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Wednesday, April 30, 2008
G.W.B. + G.O.P. = F.A.I.L. posted by Dookie The Webmaster 12:36 PM US report says al-Qaida gaining strength in Afghanistan Al-Qaida has rebuilt some of its pre-Sept. 11 capabilities from remote hiding places in Pakistan, and terrorist attacks in neighboring Afghanistan increased 16 percent last year, the Bush administration said Wednesday. The State Department's annual terrorism report says that attacks in Iraq dipped slightly between 2006 and 2007, but they still accounted for 60 percent of worldwide terrorism fatalities. More than 22,000 people were killed by terrorists around the world in 2007, 8 percent more than in 2006, although the overall number of attacks fell, the report says. About 13,600 noncombatants were killed in 2007 in Iraq, the report says, adding the high number could be attributed to a 50 percent increase in the number of suicide bombings. Suicide car bombings were up 40 percent and suicide bombings outside of vehicles climbed 90 percent over 2006, it says. "The ability of these attackers to penetrate large concentrations of people and then detonate their explosives may account for the increase in lethality of bombings in 2007," the report says. 9/11 Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

McSame wants 100 years posted by Dookie The Webmaster 12:33 PM U.S. deaths in Iraq at seven-month high in April The death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq reached a seven month high in April, with the reported deaths of three more soldiers on Wednesday bringing the monthly toll to 47, the highest since last September. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been engaged in intense fighting over the past month with Shi'ite militia fighters in Baghdad's tightly-packed Sadr City slum. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who launched a crackdown against the Mehdi Army militia a month ago in the southern city of Basra, said on Wednesday the government would disarm the fighters by force if they refuse to lay down their weapons. Two hospitals in Sadr City, the Shi'ite slum that has been the focus of fighting in the capital, said they had received the bodies of 421 Iraqis killed and treated more than 2,400 wounded there since late March. Government spokesman Tahseen al-Sheikhly said the toll there was higher, with more than 900 killed. Many of the dead and wounded have been civilians, caught in the crossfire in the crowded slum. Meat grinder Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

What a tool posted by Dookie The Webmaster 6:09 AM Bush Blames Democrats for Sliding Economy President Bush today blamed Congress for many of the nation's economic woes, charging that lawmakers have blocked his proposals for dealing with problems ranging from soaring gasoline prices to the increasing cost of food. In a news conference at the White House, Bush declined to characterize the economic troubles as a recession, saying he would not get into a debate about "words" and would let economists decide the terminology. He also was noncommittal on a proposal -- backed by two presidential candidates -- to suspend federal taxes on fuel in order to provide some relief to motorists and truckers who pay an average of $3.60 a gallon for gasoline and $4.24 a gallon for diesel nationwide. On foreign policy issues, Bush insisted that "we're making progress" against a "very resilient enemy" in Afghanistan, said he was "perplexed" by the House's decision to block a free trade agreement with Colombia and expressed confidence that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would succeed him as president and carry on his global war on terrorism. The main theme of the news conference, however, was the economy, and Bush wasted no time ripping the Democratic-controlled Congress on a range of issues. Dumbazz Permalink :: 4 comments :: Post a Comment

Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Is there any one of them willing to take some of the blame? posted by Clyde 10:17 AM U.S. Was 'Clueless' on Counterinsurgency Paul Wolfowitz, in his first public remarks on the Iraq war in years, said the American government was "pretty much clueless on counterinsurgency" in the first year of the war. The former deputy secretary of defense said yesterday that the force sent to Iraq was adequate for fighting Saddam Hussein's military, citing the speed with which American troops toppled the regime. But Mr. Wolfowitz said no one in the Bush administration anticipated that Saddam would order his security services to wage an insurgency after their formal defeat on the battlefield. Mr. Wolfowitz's remarks came at a forum for a new book, "War and Decision," by the former no. 3 official at the Pentagon, Douglas Feith. In the book, Mr. Feith argues that America's greatest mistake in the war was establishing a coalition provisional authority instead of installing a group of Iraqi exiles in an interim government until elections could be held. Mr. Wolfowitz said he agreed with his old colleague. But his remarks yesterday have special relevance, because in the run-up to the war, the deputy secretary of defense downplayed testimony from a retired Army chief of staff, General Eric Shinseki, who told Congress that postwar stabilization operations would require several hundred thousand troops. (Link) Permalink :: 2 comments :: Post a Comment

No volunteers? Go figure! posted by Clyde 10:15 AM US short of diplomats for Iraq, Afghanistan reconstruction The State Department is short of staff to meet the Pentagon's need to reinforce the provincial reconstruction teams (PRT) in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior US official said Monday. To press his point, Eliot Cohen, counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, noted that the Defense Department employs more musicians than the State Department has diplomats. According to government data, the State Department employs 12,000 people, 5,500 of whom are diplomats deployed in Washington and abroad. "When I tell the 5,500 figure, the generals are usually shocked," Cohen told reporters after commenting that at the Defense Department "the appetite is unlimited" for diplomats to join the understaffed PRTs. (Link) Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

Balls as big as church bells! posted by Clyde 10:12 AM Cheney lawyer claims Congress has no authority over vice-president The lawyer for US vice-president Dick Cheney claimed today that the Congress lacks any authority to examine his behaviour on the job. The exception claimed by Cheney's counsel came in response to requests from congressional Democrats that David Addington, the vice-president's chief of staff, testify about his involvement in the approval of interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo Bay. Ruling out voluntary cooperation by Addington, Cheney lawyer Kathryn Wheelbarger said Cheney's conduct is "not within the [congressional] committee's power of inquiry". "Congress lacks the constitutional power to regulate by law what a vice-president communicates in the performance of the vice president's official duties, or what a vice president recommends that a president communicate," Wheelbarger wrote to senior aides on Capitol Hill. (Link) Permalink :: 3 comments :: Post a Comment

Monday, April 28, 2008
Like US flags.... posted by Dookie The Webmaster 12:47 PM 'Free Tibet' flags made in China Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say. The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning. But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper. The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an independent Tibet. Shop Wal-Mart Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

Bush's War ---> Democrat's War posted by Dookie The Webmaster 12:44 PM House Democrats work to extend war funding for another year House Democratic leaders are putting together the largest Iraq war spending bill yet, a measure that is expected to fund the war through the end of the Bush presidency and for nearly six months into the next president's term. The bill, which could be unveiled as early as this week, signals that Democrats are resigned to the fact they can't change course in Iraq in the final months of President Bush's term. Instead, the party is pinning its hopes of ending the war on winning the White House in November. ..... The bill is expected to provide $108 billion that the White House has requested for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lawmakers who are drafting it say it also will include a so-called bridge fund of $70 billion to give the new president several months of breathing room before having to ask Congress for more money. Just peachy Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

2008 already stolen posted by Dookie The Webmaster 9:58 AM Top court upholds photo ID voting law The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld a tough state law requiring voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot, a decision critics say could keep some blacks and poor people from voting in the November 2008 elections. Stepping into a partisan political battle, the nation's high court voted 6-3 to reject a challenge to Indiana's toughest-in-the-nation voter identification law. Democrats and other opponents had argued that the law is unconstitutional because it makes it too difficult for some people to vote, especially minorities, the poor, the disabled and the elderly. Those groups are most likely not to have government identification and also tend to vote for Democrats. Supporters, mainly Republicans, defended the law as necessary to prevent voter fraud and to heighten public confidence in the integrity of elections. The Bush administration supported the law. When will it stop? Permalink :: 3 comments :: Post a Comment

Just in time for your tax rebates to arrive posted by Dookie The Webmaster 9:38 AM OPEC knows you're going to use it for at least one fillup. North Sea pipeline closure drives oil close to $120 US Oil prices hit an all-time high near $120 US a barrel Monday after a weekend refinery strike closed a pipeline system that delivers a third of Britain's North Sea oil to refineries in the U.K. The shutdown comes amid other supply outages in Nigeria that have helped to support oil against a strengthening dollar. "We've got a confluence of a number of events that have really disrupted crude oil supply," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "That's what's driving oil to a new record even though the U.S. dollar actually strengthened a bit." Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose to a record $119.93 US a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract eased back to trade at $119.26 US a barrel, up 73 cents from Friday's regular trading session closing price. Raped Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

Sunday, April 27, 2008
From a grateful nation? posted by Clyde 7:11 AM Military muffles Marine's funeral At final tribute to slain serviceman, Pentagon obstructs what the family wanted you to see Lt. Col. Billy Hall, one of the most senior officers to be killed in the Iraq war, was laid to rest last week at Arlington National Cemetery. It's hard to escape the conclusion that the Pentagon doesn't want the public to know that. The family of 38-year-old Hall, who leaves behind two young daughters and two stepsons, gave their permission for the media to cover his Arlington burial-a decision many grieving families make so that the nation will learn about their loved ones' sacrifice. But the military had other ideas, and they arranged the Marine's burial Wednesday so that no sound, and few images, would make it into the public domain. Hall's story is a moving reminder that the war in Iraq, forgotten by much of the nation, remains real and present for some. Among those unlikely to forget the war: 6-year-old Gladys and 3-year-old Tatianna. The rest of the nation, if it remembers Hall at all, will remember him as the 4,011th American service member to die in Iraq, give or take, and the 419th to be buried at Arlington. Gladys and Tatianna will remember him as Dad. The two girls were there in Section 60 on Wednesday beside grave 8,672-or at least it appeared that they were from a distance. Journalists were held 50 yards from the service, separated from the mourning party by six or seven rows of graves and penned in by a yellow rope. (Link) Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

But isn't God a Republican? posted by Clyde 6:11 AM Pray-in at S.F. gas station asks God to lower prices Rocky Twyman has a radical solution for surging gasoline prices: prayer. Twyman - a community organizer, church choir director and public relations consultant from the Washington, D.C., suburbs - staged a pray-in at a San Francisco Chevron station on Friday, asking God for cheaper gas. He did the same thing in the nation's Capitol on Wednesday, with volunteers from a soup kitchen joining in. Today he will lead members of an Oakland church in prayer. Yes, it's come to that. "God is the only one we can turn to at this point," said Twyman, 59. "Our leaders don't seem to be able to do anything about it. The prices keep soaring and soaring." (Ramen) Permalink :: 2 comments :: Post a Comment

Saturday, April 26, 2008
Your vote only counts when they say it counts! posted by Clyde 3:24 AM GOP objects to bill allowing recounts Voting rights activists who hoped the federal government would help local governments pay for paper trails and audits for electronic voting machines have gone from elation to frustration as they watched Republicans who supported such a proposal in committee vote against bringing it to the House floor. The result: The elections in November will likely be marred by the same accusations of fraud and error involving voting machines that arose in the aftermath of the 2004 presidential race. When New Jersey Democratic Rep. Rush Holt's Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act came up for a vote in the House Administration Committee on April 2, the Republicans on the committee gave it their unanimous support. But two weeks later, those same Republican members voted against moving the bill to the House floor. It would have taken a two-thirds vote to push the bill to the floor; with most House Republicans opposed, the bill didn't make it that far. Larry Norden, director of the voting technology project at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's law school, called the vote "a sad statement on how little Congress has done on the issue of making sure elections are as secure and reliable as possible." (Link) Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

Now what reason do they have to be upset, really? posted by Clyde 3:14 AM Iraqis see red as U.S. opens world's biggest embassy For the average American who will never see it, the new US Embassy in Baghdad may be little more than the Big Dig of the Tigris. Like the infamous Boston highway project, the embassy is a mammoth development that is overbudget, overdue, and casts a whiff of corruption. For many Iraqis, though, the sand-and-ochre-colored compound peering out across the city from a reedy stretch of riverfront within the fortified Green Zone is an unsettling symbol both of what they have become in the five years since the fall of Saddam Hussein, and of what they have yet to achieve. "It is a symbol of occupation for the Iraqi people, that is all," says Anouar, a Baghdad graduate student who thought it was risk enough to give her first name. "We see the size of this embassy and we think we will be part of the American plan for our country and our region for many, many years." (Link) Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

Friday, April 25, 2008
Here we go posted by Dookie The Webmaster 10:53 AM Joint Chiefs Chairman Says U.S. Preparing Military Options Against Iran The nation's top military officer said today that the Pentagon is planning for "potential military courses of action" against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a conflict with Iran would be "extremely stressing" but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing specifically to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force. "It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," he said at a Pentagon news conference. Still, Mullen made clear that he prefers a diplomatic solution to the tensions with Iran and does not foresee any imminent military action. "I have no expectations that we're going to get into a conflict with Iran in the immediate future," he said. Impeach Permalink :: 3 comments :: Post a Comment

Let them eat cake posted by Dookie The Webmaster 6:23 AM McCain sharply critical of Bush response to Katrina Republican U.S. presidential candidate John McCain on Thursday sharply criticized the Bush administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina and vowed, "Never again." McCain, putting some distance between himself and fellow Republican President George W. Bush, said if he had been president during the 2005 catastrophe he would have immediately visited New Orleans during the initial shock aftermath of the killer storm. "I'm just saying I would've landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally," he said. Two days after the hurricane made landfall in August 2005, when immediate recovery efforts were chaotic, Bush surveyed the damage during a fly-over in Air Force One while returning from a trip to the West Coast. Picture taken during Katrina Update: Here's the list of his votes against aid to Katrina victims. Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

R.A.T.S. posted by Dookie The Webmaster 6:16 AM Roberts.Alito.Thomas.Scalia Scalia On Bush v. Gore: Get Over It People who believe the U.S. Supreme Court's decision giving the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush was politically motivated should just get over it, says Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia denies that the controversial decision was political and discusses other aspects of his public and private life in a remarkably candid interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, this Sunday, April 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. "I say nonsense," Scalia responds to Stahl's observation that people say the Supreme Court's decision in Gore v. Bush was based on politics and not justice. "Get over it. It's so old by now. The principal issue in the case, whether the scheme that the Florida Supreme Court had put together violated the federal Constitution, that wasn't even close. The vote was seven to two," he says, referring to the Supreme Court's decision that the Supreme Court of Florida's method for recounting ballots was unconstitutional. Furthermore, says the outspoken conservative justice, it was Al Gore who ultimately put the issue into the courts. "It was Al Gore who made it a judicial question.... We didn't go looking for trouble. It was he who said, 'I want this to be decided by the courts,'" says Scalia. "What are we supposed to say -- 'Not important enough?'" he jokes. Bullshit. It wasn't Gore V. Bush Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

Thursday, April 24, 2008
We need oil more than they need guns posted by Dookie The Webmaster 6:10 AM US Sen Dems To Threaten Arms Deals Unless OPEC Boosts Output U.S. Senate Democrats are taking a tough line with OPEC as oil prices surge to record highs, and plan on Thursday to threaten to hold up arms deals with Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations unless the oil-producing countries agree to increase oil production. Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., plan to call on President George W. Bush and his administration to "use its leverage" with OPEC nations or "risk Congress holding up multi-million dollar arms deals." The strategy will be unveiled at a press conference on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. EDT. Earlier this year, the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ignored Bush's request to increase production in order to bring down U.S. gasoline prices. Most recently, Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, over the weekend said it had no plans to increase production capacity beyond the amount it is already pursuing for several years until it gets clearer signs about future consumption. Not gonna work. Nice try though Permalink :: 3 comments :: Post a Comment

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Like voting Republican?? posted by Dookie The Webmaster 12:29 PM Why You Make the Same Mistake Twice We sure do learn from our mistakes, but what we learn is how to make more mistakes, new research shows. This seemingly counterintuitive idea comes from a study of a phenomenon called tip of the tongue (TOT), detailed in the most recent issue of the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A tip-of-the-tongue state occurs when your brain has accessed the correct word, but for some reason can't retrieve the sound information for it. While the word-glitch can happen regardless of your vocabulary aptitude, researchers have found TOT happens more for bilinguals (they have more words to sift through), older people and individuals with brain damage. "This can be incredibly frustrating - you know you know the word, but you just can't quite get it," said researcher Karin Humphreys of McMaster University in Ontario. "And once you have it, it is such a relief that you can't imagine ever forgetting it again. But then you do." Insanity maybe? Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

What the hell it's only money! posted by Clyde 10:35 AM Feds Scrap $20 Million 'Virtual Fence' In Ariz. The government is scrapping a $20 million prototype of its highly touted "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system is failing to adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings, officials said. The move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced his approval of the fence built by The Boeing Co. The fence consists of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson. Boeing is to replace the so-called Project 28 prototype with a series of towers equipped with communications systems, new cameras and new radar capability, officials said. Less than a week after Chertoff accepted Project 28 on Feb. 22, the Government Accountability Office told Congress it "did not fully meet user needs and the project's design will not be used as the basis for future" developments. (Link) Permalink :: 2 comments :: Post a Comment

Hillary must win the 80% of the remaining states posted by Dookie The Webmaster 6:30 AM Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

From the New York Times... posted by Dookie The Webmaster 6:24 AM who endorsed Clinton: The Low Road to Victory The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it. Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process; and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election. If nothing else, self interest should push her in that direction. Mrs. Clinton did not get the big win in Pennsylvania that she needed to challenge the calculus of the Democratic race. It is true that Senator Barack Obama outspent her 2-to-1. But Mrs. Clinton and her advisers should mainly blame themselves, because, as the political operatives say, they went heavily negative and ended up squandering a good part of what was once a 20-point lead. ..... It is getting to be time for the superdelegates to do what the Democrats had in mind when they created superdelegates: settle a bloody race that cannot be won at the ballot box. Mrs. Clinton once had a big lead among the party elders, but has been steadily losing it, in large part because of her negative campaign. If she is ever to have a hope of persuading these most loyal of Democrats to come back to her side, let alone win over the larger body of voters, she has to call off the dogs. Free pass for McSame in the meantime Permalink :: 4 comments :: Post a Comment

And so it continues... posted by Dookie The Webmaster 6:14 AM Bruising will go on for Democratic Party For better or worse - and many Democrats fear it is for worse - the race goes on. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Senator Barack Obama in Pennsylvania on Tuesday by enough of a margin to continue a battle that Democrats increasingly believe is undermining their effort to unify the party and prepare for the general election against Senator John McCain. Despite a huge investment of time and money by Mr. Obama and pressure on Mrs. Clinton by the party establishment to consider folding her campaign, she won her third big state in a row. Mrs. Clinton showed again that she is a tenacious campaigner with an ability to connect with the blue-collar voters Mr. Obama has found elusive and who could be critical to a Democratic victory in November. Mrs. Clinton's margin was probably not sufficient to fundamentally alter the dynamics of the race, which continued to favor an eventual victory for Mr. Obama. But it made clear that the contest will go on at least a few weeks, if not more. And it served to underline the concerns about Mr. Obama's strengths as a general election candidate. Exit polls again highlighted the racial, economic, sex and values divisions within the party. To take one example, only 60 percent of Democratic Catholic voters said they would vote for Mr. Obama in a general election; 21 percent said they would vote for Mr. McCain, exit polls show. Traitors in bold Permalink :: 5 comments :: Post a Comment

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Nope. Still not popular.... posted by Dookie The Webmaster 1:57 PM Coincidence? See our eariler thread: "Bush's disapproval rating worst of any president in 70 years" Low ratings for Bush visit on 'No Deal' President Bush's guest appearance in support of an Iraq War veteran on Monday night's "Deal or No Deal" didn't bring much luck to the contestant -- or the show. The NBC game show matched its lowest Monday rating ever despite the much-publicized visit by the commander-in-chief. The two-hour "Deal" was seen by 10 million viewers and earned a 2.7 rating among adults 18-49 and a 7 share, down 27% from its prior season average. Bush=28% Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

No relief in sight for those who foot the bill posted by Clyde 10:13 AM Fed auctions another $50 billion to banks, bringing total to $360 billion since December Battling to relieve stressed credit markets, the Federal Reserve has provided a total of $360 billion in short-term loans to squeezed banks since December to help them overcome credit problems. The central bank on Tuesday announced the results of its most recent auction - the 10th since the program started in December, where commercial banks bid to get a slice of another $50 billion in the short-term loans. It's part of an ongoing effort by the Fed to help ease the credit crunch, which erupted last August, intensified in December and January and took another turn for the worst in March with the sudden crash of Bear Stearns, the nation's fifth-largest investment house. The mighty blows of the housing, credit and financial crises threaten to push the country into a deep recession. (Link) Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

The "Legacy" posted by Dookie The Webmaster 9:48 AM Bush's disapproval rating worst of any president in 70 years President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll. In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove. The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt. The previous record of 67% was reached by Harry Truman in January 1952, when the United States was enmeshed in the Korean War. ... Views of Bush divide sharply along party lines. Among Republicans, 66% approve and 32% disapprove. Disapproval is nearly universal - 91% - among Democrats. Of independents, 23% approve, 72% disapprove of the job he's doing. Who are the 9% Dems I can kick in the balls? Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

Today's high oil price excuse: posted by Dookie The Webmaster 6:33 AM Oil Rises to Record Above $118 on U.K. Strike, Nigeria Supply Crude oil rose to a record above $118 a barrel on concern that a labor dispute in the U.K. and disruptions in Nigeria may crimp oil supply. Oil rose to $118.05 a barrel in New York as unions planned to strike at a Scottish refinery in Grangemouth that receives shipments of a benchmark crude oil from the North Sea. Royal Dutch Shell Plc said yesterday 169,000 barrels of daily production were suspended because of attacks last week in Africa's largest producer. Wait. I thought this had nothing to do with supply. Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

The longest 6 weeks in politics posted by Dookie The Webmaster 6:10 AM Is over. Democrats make final pushes for votes in Pa. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton scoured Pennsylvania for votes Monday amid signs Democrats are increasingly ready for the bitter presidential nomination race to end. On the eve of their first contest in six weeks, the two Democratic rivals angled to manage expectations. Obama insisted he wasn't expecting a Keystone State win, while a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll showed him with a lead nationwide over Clinton, 50%-40%, among Democrats and independents who lean Democratic. The sample of 552 adults has a margin of error of +/-5 percentage points. In Pennsylvania, a rash of last-minute state polls showed Clinton anywhere from 10 points ahead to three points behind - with most giving her single-digit leads. "I'm not predicting a win," Obama told Pittsburgh radio station KDKA. "I'm predicting it's going to be close and that we are going to do a lot better than people expect." The poll also found that Democrats and Democratic leaners are evenly split 48%-48% on whether the long, heated nomination contest is hurting the party and party leaders should unite behind a candidate. A Rasmussen Reports poll last month found 62% of Democrats wanted the race to go on. Will someone please win Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

Monday, April 21, 2008
Amish? White? Wha....? posted by Dookie The Webmaster 1:39 PM Clinton: I'm one of you On the eve of tomorrow's make-or-break Pennsylvania primary, Hillary Clinton came to her ancestral home of Scranton this morning armed not with a stump speech, but with a simple declaration: I understand you, because I'm one of you. As she tries to maintain her Keystone State edge over Barack Obama, Clinton, whose father's family is from here, is making every effort to show she hails from small-town, middle-American stock. Recalling childhoods spent in the area, she said she learned "the kind of common-sense values that matter here in Pennsylvania and across America." "We cared about our families, we cared about our faith," said Clinton, who was interrupted several times by chants like "Hillary! Hillary!" and "Madam President! Madam President!" "We believed in working hard. And we had an abiding faith in our country, an abiding faith that never ever quit." She never mentioned Obama by name, but in this and other aspects of her speech -- more like an address to a pep rally -- Clinton tried to portray her rival as out-of-touch with America. (Obama's recent comments about "bitter" small-town voters hung in the air like humidity.) Whamish? Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

Oil or Food? posted by Dookie The Webmaster 12:12 PM Wage erosion cuts deeper in U.S. Whatever Senator Barack Obama meant by his less than artful remarks about small-town Pennsylvanians being "bitter" over lost jobs, he certainly turned a lot of attention last week to the decline of the American worker, bitter or not. The talk most often has been of shuttered factories, layoffs, outsourcing and other effects of globalization, especially in a state like Pennsylvania, which has lost tens of thousands of industrial jobs. But there is another way to look at blue-collar workers or their counterparts in the service sector. The $20 hourly wage, introduced on a huge scale in the middle of the last century, allowed masses of Americans with no more than a high school education to rise to the middle class. It was a marker, of sorts, but it is becoming extinct. Americans greeted the loss with anger and protest when it first began to happen in big numbers in the late 1970s, particularly in the steel industry in western Pennsylvania. But as layoffs persisted, in Pennsylvania and across the country, through the '80s and '90s and right up to today, the protests subsided and acquiescence set in. .... "The most important model that rolled off the Detroit assembly lines in the 20th century," said Harley Shaiken, a labor economist at the University of California at Berkeley, "was the middle class for blue-collar workers." Soup line forms here ----> Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

posted by Dookie The Webmaster 11:59 AM McCain exits campaign money race John McCain is abandoning any hope of catching the Democrats in fundraising. Based on new financial disclosure reports released Sunday, and interviews with his finance team, the Republican Party's presumptive nominee will instead accept taxpayer money to finance his general election and share other costs with the Republican National Committee. The strategy will allow McCain to stretch his campaign dollars by splitting the cost of television advertising and other campaign activity with the RNC. But the decision also puts the Arizona senator at risk of being badly outspent - even with RNC help - by a Democratic nominee who will be allowed to spend as much as he or she can raise on the November race. McSame Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

*Supply vs. Demand: Bullsht posted by Dookie The Webmaster 6:07 AM So does this mean we'll never see another headline like "Oil price rise on news of supply concerns."? I wonder how many times they've used that one before? So let's see: People are cutting back because the prices are at an all time high. Doesn't that mean less demand? Shouldn't the prices be going down? OPEC chief: Oil prices would go higher regardless of supply** OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah el al-Badri said Sunday oil prices would likely go higher and that the group was ready to raise production if the price pressure was due to a shortage of supply - something he doubted. "Oil prices, there is a common understanding that has nothing to do with supply and demand," al-Badri said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Rome. Oil prices reached a new high Friday at $117 a barrel. A host of supply and demand concerns in the U.S. and abroad, along with the dollar's weakness, have served to support prices, even as record retail gasoline prices in the U.S. appear to be dampening demand. Crude prices have risen as much as 4 percent last week. The OPEC chief said the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries "will not hesitate" to increase production if the group thought the higher prices were due to shortages. But he said more oil will not solve the high prices. OPEC's production levels were just one of many factors, he said. "But how much higher it will go, of course it depends on a number of things: the political situation, whether there is a natural catastrophe, whether there are speculations in the market, whether there are strikes in certain producing countries. So there are many other factors other than OPEC production," al-Badri said. $4 = monopoly Permalink :: 2 comments :: Post a Comment

Sunday, April 20, 2008
Powder Keg Meet Match? posted by Clyde 4:44 AM Mosques blare call to arms after Sadr threat of open war in Iraq Loudspeakers at mosques in Baghdad's Shiite bastion Sadr City blared out a call to arms soon after radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr warned of a new uprising by his militia, residents said on Sunday. Iraqi security and medical officials, meanwhile, reported another eight people killed overnight in clashes between militiamen and US and Iraqi forces in the embattled township, where fighting has raged since late March. "Fight the occupiers -- get them out of your homes," the late-night loudspeaker messages said, according to residents. "They (US) are calling for division. We demand that the siege of Sadr City be lifted." The messages also urged the Iraqi army "not to fight your brothers." (So much for the surge) Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

Catapulting the Propaganda posted by Clyde 4:36 AM Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantanamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded "the gulag of our times" by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure. The administration's communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo. To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as "military analysts" whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world. Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration's wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found. (Link) Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

Saturday, April 19, 2008
RAH RAH - USA is #3 - USA is #3 posted by Clyde 5:43 AM China passes US as second-biggest exporter Global trade growth is expected to slow to a six-year low of 4.5 per cent this year but China has overtaken the US as the world's second-biggest exporter, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said yesterday. Heavily influenced by the turmoil in financial markets and the sharp economic slowdown in leading western economies, global merchandise trade is forecast to rise by 4.5 per cent this year, against last year's 5.5 per cent. But the WTO gave warning that a stronger slowdown in global economic growth "could cut trade much more sharply, to significantly less" than the projected level of 4.5 per cent. Dr Patrick Low, WTO chief economist, said that in view of the downside risks, the agency will probably have to revise its projections in the third or fourth quarter of this year. (Link) Permalink :: 1 comments :: Post a Comment

Time to give the C.E.O. a bonus! posted by Clyde 5:35 AM Citigroup posts $5.11 bln loss, to cut 9,000 jobs Citigroup Inc posted its second straight quarterly loss on Friday, hurt by more than $16 billion of write-downs and costs related to credit losses, and said it will cut another 9,000 jobs. Though the $5.11 billion first-quarter loss was larger than expected, analysts and investors expressed optimism that the largest U.S. bank and its new chief executive, Vikram Pandit, were taking necessary steps to move past credit problems and drive down costs. Citigroup shares rose $2.22, or 9.2 percent, to $26.25 in premarket electronic trading. "It's a cathartic quarter," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co in Boston. "Vikram Pandit is coming in and making pretty big changes." Citigroup's net loss totaled $1.02 per share, and compared with a year-earlier profit of $5.01 billion, or $1.01 per share. Revenue fell 48 percent to $13.22 billion. Analysts, on average, expected a loss of 96 cents per share on revenue of $14.35 billion, according to Reuters Estimates. (Link) Permalink :: 0 comments :: Post a Comment

Friday, April 18, 2008
Un-American posted by Dookie The Webmaster 2:01 PM Permalink :: 0 comments ::