Saturday, May 31, 2008

Ex-attorneys general file brief supporting Siegelman

An important story that we've haven't attended to here.

The Siegelman case may be the route to jailing Rove and Gonzalez.

Sent from Express News
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A bipartisan group of 54 former state attorneys general from across the country has filed a federal appeals brief supporting former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman's bid to overturn his criminal conviction.

Saying the prosecution and sentencing of Siegelman "raised serious First Amendment concerns," the brief asks the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Siegelman's conviction.
The Associated Press

Saddest Headline Of The Year


60,000 pounds of lobster lost in Boston fire

One Way To Deal With The Obama Half of The Rules Committee

Woman with shotgun forces 15 into vault


Why did I immediately see images of HRC when I read this?

You Have To Figure that The TruckNutz Are Attached




Why Conservative Women Seem So Angry All The Time


Tucker Carlson:
The VP story is a little bit like sex. When it's happening, you're totally focused on it, it's all you want. Then, the second it's over, you can barely remember why it seemed so important. It happens. There are fireworks for 30 seconds...Then, you say, "hey, wait a second."


Notta Wholelottalove.

Friday, May 30, 2008

A look at the numbers in the presidential primary race

Sent from Express News
Numbers and more numbers from the Democrats' presidential primary campaign:

---

GREAT DEBATERS:

-Democratic presidential debates: 21

-Total words spoken in the debates: Roughly 375,000

ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE

-Days since Obama announced his candidacy, as of Friday: 475

-Days since Clinton announced her candidacy: 496

MAGIC NUMBER

-Delegates needed to secure the Democratic presidential nomination: 2,026

VICTORIES

-Primaries Obama has won: 18

-Primaries Clinton has won: 18

-Caucuses Obama has won: 14

-Caucuses Clinton has won: 3

TURNOUT

-Largest crowd at an Obama campaign event: 75,000, in Portland, Ore.

-Votes cast in the New Hampshire Democratic primary: 284,104

-Total popular vote in Democratic contests where delegates were awarded, except for caucuses in Iowa, Nevada, Washington, Maine and Texas where no popular vote was released: 32.8 million

SPENDING FOR CLINTON, AS OF APRIL 30

-Media: $47.6 million

-Travel: $26.1 million

-Salaries: $20.4 million

-Home Depot: More than $28,000

-Domino's Pizza: $1,951

-Starbucks: $3,765

-Einstein Bros. Bagels: $2,493

-Dunkin' Donuts: $3,210

SPENDING FOR OBAMA, AS OF APRIL 30

-Media: $84 million

-Travel/lodging: $30 million

-Payroll: $22.6 million

-Home Depot: More than $15,000

-Starbucks: $1,580

-Domino's Pizza: $1,774

-Einstein Bros. Bagels: $738

---

Compiled by Associated Press Writer Ann Sanner

By ANN SANNER Associated Press Writer

Clintonesque? McCainesque? Uninformed, Whiney and Infantile!

In these areas, Geraldine Ferraro shows that she's got what it currently takes to be on the national stage

Sully reports:

Geraldine Ferraro has an op-ed today in The Boston Globe. It's rife with twisted arguments. One section:


...a group of women - from corporate executives to academics to members of the media - have requested that the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University and others conduct a study, which we will pay for if necessary, to determine three things.

First, whether either the Clinton or Obama campaign engaged in sexism and racism; second, whether the media treated Clinton fairly or unfairly; and third whether certain members of the media crossed an ethical line when they changed the definition of journalist from reporter and commentator to strategist and promoter of a candidate. And if they did to suggest ethical guidelines which the industry might adopt.


Well, actually, the Shorenstein Center released a report on the presidential primary yesterday. A few paragraphs:


Barack Obama has not enjoyed a better ride in the press than rival Hillary Clinton, according to a new study of primary coverage by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University...


Clinton had just as much success as Obama in projecting one of her most important themes in the media, the idea that she is prepared to lead the country on “Day One.” She has also had substantial success in rebutting the idea that she is difficult to like or is cold or distant, and much of that rebuttal came directly from journalists offering the rebuttal.


The most prominent negative theme about Clinton was the idea that she represents the politics of the past.

'One Man, Very Strong'

Aging Rock God Nigel Tufnel (who only went to 11)shares his love and knowledge of Stonehenge, challenging the wisdom of National Geographic (hat tip to Mr. G Baker)


Adolescent Is As Adolescent Does

And Adolescent is a kind adjective for our Foreign Policy

Condoleezza Rice enlists in Kiss Army fan club
Secretary of state meets Gene Simmons and bandmates in Stockholm hotel

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The Kiss Army fan club has an enthusiastic new recruit: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.


Rice was in the Swedish capital Thursday for an international conference on Iraq. Kiss had a sold-out concert to play Friday.

"I was thrilled," Rice said of her late-night encounter with Kiss frontman Gene Simmons and bandmates Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer in the executive lounge of the Sheraton Hotel where they signed autographs and handed out backstage passes and T-shirts to her staff.

Sexism?

Eleanor Clift relates an interesting anecdote:

Younger women do not feel the lash of gender the way their elders wish they would. Professor Karen O'Connor teaches a weekend course on women and politics at American University. Her course this year coincided with the primary season, and to show how a caucus works she asked Hillary supporters to assemble on one side of the room, Obama supporters on the other, with undecided students in the middle. In the class of 25 there were only three men, and O'Connor assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that the pro-Hillary forces would dominate. Three female students stood up for Hillary, 17 students backed Obama, and five were undecided.


O'Connor founded the Institute of Women and Politics at AU. As a woman over 50 who has devoted her professional life to cultivating women leaders and looking ahead to the day when she might see a woman president, she learned a hard truth: that for these women, youth trumps gender. "I don't vote for a woman just because she's a woman," a former student told O'Connor. "I do," O'Connor responded, explaining that Clinton and Obama are "identical" on the issues. "This is gender versus race." O'Connor has been quoted saying it will be generations, plural, before another woman will be positioned as the heir apparent the way Clinton was at the outset of the race.

Unexpectedly, GT12 Posts Something Nice About California

Mostly we still gaze upon the land of sun with abject revulsion but, perhaps, someday, California will develop real culture and values ....

From Political Wire:

California Democrats Move to Obama

Even though Sen. Barack Obama lost the California primary to Sen. Hillary Clinton by 18 percentage points, he is now favored among Democratic voters, 51% to 38%, according to the latest Field Poll.

In a general election match up, Obama beats Sen. John McCain, 52% to 35%.

Key finding: "A majority of Democratic voters said they would be more likely to support the Democratic ticket if it included both Obama and Clinton. However, Clinton supporters were more enthusiastic about an Obama-Clinton ticket than Obama backers were about the reverse lineup."


Aerosmith's Tyler in rehab for 'safe environment'

Sent from Express Movies
LOS ANGELES - Steven Tyler checked into a rehab facility in search of a "safe environment" to recover from several foot surgeries and physical therapy, the Aerosmith frontman said in a statement Thursday.

Tyler said the surgeries were to correct long-time foot injuries resulting from his physical performances as the singer for the blues-rock band.
The Associated Press

Obama campaign used party rules to foil Clinton

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - Unlike Hillary Rodham Clinton, rival Barack Obama planned for the long haul. Clinton hinged her whole campaign on an early knockout blow on Super Tuesday, while Obama's staff researched congressional districts in states with primaries that were months away. What they found were opportunities to win delegates, even in states they would eventually lose.

Obama's campaign mastered some of the most arcane rules in politics, and then used them to foil a front-runner who seemed to have every advantage - money, fame and a husband who had essentially run the Democratic Party for eight years as president.

"Without a doubt, their understanding of the nominating process was one of the keys to their success," said Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist not aligned with either candidate. "They understood the nuances of it and approached it at a strategic level that the Clinton campaign did not."

Careful planning is one reason why Obama is emerging as the nominee as the Democratic Party prepares for its final three primaries, Puerto Rico on Sunday and Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday. Attributing his success only to soaring speeches and prodigious fundraising ignores a critical part of contest.

Obama used the Democrats' system of awarding delegates to limit his losses in states won by Clinton while maximizing gains in states he carried. Clinton, meanwhile, conserved her resources by essentially conceding states that favored Obama, including many states that held caucuses instead of primaries.

In a stark example, Obama's victory in Kansas wiped out the gains made by Clinton for winning New Jersey, even though New Jersey had three times as many delegates at stake. Obama did it by winning big in Kansas while keeping the vote relatively close in New Jersey.

The research effort was headed by Jeffrey Berman, Obama's press-shy national director of delegate operations. Berman, who also tracked delegates in former Rep. Dick Gephardt's presidential bids, spent the better part of 2007 analyzing delegate opportunities for Obama.

Obama won a majority of the 23 Super Tuesday contests on Feb. 5 and then spent the following two weeks racking up 11 straight victories, building an insurmountable lead among delegates won in primaries and caucuses.

What made it especially hard for Clinton to catch up was that Obama understood and took advantage of a nominating system that emerged from the 1970s and '80s, when the party struggled to find a balance between party insiders and its rank-and-file voters.

Until the 1970s, the nominating process was controlled by party leaders, with ordinary citizens having little say. There were primaries and caucuses, but the delegates were often chosen behind closed doors, sometimes a full year before the national convention. That culminated in a 1968 national convention that didn't reflect the diversity of the party - racially or ideologically.

The fiasco of the 1968 convention in Chicago, where police battled anti-war protesters in the streets, led to calls for a more inclusive process.

One big change was awarding delegates proportionally, meaning you can finish second or third in a primary and still win delegates to the party's national convention. As long candidates get at least 15 percent of the vote, they are eligible for delegates.

The system enables strong second-place candidates to stay competitive and extend the race - as long as they don't run out of campaign money.

"For people who want a campaign to end quickly, proportional allocation is a bad system," Devine said. "For people who want a system that is fair and reflective of the voters, it's a much better system."

Another big change was the introduction of superdelegates, the party and elected officials who automatically attend the convention and can vote for whomever they choose regardless of what happens in the primaries and caucuses.

Much has been made of the superdelegates this year because neither Obama nor Clinton can reach the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination without their support.

A more subtle change was the distribution of delegates within each state. As part of the proportional system, Democrats award delegates based on statewide vote totals as well as results in individual congressional districts. The delegates, however, are not distributed evenly within a state, like they are in the Republican system.

Under Democratic rules, congressional districts with a history of strong support for Democratic candidates are rewarded with more delegates than districts that are more Republican. Some districts packed with Democratic voters can have as many as eight or nine delegates up for grabs, while more Republican districts in the same state have three or four.

The system is designed to benefit candidates who do well among loyal Democratic constituencies, and none is more loyal than black voters. Obama, who would be the first black candidate nominated by a major political party, has been winning 80 percent to 90 percent of the black vote in most primaries, according to exit polls.

"Black districts always have a large number of delegates because they are the highest performers for the Democratic Party," said Elaine Kamarck, a Harvard University professor who is writing a book about the Democratic nominating process.

"Once you had a black candidate you knew that he would be winning large numbers of delegates because of this phenomenon," said Kamarck, who is also a superdelegate supporting Clinton.

In states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, Clinton won the statewide vote but Obama won enough delegates to limit her gains. In states Obama carried, like Georgia and Virginia, he maximized the number of delegates he won.

"The Obama campaign was very good at targeting districts in areas where they could do well," said former DNC Chairman Don Fowler, a Clinton superdelegate from South Carolina. "They were very conscious and aware of these nuances."

But, Fowler noted, the best strategy in the world would have been useless without the right candidate.

"If that same strategy and that same effort had been used with a different candidate, a less charismatic candidate, a less attractive candidate, it wouldn't have worked," Fowler said. "The reason they look so good is because Obama was so good."

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER Associated Press Writer

More yawns than cheers in Puerto Rico primary

Buddah knows we're tired of it.

Sent from Express News
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Perhaps it had to happen sooner or later: a Democratic presidential primary where voters just don't care.

It's happening later. After an extended season of sizzling competition and swollen turnout in state after state, it's Puerto Rico's turn, and the territory is showing little interest in what's left of the contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
By DANICA COTO Associated Press Writer

Texas Democratic chairman, wife endorse Obama

Sent from Express News
AUSTIN, Texas - Barack Obama picked up two Texas superdelegates, bringing him within 42 delegates of locking up the Democratic presidential nomination.

Texas Democratic Party chairman Boyd Richie and his wife, Democratic National Committee member Betty Richie, endorsed Barack Obama for president late Thursday.
By KELLEY SHANNON Associated Press Writer

Obama distances himself from another clergyman

GT12 once attended a wedding officiated by Fr. P (who is a big name here in the town of Chi). As he preached I remember thinking ... 'why is this man yelling?' ...

We are hopelessly white ...

Sent from Express News
CHICAGO - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday that he was "deeply disappointed" by a supporter's sermon at his church that mocked Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, a Chicago activist, also apologized for last Sunday's sermon at Obama's church, in which he said Clinton's eyes welled with tears before the New Hampshire primary because she felt "entitled" to the Democratic nomination and because "there's a black man stealing my show."
By CARYN ROUSSEAU Associated Press Writer

Thursday, May 29, 2008

In Miami, Spanish is becoming the primary language

Somebody better tell Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs ....

Sent from Express News
MIAMI - Melissa Green's mother spoke Spanish, but she never learned - her father forbid it. Today, that's a frequent problem in this city where the English-speaking population is outnumbered.

The 49-year-old flower shop owner and Miami native said her inability to speak "espanol" makes it difficult to conduct business, seek help at stores and even ask directions. She finds it "frustrating."
By GISELA SALOMON Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Calif.: Same-sex marriages OK beginning June 17

Sent from Express News
SAN FRANCISCO - Barring a stay of a historic California Supreme Court ruling, same-sex couples will be able to wed in the state beginning June 17, according to a state directive issued Wednesday.

The state said it chose June 17 because the state Supreme Court has until the day before to decide whether to grant a stay of its May 15 ruling legalizing gay marriage.

By LISA LEFF Associated Press Writer

The Good News? 10% of Americans Think Obama Is Muslim

The Pew Center Reports:

Pew (.pdf),:about 10 percent of Americans believe Obama's a Muslim; other surveys have found higher numbers.

but .....


22 percent believe President Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance.

30 percent believe Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

23 percent believe they've been in the presence of a ghost.

18 percent believe the sun revolves around the Earth.

Mr Clean

From TPM

Can't Make This Stuff Up


For months, John McCain has been bragging on the fact that he's got fmr. Sen. Phil Gramm as his key economics advisor. That's scary enough as it is, if you're familiar with Gramm's policy predilections and legislative history. But now it turns out that Gramm, who advised McCain on his mortgage relief policy and speech, was also a registered lobbyist for the Swiss bank UBS, which is obviously heavily concerned with the mortgage crisis. According to MSNBC, which has just broken the story, UBS only deregistered Gramm on April 18th of this year, which I'm pretty certain was after McCain rolled out the policy that Gramm had a hand in crafting.
--Josh Marshall

Numbers Game

Rick Hertzberg's lead-off piece in this week's New Yorker
With or without participants in the caucus states of Iowa, Nevada, Maine, and Washington (i.e., states where voters’ preferences were expressed by gathering in corners and the like, and whose numbers can be estimated but are not pinpointed), and with the totals for both Florida (whose primary was unsanctioned by the Democratic Party, with the consent of all the candidates, and where no one campaigned) and Michigan (also unsanctioned, and where Obama’s name was not even on the ballot), Clinton’s claim that more people have “voted” for her is factual. But her claim to be “ahead” depends entirely on a tally for the Michigan primary that is distinctly North Korean: Clinton, 328,309; Obama, 0. However, if the bulk of the 238,168 Michiganders who voted “uncommitted” are assumed to have been Obama supporters—a reasonable assumption—then Obama leads by every possible reckoning. And if only Florida is included, then Obama leads whether or not those four caucuses are counted.

Scotty-Rama

Political Wire Reviews the first comments about Scott McClellan's rather unpleasant assessment of his old boss.

Can we impeach him now?

Bombshell Book Rocks White House

News of the extremely critical memoir from former Bush spokesman Scott McClellan dominates the headlines this morning. New York Times: "President Bush 'convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment,' and has engaged in 'self-deception' to justify his political ends, Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary, writes in a critical new memoir about his years in the West Wing.

Washington Post: "Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated 'political propaganda campaign' led by President Bush and aimed at 'manipulating sources of public opinion' and 'downplaying the major reason for going to war.'

"Wall Street Journal: "The White House took part in an 'endless effort to manipulate public opinion to their advantage' in promoting the invasion of Iraq, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan declares in a new book."

Los Angeles Times: McClellan writes, "No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact. What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary."

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Has Osama Jumped The Shark?

Provocative articles in the New Yorker and The New Republic suggest that even in Muslim countries, killing thousands of your own country men is no way to win the survivors' hearts and minds.

Beinart and Cruickshank in TNR begin with a story from 2000:

"I [ Noman Benotman then a leader of a group trying to overthrow the Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi] told them that the jihadist movement had failed. That we had gone from one disaster to another, like in Algeria, because we had not mobilized the people," recalls Benotman, referring to the Algerian civil war launched by jihadists in the '90s that left more than 100,000 dead and destroyed whatever local support the militants had once enjoyed. Benotman also told bin Laden that the Al Qaeda leader's decision to target the United States would only sabotage attempts by groups like Benotman's to overthrow the secular dictatorships in the Arab world. "We made a clear-cut request for him to stop his campaign against the United States because it was going to lead to nowhere," Benotman recalls, "but they laughed when I told them that America would attack the whole region if they launched another attack against it."


Benotman says that bin Laden tried to placate him with a promise: "I have one more operation, and after that I will quit"--an apparent reference to September 11. "I can't call this one back because that would demoralize the whole organization," Benotman remembers bin Laden saying.



And they note effects we do not notice

Why have clerics and militants once considered allies by Al Qaeda's leaders turned against them? To a large extent, it is because Al Qaeda and its affiliates have increasingly adopted the doctrine of takfir, by which they claim the right to decide who is a "true" Muslim. Al Qaeda's Muslim critics know what results from this takfiri view: First, the radicals deem some Muslims apostates; after that, the radicals start killing them. This fatal progression happened in both Algeria and Egypt in the 1990s. It is now taking place even more dramatically in Iraq, where Al Qaeda's suicide bombers have killed more than 10,000 Iraqis, most of them targeted simply for being Shia. Recently, Al Qaeda in Iraq has turned its fire on Sunnis who oppose its diktats, a fact not lost on the Islamic world's Sunni majority.


Additionally, Al Qaeda and its affiliates have killed thousands of Muslim civilians elsewhere since September 11: hundreds of ordinary Afghans killed every year by the Taliban, dozens of Saudis killed by terrorists since 2003, scores of Jordanians massacred at a wedding at a U.S. hotel in Amman in November 2005. Even those sympathetic to Al Qaeda have started to notice. "Excuse me Mr. Zawahiri but who is it who is killing with Your Excellency's blessing, the innocents in Baghdad, Morocco and Algeria?" one supporter asked in an online Q&A with Al Qaeda's deputy leader in April that was posted widely on jihadist websites. All this has created a dawning recognition among Muslims that the ideological virus that unleashed September 11 and the terrorist attacks in London and Madrid is the same virus now wreaking havoc in the Muslim world.



While over at the New Yorker, one key Jihadi Theorist's turning-away from violent action is examined:

Fadl was one of the first members of Al Qaeda’s top council. Twenty years ago, he wrote two of the most important books in modern Islamist discourse; Al Qaeda used them to indoctrinate recruits and justify killing. Now Fadl was announcing a new book, rejecting Al Qaeda’s violence. “We are prohibited from committing aggression, even if the enemies of Islam do that,” Fadl wrote in his fax, which was sent from Tora Prison, in Egypt.


Fadl’s fax confirmed rumors that imprisoned leaders of Al Jihad were part of a trend in which former terrorists renounced violence. His defection posed a terrible threat to the radical Islamists, because he directly challenged their authority. “There is a form of obedience that is greater than the obedience accorded to any leader, namely, obedience to God and His Messenger,” Fadl wrote, claiming that hundreds of Egyptian jihadists from various factions had endorsed his position.

Two months after Fadl’s fax appeared, Zawahiri issued a handsomely produced video on behalf of Al Qaeda. “Do they now have fax machines in Egyptian jail cells?” he asked. “I wonder if they’re connected to the same line as the electric-shock machines.” This sarcastic dismissal was perhaps intended to dampen anxiety about Fadl’s manifesto—which was to be published serially, in newspapers in Egypt and Kuwait—among Al Qaeda insiders. Fadl’s previous work, after all, had laid the intellectual foundation for Al Qaeda’s murderous acts. On a recent trip to Cairo, I met with Gamal Sultan, an Islamist writer and a publisher there. He said of Fadl, “Nobody can challenge the legitimacy of this person. His writings could have far-reaching effects not only in Egypt but on leaders outside it.” Usama Ayub, a former member of Egypt’s Islamist community, who is now the director of the Islamic Center in Münster, Germany, told me, “A lot of people base their work on Fadl’s writings, so he’s very important. When Dr. Fadl speaks, everyone should listen.”



Daddy Neo-Con Goes Barack

Frances Fukyama, one of the ground-floor thinkers of the Neo-Con movement (Hey! Thanks for that nice occupation in Iraq!), sizes up the 2008 choices:

Well, it is a little bit difficult. In my own thinking since I have to vote in this next election, I personally actually don't want to see a Republican re-elected because I have a general view of the way democratic processes should work and if your party is responsible for a big policy failure, you shouldn't be rewarded by being re-elected.

I think of all the Republicans, McCain in many ways is the most attractive but he is still is too, you know, he comes from the school that places too much reliance on hard military power as a means of spreading American influence.


I think in many ways, Hillary Clinton represents both the good and the bad things of the 1990s and there is something in the style of the Clintons that never really appealed to me and so I think of all the three, Obama probably has the greatest promise of delivering a different kind of politics.

Clintons Are From the 20th, Obamas Are From the 21st

Roger Cohen looks at the change that has already happened:

Obama spent only 10 years of his adult life in the split world of the cold war, double that in a post-Berlin Wall world of growing interconnectedness. MAC — mutually assured connectivity — has replaced the MAD — mutually assured destruction — of cold-war days.

For Clinton, born in 1947, that ratio is different. Her mental paradigm is division. When her husband last ran for president in 1996, the Internet was marginal. The thinking and people from that campaign have proved unable to fast-forward a dozen years. They’ve been left like deer blinded by the Webcam lights of the Obama juggernaut.

This cultural failure has been devastating for Clinton. As Joshua Green chronicles in an important piece in The Atlantic, Obama has used social networking and his user-friendly Web site to develop the money machine, and the youthful engagement, that has swept him forward.

.... Obama has been a classic Internet-start up, a movement spreading with viral intensity and propelled by some of Silicon Valley’s most creative minds. As with any online phenomenon, he has jumped national borders, stirring as much buzz in Berlin as he does back home.

He could not have achieved this without a sense of history, a conviction that the nature of the post-post-9/11 world — the one beyond war without end — is going to be determined by sociability and connectivity. In the globalized world of MySpace, LinkedIn and the rest, sociability is a force as strong as sovereignty.

I’ve searched in vain for a sense of this pivotal historical moment in Clinton. Her threat to “totally obliterate” Iran, her stomach-turning reference to the June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy as a reason to stay in the race, her Bosnian fabrications, all reflect a view of history as something that’s there for political ends rather than as a source of inspiration or reflection.

It’s history as “Me, me, me.” That tends to be blinding.

Back To Meritocracy

From TNR Editor-In-Chief Marty Peretz' 'The Spine' blog

Hillary Not Especially Liked by Senate Democrats Either

Carl Hulse reminds us in this morning's Times that more of Hillary's Democratic Senate colleagues endorsed Barack Obama than endorsed her, and that counts those who felt they had no alternative but to back her. This majority for Obama from the party's side of the aisle dispatches all of the stuff about her being well-liked and a leader and the other usual compliments that make for the false vernacular of our politics.

No, Hulse points out, Mrs. Clinton will not go to the top of the list to replace Harry Reid, who has not exactly been a sterling leader, either in the narrowly partisan sense or in the much rarer truly bi-partisan dimension. Anyway, Reid isn't going anywhere. The Democrats cling to mediocrity just like the Republicans.Nor is she likely, being 36th in seniority among the Democrats, to be vouchsafed any committee chairmanship, and certainly not an important one.This may not be the end of a career. But it is the end of Hillary's special place in American politics, and with her will go her husband, still hustling with even the hustle losing whatever tarnished luster has clung to it up to now.

Blood Sweat and Tears

Or was it Rum, Sodomy and The Lash?

Yale gives Paul McCartney honorary music degree

Sent from Express Movies
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Paul McCartney can now add one more honor to the numerous awards, accolades and the knighthood he has already received.

The ex-Beatle on Monday was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Yale University.
The Associated Press

Political Wire Fest

Three Vital Posts In A Row over at Political Wire ... so I'll just cut and paste the whole thing

Obama Delaying Superdelegate Announcements

Marc Ambinder confirms reports that the Obama campaign has "begun to bank delegates.""Sources close to the campaign estimate that as many as three dozen Democratic superdelegates have privately pledged to announce their support for Obama on June 4 or 5. The campaign is determined that Obama not end the first week in June without securing the support of delegates numbering 2026 -- or 2210, as the case may be."


Race Should End Next Week

Sen. Barack Obama's aides told the New York Daily News the freshman senator is "now just 49 delegates away" from clinching the Democratic presidential nomination.On Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos said the race is "almost certain to end" after the final primaries next week. He also predicted -- as Jimmy Carter did over the weekend -- that "several dozen" superdelegates will move to back Sen. Barack Obama after next Tuesday.

Warner Says He's On Short List

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D), "a strong favorite to be elected to the Senate this year, has told associates that he is being considered as Sen. Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate. He did not indicate whether he would be receptive to such an offer," Robert Novak reports.

However, removing Warner "from the campaign for the seat now held by retiring Republican Sen. John Warner (no relation) would turn a sure Democratic takeover to a question mark."

Of Course, We Knew This Already ...

From Gene Expression:

A few months ago I posted data which showed, unsurprisingly, that Unitarian-Universalists tend to have high IQs and Pentecostals not so much. What about something like Biblical literalism and IQ? Well, I plotted the IQ values from the General Social Survey for selected denominations and plotted them against the proportion which believed in a literal interpretation of the Bible. Prepare to be greeted by a very banal reality

Jews For Armageddon!

Well, one Jew anyway ....

Of course, it's Joe:

Senator Joseph Lieberman is scheduled to headline Pastor John Hagee's 2008 Christians United For Israel Washington-Israel Summit this July 22. In accepting Hagee's invitation, Lieberman became the most senior elected representative confirmed to appear at the annual gala. Last year, when Lieberman spoke at Hagee's summit, he compared the Texas televangelist to the biblical prophet Moses, dubbing him "an Ish Elochim," or "a man of God." Unless he rescinds his pledge to appear at this year's summit, Lieberman can be expected to deliver another soul-stirring tribute.

Hagee's vitriolic condemnation of Catholicism, his jeremiad declaring Hurricane Katrina divine punishment for New Orleans' hosting of a "homosexual rally," and his generally disturbing apocalyptic theology became national news last February when John McCain accepted his endorsement in a widely publicized ceremony.

Where We Are Part II

My Brain Hurts, but you should read this whole thing just to see how bizarre the numbers really are.

And to see that the Clinton Team is no-less breathtaking in it's decptions, untruths and distractions here than it has been throughout the campaign.

But here's the summary:

Now, everyone knows that there were 55 uncommitted delegates in Michigan. But what few seem to realize is that on April 19 in Michigan, the district conventions were held and Obama claimed 31 of the 36 uncommitted district-level delegates. He already has them. Here, look at the comments in this Bowers Open Left diary back from April 20th to get specific names. Or this diary. It's slightly painstaking, (here are 27 names, here are 3 more, here's where emptywheel cites 31) but they clearly exist. Plus the 67 Florida Obama delegates mean that there are 98 living, breathing pledged Obama delegates from those two states.

There is no such thing as a scenario where Obama gets 0 delegates in Michigan (and DCW should really do away with Scenario 5 because it is no longer operative). Chris Bowers has been writing about this for a long time.

Did anybody notice Harold Ickes arguing Thursday that Obama really should get 0 delegates in Michigan and that all the uncommitted delegates should go to the convention uncommitted?

[very detailed review of many many delegate count scenarios]

31 in Michigan right now. That's worst case. That's why Ickes made that little-noticed, jaw-dropping argument yesterday. You have to be really familiar with the math to appreciate why this staggeringly hypocritical ass did it. Not only did Ickes vote to strip Michigan of its delegates originally back in August and now is screaming at the top of his voice that it's outrageous that Michigan has been stripped, now he wants Michigan to let Clinton keep her 73 delegates but strip Obama of the 31 he got at the district level.

(Get that? Let that sink in. Is there any question that the Clintons are literally the opposite of leadership?)

[Rachel] Maddow is dead-on that the Clinton goal for the May 31 meeting is merely to come out with some result that is being kicked down the road in appeals. But Ickes knows that Obama can surely see the mathematical inevitability in what I just explained, that Obama can call the big bluff by agreeing to Michigan and Florida in full, and then what will the Clintons claim in outrage? The fog they're thriving off of disappears. So Ickes is trying to pre-empt Obama's pre-emption by laying groundwork for further fog - that Obama agreeing to seat the delegations in full is too favorable to Obama because he got 31 and deserves 0. Ickes knows that nobody besides a few bloggers really knows that Obama already has 31, so he's hoping to get in front of the dawning awareness. (It hasn't been in Obama's interest to claim that number until as late in the process as possible, either.)

But the 31 exist, and the math is inexorable. While Obama would need 135 delegates after agreeing to seat Michigan and Florida in full, as-is, 44 are in a group of 100% guaranteed, 67 are in a group of 85-99% guaranteed, and 205 are the rest. Obama has been winning "the rest" by a huge ratio for a loooong time now, and many of us personally know people in that latter group who are just waiting for the primaries to officially end to declare. The closer Obama comes to 24-37 supers in the next week, the more likely I believe he is to agree to full seating.

Where We Are At

Time To Return to one of our favorite Election Website.

This is a presentation of where the electoral votes are, based on state polling (where available).

This Is The Obama-McCain match-up, showing Barry with 266 electoral votes, Grampy McSame with 248 and ties in two states (VA, IN) with a total of 24 votes. 270 are needed to win.

Now, we will win MI, WI and the increasingly purple VA (which will be elcting GT12 Fave Mark Warner Senator in November. OH I'm not so sure of.

Notice CO and NM going Dem. Count on this.

My Count? BarryO: 266 +MI(17) + WI (10) + VA (13) - OH (20) = 286

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Vets install pacemaker in search-and-rescue dog

Sent from Express News
COLUMBIA, Mo. - After years of helping authorities look for murder victims and survivors of natural disasters, a search-and-rescue dog named Molly has been rescued herself.

Surgeons at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine on Thursday installed a pacemaker in the 5-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever's heart. She needed the surgery after being diagnosed with a complete electrical heart blockage.

The Associated Press

One Woman's Perspective

Obsidian Wings:

Instead, she's throwing tantrums, making demands that she has no right to make, and threatening civil war.
I can't imagine a better demonstration of why she should not be President or Vice President. Nor can I imagine a better demonstration of why some of us who are committed feminists are not happy with her as our standard-bearer. She lost. It happens. If she were an adult or a professional, she would deal with it. Apparently, she is neither.

Another One That Doesn't Listen To Himself

On Aug. 1, 2000, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appeared on PBS’s Newshour with Jim Lehrer. When asked about the possibility that he might run for president in 2008, McCain said that he would probably be too old:

LEHRER: Finally for the record, you have not lost your desire to be President of
the United States have you?

McCAIN: Certainly it’s been put in deep cold storage. haha..

LEHRER: You haven’t lost it?

McCAIN: Well, in 2004, I expect to be campaigning for the reelection of President George W. Bush, and by 2008, I think I might be ready to go down to the old soldiers home and await the cavalry charge there.

In A Word

Is Barack Obama A Muslim?

Why Not Joe?

Obama's not really an ordinary Senator, he could afford to have a top Drawer colleague on his team.

Joe Biden has made more sense and consistently expressed that sense better than any of the Dem candidates this year.

(And my Candidate picks this year have been winners ....)

Here he takes on the ridiculous Joe Lieberman:

Today, Sen. Joe Biden (D-RI) appeared on various morning talk shows and sharply criticized the notion that progressives are weak on national security. On MSNBC he responded to Lieberman, stating,

“[C]an you imagine Franklin Roosevelt, can you imagine President Truman, can you imagine President Kennedy conducting the kind of policy this outfit has?”


This administration is the worst administration in American foreign policy in modern history, maybe ever. The idea that they are competent to continue to conduct our foreign policy, to make us more secure and make Israel secure, is preposterous.
Ever since they got in office the only thing on the march in the Middle East has not been freedom, it’s been Iran. Every single thing they’ve touched has been a near disaster.

The worst nightmare for a regime that thrives on tension with America is an America ready, willing and able to engage. Since when has talking removed the word “no” from our vocabulary?


It’s amazing how little faith George Bush, Joe Lieberman and John McCain have in themselves – and in America.

Maybe They Should Try The Internets and The Youtubes

From ThinkProgress

A Tuesday fundraiser headlined by President Bush for U.S. Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign is being moved out of the Phoenix Convention Center.

Sources familiar with the situation said the Bush-McCain event was not selling enough tickets to fill the Convention Center space, and that there were concerns about more anti-war protesters showing up outside the venue than attending the fundraiser inside.

Another source said there were concerns about the media covering the event.

Let Her Do It Herself


I guess that one definition of a graceful exit would be to commit the ultimate gaffe...


Certainly frees Barry O from any pressure to have her as Veep.


Reactions around the world

Houston Chronicle blog:
So she has to hang around just in case Barack Obama gets shot? I tell you, the lady has completely taken leave of her senses.


Newsday:
Al Gore's 2000 campaign manager Donna Brazile, an uncommitted superdelegate who has been complimentary to Obama, told Newsday: "I am numb."


Andrew Sullivan:
I was on the stairmaster when the news came through. And I saw the apology as well - an apology to the Kennedy family, I might note, not to Senator Obama. Since some seem unwilling to point out why this remark was more than unfortunate, it is worth remembering that we have the first black candidate for president. You only have to spend a few minutes talking with African-Americans about this campaign to discover that the fear that Obama could be assassinated is very much on their minds. It is in everyone's subconscious, especially Michelle Obama's. To refer to the June assassination of Bobby Kennedy in the context of reasons to stay in this interminable race against Barack Obama is therefore catastrophically inappropriate. Coming after her pitch for "white votes", it is reckless....Yes, this season has gone on for ever. And for Senator Clinton, it has now obviously gone on too long.She's been waiting for Obama to implode. Instead, she just has.


Rolling Stone:
If there’s an innocent explanation for this, it escapes me.... And of all the weeks to be invoking dead Kennedy’s. She’s got a touch of Michael Savage in her, this one.UPDATE: Clinton apologizes… to the Kennedy’s. Not Obama... All class.


Dallas Morning News blog:
I said earlier that I couldn't imagine Clinton making things worse for herself. Well, OMG. She now says she is staying in the race just in case we have something happen like what happened to Robert Kennedy in 1968... I just don't know what to say.


CQ Politics:
Here's one way not to become Barack Obama's running mate.


National Post:
[O]ne wonders how much longer Democratic elders will stay silent."This is beyond the pale," Rep. James Clyburn, an undeclared superdelegate and the third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, told the New York Times.Clinton just made a phenomenal political mistake, whatever her intent. Absent a primary or another significant political event over the Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., the assassination remark is all anyone will be talking about.In the past few weeks, Clinton has repeatedly appealed for more time to make her case to voters, more time so Florida and Michigan could count.She just gave Democrats a reason to say no.


Marc Ambinder & her Bobby Kennedy reference:
For those who contend that Clinton was referring to competitive contests or example, why didn't she bring up Ted Kennedy in 1980? Or Gary Hart in 1984? I think she was pointing to primary races where the eventual nominee was unknown at this point in the cycle.... But 1984 would apply more, her husband was the de-facto nominee at this point, and the compressed calender really renders such comparisons null and void.



Even if her point is legitimate, surely she is aware of the sensitivity of the subject


Howard Fineman :
She seems constitutionally incapable of just saying I screwed up and her lead footedness about this here is being observed by all the people who are still undecided about whom to back, the last 200 superdelegates here, they've got be looking at this and saying that this is a campaign that needs To Be Put Out Of Its Misery Real Soon"



In an ultimately way-over-the-top 'Special Comment' Olberman did provide a thorough list of the egregious things we have 'excused' from this woman's awful blight of a campaign (before himself running off the rails).

God knows, Senator, in this campaign, this nation has **had** to forgive you, early and often...And despite your now traditional position of the offended victim, the nation **has** forgiven you.


We have forgiven you your insistence that there have been widespread calls for you to end your campaign, when such calls had been few.


We have forgiven you your misspeaking about Martin Luther King's relative importance to the Civil Rights movement.


We have forgiven you your misspeaking about your under-fire landing in Bosnia.


We have forgiven you insisting Michigan's vote wouldn't count and then claiming those who would not count it were Un-Democratic.


We have forgiven you pledging to not campaign in Florida and thus disenfranchise voters there, and then claim those who stuck to those rules were as wrong as those who defended slavery or denied women the vote.


We have forgiven you the photos of Osama Bin Laden in an anti-Obama ad...


We have forgiven you fawning over the fairness of Fox News while they were still calling you a murderer.


We have forgiven you accepting Richard Mellon Scaife's endorsement and then laughing as you described his "deathbed conversion."


We have forgiven you quoting the electoral predictions of Boss Karl Rove.


We have forgiven you the 3 A-M Phone Call commercial.


We have forgiven you **President** Clinton's disparaging comparison of the Obama candidacy to Jesse Jackson's.


We have forgiven you Geraldine Ferraro's national radio interview suggesting Obama would not still be in the race had he been a white man.


We have forgiven you the dozen changing metrics and the endless self-contradictions of your insistence that your nomination is mathematically probable rather than a statistical impossibility.


We have forgiven you your declaration of some primary states as counting and some as not.


We have forgiven you exploiting Jeremiah Wright in front of the editorial board of the lunatic-fringe Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.


We have forgiven you exploiting William Ayers in front of the debate on ABC.


We have forgiven you for boasting of your "support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans"...


We have even forgiven you repeatedly praising Senator McCain at Senator Obama's expense, and your **own** expense, and the Democratic **ticket's** expense.


But Senator, we cannot forgive you this.

Friday, May 23, 2008

September date set for Spector's 2nd murder trial

Sent from Express Movies
LOS ANGELES - A judge who is waiting for a state Supreme Court decision on whether he will preside over Phil Spector's second murder trial went ahead Thursday and scheduled it to begin in September.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said a trial date is needed, whether he presides or not. Lawyers for the music producer are challenging Fidler on grounds that he is biased against Spector.
By LINDA DEUTSCH AP Special Correspondent

Let No Violation Go Unnoticed

and of course Lieberman's involved....

Two of Sen. John McCain's top campaign chairmen are serving on the board of an independent organization that is behind a new attack ad against Sen. Barack Obama, an apparent violation of the Arizona Republican's new conflict of interest policy.

Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham both hold chairs for the McCain camp as well as positions on the board of advisers of Vets for Freedom, an advocacy group that supports the Iraq war.

A week ago these titles may not have been a political issue. But under McCain's newly-implemented ethics policy, Lieberman and Graham's role with Vets for Freedom is now proving problematic.

According to the policy: "No person with a McCain Campaign title or position may participate in a 527 or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate."
On Friday, Vets for Freedom, an independent group, did just that. In a commercial released on its website, the organization directly took on Obama over his willingness to negotiate with Iranian leadership.

Just Stop Her!

Got something dramatic planned, Hillary?
"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it."

Oh Please Oh Please Oh Please Not The Veep

CNN reports Clinton, Obama camps in talks
CNN is reporting that formal talks have begun between the Clinton and Obama campaigns, talks that "could" lead to the end of Hillary Clinton's time in the race. The report is based on sourcing from inside the Clinton camp, but is being denied by senior Obama staffers.

According to the network's Suzanne Malveaux, who reported the story, the Clinton camp sees three possible scenarios at the moment. The first is that Barack Obama offers the vice-presidential slot to someone other than Clinton. This, according to Malveaux, is unacceptable to the Clinton team, which warns of "open civil war within the party," but says that Clinton would campaign for Obama anyway, even if she were less than fully enthusiastic in her public appearances on his behalf. The second scenario is a face-saving maneuver for Clinton -- Obama would publicly offer her the spot as his running mate, and she'd decline. The Obama camp, according to Malveaux's Clinton sources, isn't enthralled with this option, as they're not sure they trust her to keep her promise and decline. The final option is a push to arrange a face-to-face talk between the candidates so they could arrange some sort of concession and show of unity that could involve, for instance, Obama helping to pay the Clinton campaign's debts, or his supporting her for the position of Senate majority leader.

Clinton, Malveaux says, is aware of the discussions but is not even thinking about the vice-presidency as she continues to run to head the ticket.

NY Gov: Clinton should stop Mich, Fla effort

Sent from Express News
ALBANY, N.Y. - New York Gov. David Paterson, a superdelegate who supports Hillary Rodham Clinton, said she's showing "a little desperation" and should give up her effort to count votes from renegade primaries in Michigan and Florida.

Paterson said Thursday that Clinton shouldn't derail the process by which the national Democratic Party stripped Michigan and Florida of their national convention delegates because they moved their primaries up to January in violation of party rules. The rules were agreed to by all the candidates, including Clinton, before she won the two January contests. Because of the violations, no candidates campaigned in either state and her rival Barack Obama took his name off Michigan's ballot.

By MICHAEL GORMLEY Associated Press Writer

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Yoko Ono tries to block use of `Imagine' in film

Sent from Express Movies
NEW YORK - Yoko Ono wants a judge to imagine a movie challenging the theory of evolution - but without John Lennon's song "Imagine" in it.

The film's distributors are fighting to keep it in - and are urging the judge to act quickly so the movie can yet play a role in the presidential campaign this fall.

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer

Offering The Hand Of Unity

GT12 will be entertaining actual HRC voters from CA this weekend. Something tells me we won't be watching Olberman until Monday

BTW: CA is also medical shorthand for cancer.....

Federal court rules against military gays policy

Sent from Express News
SEATTLE - The military cannot automatically discharge people because they're gay, a federal appeals court ruled in the case of a decorated flight nurse who sued the Air Force over her dismissal.

The three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not strike down the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. But they reinstated Maj. Margaret Witt's lawsuit, saying the Air Force must prove that her dismissal furthered the military's goals of troop readiness and unit cohesion.
By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press Writer

Officials: Obama begins veep search

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - Democratic officials say Barack Obama has begun a top-secret search for a running mate.

Democratic officials said Thursday the party's likely nominee has asked former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson to begin vetting potential vice presidential picks. Johnson did the same job for Democratic nominees John Kerry in 2004 and Walter Mondale in 1984.
By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

45th

Barack Obama will accept the Democratic Party's nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' speech.

Obama, Clinton, McCain Join Forces To Form Nightmare Ticket




From The Onion



WASHINGTON—Presidential hopefuls John McCain (R-AZ), Barack Obama (D-IL), and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) announced Monday their plans to form what many Beltway observers have already dubbed the "2008 Nightmare Ticket," a calculated move that political analysts say offers voters the worst of both worlds.



After nearly a year of verbal attacks and negative campaign ads, the nominees announced that, for the good of the country, they were willing to push their differences to the forefront and grant the American people the ticket they've been dreading all along.



No other ticket is capable of rallying this nation around a clearer, more unified message of chaos and hopelessness," the candidates said in unison from three separate podiums, each adorned with its own American flag arrangement and personal message. "Together, we will lead this nation into the future—a future where absolute deadlock over even the most minute decisions and total inefficiency on matters of the war, the economy, and the environment will launch a bold new age of confusion and social decay. For America, the only choice is [indecipherable]!"

Defending Marriage, If Not Honesty In Marriage

Notably idiotic Conservative writer Dinesh D'Souza writes (warning: This link leads to the pop-up crazy 'Townhall" website - and your pop-up blocker is helpless in the face of this site's predictably authoritarian approach to your freedom from propaganda)
In issuing its ruling the California court appealed to the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The basic logic is that gays have a right to be treated like everyone else. But just like everyone else, gays do have the right to marry. They have the right to marry adult members of the opposite sex!

We Are All Obamaniacs Now

Obama leads McCain in November match: Reuters poll

Now that the HRC question is answered, the realities of 2008 assert themselves.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has opened an 8-point national lead on Republican John McCain as the U.S. presidential rivals turn their focus to a general election race, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

Obama, who was tied with McCain in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup last month, moved to a 48 percent to 40 percent lead over the Arizona senator in May as he took command of his grueling Democratic presidential duel with rival Hillary Clinton.

The poll also found Obama expanded his lead over Clinton in the Democratic race to 26 percentage points, doubling his advantage from mid-April as Democrats begin to coalesce around Obama and prepare for the general election battle with McCain.

The poll was taken Thursday through Sunday during a period when Obama came under attack from President George W. Bush and McCain for his promise to talk to hostile foreign leaders without preconditions.

Analysis: Time to focus on candidates' legacies

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - The Democratic presidential race is all but over. Barring a cataclysmic change of events, Barack Obama will win enough pledged and superdelegates to win the party's nomination. The only real issue is whether he and rival Hillary Rodham Clinton leave the race with their futures - and their party - intact.

For Obama, that means winning with class so he endears himself to Clinton's supporters - letting her leave the race on her own terms, without gloating or appearing to push her out with any disrespect. And Clinton has to be careful not to damage Obama and make her legacy a weakened Democratic nominee in the fall.
By NEDRA PICKLER and BETH FOUHY Associated Press Writers

Exit poll: Whites help Clinton in KY, not OR

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - White voters played a decisive role in Hillary Rodham Clinton's lopsided victory Tuesday in Kentucky's Democratic presidential primary. Barack Obama got the victory in more liberal Oregon, where race and the hard-edged rivalry between the two embattled candidates were muted.

Nearly nine in 10 of each state's voters were white, surveys of voters showed, but there the similarities ceased. Kentucky's less educated, less liberal, poorer and more rural population fit the profile of states where Clinton has done well, while Oregon's better schooled, more affluent and urban residents more resembled those that have delivered for him all year.
By ALAN FRAM Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Go Brits!

and you know how it pains a Mick like myself to say that...

Gay Iranian wins asylum fight CNN

Britain has granted asylum to Mehdi Kazemi, a gay Iranian student who faced deportation from the United Kingdom and feared execution in Iran for being homosexual, officials confirmed Tuesday.

"We keep cases under review where circumstances have changed and it has been decided that Mr. Kazemi should be granted leave to remain in the UK based on the particular facts of this case," Britain's Home Office said in a written statement quoting an unnamed UK Border Agency spokesman.

Kazemi's uncle, known as "Saeed," says his teenage nephew received an "unconditional" letter of asylum from the Home Office on Monday.

Well, The Next Generation Won't Make Us Look Stoopid

Because they will be so much more stoooopid:

One in eight U.S. high school teachers presents creationism as a valid alternative to evolution, says a poll published in the Public Library of Science Biology.

Of more than 900 teachers who responded to a poll conducted by Penn State University political scientist Michael Berkman and colleagues, 32 percent agreed that creationism and intelligent design should be taught as scientifically unsound. Forty percent said such explanations are religiously valid but inappropriate for science class.

However, 25 percent said they devoted classroom time to creationism or intelligent design. Of these, about one-half -- 12 percent of all teachers -- called creationism a "valid scientific alternative to Darwinian explanations for the origin of species," and the same number said that "many reputable scientists view these as valid alternatives to Darwinian theory." (The full study makes for interesting reading: Evolution and Creationism in America’s Classrooms: A National Portrait.

Truely A Third Term For Bush

More Stupidity to guide our Foreign Policy.

GODDAMIT, THE MAN JUST DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE BASICS.

Salon reports:
Joe Klein (TIME): [I've] checked with the Obama campaign and he never, he's never said -- mentioned Ahmadinejad directly by name. He did say he would negotiate with the leaders, but as you know -- Ayatollah …


McCain: (Laughing) Ahmadinejad is, was the leader.

Klein: But if --


McCain: Maybe I'm mistaken.

Klein: Maybe you are, because --

McCain: Maybe. I don't think so though.


Klein: The Supreme, you know, according to most diplomatic experts, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is the guy who's in charge of Iranian foreign policy and also in charge of the nuclear program, but you never mention him. Do you, you know, um, why do you always keep talking about Ahmadinejad, since he doesn't have power in that, in that realm?

McCain: Oh I think -- Again, I respectfully disagree. When he's the person that comes to the United Nations and declares his country's policy is the extermination of the state of Israel, quote, in his words, wipe them off of the map, then I know that he is speaking for the Iranian government and articulating their policy and he was elected and is running for reelection as the leader of that country ... I mean, the fact is he's the acknowledged leader of that country and you may disagree, but that's, uh, that's your right to do so. But I think if you asked any average American who the leader of Iran is, I think they'd know. Or anyone who's well-versed in the issue.

***GT12 Note: The Average American depends on her leaders to know stuff that they don't and to make informed decisions that they can't. Fucking Moron.

Perhaps This Will Shut Up Pat and Joe and (of course) HRC

As could be predicted, everybody's coming home:

Key Quote:

The only major demographic group still supporting Clinton to the tune of 51% or more is women aged 50 and older. This group's preferences have changed little during May, at the same time that Clinton's support among younger men (those 18 to 49) has declined by nearly 10 points.

Teddy

Senator Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant tumor in his brain, his doctors said Tuesday.

Inspiration

Barry needs to sign-up this guy's ad agency:




This Is Our Time


Kevin Drum notes:

The great liberal wave that lasted from the 30s through the 70s was fundamentally based on three things: middle class wage growth, the construction of a social safety net, and the individual rights revolution. Its other pathologies aside, liberalism's big problem by the end of the 70s was that it had essentially won most of these battles. Not all of them. No movement ever wins all its battles. But once you win two-thirds of them, it's hard to sustain the kind of momentum it takes to win the rest.


Conservatives are in the same boat today, except worse. Modern movement conservatism was also fundamentally based on three things: low taxes, anti-communism, and social traditionalism. ("Small government" was never more than a fig leaf.) Today communism is gone (and Islamofascism has failed to rally the troops in the same way), taxes literally can't be lowered any more, and sex-and-gender fundamentalism has become an albatross that's rapidly producing a generation of young voters more repelled by conservatism than any generation since World War II. Even in the late 70s, there were plenty of traditionally liberal goals still to be fought for. Not enough to build a winning coalition around, but still something. Modern conservatives don't even have that. The culture war is pretty much all they have left, and its clock has run out.


They won't be willing to say this during a presidential campaign, but there are at least half a dozen smart Republican senators who understand this and don't really want to go down with the ship. So even if Democrats don't win a filibuster-proof majority in November — as they almost certainly won't — it's likely that there will still be enough survival-inspired GOP senators around to give Barack Obama the votes he needs to make a difference. If that's the case, and if Obama has the courage of his convictions, his first two years could be historic.

And While We're On The Subject Of The Collapse Of Your Life's Work

Sullivan reflect's on HRC at the crossroads

When it comes to Mrs Clinton, one under-estimated factor is the nature of her ambition. As her life has progressed from those salad days at Wellesley, her own long march through the institutions has been fraught with awful moral compromise. In this campaign alone, the pacts she has made with various devils to keep ahead of the pretender to her throne have been particularly brutal. Somewhere in her head, she justifies all the principles she has trashed over the years, all the enemies she has allied with, all the racists she has won over, all the abused women she has smeared ... on the grounds that if she becomes president, the good she can do will outweigh it all. These are the sacrifices all people who seek power for the good must undergo, she tells herself. To have it all taken away from her at the last minute - by someone who hasn't made as many compromises - is therefore unimaginably cruel. She cannot accept it - because her life's work is at stake. So she struggles on. Her private life, her marriage, is fused with her public life. So she has nowhere else to go. Which is why she stays. This is all there is for her.

Is that crazy? I don't know. But it is immeasurably sad. Not sad enough for pity. She did this all herself. But sad nonetheless.

So Good, We Run (blog-ese for steal) It In It's Entirety


Wonkette sums up what has been making crazy for the last month:

Why Is Pat Buchanan So Angry These Days, Anyway?



Tonight we have the 750th and 751st primaries in the 2008 Democratic nominating contest, in Kentucky and Oregon. This means we'll probably be watching MSNBC for a good portion of the night because (a) Chris Matthews is such a stitch and (b) Chuck Todd, he so dreamy! Hillary will likely be declared the winner of Kentucky as soon as polls close, we'll get an earful of mindless chatter about Obama's continuing problems courting Bitters, Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson will note that Obama's likely victory in Oregon will neutralize Hillary's Kentucky delegate pickups, Tim Russert will declare that we have just reached some historical turning point in Math, Matthews will pull down his pants, Nora O'Donnell will be shown from the front only because she is pregnant, Dan Abrams will appear at 1 a.m. with no tie on, the end. Most importantly, Pat Buchanan will spasm uncontrollably all night long — he's been doing it more and more recently — over Obama's fatal flaws. Why, exactly, has Pat been even more of a nut recently on the teevee? It's simple enough: Barack Obama is threatening to undo his life's work.



Buchanan, of course, hit the national stage as an adviser and speechwriter for President Nixon. You know how the entire electoral map shifted in Republicans' favor in 1968, guaranteeing them 7 out of 10 presidencies ever since? That was Pat's brainchild. This has all been documented well and good, but in an epic new piece from the New Yorker, the writer, George Packer, quotes from a 1971 memo Buchanan wrote to Nixon. For some strange reason, Buchanan voluntarily gave this to Packer:


Buchanan gave me a copy of a seven-page confidential memorandum—"A little raw for today," he warned—that he had written for Nixon in 1971, under the heading "Dividing the Democrats." Drawn up with an acute understanding of the fragilities and fault lines in "the Old Roosevelt Coalition," it recommended that the White House "exacerbate the ideological division" between the Old and New Left by praising Democrats who supported any of Nixon's policies; highlight "the elitism and quasi-anti-Americanism of the National Democratic Party"; nominate for the Supreme Court a Southern strict constructionist who would divide Democrats regionally; use abortion and parochial-school aid to deepen the split between Catholics and social liberals; elicit white working-class support with tax relief and denunciations of welfare. Finally, the memo recommended exploiting racial tensions among Democrats. "Bumper stickers calling for black Presidential and especially Vice-Presidential candidates should be spread out in the ghettoes of the country," Buchanan wrote. "We should do what is within our power to have a black nominated for Number Two, at least at the Democratic National Convention." Such gambits, he added, could "cut the Democratic Party and country in half; my view is that we would have far the larger half."



And there you have the last 40 years in American politics, crafted by Pat Buchanan, MSNBC analyst. And Barack Obama (if he stops being such a sally) has an historical chance to end this era and pour tasty Hope-salt over its ruins. So when you see Pat sitting at the shiny panel tonight, chaotically spitting at the ex-Sportscenter anchor and the radio lesbian, don't judge: think about how you'd feel if your life's work was about to go down as the most toxic force in modern American political and social history. Or something.

Because Somebody (Pat Buchanan, HRC) Might Bring This Up

William Kristol, who does no research and is always (no, really, he's always) wrong is discussed by Think Progress:

In his New York Times column [yesterday], Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol tried to find reasons for conservatives to be optimistic about 2008 elections, despite the claims of some Republicans that “the Republican brand is in the trash can.” To support his argument, Kristol pointed to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) 41-point loss in the West Virginia primary:


On Tuesday night, while the G.O.P. Congressional candidate was losing in a Mississippi district George Bush carried in 2004 by 25 points, Barack Obama was being trounced in the West Virginia Democratic primary — by 41 points. I can’t find a single recent instance of a candidate who ultimately became his party’s nominee losing a primary by this kind of margin.

Apparently Kristol didn’t look hard enough. Writing at Room Eight, New York political consultant Jerry Skurnik says it took him “all of 2 minutes to find what Kristol couldn’t find.”

On Feb. 5, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney beat presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) by 85 points in the Utah primary.

In fact, on the same day, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee beat McCain by the same margin Kristol touted as unprecedented — 41 points — in the Arkansas primary.

As did Mitt Romney in the Colorado caucus.

We Are Soooo In Trouble When Sanity Has To Depend On Condi For Defense

From Think Progress:

The Jerusalem Post reports that a senior Israeli official said that President Bush and Vice President Cheney are of the belief that military action against Iran is necessary and that such an attack could be coming soon:

US President George W. Bush intends to attack Iran in the upcoming months, before the end of his term, Army Radio quoted a senior official in Jerusalem as saying Tuesday.

The official claimed that a senior member of the president’s entourage, which concluded a trip to Israel last week, said during a closed meeting that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action was called for.

However, the official continued, “the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice” was preventing the administration from deciding to launch such an attack on the Islamic Republic, for the time being.

Why We Hear That Wright Is Wrong and Parsely Is Just A Garnish


Salon looks at the tolerance of Hate and/or Crazy -Speech by White Pastors:

...The issue isn't that journalists share Hagee and Parsley's views so much as that they know that they are widely held, which makes them reluctant to acknowledge how truly outrageous they are. After years of nodding at the whacked-out likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, the media has, to borrow Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famous phrase, defined right-wing religious deviancy down. More or less "orthodox" Christian-right insanity, of the sort espoused by Hagee and Parsley, is familiar and normal, whereas black-church radicalism, with its ties to left-wing liberation theology, is not. In 2000, 45 percent of the population told Gallup they were either born-again or evangelical Christians.


...go hard after extreme figures on the religious right because those extreme figures have major constituencies. The taboo against criticizing Christianity also plays a crucial role: Extreme, even demented beliefs are seen as untouchable so long as they are part of what is seen as mainstream evangelical Christianity. Of course this taboo does not extend to criticizing left-wing Christianity, à la Wright. If some public figure said that the earthquake in China was caused by the wrath of Zeus, who was offended because women's rights had reduced the number of compliant virgins available for him to deflower, any politician who consorted with him would be forced to repudiate him. But Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, John Hagee and other such figures have said essentially the same thing and gotten a pass. Afraid of coming across as arrogant elitists who don't understand or respect the faith of "real" Americans, the media has pulled its punches on the Christian right for years.


Patriotism and Islamophobia also contribute to the blank check handed to the religious right. Hagee and Parsley may be barking mad, but they wave the flag and denounce Islam. In the age of George W. Bush, that qualifies them as solidly in the American mainstream.



In fact, the media's failure to subject Hagee and Parsley to the same scrutiny that they have given to Wright and Farrakhan is closely related to its colossal failures in covering Bush's "war on terror." The media failed in the run-up to the war in Iraq in large part because, under the patriotic pressure of 9/11, it followed the wartime norm of swallowing the administration line. Its shortcomings with Hagee and Parsley reflect the same internalized self-censorship.


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NOTE: We ran across a website that we've always thought should exist ... one dedicated to "defending the First Amendment against the Christian Right", reminding Americans that there are Jews in this country and that they REALLY don't appreciate these Christo-centrist wack-jobs ... nicely pro-Obama too! Go Here

Bush-ian

From the WSJ:

Inside her campaign, Sen. Clinton isn't asking for advice, forcing advisers to hold off discussions on what she wants from the process if she loses -- from dealing with campaign debt, to her role in an Obama bid for the White House. "The campaign has broken down to those who drink the Kool-Aid that Hillary can still win, and those who don't, and are considering their options," one operative said.


Campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe says he has assured Sen. Clinton that she will have funds to compete through June 3, adding that he will worry about any campaign debt after that. "We're still getting tens of thousands of contributors online, who love Hillary's fight," Mr. McAuliffe said.


Sen. Clinton's campaign is racking up large debts, though. The campaign disclosed $12.6 million in debt at the end of March, not including a personal loan of $5 million from Sen. Clinton herself. One week ago, officials said the candidate had lent her campaign an additional $6.4 million and put total debt at $20 million.