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Catastrophic Failure 2008-02-08 17:27:00 I have experienced a catastrophic failure with the computer I have always used when working on this blog. Please expect little to no new entries here until I can get quite a number of things going again. Hopefully I will be back in operation by Monday. Maintenance ...

Bush Tries Herding Cats 2008-02-07 23:12:00 Supposedly tomorrow George W. Bush will try his hand at corralling the raucous extreme Right wing of the Republican party. Per Peter Baker at WashPost:President Bush plans to give an implicit endorsement of onetime rival John McCain's conservative bona fides tomorrow as the Arizona senator seeks to consolidate the party behind his candidacy.In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in the morning, Bush plans to say that the nominee of the party will be a strong conservative, according to excerpts released by the White House tonight."We have had good debates and soon we will have a nominee who will carry the conservative banner into this election and beyond," Bush says in the excerpts. "The stakes in November are high. Prosperity and peace are in the balance. So with confidence in our vision and faith in our values, let us go forward, fight for victory and keep the White House in 2008."Bush does not mention McCain by name, but the clear signal of his words to this pa ...

McCain's CPAC Address 2008-02-07 15:35:00 Well, I think that for an amateur I did a fairly decent job of predicting the bullet points in John McCain's speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference this afternoon. I don't think that I was especially prescient, though. It was pretty obvious that "common ground" would be his theme and that dictated the specifics.As expected, he had some nice words for Romney, and genuflected to Saint Ronald of Reagan while pointing to conservatism in his past.I attended my first CPAC conference as the invited guest of Ronald Reagan, not long after I had returned from overseas, when I heard him deliver his "shining city upon a hill" speech. I was still a naval officer then, but his words inspired and helped form my own political views, just as Ronald Reagan's defense of America's cause in Vietnam and his evident concern for American prisoners of war in that conflict inspired and were a great comfort to those of us who, in my friend Jerry Denton's words, had the honor of serving "our ...

Super Tuesday Speeches 2008-02-07 13:28:00 I'll admit to being on something of a sound-bite diet during this presidential campaign. I've read a lot of transcripts of addresses from several candidates, but there have been few times that I've watched or listened to an entire speech. Tuesday night was an exception. During my all-nighter, I was privileged to watch the entirety of speeches by both remaining active Democratic candidates.I'll also admit to being more receptively predisposed to Obama's remarks, but I was a bit unprepared for how truly inspiring I found his words to be. Treat yourself, take in the whole thing. Running time is about 22 minutes. Or, if you insist, read the text here.If the above video does not play, go here.And, in the interest of equal time, here is Senator Clinton's speech, running time about 11 minutes. The transcript is here.If the above video does not play, go here.Update. In typical fashion, pompous ass Joe Klein was affected by Obama's words in a diametrically opposite fashion.How can ...

Romney's Reasons 2008-02-07 12:54:00 In his CPAC speech today after shamelessly trying to channel the spirit of Ronald Reagan, Mitt Romney got around to his big news: that he was "suspending" his campaign. The spin he chose to apply to it portrayed him as martyring his candidacy for the sake of the survival of America.Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror. They would retreat and declare defeat. And the consequence of that would be devastating. It would mean attacks on America, launched from safe havens that make Afghanistan under the Taliban look like child’s play. About this, I have no doubt.I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating Al Qaeda and terror. If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or ...

Our Saudi Friends at it Again 2008-02-07 11:39:00 From the TimesOnline today:A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh.Yara, who does not want her last name published for fear of retribution, was bruised and crying when she was freed from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the Kingdom's “Mutaween” police.[....]Her ordeal began with a routine visit to the new Riyadh offices of her finance company, where she is a managing partner.The electricity temporarily cut out, so Yara and her colleagues — who are all men — went to a nearby Starbucks to use its wireless internet.She sat in a curtained booth with her business partner in the café's “family” area, the only seats where men and women are allowed to mix.[....]“Some men came up to us with very long beards and white dresses. They asked ...

Romney "Suspends" Campaign 2008-02-07 11:15:00 Breaking News. CNN announced minutes ago that Mitt Romney will us his address to CPAC today that he is "suspending" his campaign for the GOP nomnination. Using the same terminology that John Edwards did, "suspending" is technically not the same as "withdrawing" from the race. He will hang on to his 256 delegates for now. ...

John in the Lions' Den 2008-02-07 10:38:00 The glow he's feeling from his successes on Tuesday will probably dim today when John McCain attends a family reunion where he's considered the black sheep. Later today, following earlier speeches by Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul, McCain will address the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., hoping an opportunity to thaw his frosty relationship with many of the conservative power brokers in attendance.McCain is viewed as too liberal by most who'll hear him today. It remains to be seen whether any minds will be changed today. It will be a tough crowd with a great deal of sales-resistance.Look for McCain to open with a stroll down memory lane, emphasizing the conservative elements in his political past, starting with what he describes as his service as a foot-soldier in the Reagan revolution. (Rumors were circulating that he might show a video of Reagan as an introduction to his speech, but that's been denied this morning by the McCain campaign.) C ...

The South Mourns, Begins Picking Up the Pieces 2008-02-07 09:52:00 The death toll from Tuesday's tornadoes currently stands at 55, with at least 13 dead and 133 injured here in Arkansas. The Associated Press summarizes the carnage state by state. ...

How the Chips Stack Up 2008-02-06 16:29:00 The numbers are still slightly disputed, but here are the approximate delegate totals to-date: Obama 838, Clinton 834. Very close. The popular vote reflects the same phenomenon, with only about 50,000 votes separating the two nationwide on Tuesday. On the Republican side, things are not so equal: McCain 720, Romney 256, Huckabee 194. Much is being made today of the Huckabee wins yesterday, pundits seriously trying to do the math of how he might actually win. He's being taken more seriously than anytime since a couple of days post-Iowa. I can't deny a little sense of pride in home-state boy doing well, but I (as I expect the realistic politician in Mike Huckabee does) recognize that he does not have the financial wherewithal, organization or appeal to succeed nationally. He's done amazingly well with scarce resources thus far, but his range is limited. I do hope that he stays in the race to keep things interesting and to continue being a thorn in Romney's side. And although ...

Super Tuesday Almost Midnight Here 2008-02-05 23:45:00 Here's what I have as the witching hour is upon me.On the Democratic Party side -- certain, projected or assumed victories by Senator Hillary Clinton in: Arizona Arkansas California (called by NBC with only 15% in) Massachusetts New Jersey New York Oklahoma and Tennessee-- certain, projected or assumed victories by Senator Barack Obama in: Alabama Alaska Colorado Connecticut Delaware Georgia Idaho Illinois Kansas Minnesota Missouri North Dakota and UtahOn the Republican Party side -- certain, projected or assumed victories by Senator John McCain in: Arizona California Connecticut Delaware Illinois Missouri New Jersey New York and Oklahoma -- certain, projected or assumed victories by former Governor Mike Huckabee in: Alabama Arkansas Georgia Tennessee and West Virginia (convention, decided this afternoon)-- certain, projected or assumed victories by former Governor Mitt Romney in: Colorado Massachusetts Minnesota Montana (winner-take-all ...

Voting Day Reflections - 2 2008-02-05 16:15:00 I had intended to not post further until more actual results were in, but this I could not resist.In typical fashion, the campaign of former-Governor Willard Mill Sore-Loser Sour-Grapes Romney had this lamentation on their official website regarding Mike Huckabee's win in West Virginia today:Waa! The bad ol' tax-and-spenders ganged up on us. Waa, waa!!Alright, that's not an exact quote, but that is surely the essence of it.The Mittster indicating the direction in which his campaign is headed. ...

Voting Day Reflections 2008-02-05 14:34:00 O.K., so it's Super-Duper Tsunami Tuesday and that's THE topic everywhere, so I suppose I should put in my $.02.First of all, I'm doing my best to completely ignore the poll numbers. Today is just too much of a mixed bag to think about national polls. Even statewide results in diverse places like California should come with a warning label bearing Tip O'Neal's axiom that it's all local. Plus, the polls are all over the place. As TPM points out:There's one guarantee I can make right now about tonight's results. They are going take make either Zogby or SurveyUSA look like complete fools. Which one I'm not completely sure, but definitely one of them.Consider this spread. Zogby has his final California number as Obama 49%, Clinton 36%. SurveyUSA has Obama 42%, Clinton 52%.Polls aside, there's as much chatter today about how "winning" will be defined as there is about who may win. Supposedly it's all about the delegate counts, but the potential psychological effect (and conco ...

Lest We Forget 2008-02-05 13:46:00 It was five years ago today that then Secretary of State Colin Powell made the Powerpoint presentation heard round the world to sell the latest greatest product from Cheney-Bush, Inc., a war with Iraq based on the threat posed by Sadam Hussein's [imaginary] weapons of mass destruction.[If above video does not play, go here.]This tragic anniversary seems lost in the clutter today on cable news. Thanks to Rising Hegemon via Memorandum for the reminder.The invasion and occupation that followed have cost thousands of young American lives, scores of thousands their limbs and futures, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives and half a trillion U.S. taxpayer dollars... so far. This war that Bush lied us into, planned poorly and executed ineptly is what he ran on ...successfully... for reelection in 2004. He has used it as a part of a pretext for labeling dissenters as cowardly America-haters who don't support the troops. He has woven it into the fabric of his glorious never-to-be-ended War ...

Bills Huddle during Super Bowl 2008-02-05 12:38:00 The most alarming image from Super Bowl Sunday was the one I saw on cable news yesterday depicting Bill Clinton spending the evening cozying up together to watch the game at Richardson's private residence in Red River, a community of about 500 people in the mountains of northern New Mexico.Via AP:Richardson, a Hispanic, is widely popular in his home state, one of 22 holding Democratic nominating contests on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5. Both the Obama and Clinton camps have courted his endorsement, but Richardson has so far not indicated whether he will tip his hand before Tuesday.Richardson held two posts in Clinton's cabinet — as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1997 and as Energy secretary from 1998-2001.Clinton also visited Richardson last Thursday to discuss a possible endorsement of the former first lady. The former president has actively campaigned this week for his wife, a New York senator, in several Feb. 5 states."They're calling a lot," Richardson said last week of the ...