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Going After the Pledged Delegates 2008-02-19 09:04:00 All politicians have ambition. But the Clinton campaign crossed the line from ambition to a full blown sense of entitlement a long time ago. I have alluded a number of times to the fact they will do anything both to win the election and once they govern to win re-election. If it wasn't clear before, it should be clear now:Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign intends to go after delegates whom Barack Obama has already won in the caucuses and primaries if she needs them to win the nomination.This strategy was confirmed to me by a high-ranking Clinton official on Monday. And I am not talking about superdelegates, those 795 party big shots who are not pledged to anybody. I am talking about getting pledged delegates to switch sides.What? Isn’t that impossible? A pledged delegate is pledged to a particular candidate and cannot switch, right?Wrong.Pledged delegates are not really pledged at all, not even on the first ballot. This has been an open secret in the party for years, but it ...

Reframing Terror 2008-02-18 23:53:00 E.J. Dionne writes for the Washington Post:[McCain is] saying that Islamic extremism is more important than everything else -- the rise of China and India as global powers, growing resistance to American influence in Europe, the weakening of America's global economic position, the disorder and poverty in large parts of Africa, the alienation of significant parts of Latin America from the United States. Is it in our national interest for all these issues to take a back seat to terrorism?McCain makes his claim even stronger when he uses the phrase "21st century." Does he mean that in the year 2100, Americans will look back and say that everything else that happened in the century paled in comparison with the war against terrorism?But such a debate won't happen unless Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton challenge McCain's assertion directly and offer an alternative vision. There is reason to suspect they might fear doing so. They shouldn't.[...]Of course, defeating terrorism is important ...

Plagiarism 2008-02-18 21:09:00 This whole accusation of plagiarism by Obama, which will be over in a few more hours, was best summed up by Bob Cesca at HuffPo:Howard Wolfson is accusing Senator Obama of plagiarizing a speech passage from Governor Deval Patrick.Wolfson said: "Sen. Obama is running on the strength of his rhetoric and the strength of his promises and, as we have seen in the last couple of days, he's breaking his promises and his rhetoric isn't his own."Obama closely echoed a passage from a speech that Deval Patrick, now the Massachusetts governor, used at a campaign rally when he was running for that office in 2006.Governor Patrick, however, says that he and Senator Obama have discussed this idea on the phone several times during the primary campaign. Nevertheless, this really is a desperate attack. After all, politicians repeat similar themes all the damn time. It's like attacking a politician for wearing a suit and a tie -- or a pants suit and pearls. You can get away with this kind of an attack, ...

Politics Delays Health Report 2008-02-18 20:37:00 The Bush Administration apparently punished a government toxocologist for a negative report on industrial contamination of the Great Lakes region. This is another example of putting politics and corporations before everything else, including our own health. From WaPo:The lead author and peer reviewers of a government report raising the possibility of public health threats from industrial contamination throughout the Great Lakes region are charging that the report is being suppressed because of the questions it raises. The author also alleges that he was demoted because of the report.Chris De Rosa, former director of the division of toxicology and environmental medicine at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), charges that the report he wrote was a significant factor in his reassignment to a non-supervisory "special assistant" position last year.The House Committee on Science and Technology is investigating De Rosa's reassignment, in light of allegations that it ...

The Infamous 'Discount' 2008-02-18 10:10:00 Much hay was made over an alleged discount that Barack Obama received on a house, purportedly because of the machinations of Tony Rezko. Well, there was no discount:The couple who sold Barack Obama his Chicago home said the Illinois senator's $1.65 million bid ``was the best offer'' and they didn't cut their asking price because a campaign donor bought their adjacent land, according to e- mails between Obama's presidential campaign and the seller.The Illinois senator has said he made a ``boneheaded'' move in involving contributor Antoin ``Tony'' Rezko, a Chicago businessman, in the purchase of the property on June 15, 2005.[...]The sellers hadn't previously made their side of the story public out of concern for their privacy, according to Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama's campaign. They approached Obama's Senate office 15 months ago and agreed to break their silence now through the campaign out of concern that the story was being distorted in the media, Burton said.Burto ...

Courting John Edwards 2008-02-17 19:53:00 John Edwards held a secret meeting today with Barack Obama about a possible endorsement. Edwards had previously met with Hillary Clinton about the same. An Edwards endorsement would give either a boost, especially in Ohio.The buzz is Edwards is torn between the two; that he sees Obama as the agent of change but also sees Clinton as the fighter. If this is true, then the deciding factor will likely be which one has the look of a winner, because to pick the loser would be pointless and make him look politically irrelevant. Here's my prediction: Edwards will endorse on Wednesday or Thursday the winner of the Wisconsin primary. As Obama leads there right now, the edge goes to him.h/t to Memeorandum for linking inUPDATE: Maybe Obama doesn't lead there right now. A new ARG poll has Hillary up 6 in Wisconsin. ...

Bush's Bud Threatened UK With Terrorism 2008-02-16 23:21:00 A friend indeed.Um, isn't this kind of a big deal? According to a British judge, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, a.k.a. Bandar Bush, threatened Britain, saying it would face 7/7 type of attacks if it pursued a bribery investigation into an arms deal between a British defense contractor and Saudi Arabia (h/t Rawstory):The British government appeared to have "rolled over" in response to pressure from Saudi Arabia to drop an investigation into alleged bribery in an arms deal with BAE Systems PLC, a High Court judge said Thursday.Lord Justice Alan Moses made the comments while hearing a challenge brought by two lobby groups to the legality of a Serious Fraud Office decision to stop the investigation in December 2006."Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday," David Leigh and Rob Evans report for The Guardian. "Previously secret files ...

Century of War 2008-02-16 18:01:00 Steve Lendman gives us a summary of F. William Engdahl's book "A Century of War," which details the importance of oil in global conflicts in the 20th Century, up to the present day. It's a little lengthy, so I'll just post the links:Here's Part I...and Part IIYou can find the book on Amazon here. ...

Things Ain't That Bad After All 2008-02-16 17:54:00 David Michael Green on the GOP, Hillary, Obama, and more:American politics sucks, doesn't it?C'mon, face it--you know it does. You know 'cause you've experienced it your whole life. You (and I) have made a career out of sitting there watching in helpless astonishment as dweebs like Mike Dukakis and John Kerry stood by hopelessly looking on in election after election, while crypto-fascist punks like Dick Nixon and Little Bush handed them their lunch. Only then to go on and rack up nearly as much damage in the world as imaginable, while using hate and divisiveness to maintain support at home. Right?[...]Maybe--just maybe--the long regressive winter of American politics is coming to a close. And maybe--just maybe--it is doing so with the extra kicker of a righteous wrath bringing its fury down on those most deserving of a generation's worth of rage and contempt.If you think I've gone off my rocker into a naive Wonderland so absurd that it would make Neville Chamberlain squeamish, tr ...

Hillary's Distraction Machine 2008-02-16 14:47:00 I understand that Senator Clinton, periodically when she's feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal. - Barack Obama, February 15, 2008 Barack Obama is being accused of sexism because of this remark. I've read it and watched it over and over again. I don't see it. Some Clinton supporters are saying "periodically...feeling down" is a backhanded reference to PMS. Not only did I not catch that interpretation at all upon my own viewing, but I think it's fairly clear his words are being taken out of context. The clause at the end of the sentence shows a completely different meaning. That she "tries to boost her appeal" refers to her approval among voters. So if she is trying to boost her appeal, then "feeling down" refers to her approval, or the polls.As T-Steel at the Moderate Voice says: "According to many in the blogosphere and MSM, the Clinton Campaign is down to the Obama Campaign in different ways: 1. Down in delegates. 2. Down in money raised. 3. Down ...