I have a confession to make. I'm not a Clinton supporter turned Obama backer.

I'm just a lowly concern troll.

And yet, I'm a diabolical genius because I tricked nearly all of you. Naïve fools! But don't worry, I'm going to tell you how. I wouldn't want you to make the grave error of mistaking concern trolling for genuine support ever again. For all you Clinton supporters out there, let this diary be your guide to concern trolling. Obama supporters are all 13 years old, so even though I'm sitting here, flat out telling them I'm a concern troll, they still won't get it. Their young, puerile, undeveloped minds still won't process it - kids have poor reading comprehension, you know, and they all have ADD nowadays, anyway. Thank god we're all old, wizened, spinsters. So pull up a chair, put your 30 cats in your lap, and read carefully.

I'm not going to start off with a disclaimer about who I'm going to vote for or who I supported in the primary. Draw your own conclusions.

I'm also going to keep it short, because I want to get out of the house and enjoy this national holiday when we celebrate the beginning of the process that found the first democracy since the ancient Greeks.

During the primaries, I watched as people on both sides bashed the other side and the opposing candidates. There were some really egregious comments coming from all sides. The rage was fueled by trolls from the GOP side. Apparently, some people want to keep the anger at a fever pitch and are doing everything they can to disrupt the Democratic party.

I am supposed to write a diary that bashes Barack Obama too but please forgive me if I come across as shrill and angry because I'm drinking too much scotch right now, my family no longer invites me to any birthday parties or weddings, I'm not allowed to see the grandchildren, and my 14 cats are pooping around my Manhattan apt. right now.

Happy Independence Day everyone!! Today our nation celebrates it's Declaration of Independence from the British Empire. After much sacrifice from that generation, our nation would go on to become the first that was built upon the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment. Our nation would become a bastion of freedom, and the "city on the hill" for the world to aspire to.

I just wanted to say how depressing it is that on a site dedicated to electing Democrats it has four and half diaries on the rec list that either accuse, make fun of, slam or belittle our Democratic nominee.  On the other hand Hillary Clinton is represented in three of them, all in a positive way.

I'm all for talking about our differences in Obama's policy decisions, however some of you just can't wait for something controversial to pop up so you can diary it and get your fix on bashing the Democratic nominee.  Many of you "claim" that you will vote and support Obama, but I never see any positive statements about him from most of you, just the so-called "concerns".

Finally, I am fed up with Hillary would have done this or Hillary would have never done that...We will never know.  Hillary is an outstanding politician and I am thrilled she and her husband on our side but our nominee is Barack Obama.  If you want want to discuss issues on a mature and rational level, I'm all for it...But if you are just here to demean and degrade the nominee for your own personal satisfaction be prepared to be called out.

First, I want to wish you all a Happy 4th of July. I've been thinking about the meaning of Independence Day, a day on which we as a people publicly declared our desire to be masters of our own destiny, to chart our own course as a free and independent society no longer under the control of others. For 232 years we Americans have done just that. We have governed ourselves, and I'd say that our record is one in which we can justly take a great deal of pride.

On this 4th of July, I've also been thinking about another kind of independence, namely energy independence. We are a strong country with our best days yet ahead of us. Right now, however, we face tremendous problems because we are deeply dependent on foreign oil. And we're not just importing oil from friendly democracies like Canada, but from places like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, countries who have very different values and interests from our own.

More after the jump.

Barack Obama announced today that in honor of the July 4 celebration of America's revolt "against taxation without respresentation" he will join the Pray at the Pump Movement.

The PAPM, founded by Rocky Twyman, a member of the Seventh Day Adventists, has been holding prayer vigils at Exxon and Shell stations across the country. Smiling and obviously excited Obama told the impromptu presser:

I was a community organizer and I know what this involves. This is one man making a difference. It is faith based and it is spiritual. It is a man of God doing God's work. Who can be against God?

Obama refused to disclose which gas station he will turn up at in the next few days. His press corps immediately launched into a flurry of speculation. So far Pray at  the Pumpers have hit Exxon and Shell stations. But Wednesday they turned their prayers on the Embassy  of Saudi Arabia in Washington D.C.

Obama announced in response to a question about the Embassy pray-in.

"No. No. No.  I don't think praying at the Saudi Embassy, is a good idea The Saudis understand our concerns well enough. We don't need to seem to attack them directly. Besides they are Muslims. They could care less about a bunch of Jesus freaks.

He then told one of the women in the press throng:

I don't understand your question, sweetie, No one said Jesus freaks. You misheard me. Easy to do out here in the wind.   I am a devout man of faith. I take my religion and my preacher seriously. That would be contrary to everything I believe.

On the issue of his beliefs, another reporter questioned the presumed Democratic nominee about his stand on Iraq. Obama has been reported as saying recently that based on his upcoming visit there, his view of when the troops might come home, could be adjusted.  He explained:

One simply cannot  know in advance what sort of expedient position the President will be required to take. But I am sure all of my supporters and the American people can rest easy in the knowledge that I have no qualms changing my position to suit whatever situation arises.

Obama then blew the woman reporter a kiss and turned away from the impromptu presser. As he stepped into the waiting limousine and the reporters melted away, one bystander was seen picking a paper off the ground. It was headed:

Senator Obama's Impromptus Remarks on Pray at the Pumpers. Staff note: Remember, this should appear to be spontaneous.

Twyman, who prompted the first national campaign aimed at getting African Americans to become bone marrow donors, who still did not know of Obama's support, was reported later as saying:

I think we have just entered a new phase. We were in the prayerful phase, but now we're going into a more activist phase, because we feel that whole faith without works is dead.

John Neurohr from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, has a different approach to managing the high gas prices.

There is little, if anything, the average person can do to reduce gas prices generally. What they can do is reduce their personal dependence on gasoline by carpooling and utilizing public transportation.

Obama rejected the riding the bus idea. Not prayerful and faith-based enough. He wants to win evangelicals to his side, and praying at the pump is by far the best publicity op.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Pa ge=/Nation/archive/200807/NAT20080703a.h tml

***Disclaimer. Senator Obama has held no such press conference and his views on Pray at the Pump are unknown at this time. However, while I support him because he is the Democratic Party nominee, I can readily imagine this happening.

Today's NYT editorial is just brutal on Obama's depressing flip flops.

Senator Barack Obama stirred his legions of supporters, and raised our hopes, promising to change the old order of things. He spoke with passion about breaking out of the partisan mold of bickering and catering to special pleaders, promised to end President Bush's abuses of power and subverting of the Constitution and disowned the big-money power brokers who have corrupted Washington politics.

Now there seems to be a new Barack Obama on the hustings. First, he broke his promise to try to keep both major parties within public-financing limits for the general election. His team explained that, saying he had a grass-roots-based model and that while he was forgoing public money, he also was eschewing gold-plated fund-raisers. These days he's on a high-roller hunt.

Even his own chief money collector, Penny Pritzker, suggests that the magic of $20 donations from the Web was less a matter of principle than of scheduling. "We have not been able to have much of the senator's time during the primaries, so we have had to rely more on the Internet," she explained as she and her team busily scheduled more than a dozen big-ticket events over the next few weeks at which the target price for quality time with the candidate is more than $30,000 per person.

The new Barack Obama has abandoned his vow to filibuster an electronic wiretapping bill if it includes an immunity clause for telecommunications companies that amounts to a sanctioned cover-up of Mr. Bush's unlawful eavesdropping after 9/11.

In January, when he was battling for Super Tuesday votes, Mr. Obama said that the 1978 law requiring warrants for wiretapping, and the special court it created, worked. "We can trace, track down and take out terrorists while ensuring that our actions are subject to vigorous oversight and do not undermine the very laws and freedom that we are fighting to defend," he declared.

Now, he supports the immunity clause as part of what he calls a compromise but actually is a classic, cynical Washington deal that erodes the power of the special court, virtually eliminates "vigorous oversight" and allows more warrantless eavesdropping than ever.

The Barack Obama of the primary season used to brag that he would stand before interest groups and tell them tough truths. The new Mr. Obama tells evangelical Christians that he wants to expand President Bush's policy of funneling public money for social spending to religious-based organizations -- a policy that violates the separation of church and state and turns a government function into a charitable donation.

He says he would not allow those groups to discriminate in employment, as Mr. Bush did, which is nice. But the Constitution exists to protect democracy, no matter who is president and how good his intentions may be. ...

We are not shocked when a candidate moves to the center for the general election. But Mr. Obama's shifts are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics, the man of passionate convictions who did not play old political games.