I just finished this post, and I admit it probably looks like I am shilling for Obama. But the kid seems to have the thing wrapped up. The fighting between Obama and Clinton is not gonna help get the Republicans out of the White House. A lot of it seems scripted. Insidious astroturfers are clearing hamming it up with this one.
linkIntrigue: Novak suggests GOP operative behind Spitzer fallJohn Byrne
Published: Monday March 17, 2008
{excerpt}
Was a political operative behind the fall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer?
That's the suggestion in a
Sunday column by conservative columnist Robert Novak. A Republican operative, he's found, predicted the governor's fall specifically -- several months in advance.
"Republican political operative Roger Stone, Eliot Spitzer's longtime antagonist, predicted his political demise more than three months in advance," Novak writes. "Spitzer's entrapment by federal authorities investigating a prostitution ring raised speculation that Stone, with a 40-year record as a political hit man, somehow was behind it."
"Eliot Spitzer will not serve out his term as governor of the state of New York,'' Stone said Dec. 6 on Michael Smerconish's radio talk show," Novak added. "He gave no details."
Novak's post was titled "GOP strategists at work." .....
linkBen Stein deeply disturbed by Spitzer investigationNick Langewis and David Edwards
Published: Sunday March 16, 2008
{excerpt}
"Like every other American, I was stunned by the fall of Eliot Spitzer," opens Nixon speechwriter, notable
Brat Pack-era cinema actor, comedian, lawyer and former game show host Ben Stein.
Stein is troubled by what he calls the actions of a few "nosy civil servants" using evidence gained from wiretaps to unravel the career of the outgoing New York Governor, and undo a majority vote by the people of New York.
"Something sinister is happening," he says, "and it scares me."
"Men hire prostitutes by the thousands," Stein continues, "maybe tens of thousands, every day. They also bring women across state lines for sex every day.
"The punishment for the men who hire hookers is usually nil, or at most, a small fine, close to what you'd get for a traffic ticket."
Spitzer, on the other hand, was humiliated and run out of office as punishment, with Stein protesting a small number of federal officials having what he essentially calls veto power over the electoral process. Spitzer, he continues, has been stripped of his career for something picked up on a wiretap that was not a high crime like terrorism or treason.
"Having elected officials kicked out of office by appointed officials is a very dicey proposition," argues Stein......
linkChafee raps Clinton as Bush enablerFormer GOP Sen. Chafee Calls Clinton One of 'Democratic Bush Enablers' in New BookStaff
AP News
Mar 17, 2008 12:28 EST
Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, the lone Republican senator to vote against the Iraq war, calls Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton one of the "Democratic Bush enablers" who failed to stand up to the president.
In a new book, Chafee, who is backing Clinton rival Sen. Barack Obama, skewers Clinton and other Democratic White House hopefuls who said they were duped by Bush into voting for the war.
"Being wrong about sending Americans to kill and be killed, maim and be maimed, is not like making a punctuation mistake in a highway bill," Chafee writes. "They argue that the president duped them into war, but getting duped does not exactly recommend their leadership. Helping a rogue president start an unnecessary war should be a career-ending lapse of judgment, in my view."
Chafee says top Democrats put their political ambitions first in the fall of 2002.
"They were afraid that Republicans would label them soft in the post-September 11 world, and when they acted on that political self-interest, they helped the president send thousands of Americans and uncounted innocent Iraqis to their doom," he writes.
Last year, Chafee changed his party affiliation and became an independent. He recently endorsed Obama, who spoke out against the war in 2002 as an Illinois state lawmaker.....
linkNPR host: Many can 'relate' to Rev. Wright's wordsDavid Edwards and Chris Tackett
Published: Sunday March 16, 2008
{excerpt}
Michele Norris, host of NPR's
All Things Considered, told a panel of guests on
Meet the Press that the tone used by Obama's former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, is not uncommon in many churches.
Norris noted that many Americans find some agreement with Rev. Wright's sermons. She said, "When Jeremiah Wright makes these statements the Amen chorus in that church was very loud. His words resonate with a large number of African Americans and the blunt language that he used makes people uncomfortable. You know, when he talks about America's inglorious record on race. And yet, many people find something that they relate to in those words."
Another panelist, David Broder of
The Washington Post, said "[Rev. Wright's] tone seems so far removed from the tone that Obama has tried to strike, not just in this campaign, but throughout his political career, that it raises the question in my mind, what was it about Reverend Wright that attracted Obama when he had as a newcomer to Chicago he had any number of churches or pastors to go to?"
Norris responded by saying, "You're talking about a tone and not his words. The sort of 'fire from the pulpit' is not something that is unusual in an African-American church. That is something -- in fact in many churches in america."
She continued, "It's not all together different from what many people are hearing at this moment in churches all across America." ......
tampabay.com5 years into Iraq war, cost and casualties still risingBy Times staff
Published Sunday, March 16, 2008
{excerpt}
...
What about civilian deaths?Estimates vary widely. War-related violence has killed at least 75,000 Iraqi civilians. Iraq Body Count, a British group that uses media accounts, estimates between 82,000 and 89,000. A controversial Johns Hopkins study put the toll at roughly 600,000 just between 2003 and 2006, with an additional 54,000 dying of diseases and other causes. A World Health Organization study estimated that 151,000 died during the same period. Deaths have been dropping the past six months, after peaking in fall 2007 at more than 3,500 per month. The Associated Press reported that at least 739 Iraqi security forces and civilians died last month.
How much has this cost?Estimates also vary here. According to the National Priorities Project, a group that examines the local impact of federal spending, it's $502-billion. The Congressional Research Service's estimate is $526-billion. The Pentagon says $406.2-billion through December. War appropriations have risen from $50-billion in fiscal year 2003 to about $135-billion for 2007. In 2003, the White House estimated the cost would be between $50-billion and $60-billion, with Iraqi oil revenue paying for long-term costs. CRS estimates the stepped-up military operations in 2007 cost $10.3-billion a month.
On a wider scale, the Democratic-led Congressional Joint Economic Committee estimated total economic costs were $1.3-trillion for 2002 to 2008. This includes interest on borrowed money, lost investment, veterans' health care and oil market disruptions....
