Maybe more than you thought. And some of the delegates are still up for grabs.
As Iowa Democrats prepare to meet this weekend to select delegates to the the Denver convention, Iowa Independent reports that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is wooing supporters of John Edwards with [...]
Categories: 2008 Election · Clinton · Edwards · Obama
And, probably, another legal showdown. They really do think they can just “say no”.
Yoo refuses to testify about torture memos.
Former Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel lawyer John Yoo, who wrote controversial legal memos authorizing the administration’s torture programs, will not testify voluntarily before the House Judiciary Committee, ABC reports, “paving the way for a possible subpoena and showdown over Executive Privilege. In a letter to Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), Yoo’s lawyer said his [...]
Categories: Bush Administration · Torture
I know the prisons around here are busting at the seams, with administrators scrambling for creative ways to house (and pay for) additional prisoners. The big question is quite simple: why are all these people behind bars? And, it’s happening everywhere in the U.S.
US has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but has nearly a quarter of world’s prisoners
The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes – from writing bad checks to using drugs – that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular [...]
Categories: Crime
Simply stupid rules.
Students suspended for skipping class to meet Obama
Two high school seniors in Scranton, Pa., are paying a high price for their interest in politics. Colin Saltry and Joey Daniel say they skipped gym class on Monday to rush over to a diner where Sen. Barack Obama’s motorcade had just pulled in for an impromptu breakfast stop. The two met Obama, and [...]
Categories: 2008 Election · Obama
John McCain should be asked about this when he visits New Orleans tomorrow. He really should.
On September 18, 2006, Pastor John Hagee — whose endorsement Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said this past Sunday he was “glad to have” — told NPR’s Terry Gross that “Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.” “New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to [...]
Categories: Hurricanes
You just had to know that this wasn’t going to work. What the heck, it’s just a few million bucks of our tax dollars. Wasted.
Virtual fence on Mexican border deemed insufficient
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 [...]
Categories: Illegal Immigration
Food prices? Skyrocketing forever. Get used to it.
A sharp spike in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other staples has sparked riots in Mexico and Egypt, marches by hungry children in Yemen and the spectre of starving people in Haiti turning to mud pies for sustenance. This growing unrest is forcing the global community to focus on the [...]
I don’t care whether it’s Global Warming or an Ice Age, something is crazy with our weather patterns.
Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh
THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity. What is scary about the picture is that there is only [...]
Categories: Global Warming/Climate Change
We’re going to be seeing more and more empty wallets and the experts say there’s no end in sight for the price increases. Anywhere.
Ouch: $100 Fill-ups Arrive at Gas Pumps
I don’t drive a lot — thank goodness. But, the ever rising gas prices have me thinking I will be driving even less. CNN reports today: The $100 fill-up has arrived in the United States. As regular readers know, I live in the Los Angeles area, and gas prices have been higher here in California than other [...]
Categories: Economy
Whoops! This goes to show you how rough things are in the airline industry.
Delta Reports a $6.4 Billion Loss
The carrier cited fuel costs and the steep decline in the company’s market value for the loss, which was much higher than analysts had expected [...]
Categories: Economy
Why? Either this is the smartest idea in the world or the dumbest. I’m going with the latter, at least for now.
‘Disneyland In Iraq’: Multi-Million Dollar Entertainment Park Coming To Baghdad
Some would say the last thing that war-torn Iraq needs is an entertainment park. California businessman Llewellyn Werner says different (from Times Online): “Llewellyn Werner, a California investor, admits he is facing obstacles most amusement park developers never have to deal with. Such as insurgent attacks and looting. But when [...]
Categories: Iraq War
This Presidential Campaign is exhausting darn near everybody. The candidates are tired. The voters are tired. Perhaps most importantly, the superdelegates are tired. And that, my friends, is a problem.
Help us, superdelegates; you’re our only hope
Democratic strategist Jim Jordan, who is not affiliated with either presidential campaign, told the LA Times last night, “Anybody who says past this point that this is good for the party or good for the nominee is a fool.” The candidates, he said are “exhausted, they’re more likely to make mistakes, and they’re raising each [...]
Where’s all that leave the candidates?
Damning Hillary Clinton With Faint Praise As The Bloodletting Finally Nears An End
In this strangest of campaign seasons, Pennsylvania has stood out for how much and how little has changed in the most ferociously fought and one of the most expensive primary campaigns ever. And when the fat lady finally sang, it turned out to be pretty much meaningless except in one important respect. Hillary Clinton’s 9-plus percentage point win over Barack Obama is impressive any way you cut it except [...]
Categories: 2008 Election · Politics
Hadn’t even thought about hitchhiking for a long time. You just don’t see that many people trying to “thumb a ride” these days. Mark Hutcherson wonders if that might be changing.
Will High Gas Prices Encourage Hitchhiking Once Again?
When I was a young kid back in the 1960’s, there were strangers standing on the side of almost every major highway with their thumb stuck in the air, which was the hitchhikers way of asking for a ride. Over the years I have not seen that many people trying to catch a ride from strangers on the highway, in fact in most locations the ancient activity of hitchhiking has become [...]
Was there some fishy business in the Pennsylvania primary? Hmmm..
Once again we have an election where the exit polls don’t match the actual vote, where examples of voter suppression efforts abound in areas largely supporting one candidate (Obama), where not enough voting machines were available in areas largely supporting one candidate (Obama), where voters were even denied their right to vote on provisional ballots as required by federal law, etc. I could provide the details to support these claims, but Brad Blog has already done a far better job than I ever could. So if you are interested go [...]
Categories: 2008 Election · Electronic Voting Machines
Thanks to tons of political arm-twisting. It’s just so wrong. Kudos to Waxman for stepping and stepping up. It’s our environment, after all.
Survey: Half of EPA Scientists Complain of Political Interference, Waxman to Investigate
From the AP: “The Union of Concerned Scientists said that more than half of the nearly 1,600 EPA staff scientists who responded online to a detailed questionnaire reported they had experienced incidents of political interference in their work…. Nearly 400 [...]
Categories: Bush Administration · Environment
It’s Wednesday. We survived the Pennsylvania primary. Clinton nailed a ten point victory. The question is – can that translate into the nomination. My gut tells me there’s still a chance she could do it, although I’m not exactly sure how. Ain’t that a strange position to be in?
Let’s begin tonight with something I almost posted last night and decided to do it this evening, after it came around and smacked me up aside the head for a second time.
WARNING – Nothing on your laptop is private
From Wired’s Threat Level blog: “Federal agents at the border do not need any reason to search through travelers’ laptops, cell phones or digital cameras for evidence of crimes, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, extending the government’s power to [...]
Categories: Consumer · National Security · Travel
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