrier would prevent it from ever being accomplished in primates.

Until now.

Dennis Hastert, former Republican Speaker of the House until the Democrats regained control last November, was planning to announce on Thursday that he would resign in December, but is apparently postponing that announcement, according to The Politico:

http://www.politico.com/...

Rumors about French President Sarkozy's divorce appeared in the NY Times in the last couple of days, and they have been confirmed by the French weekly Nouvel Observateur

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/...

and also reported by the national daily Le Monde

http://www.lemonde.fr/...

Here's the NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/...

I thought it would be useful to have a diary detailing events from the special Congressional election in MA-05.  

Please post any information you have in the comments, and I'll try to update with stories as they come in.

OPB, Oregon's NPR, has been reporting that John Frohnmayer, Oregon "Independent" and former NEA chief under Bush, will be declaring for the Oregon Senate race.

No links available yet as this has only been reported on the radio, to my knowledge, but my suspicion is that this would augur poorly for the Dems to retake this seat if he is on the ballot as he's a social liberal and will likely draw from Democrats.

Here's a wiki entry on him until more info emerges (see UPDATE below):

http://en.wikipedia.org/...

Edwards' campaign report is available for the last reporting period, it looks like he pulled in just over the $9 million he was aiming for.

Early returns in Oregon's unique vote-by-mail election are forecasting a Dem wave.  In short, Dems are upstaging Republicans across the state, with potential national implications beyond just the hopeful retaking of the Oregon House and retaining of Senate and Governorship.

Here's the link to the original post at the Oregon website Loaded Orygun, or read below for my synopsis:

http://loadedorygun.blogspot.com/...

The Republican wish list for races to which they would like to direct more money has been released, and it is very telling that these are all challenges to open seats (previously held by Dems or Repubs) or to Dem-held seats.

As I read it, they are saving all their current money for defending their at-risk seats but want to put Dems on the defense elsewhere, just not with the money they have right now--- hold the line, if you will.

Here's the link for those who would like to see and read about the seats themselves, or spare them the traffic and read my own recap below:

https://www.donationreport.com/init/controller/ProcessEntryCmd?key=I3D5E9C5G3

For all you Harry Potter fans who have always wished to have an invisible cloak of your own, your wait just might be over, thanks to the infamous US military funding agency known as DARPA.

According to an on-line only publication in the highly reputable scientific journal Science (the premier scientific publication in the US), it would appear that the physics of invisibility, at least at the theoretical and technical levels, has been established. More below the jump, or check out snippets here yourself

www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/312/5777/1120a

I, like many of you, like to keep my eyes on the bad guys just to see what they're up to.  So, I signed up long ago (before the last election) to receive "supporter" emails from the GOP, specifically Ken Mehlman.

Now, today, I got one asking me to help guide their strategy this fall by completing a survey.  This is the first time I've actually had a chance to have fun with (i.e. fuck with) them, as normally they take a very "top-down" approach and don't give a shit about what I think, but given this rare opportunity I'd thought I'd share in the mischief (below the fold).

Amazingly, it appears that there will be at least 3 and possibly 4 (or more?) Democratic challengers to Greg Walden, Republican of OR-02, the vast, rural Congressional district that covers over half the state, including all of Central and Eastern Oregon.

First reported by loadedorygun.blogspot.com, read below for analysis.

Update: One of the challengers, Chuck Butcher, has posted on loadedorygun.blogspot.com (see comments under "Walden gets official challenger").

And for those of you wondering, that's how we locals pronounce "Orygun."