From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION/DEBUT:
Lisa Patton's WHISTLIN' DIXIE IN A NOR'EASTER, in which a Southern belle, her ancient Yorkie, and her two young daughters leave their Memphis home to run an inn in Vermont, only to discover that there's a truckload of things nobody told these Dixie girls about life up North, to Katie Gilligan at Thomas Dunne Books, in a two-book deal, by Holly Root at Waxman Literary Agency (NA).
GENERAL/OTHER:
THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE PINK CARNATION author Lauren Willig's next two books in a series set during the Napoleonic wars, to Kara Cesare at Dutton, by Joe Veltre at Artists Literary Group (World English).jv@algmedia.com
Thomas Trofimuk's COLUMBUS AT 4 A.M., where a man in a Spanish mental institution, convinced he is Christopher Columbus, unfolds a tale of adventure and passion that draws ever closer to the trauma that turned him away from the present, to Alison Callahan at Doubleday, in a pre-empt, for publication in fall 2009, by Hilary McMahon at Westwood Creative Artists (US).hilary@wcaltd.com
Caprice Crane's JOINT CUSTODY, about a woman who's extremely close to her husband's family, so when he unexpectedly files for divorce she files a counter-suit for joint custody of her in-laws, to Danielle Perez at Bantam Dell, at auction, in a two-book deal, by Jenny Bent at Trident Media Group (World).
Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakaruni's ONE AMAZING THING, the story of a young female Indian expatriate trapped among a memorable cast of bay area characters during a west coast earthquake, to Ellen Archer and Barbara Jones at Voice, in a two-book deal, for publication in 2010, by Sandra Dijkstra at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.
Host of Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern's book, part travelogue and part behind the scenes look at "snout to tail dining" and other global food trends impacting what and how we eat and why Americans should not only be more open minded to new and unique menu items and protein sources, but how our survival may depend on it, to Charlie Conrad at Broadway, for publication in Fall 2009, by John Larson at Bright House (world).john@brighthouseinc.com
NON-FICTION: ADVICE/RELATIONSHIPS:
Today Show and Fox News regular Janine Driver's YOU SAY MORE THAN YOU THINK: A 7-Day Plan for Using the New Body Language to Get What You Want, based on the her experience training law-enforcement officers and her Lyin Tamer seminars, using body language as a second language to maximize daily interactions in a variety of social and family settings, to Heather Jackson at Crown, at auction, by Daniel Lazar at Writers House (NA).
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
Chair of the program on negotiation at Harvard Law School Robert Mnookin's BARGAINING WITH THE DEVIL: What To Do When the Stakes are High and the Other Side is Being Evil, to Alice Mayhew at Simon & Schuster, in an exclusive submission, by James Levine of Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (world).
COOKING:
Anthony Bourdain's COOKS, a follow-up to Kitchen Confidential, in which Bourdain explores how the industry he loves - and the people in it - have changed (if they've changed) since his years in the kitchen, and tracks the bizarre changes in his own life, along with more frank observations on dining, cuisine and the grim/glamorous business of cooking;
NO NEW MESSAGES, a crime novel about a disgraced former 'It Boy' novelist and a disgraced chef (fresh off a public humiliation on a reality series), involved in a murder on the Caribbean island where both are laying low; and an untitled memoir of moving his family to a small village in Vietnam to spend a year in total immersion there, taking time to get to know his neighbors and deeply exploring Indonesia and Southeast Asia, to Daniel Halpern at Ecco, by Kim Witherspoon at Inkwell Management.
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Co-author of The Smartest Guys in the Room and Fortune writer Peter Elkind's book about Eliot Spitzer, again to Adrian Zackheim at Portfolio, by Liz Darhansoff at Darhansoff, Verrill, Feldman.Elkind will collaborate filmmaker Alex Gibney, who is directing a simultaneous documentary about Spitzer.will.weisser@us.penguingroup.com
Prosecutor who successfully prosecuted 105 of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder convictions without a single loss and three-time No. 1 NYT bestselling author Vincent Bugliosi's THE PROSECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH FOR MURDER, a controversial legal indictment of the President, to Roger Cooper at Vanguard Press, for publication in May 2008, by Peter Miller of PMA Literary & Film Management.Audio to Jeff Golick at BBC Audio America.
MEMOIR:
Ellen Rogers's KASEY TO THE RESCUE: How a Capuchin Monkey Saved a Family in Despair, a story about revival of the spirit and the courage to go on in the face of even the bleakest circumstances; about the near-miraculous healing effects of an animal's love; and a look into the highly developed minds of these affectionate, playful, very human-like creatures, to Ellen Archer and Brenda Copeland at Hyperion, in a pre-empt, by Susan Golomb of the Susan Golomb Agency (NA).
Wrap...
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
From Missing WH emails to Tucker Carlson's unlocked car...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
The Bush administration has not found disaster recovery files for White House e-mails from a three-month time period in 2003…raising the possibility that messages sent before and after the invasion of Iraq may never be recovered." The White House claims a court proposal to search and preserve White House e-mail records would "yield marginal benefits at best, while imposing substantial burdens and disruptions."
A record-breaking 1.6 million voters cast ballots in Indiana’s Democratic and GOP contests yesterday. This figure "smashed the 1992 primary turnout of a little more than 1 million votes." North Carolina also reported "unprecedented" turnout.
Today, the House is set to begin debating a sweeping housing rescue bill that "could see the government buy up $15 billion of abandoned homes." It would also help half a million homeowners facing foreclosure by offering "fresh spending, tax credits and a new government guarantee on many risky loans to bolster the national housing market." President Bush has threatened to veto the legislation.
Anti-war Republican Rep. Walter Jones (NC-03) "comfortably defeated" a primary challenger in his conservative congressional district yesterday by a margin of 60-40 percent after facing stiff opposition "over his outspoken stance" against the Iraq war. Camp Lejuene, one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the country, is located in Jones's district.
House Veterans Committee chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) "lashed out" at Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake yesterday during a hearing for having previously attempted to "cover up" veterans suicide data. "What we see is a pattern -- deny, deny, cover up, cover up," Filner said.
In the "most specific assertions to date," lawyers for detainees at Guantanamo Bay say they believe that government agents have "monitored their conversations." One lawyer is so concerned that she said in an affidavit that she is "no longer accepting new clients of any type because she could not assure them of confidentiality."
Yesterday, EPA Associate Deputy Administrator Jason Burnett -- dubbed "the John Yoo of the EPA" -- announced his departure from the agency. Burnett had been responsible for crafting legal arguments that promoted arsenic in drinking water, catered to industry on mercury regulations, overruled scientists on soot health standards, and defied the Supreme Court's decision on global warming.
President Bush "sent the Senate a new slate of Federal Election Commission nominees" yesterday in an apparent effort "to break a Senate confirmation deadlock." But the move was "greeted coolly" by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) because Bush retained Hans von Spakovsky and removed David Mason, who clashed recently with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
And finally: Radar writes, "Looking to steal a car? Tucker Carlson's unlocked Volvo station wagon is available and probably in the parking lot at D.C. hub The Palm right now." Carlson recently told The Hill that he never locks his car, even though a woman once stalked him. He also once found a man "asleep and wrapped in newspaper in the back seat of his Volvo station wagon. 'I beat on the windows and made him get out,' he says."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
The Bush administration has not found disaster recovery files for White House e-mails from a three-month time period in 2003…raising the possibility that messages sent before and after the invasion of Iraq may never be recovered." The White House claims a court proposal to search and preserve White House e-mail records would "yield marginal benefits at best, while imposing substantial burdens and disruptions."
A record-breaking 1.6 million voters cast ballots in Indiana’s Democratic and GOP contests yesterday. This figure "smashed the 1992 primary turnout of a little more than 1 million votes." North Carolina also reported "unprecedented" turnout.
Today, the House is set to begin debating a sweeping housing rescue bill that "could see the government buy up $15 billion of abandoned homes." It would also help half a million homeowners facing foreclosure by offering "fresh spending, tax credits and a new government guarantee on many risky loans to bolster the national housing market." President Bush has threatened to veto the legislation.
Anti-war Republican Rep. Walter Jones (NC-03) "comfortably defeated" a primary challenger in his conservative congressional district yesterday by a margin of 60-40 percent after facing stiff opposition "over his outspoken stance" against the Iraq war. Camp Lejuene, one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the country, is located in Jones's district.
House Veterans Committee chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) "lashed out" at Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake yesterday during a hearing for having previously attempted to "cover up" veterans suicide data. "What we see is a pattern -- deny, deny, cover up, cover up," Filner said.
In the "most specific assertions to date," lawyers for detainees at Guantanamo Bay say they believe that government agents have "monitored their conversations." One lawyer is so concerned that she said in an affidavit that she is "no longer accepting new clients of any type because she could not assure them of confidentiality."
Yesterday, EPA Associate Deputy Administrator Jason Burnett -- dubbed "the John Yoo of the EPA" -- announced his departure from the agency. Burnett had been responsible for crafting legal arguments that promoted arsenic in drinking water, catered to industry on mercury regulations, overruled scientists on soot health standards, and defied the Supreme Court's decision on global warming.
President Bush "sent the Senate a new slate of Federal Election Commission nominees" yesterday in an apparent effort "to break a Senate confirmation deadlock." But the move was "greeted coolly" by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) because Bush retained Hans von Spakovsky and removed David Mason, who clashed recently with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
And finally: Radar writes, "Looking to steal a car? Tucker Carlson's unlocked Volvo station wagon is available and probably in the parking lot at D.C. hub The Palm right now." Carlson recently told The Hill that he never locks his car, even though a woman once stalked him. He also once found a man "asleep and wrapped in newspaper in the back seat of his Volvo station wagon. 'I beat on the windows and made him get out,' he says."
Wrap...
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Clinton wins Indiana by 1.8%...She's done.
Need any more be said? 1.8% !!!!! There's no question in my mind but that Barack Obama is the Presumptive Nominee of the Democratic party.
Clinton, if she insists on continuing her lost battle will only embarass herself. Even with Limbaugh encouraging Republicans to cross over and vote for her, she lost.
The public does not appreciate prevaricators, will tolerate only so much spin. Clinton's flat out lie about landing overseas in a hail of sniper fire took American voters aback. Combined with her threat to "obliterate" Iran, people now knew they couldn't trust her to be straight with them.
Certainly Rev Wright's big mouth gave her a very very temporary boost, but in the end, the public doesn't tolerate fools for very long. And I think, in the end, voters sympathized with Obama.
Tim Russert was just on the air giving his opinion that Clinton is finished. She has little or no money left. Superdelegates see the writing on the wall. And she has cancelled all public appearances tomorrow, scheduled or no. Which means, I believe, that her advisors know a lost cause when they see one.
A hint of that came from her speech in Indiana tonight when she spoke of how she would support Obama if she lost and how he would do the same for her if she won.
McCain is the Republican choice. Obama is the Democratic choice. Obama is the best man, and he will win the Presidency of the United States. Good.
Wrap...
Clinton, if she insists on continuing her lost battle will only embarass herself. Even with Limbaugh encouraging Republicans to cross over and vote for her, she lost.
The public does not appreciate prevaricators, will tolerate only so much spin. Clinton's flat out lie about landing overseas in a hail of sniper fire took American voters aback. Combined with her threat to "obliterate" Iran, people now knew they couldn't trust her to be straight with them.
Certainly Rev Wright's big mouth gave her a very very temporary boost, but in the end, the public doesn't tolerate fools for very long. And I think, in the end, voters sympathized with Obama.
Tim Russert was just on the air giving his opinion that Clinton is finished. She has little or no money left. Superdelegates see the writing on the wall. And she has cancelled all public appearances tomorrow, scheduled or no. Which means, I believe, that her advisors know a lost cause when they see one.
A hint of that came from her speech in Indiana tonight when she spoke of how she would support Obama if she lost and how he would do the same for her if she won.
McCain is the Republican choice. Obama is the Democratic choice. Obama is the best man, and he will win the Presidency of the United States. Good.
Wrap...
NC and Indiana voters under 30...& Charlton Heston...
From American Progress:
Think Fast....
If the election season's voting patterns "hold today in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, voters under 30 are headed for increases not just in turnout but also in their share of the electorate." According to five Gallup and USA Today/Gallup poll since mid-February, "87% said they plan to vote, up from 81% in 2004." Overall, both Indiana and North Carolina are expecting record voter turnout today.
Over nearly seven years, "not one of the approximately 775 terrorism suspects who have been held" on Guantanamo Bay "has faced a jury trial inside the new complex, and U.S. officials think it is highly unlikely that any of the Sept. 11 suspects will before the Bush administration ends." A "high-ranking Pentagon officer” has been quoted noting the "strategic political value" of starting the 9/11 trials before November.
"The Pentagon has concluded it can't send additional troops to Afghanistan until sizable numbers of forces withdraw from Iraq," according to a senior military official. "We might be able to generate a little bit more," the official said. "But not 10,000 to 12,000 more troops," which are needed. The comments are "an acknowledgment of the challenges facing the Pentagon" while fighting two wars in the Middle East.
Concerned that Democratic leaders are cutting a "backroom deal" on surveillance legislation, "the American Civil Liberties Union urged its members to contact their legislators and oppose any compromise." House leaders "say there is no deal," claiming they still exchanging drafts with Senate negotiators.
Despite President Bush's insistence that he will "not approve any legislation that exceeds his spending request for the war" or "adds domestic money he opposes," House Democrats are preparing "a war spending measure that would include extended unemployment assistance and new educational benefits for returning veterans." The $178 billion measure may be brought to the floor this week.
A black man is "11.8 times more likely than a white man to be sent to prison" on drug charges, and a black woman is 4.8 times more likely than a white woman, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. Also released yesterday, a study by the Sentencing Project "found that, since 1980, the rate of drug arrests for African Americans increased by 225 percent, compared to 70 percent among whites."
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last night "endorsed the need for government intervention" in stemming home foreclosures, "saying that letting markets take their own course could 'destabilize communities, reduce the property values of nearby homes and lower municipal tax revenues.'"
And finally: Yesterday, the House passed a resolution honoring the late actor and National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston, who died last month. The measure, introduced by Rep. Don Young (R-AK) with a bipartisan list of 112 co-sponsors, noted that "the United States of America has lost a great patriot." Roll Call adds, "Language in the resolution notes that aside from holding conservative views, Heston did something else pretty un-Hollywood by staying married to Lydia Clarke -- ‘the love of his life' -- for 64 years."
Wrap...
Think Fast....
If the election season's voting patterns "hold today in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, voters under 30 are headed for increases not just in turnout but also in their share of the electorate." According to five Gallup and USA Today/Gallup poll since mid-February, "87% said they plan to vote, up from 81% in 2004." Overall, both Indiana and North Carolina are expecting record voter turnout today.
Over nearly seven years, "not one of the approximately 775 terrorism suspects who have been held" on Guantanamo Bay "has faced a jury trial inside the new complex, and U.S. officials think it is highly unlikely that any of the Sept. 11 suspects will before the Bush administration ends." A "high-ranking Pentagon officer” has been quoted noting the "strategic political value" of starting the 9/11 trials before November.
"The Pentagon has concluded it can't send additional troops to Afghanistan until sizable numbers of forces withdraw from Iraq," according to a senior military official. "We might be able to generate a little bit more," the official said. "But not 10,000 to 12,000 more troops," which are needed. The comments are "an acknowledgment of the challenges facing the Pentagon" while fighting two wars in the Middle East.
Concerned that Democratic leaders are cutting a "backroom deal" on surveillance legislation, "the American Civil Liberties Union urged its members to contact their legislators and oppose any compromise." House leaders "say there is no deal," claiming they still exchanging drafts with Senate negotiators.
Despite President Bush's insistence that he will "not approve any legislation that exceeds his spending request for the war" or "adds domestic money he opposes," House Democrats are preparing "a war spending measure that would include extended unemployment assistance and new educational benefits for returning veterans." The $178 billion measure may be brought to the floor this week.
A black man is "11.8 times more likely than a white man to be sent to prison" on drug charges, and a black woman is 4.8 times more likely than a white woman, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. Also released yesterday, a study by the Sentencing Project "found that, since 1980, the rate of drug arrests for African Americans increased by 225 percent, compared to 70 percent among whites."
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last night "endorsed the need for government intervention" in stemming home foreclosures, "saying that letting markets take their own course could 'destabilize communities, reduce the property values of nearby homes and lower municipal tax revenues.'"
And finally: Yesterday, the House passed a resolution honoring the late actor and National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston, who died last month. The measure, introduced by Rep. Don Young (R-AK) with a bipartisan list of 112 co-sponsors, noted that "the United States of America has lost a great patriot." Roll Call adds, "Language in the resolution notes that aside from holding conservative views, Heston did something else pretty un-Hollywood by staying married to Lydia Clarke -- ‘the love of his life' -- for 64 years."
Wrap...
Monday, May 05, 2008
Turning sunlight and CO2 into gasoline!!!!
From TED via email:
J. Craig Venter is a very successful biologist and business leader. He was the founder of Celera Genomics, a corporation that was famous for research on sequencing the human genome.
In this lecture, Venter discusses the creation the world's first artificial chromosome. He also talks about applying automation and information technology to genetics a fourth-generation biofuel, so that algae can have its DNA manipulated so it can turn sunlight and CO2 into gasoline.
The genetic engineering industry can replace the petro-chemical industy! Petroleum can become a renewable resource, instead of the finite energy source controlled by despotic and unstable governments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKZ-GjSaqgo
Wrap...
J. Craig Venter is a very successful biologist and business leader. He was the founder of Celera Genomics, a corporation that was famous for research on sequencing the human genome.
In this lecture, Venter discusses the creation the world's first artificial chromosome. He also talks about applying automation and information technology to genetics a fourth-generation biofuel, so that algae can have its DNA manipulated so it can turn sunlight and CO2 into gasoline.
The genetic engineering industry can replace the petro-chemical industy! Petroleum can become a renewable resource, instead of the finite energy source controlled by despotic and unstable governments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKZ-GjSaqgo
Wrap...
Cheney's "contractors" as vile/crooked as he is....
From American Progress:
IRAQ -- ANOTHER CONTRACTOR AVOIDING TAXES THROUGH OFF-SHORE HAVENS:
The Boston Globe reported yesterday that a Pentagon contractor responsible for training Iraqi police has established shell companies in Bermuda and the Caymen Islands in the appearance of avoiding payment of millions of dollars in taxes and evading scrutiny from the IRS.
Tax experts say the company -- Virginia-based MPRI -- appears to be avoiding "the payment of roughly $4 million dollars a year in Social Security and Medicare taxes." Last March, the Globe reported that KBR -- one of the top profiteers of the Iraq war, already with a dismal record -- has also avoided paying more than $500 million in "Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring its workers through shell companies" based in the Caymen Islands.
Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse, who oversaw contracts for the Army Corps of Engineers, told the Senate in 2005 that the Pentagon's relationship with KBR represented the "most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career."
Wrap...
IRAQ -- ANOTHER CONTRACTOR AVOIDING TAXES THROUGH OFF-SHORE HAVENS:
The Boston Globe reported yesterday that a Pentagon contractor responsible for training Iraqi police has established shell companies in Bermuda and the Caymen Islands in the appearance of avoiding payment of millions of dollars in taxes and evading scrutiny from the IRS.
Tax experts say the company -- Virginia-based MPRI -- appears to be avoiding "the payment of roughly $4 million dollars a year in Social Security and Medicare taxes." Last March, the Globe reported that KBR -- one of the top profiteers of the Iraq war, already with a dismal record -- has also avoided paying more than $500 million in "Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring its workers through shell companies" based in the Caymen Islands.
Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse, who oversaw contracts for the Army Corps of Engineers, told the Senate in 2005 that the Pentagon's relationship with KBR represented the "most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career."
Wrap...
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Indiana welcomes honorable Obama...
From The International Herald Tribune:
Obama leaves the stage to mix with his skeptics
By Jeff Zeleny
Friday, May 2, 2008
COLUMBIA CITY, Indiana: There was no music, no sea of screaming admirers and only a light dabble of applause when Senator Barack Obama walked across the green carpet of the Oak Pointe retirement center here on Thursday at his first campaign stop of the day.
For a presidential candidate, particularly one in the throes of a rigorous political and personal test, such a dearth of energy could be a worrisome sign. For Obama, it was all part of the new script.
"What I want to do is spend more time listening than talking," Obama told a small clutch of Indiana voters. "It's been wonderful to see these big crowds, but the problem is you don't really learn much when you're listening to yourself talk."
As he tries to navigate beyond one of his roughest patches in the long Democratic nominating fight, Obama did not retreat to the comforts of super-size rallies that have defined his presidential bid, with their lofty oratory.
Those events, advisers say, do not convert enough skeptics, which Obama must do if he is to expand his support in Indiana and beyond, particularly after the controversy stirred by the incendiary remarks of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.
So, five days before facing Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the next round of Democratic primaries, Obama awoke on Thursday intent on tackling a broader challenge waiting in the wings: assuring Indiana voters that he believes in their same values and shares their patriotism.
As he traveled by bus across northern Indiana, from Columbia City to South Bend and North Liberty to Union Mills, Obama's appearances resembled the early days of a campaign for the White House, unfolding throughout the day as a rolling introductory tour, absent much presidential glamour.
The city librarian delivered a glowing introduction of Obama at the assisted living center here. Later, a farmer offered an endorsement before the senator met voters at the Dairy Beef Building at the county fairgrounds. By evening, he loosened his tie and sat down at a picnic table as he made small talk with a family on an Indiana farm.
For days, the controversy surrounding Wright had threatened to overtake Obama's message in the critical closing days of the Indiana and North Carolina primary campaigns.
Frustrated by the attention the story had received from the news media and pained by being forced to denounce Wright publicly, Obama appeared tired, worn and rambling during a late-night appearance on Wednesday in Bloomington.
But if presidential campaigns are built upon stagecraft and images, this is the picture his strategists wanted to project on Thursday: He was talking, listening — and, they hoped, connecting — with older, white residents of Indiana, the kind of voters he struggled to win over in Pennsylvania.
At the Oak Pointe center, he was intent on shaking hands with each of the 52 residents seated in easy chairs and wheelchairs and on sofas. A few hours later, he rolled up his sleeves and drank a can of Budweiser as he talked with a group of men at a VFW club.
Neither the candidate nor his advisers are certain how the storm surrounding his relationship with Wright will play out among voters here or in the states remaining in the final month of the Democratic primary calendar. But as the campaign enters its 16th month, Obama is suddenly redoubling his efforts to introduce himself and answer questions that have settled into the political narrative: Who is he? Is he like us?
"You want to know my values?" Obama asked a group of voters on a recent evening. "Let me tell you about my family."
So he tells most audiences now the story of his Kansas-born grandparents, particularly that of his grandfather, who fought in World War II and is buried in Punchbowl Cemetery in Hawaii. His mother — a single mother — saw to it that he got the best education. It is, he concludes, a living example of the American dream.
Although Obama's presidential candidacy sprang from his autobiography, his story is far less concrete. If Senator John McCain is known as a war hero, a maverick, a temperamental warrior, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is known as a smart political figure, toughened by years of crisis, Obama remains unformed.
"Because we've been so successful, that's why my opponents have been trying to make this election about me lately," Obama said, to a large crowd on Wednesday evening in Bloomington. " 'We're not sure he shares our values. We haven't seen him wear a flag pin lately. He's got a funny name. He says he's Christian, but we don't know. His former pastor said some terrible things and so, can we really trust this guy?' "
In near unison, the audience replied, "Yes!"
Before asking for their votes, Obama has started to conclude nearly every one of his campaign events with a forceful recitation of his values. He blames his rivals for stirring up questions about his background, saying, "They can't win on the ideas, they can't win on the issues."
But as Obama heard for himself, those concerns are on people's minds. At a campaign stop outside South Bend, a man asked a question about trade and before he finished, he added: "I've been reading on the Internet that you believe as an American we should not have to pledge allegiance to the flag. Is that true?"
"It is not. That is completely bogus," Obama replied tersely. "These e-mails have been sent around in each state I'm about to go into. It's a smear campaign they've been running since the beginning of the campaign. I lead the Pledge of Allegiance when I'm presiding in the Senate, so you can catch it on videotape."
To lighten the day, Obama also turned to humor. A crew from "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central followed him around Indiana. He delivered the Top 10 list on "Late Show with David Letterman." He did not mention Wright but did poke fun at himself on No. 6, saying: "Earlier today, I bowled a 39," a reference to his actual score of 37 he bowled last month in Pennsylvania.
But the laughter belied a trying week. Although angered by the distraction — and feeling betrayed by Wright — Obama maintained a calm sense of certainty, associates said, and urged his campaign aides to focus on the race.
At four campaign events, the subject of Wright was not broached publicly on Thursday. It was, though, on the minds of several voters who filled his small audiences.
Betty McManama, an 87-year-old resident of the retirement center, has carefully followed the Democratic primary. She disagreed strongly with Wright's remarks about the United States government, but she said she did not believe the senator should be punished for them. She said she felt that questions of religion, patriotism and values were an excuse.
"I think there's a certain percentage of people who won't vote for him because he's black, and I think that's a shame," said McManama, who started the day on Thursday not sure which Democratic candidate to support. But after meeting Obama, she said: "I'm leaning toward him. How could you not?"
Wrap...
Obama leaves the stage to mix with his skeptics
By Jeff Zeleny
Friday, May 2, 2008
COLUMBIA CITY, Indiana: There was no music, no sea of screaming admirers and only a light dabble of applause when Senator Barack Obama walked across the green carpet of the Oak Pointe retirement center here on Thursday at his first campaign stop of the day.
For a presidential candidate, particularly one in the throes of a rigorous political and personal test, such a dearth of energy could be a worrisome sign. For Obama, it was all part of the new script.
"What I want to do is spend more time listening than talking," Obama told a small clutch of Indiana voters. "It's been wonderful to see these big crowds, but the problem is you don't really learn much when you're listening to yourself talk."
As he tries to navigate beyond one of his roughest patches in the long Democratic nominating fight, Obama did not retreat to the comforts of super-size rallies that have defined his presidential bid, with their lofty oratory.
Those events, advisers say, do not convert enough skeptics, which Obama must do if he is to expand his support in Indiana and beyond, particularly after the controversy stirred by the incendiary remarks of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.
So, five days before facing Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the next round of Democratic primaries, Obama awoke on Thursday intent on tackling a broader challenge waiting in the wings: assuring Indiana voters that he believes in their same values and shares their patriotism.
As he traveled by bus across northern Indiana, from Columbia City to South Bend and North Liberty to Union Mills, Obama's appearances resembled the early days of a campaign for the White House, unfolding throughout the day as a rolling introductory tour, absent much presidential glamour.
The city librarian delivered a glowing introduction of Obama at the assisted living center here. Later, a farmer offered an endorsement before the senator met voters at the Dairy Beef Building at the county fairgrounds. By evening, he loosened his tie and sat down at a picnic table as he made small talk with a family on an Indiana farm.
For days, the controversy surrounding Wright had threatened to overtake Obama's message in the critical closing days of the Indiana and North Carolina primary campaigns.
Frustrated by the attention the story had received from the news media and pained by being forced to denounce Wright publicly, Obama appeared tired, worn and rambling during a late-night appearance on Wednesday in Bloomington.
But if presidential campaigns are built upon stagecraft and images, this is the picture his strategists wanted to project on Thursday: He was talking, listening — and, they hoped, connecting — with older, white residents of Indiana, the kind of voters he struggled to win over in Pennsylvania.
At the Oak Pointe center, he was intent on shaking hands with each of the 52 residents seated in easy chairs and wheelchairs and on sofas. A few hours later, he rolled up his sleeves and drank a can of Budweiser as he talked with a group of men at a VFW club.
Neither the candidate nor his advisers are certain how the storm surrounding his relationship with Wright will play out among voters here or in the states remaining in the final month of the Democratic primary calendar. But as the campaign enters its 16th month, Obama is suddenly redoubling his efforts to introduce himself and answer questions that have settled into the political narrative: Who is he? Is he like us?
"You want to know my values?" Obama asked a group of voters on a recent evening. "Let me tell you about my family."
So he tells most audiences now the story of his Kansas-born grandparents, particularly that of his grandfather, who fought in World War II and is buried in Punchbowl Cemetery in Hawaii. His mother — a single mother — saw to it that he got the best education. It is, he concludes, a living example of the American dream.
Although Obama's presidential candidacy sprang from his autobiography, his story is far less concrete. If Senator John McCain is known as a war hero, a maverick, a temperamental warrior, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is known as a smart political figure, toughened by years of crisis, Obama remains unformed.
"Because we've been so successful, that's why my opponents have been trying to make this election about me lately," Obama said, to a large crowd on Wednesday evening in Bloomington. " 'We're not sure he shares our values. We haven't seen him wear a flag pin lately. He's got a funny name. He says he's Christian, but we don't know. His former pastor said some terrible things and so, can we really trust this guy?' "
In near unison, the audience replied, "Yes!"
Before asking for their votes, Obama has started to conclude nearly every one of his campaign events with a forceful recitation of his values. He blames his rivals for stirring up questions about his background, saying, "They can't win on the ideas, they can't win on the issues."
But as Obama heard for himself, those concerns are on people's minds. At a campaign stop outside South Bend, a man asked a question about trade and before he finished, he added: "I've been reading on the Internet that you believe as an American we should not have to pledge allegiance to the flag. Is that true?"
"It is not. That is completely bogus," Obama replied tersely. "These e-mails have been sent around in each state I'm about to go into. It's a smear campaign they've been running since the beginning of the campaign. I lead the Pledge of Allegiance when I'm presiding in the Senate, so you can catch it on videotape."
To lighten the day, Obama also turned to humor. A crew from "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central followed him around Indiana. He delivered the Top 10 list on "Late Show with David Letterman." He did not mention Wright but did poke fun at himself on No. 6, saying: "Earlier today, I bowled a 39," a reference to his actual score of 37 he bowled last month in Pennsylvania.
But the laughter belied a trying week. Although angered by the distraction — and feeling betrayed by Wright — Obama maintained a calm sense of certainty, associates said, and urged his campaign aides to focus on the race.
At four campaign events, the subject of Wright was not broached publicly on Thursday. It was, though, on the minds of several voters who filled his small audiences.
Betty McManama, an 87-year-old resident of the retirement center, has carefully followed the Democratic primary. She disagreed strongly with Wright's remarks about the United States government, but she said she did not believe the senator should be punished for them. She said she felt that questions of religion, patriotism and values were an excuse.
"I think there's a certain percentage of people who won't vote for him because he's black, and I think that's a shame," said McManama, who started the day on Thursday not sure which Democratic candidate to support. But after meeting Obama, she said: "I'm leaning toward him. How could you not?"
Wrap...
Supreme Court disses the US Constitution....
From NY Times and Boston Globe via truthout.org:
Adam Cohen: Voting Rights Are Too Important
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050308Y.shtml
Two editorials, one from Adam Cohen of The New York Times and the other from The Boston Globe editorial staff, explore the ramifications of the Supreme Court decision this week that upheld a voter ID law in the state of Indiana that will require voters to show photo identification at the polls.
Adam Cohen calls for Congress to uphold the Constitution and act to regulate federal elections, while The Boston Globe scolds: "Voting is a fundamental right. ID rules should be no more stringent than is necessary to keep the voting process secure and orderly. That's what Indiana had - until partisan legislators saw an opening and exploited it."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Adam Cohen: Voting Rights Are Too Important
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050308Y.shtml
Two editorials, one from Adam Cohen of The New York Times and the other from The Boston Globe editorial staff, explore the ramifications of the Supreme Court decision this week that upheld a voter ID law in the state of Indiana that will require voters to show photo identification at the polls.
Adam Cohen calls for Congress to uphold the Constitution and act to regulate federal elections, while The Boston Globe scolds: "Voting is a fundamental right. ID rules should be no more stringent than is necessary to keep the voting process secure and orderly. That's what Indiana had - until partisan legislators saw an opening and exploited it."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Outsourcing..BushCo loves it...and troops die....
From Mother Jones via truthout.org.
and
From New York Times:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050308B.shtml
In Mother Jones, Bruce Falconer writes: "Allegations of widespread mismanagement and corruption among private contractors in Iraq are nothing new; if anything, tales of cronyism, over-billing, and embezzlement have become so frequent that our national tolerance for them seems only to have increased as the Iraq War has drawn on. Even so, the testimony earlier this week of three whistleblowers before the Senate's Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) stands out for the sheer outrageousness of their accusations - namely that US private contractors looted Iraqi palaces and ministries, stole military equipment, fenced supplies destined for US troops, and even operated a prostitution ring that may have contributed to the death of fellow contractor."
See also:
Despite Alert, Flawed Wiring Still Kills G.I.’
By JAMES RISEN
Published: May 4, 2008
WASHINGTON — In October 2004, the United States Army issued an urgent bulletin to commanders across Iraq, warning them of a deadly new threat to American soldiers. Because of flawed electrical work by contractors, the bulletin stated, soldiers at American bases in Iraq had received severe electrical shocks, and some had even been electrocuted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/world/middleeast/04electrocute.html?hp
[Use links above to continue reading]
Wrap...
and
From New York Times:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050308B.shtml
In Mother Jones, Bruce Falconer writes: "Allegations of widespread mismanagement and corruption among private contractors in Iraq are nothing new; if anything, tales of cronyism, over-billing, and embezzlement have become so frequent that our national tolerance for them seems only to have increased as the Iraq War has drawn on. Even so, the testimony earlier this week of three whistleblowers before the Senate's Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) stands out for the sheer outrageousness of their accusations - namely that US private contractors looted Iraqi palaces and ministries, stole military equipment, fenced supplies destined for US troops, and even operated a prostitution ring that may have contributed to the death of fellow contractor."
See also:
Despite Alert, Flawed Wiring Still Kills G.I.’
By JAMES RISEN
Published: May 4, 2008
WASHINGTON — In October 2004, the United States Army issued an urgent bulletin to commanders across Iraq, warning them of a deadly new threat to American soldiers. Because of flawed electrical work by contractors, the bulletin stated, soldiers at American bases in Iraq had received severe electrical shocks, and some had even been electrocuted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/world/middleeast/04electrocute.html?hp
[Use links above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Economists: Clinton & McCain are hornswoggling idiots...
From Buzzflash:
Hillary Clinton's Hornswoggling
Submitted by pmcarpenter on Sat, 05/03/2008 - 7:40am. P.M. Carpenter
THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter
Now come 150 prominent economists from the nation's finest universities to tell John McCain and Hillary Clinton that they are idiots.
In an "open statement" of response to the racketeering swill of a "gas tax holiday" now being foisted on this vast Republic, economists find themselves in uncommon agreement, but only because the proposal is so uncommonly stupid. The academics, in their statement, had a technical term for it: "a bad idea," which, also quite uncommonly, they dispatched with brevity:
First, research shows that waiving the gas tax would generate major profits for oil companies rather than significantly lowering prices for consumers. Second, it would encourage people to keep buying costly imported oil and do nothing to encourage conservation. Third, a tax holiday would provide very little relief to families feeling squeezed. Fourth, the gas tax suspension would threaten to increase the already record deficit in the coming year and reduce the amount of money going into the highway trust fund that maintains our infrastructure.
Signers of this letter are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. This is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of good public policy.
But of course it is a partisan issue -- more notably for Sen. Clinton. McCain's coronation is all but official; he didn't really need to pull this ugliest of demagogic rabbits out of a hat at this time. Plus, this is the sort of fiscal insanity that comes naturally to Republicans, especially leading ones.
The economists know that. Had Sen. McCain been the only presidential candidate to propose the "holiday," they would have merely shaken their heads and said, "It's just John talking." There would have no forthcoming statement of socially scientific disgust.
For Sen. Clinton, however, these are the most desperate of hours. Every couple weeks or so she gets yet another chance to prove to superdelegates that she is indeed willing to do or say absolutely anything in the course of clawing her way to the top, if, indeed, doing or saying absolutely anything is what it takes.
"Toughness" has been redefined by the New York senator: it now means (which is to say, she hopes you believe it means) demagogic groveling of the worst sort -- be it promises to "obliterate" an entire people overseas or simply bamboozle the homefolks. The word isn't so much "shameless" as it is "shameful," and God bless these 150 economists for poking their usually cloistered noses into her shameful business.
I will admit that the assignment of higher blame is a difficult task. Hillary, it could be argued, it is only doing what representative democracy quite naturally leads to and the founders most feared: the hornswoggling by the few of the great many ignoramuses, whom professionals who study this stuff rather delicately call "low-information voters." The founders just called them "the mob," and they are indeed a frightening bunch.
Roughly 62 million of them marched to the polls in the last presidential election with the singular intent to reinstall the demagogue in chief who had been humbugging them for four years already. It is the Indiana and North Carolina residents among these 62 million whom Hillary now beckons. They are her only hope; but lucky for her, they often come in swarms.
There's no doubt that Hillary has studied the demagogic playbook of the White House's current occupant. For nearly eight years he has defied the better insights and advice of military professionals, scientific professionals, legal professionals, foreign policy professionals and economic professionals. He has been "tough" -- he knows his own unschooled mind and he has rebuffed them all. And, until the last year or two, the mob swooned in admiration.
Why? Because Mr. Bush simply dismissed the knowing insights of the professional crowd and instead played on the worst fears and cheesiest of aspirations of these "low-information voters," who, if they can just be whipped into a sufficient frenzy, constitute a majority. They are always willing to believe whatever taxes their minds the least.
Or their pocketbooks.
Even I can understand that. What I cannot understand, however, is that they're also willing to believe that the pol who is so brazenly duping them is only doing so in their best interests -- that he, or she, in this case, is just one of them who deeply feels their pain and is willing to risk professional judgment just to pull their uninformed butts out of the fire.
Tuesday's two-state results won't change the ultimate Democratic outcome, but it will give us some indication of the democratic state of things -- whether, that is, most voters have learned anything at all from the last eight years.
Please respond to the commentary by leaving comments below and sharing them with the BuzzFlash community. For personal questions or comments you can contact P.M. at fifthcolumnistmail@gmail.com
THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter
Wrap...
Hillary Clinton's Hornswoggling
Submitted by pmcarpenter on Sat, 05/03/2008 - 7:40am. P.M. Carpenter
THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter
Now come 150 prominent economists from the nation's finest universities to tell John McCain and Hillary Clinton that they are idiots.
In an "open statement" of response to the racketeering swill of a "gas tax holiday" now being foisted on this vast Republic, economists find themselves in uncommon agreement, but only because the proposal is so uncommonly stupid. The academics, in their statement, had a technical term for it: "a bad idea," which, also quite uncommonly, they dispatched with brevity:
First, research shows that waiving the gas tax would generate major profits for oil companies rather than significantly lowering prices for consumers. Second, it would encourage people to keep buying costly imported oil and do nothing to encourage conservation. Third, a tax holiday would provide very little relief to families feeling squeezed. Fourth, the gas tax suspension would threaten to increase the already record deficit in the coming year and reduce the amount of money going into the highway trust fund that maintains our infrastructure.
Signers of this letter are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. This is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of good public policy.
But of course it is a partisan issue -- more notably for Sen. Clinton. McCain's coronation is all but official; he didn't really need to pull this ugliest of demagogic rabbits out of a hat at this time. Plus, this is the sort of fiscal insanity that comes naturally to Republicans, especially leading ones.
The economists know that. Had Sen. McCain been the only presidential candidate to propose the "holiday," they would have merely shaken their heads and said, "It's just John talking." There would have no forthcoming statement of socially scientific disgust.
For Sen. Clinton, however, these are the most desperate of hours. Every couple weeks or so she gets yet another chance to prove to superdelegates that she is indeed willing to do or say absolutely anything in the course of clawing her way to the top, if, indeed, doing or saying absolutely anything is what it takes.
"Toughness" has been redefined by the New York senator: it now means (which is to say, she hopes you believe it means) demagogic groveling of the worst sort -- be it promises to "obliterate" an entire people overseas or simply bamboozle the homefolks. The word isn't so much "shameless" as it is "shameful," and God bless these 150 economists for poking their usually cloistered noses into her shameful business.
I will admit that the assignment of higher blame is a difficult task. Hillary, it could be argued, it is only doing what representative democracy quite naturally leads to and the founders most feared: the hornswoggling by the few of the great many ignoramuses, whom professionals who study this stuff rather delicately call "low-information voters." The founders just called them "the mob," and they are indeed a frightening bunch.
Roughly 62 million of them marched to the polls in the last presidential election with the singular intent to reinstall the demagogue in chief who had been humbugging them for four years already. It is the Indiana and North Carolina residents among these 62 million whom Hillary now beckons. They are her only hope; but lucky for her, they often come in swarms.
There's no doubt that Hillary has studied the demagogic playbook of the White House's current occupant. For nearly eight years he has defied the better insights and advice of military professionals, scientific professionals, legal professionals, foreign policy professionals and economic professionals. He has been "tough" -- he knows his own unschooled mind and he has rebuffed them all. And, until the last year or two, the mob swooned in admiration.
Why? Because Mr. Bush simply dismissed the knowing insights of the professional crowd and instead played on the worst fears and cheesiest of aspirations of these "low-information voters," who, if they can just be whipped into a sufficient frenzy, constitute a majority. They are always willing to believe whatever taxes their minds the least.
Or their pocketbooks.
Even I can understand that. What I cannot understand, however, is that they're also willing to believe that the pol who is so brazenly duping them is only doing so in their best interests -- that he, or she, in this case, is just one of them who deeply feels their pain and is willing to risk professional judgment just to pull their uninformed butts out of the fire.
Tuesday's two-state results won't change the ultimate Democratic outcome, but it will give us some indication of the democratic state of things -- whether, that is, most voters have learned anything at all from the last eight years.
Please respond to the commentary by leaving comments below and sharing them with the BuzzFlash community. For personal questions or comments you can contact P.M. at fifthcolumnistmail@gmail.com
THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter
Wrap...
Friday, May 02, 2008
From Immigration Reform to Rich/Famous Foreclosures...
TEXT
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
Thousands of immigrants and their supporters turned out in several cities across the nation yesterday to hold "May Day" rallies, calling for an end to workplace raids and deportations. "We want a commitment from the three presidential candidates to pass humane immigration reform in the first 100 days in office," said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, one of rally's organizers.
Sen. John Warner (R-VA), "an early supporter of Sen. Jim Webb's (D-VA) GI Bill," said he's "quite certain" Congress will pass the bill, but he hinted at changes ahead. "There's a possibility that we might make some changes in the Webb bill...reflecting what I believe are some important points raised by other senators," said Warner.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved language in a bill that would "require military contractors, like KBR Inc., to report sex crimes committed by or against their employees, and provide employee victims with assistance and protection."
"Significant needs remain unmet" in treating soldiers with traumatic brain injury, according to a report released yesterday by the Veterans Affairs inspector general, which said many veterans "are not getting adequate healthcare and job assistance." "Brain injuries have become the dominant wounds from the Iraq war, Pentagon and VA records show, but the Pentagon has been slow to react to the growing problem."
"In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April," compared to a decade ago, when only one in in eight cars sold were compact. Rising gas prices are fueling the "dramatic shift," analysts say.
And finally: Even the rich and famous are facing foreclosure. Former U.S. baseball star Jose Canseco, who retired in 2001, has admitted that he has "lost his California mansion to foreclosure -- one of the first celebrities to publicly admit being a statistic in the U.S. housing crisis." Canseco owed a bank more than $2.5 million on his 7,300 square-foot house located in a Los Angeles suburb. "I decided to just let it go, but in most cases and most families, they have nowhere else to go," he said.
Wrap...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
Thousands of immigrants and their supporters turned out in several cities across the nation yesterday to hold "May Day" rallies, calling for an end to workplace raids and deportations. "We want a commitment from the three presidential candidates to pass humane immigration reform in the first 100 days in office," said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, one of rally's organizers.
Sen. John Warner (R-VA), "an early supporter of Sen. Jim Webb's (D-VA) GI Bill," said he's "quite certain" Congress will pass the bill, but he hinted at changes ahead. "There's a possibility that we might make some changes in the Webb bill...reflecting what I believe are some important points raised by other senators," said Warner.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved language in a bill that would "require military contractors, like KBR Inc., to report sex crimes committed by or against their employees, and provide employee victims with assistance and protection."
"Significant needs remain unmet" in treating soldiers with traumatic brain injury, according to a report released yesterday by the Veterans Affairs inspector general, which said many veterans "are not getting adequate healthcare and job assistance." "Brain injuries have become the dominant wounds from the Iraq war, Pentagon and VA records show, but the Pentagon has been slow to react to the growing problem."
"In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April," compared to a decade ago, when only one in in eight cars sold were compact. Rising gas prices are fueling the "dramatic shift," analysts say.
And finally: Even the rich and famous are facing foreclosure. Former U.S. baseball star Jose Canseco, who retired in 2001, has admitted that he has "lost his California mansion to foreclosure -- one of the first celebrities to publicly admit being a statistic in the U.S. housing crisis." Canseco owed a bank more than $2.5 million on his 7,300 square-foot house located in a Los Angeles suburb. "I decided to just let it go, but in most cases and most families, they have nowhere else to go," he said.
Wrap...
Secret groups influencing voters' choice of Prez....
From The Center for Public Integrity via truthout.org:
Stealth Campaigns
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050208I.shtml
The Center for Public Integrity's Sara Fritz, in a five-part examination of how independent committees shape the presidential race, writes: "Their names roll off the tongue with a patriotic cadence: Freedom's Watch, Democracy Alliance, Citizens United, Progress for America, Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America. These are the new giants of American politics, the well-funded groups organized behind a veil of secrecy to influence the voters' choice for president of the United States in 2008."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Stealth Campaigns
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050208I.shtml
The Center for Public Integrity's Sara Fritz, in a five-part examination of how independent committees shape the presidential race, writes: "Their names roll off the tongue with a patriotic cadence: Freedom's Watch, Democracy Alliance, Citizens United, Progress for America, Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America. These are the new giants of American politics, the well-funded groups organized behind a veil of secrecy to influence the voters' choice for president of the United States in 2008."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Thursday, May 01, 2008
HELP....
Anybody know how I can get Blogger to once again make my URLs in a post hotlink?
This is 2nd time the hotlinks have disappeared.
Sure would appreciate any advice.
Thanks much!
This is 2nd time the hotlinks have disappeared.
Sure would appreciate any advice.
Thanks much!
San Diego City conservative? Nope...
From truthout.org :
Marc Ash
My Chat With Donna Frye
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050108A.shtml
Truthout's Executive Director Marc Ash talks to San Diego City Councilwoman Donna Frye about the intersection of community activism and political life.
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Marc Ash
My Chat With Donna Frye
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050108A.shtml
Truthout's Executive Director Marc Ash talks to San Diego City Councilwoman Donna Frye about the intersection of community activism and political life.
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Don't jump when Navy SEALs are in the water....
From Voice of San Diego. org :
The Survivor
by RANDY DOTINGA
On a March day in 1988, a 26-year-old schizophrenic man found himself in the wrong place at the right time.
He had just jumped from the Coronado Bridge to the water 200 feet below -- a fall that's almost always fatal. But Navy SEALS were conducting a maneuver near the bridge and pulled the man out of the water, saving his life.
"He literally jumped into their arms," recalled the man's sister, San Diego Port Commissioner Laurie Black.
Now, the man -- one of only about a dozen people to survive a leap from the Coronado Bridge -- is married and working for a local hospital. He did try to kill himself after the jump from the bridge, but eventually managed to rejoin society, Black said.
He might not have made it. "He really was pulverized by the impact," said San Diego city medical director Dr. Jim Dunford, who observed the case at the time.
But the man probably landed feet first, reducing the fall's impact. Research suggests that is the best way to survive a fall.
Wrap...
The Survivor
by RANDY DOTINGA
On a March day in 1988, a 26-year-old schizophrenic man found himself in the wrong place at the right time.
He had just jumped from the Coronado Bridge to the water 200 feet below -- a fall that's almost always fatal. But Navy SEALS were conducting a maneuver near the bridge and pulled the man out of the water, saving his life.
"He literally jumped into their arms," recalled the man's sister, San Diego Port Commissioner Laurie Black.
Now, the man -- one of only about a dozen people to survive a leap from the Coronado Bridge -- is married and working for a local hospital. He did try to kill himself after the jump from the bridge, but eventually managed to rejoin society, Black said.
He might not have made it. "He really was pulverized by the impact," said San Diego city medical director Dr. Jim Dunford, who observed the case at the time.
But the man probably landed feet first, reducing the fall's impact. Research suggests that is the best way to survive a fall.
Wrap...
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Making $$$$ with DOD...
From Information Clearing House:
151 Congressmen Profit From War:
More than a quarter of senators and congressmen have invested at least $196 million of their own money in companies doing business with the Department of Defense (DoD) that profit from the death and destruction in Iraq.
http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-terrorism/151-congressmen-profit-from-war/3283/
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
151 Congressmen Profit From War:
More than a quarter of senators and congressmen have invested at least $196 million of their own money in companies doing business with the Department of Defense (DoD) that profit from the death and destruction in Iraq.
http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-terrorism/151-congressmen-profit-from-war/3283/
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
On the way...a few good books....
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION/DEBUT:
Editor of The Chattahoochee Review Marc Fitten's debut VALERIA'S LAST STAND, a modern-day fable featuring a terminally cranky old spinster who finds equal fault with the new, the old, the foreign and the familiar in her backwater Hungarian village, but suddenly falls in love with the long-known but little-noticed village potter, and with this one deviation from character, the delicately woven fabric of village life begins to unravel, to Colin Dickerman at Bloomsbury and Alexandra Pringle at Bloomsbury UK, in a pre-empt, for publication in Spring 2009, by Bill Clegg at the William Morris Agency (world English).
German rights to DTV, in a pre-empt.
WOMEN'S/ROMANCE:
Author of debut (and UK bestseller) The Kommandant's Girl and the forthcoming sequel, Pam Jenoff's FOREVER ENGLAND, the first of two novels of international intrigue, romance, and suspense, drawing on her experiences working for the State Department and studying at Cambridge, about an intelligence official who returns to England on assignment and finds herself unexpectedly embroiled in discovering the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of her college boyfriend there ten years earlier, to Emily Bestler at Atria, by Scott Hoffman at Folio Literary Management.
GENERAL/OTHER:
Dennis Cooper's UGLY MAN, the author's first collection of short fiction, to Michael Signorelli at Harper Perennial, in a very nice deal, in a three-book deal, for publication in Summer 2009, by Ira Silverberg at Sterling Lord Literistic (US).
CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT:
"Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus's book about growing up in Tennessee and then Los Angeles, and her parents' role in her success, to Jonathan Yaged for Hyperion Children's, for publication in spring 2009 to tie-in with her movie.
Daily News columnist Mike Lupica's two YA novels in his sports series, to Michael Green at Philomel, for publication in 2009 and 2010, by Esther Newberg at ICM.
NYU creative writing MFA student Lauren Oliver's YA debut, IF I SHOULD FALL, about a girl who relives the day of her death seven times until she discovers that the life she needed to save was not her own, to Brenda Bowen at Bowen Press/Harper, in a pre-empt, for two books, by Stephen Barbara at the Donald Maass Literary Agency (NA).
BIOGRAPHY:
Roy Morris, Jr.'s LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY, a narrative of the five years (1861-1866) that Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) spent out West as a Confederate guerrilla, silver miner, newspaper reporter, and travel writer during the Civil War, a crucial period of his life when he found his voice as a writer and became, literally, Mark Twain, to Roger Labrie at Simon & Schuster, by Georges Borchardt at Georges Borchardt (World English).
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
Kim Eisler's book about the high-powered law firm Williams & Connolly that will describe how after the death of Edward Bennett Williams, a cadre of proteges, Brendan Sullivan, David Kendall, Gregory Craig, Larry Lucchino, and Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler, saved what was thought to be a firm dominated by one legendary lawyer and expanded his legacy in death to become more influential in American life than any law firm, to Thomas Dunne at Thomas Dunne Books, by Jane Dystel at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (NA).
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War author Tara McKelvey's ONLY THE DEAD COME HOME, about the deeply scarred generation of US service members returning from the war in Iraq and the degree to which the government is neglecting their care here at home, to Paul Golob at Times Books, by Gail Ross of the Gail Ross Literary Agency.
claire.mckinney@hholt.com
MEMOIR:
Creator and executive producer of the CSI television franchise Anthony Zuiker's MR. CSI, covering the story of his gangster father (who suicided recently), and his journey from Vegas bellhop -- where he learned how to do absolutely anything that his guests needed, no matter how bizarre the request -- to a multi-millionaire Hollywood mogul, including the decisions he made and the lessons learned on his rise, to Bruce Nichols at Collins, for publication in fall 2009, by Dan Strone at Trident Media Group.
NYT bestselling author Rita Mae Brown's PURE GOLD, a memoir about the remarkable animals who have loved, endured and taught her over the years; and two untitled novels in a new series about an investment banker with high self-regard who inherits her aunt's farm and discovers (the hard way) that the qualities that made her successful in her business may not be useful in the country, to Judy Sternlight at Ballantine, by Wendy Weil at the Wendy Weil Agency (NA).
SPORTS:
Sports agent David Falk's THE BALD TRUTH, an inside look at business at its highest level and the lessons to be learned from its champions, both on and off the court, from the agent whose clients have included Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing, to Anthony Ziccardi at Pocket, for publication in February 2009 (world).
Wrap....
FICTION/DEBUT:
Editor of The Chattahoochee Review Marc Fitten's debut VALERIA'S LAST STAND, a modern-day fable featuring a terminally cranky old spinster who finds equal fault with the new, the old, the foreign and the familiar in her backwater Hungarian village, but suddenly falls in love with the long-known but little-noticed village potter, and with this one deviation from character, the delicately woven fabric of village life begins to unravel, to Colin Dickerman at Bloomsbury and Alexandra Pringle at Bloomsbury UK, in a pre-empt, for publication in Spring 2009, by Bill Clegg at the William Morris Agency (world English).
German rights to DTV, in a pre-empt.
WOMEN'S/ROMANCE:
Author of debut (and UK bestseller) The Kommandant's Girl and the forthcoming sequel, Pam Jenoff's FOREVER ENGLAND, the first of two novels of international intrigue, romance, and suspense, drawing on her experiences working for the State Department and studying at Cambridge, about an intelligence official who returns to England on assignment and finds herself unexpectedly embroiled in discovering the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of her college boyfriend there ten years earlier, to Emily Bestler at Atria, by Scott Hoffman at Folio Literary Management.
GENERAL/OTHER:
Dennis Cooper's UGLY MAN, the author's first collection of short fiction, to Michael Signorelli at Harper Perennial, in a very nice deal, in a three-book deal, for publication in Summer 2009, by Ira Silverberg at Sterling Lord Literistic (US).
CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT:
"Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus's book about growing up in Tennessee and then Los Angeles, and her parents' role in her success, to Jonathan Yaged for Hyperion Children's, for publication in spring 2009 to tie-in with her movie.
Daily News columnist Mike Lupica's two YA novels in his sports series, to Michael Green at Philomel, for publication in 2009 and 2010, by Esther Newberg at ICM.
NYU creative writing MFA student Lauren Oliver's YA debut, IF I SHOULD FALL, about a girl who relives the day of her death seven times until she discovers that the life she needed to save was not her own, to Brenda Bowen at Bowen Press/Harper, in a pre-empt, for two books, by Stephen Barbara at the Donald Maass Literary Agency (NA).
BIOGRAPHY:
Roy Morris, Jr.'s LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY, a narrative of the five years (1861-1866) that Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) spent out West as a Confederate guerrilla, silver miner, newspaper reporter, and travel writer during the Civil War, a crucial period of his life when he found his voice as a writer and became, literally, Mark Twain, to Roger Labrie at Simon & Schuster, by Georges Borchardt at Georges Borchardt (World English).
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
Kim Eisler's book about the high-powered law firm Williams & Connolly that will describe how after the death of Edward Bennett Williams, a cadre of proteges, Brendan Sullivan, David Kendall, Gregory Craig, Larry Lucchino, and Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler, saved what was thought to be a firm dominated by one legendary lawyer and expanded his legacy in death to become more influential in American life than any law firm, to Thomas Dunne at Thomas Dunne Books, by Jane Dystel at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (NA).
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War author Tara McKelvey's ONLY THE DEAD COME HOME, about the deeply scarred generation of US service members returning from the war in Iraq and the degree to which the government is neglecting their care here at home, to Paul Golob at Times Books, by Gail Ross of the Gail Ross Literary Agency.
claire.mckinney@hholt.com
MEMOIR:
Creator and executive producer of the CSI television franchise Anthony Zuiker's MR. CSI, covering the story of his gangster father (who suicided recently), and his journey from Vegas bellhop -- where he learned how to do absolutely anything that his guests needed, no matter how bizarre the request -- to a multi-millionaire Hollywood mogul, including the decisions he made and the lessons learned on his rise, to Bruce Nichols at Collins, for publication in fall 2009, by Dan Strone at Trident Media Group.
NYT bestselling author Rita Mae Brown's PURE GOLD, a memoir about the remarkable animals who have loved, endured and taught her over the years; and two untitled novels in a new series about an investment banker with high self-regard who inherits her aunt's farm and discovers (the hard way) that the qualities that made her successful in her business may not be useful in the country, to Judy Sternlight at Ballantine, by Wendy Weil at the Wendy Weil Agency (NA).
SPORTS:
Sports agent David Falk's THE BALD TRUTH, an inside look at business at its highest level and the lessons to be learned from its champions, both on and off the court, from the agent whose clients have included Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing, to Anthony Ziccardi at Pocket, for publication in February 2009 (world).
Wrap....
It's SECRET! Forget the Rule of Law....
From Secrecy News:
SECRET LAW DEBATED IN SENATE HEARING
Secret law that governs the conduct of government activities but is
inaccessible to the public is "a particularly sinister" phenomenon that
is "increasingly prevalent," said Senator Russ Feingold today at a
hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the
Constitution.
The hearing produced a particularly rich record on the subject of
secret law from a broad and diverse set of perspectives (including one
view that "there is no such thing" as secret law).
In my own testimony, I provided a catalog of the many current forms of
"secret law" and some of their objectionable consequences.
"If the rule of law is to prevail, the requirements of the law must be
clear and discoverable," I suggested. "Secret law excludes the public
from the deliberative process, promotes arbitrary and deviant
government behavior, and shields official malefactors from
accountability."
http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2008/043008aftergood.pdf
The classification of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memorandum of
torture authored by John Yoo was "one of the worst abuses of the
classification process I have seen during my career," testified J.
William Leonard, the former director of the Information Security
Oversight Office.
More generally, "OLC has been terribly wrong to withhold the content of
much of its advice from Congress and the public," said Prof. Dawn E.
Johnsen, former head of the OLC, "particularly when advising the
executive branch that in essence it could act contrary to federal
statutory restraints."
Current OLC director John P. Elwood contended that current OLC
disclosure policy "is consistent with the approach of prior
Administrations."
Brad Berenson, a former associate counsel to the President, articulated
"legitimate interests in secrecy" and cautioned against disclosure
initiatives that could have unintended consequences.
Prof. Heidi Kitrosser explained the constitutional framework within
which secrecy disputes take place and urged more "effective
congressional oversight" to restrain abuses of secrecy.
Attorney David Rivkin, a frequent defender of Administration policies,
said that the "law of war" paradigm with all of its attendant secrecy
remains the appropriate one.
Sen. Sam Brownback expressed skepticism about new disclosure
requirements, while Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse probed the destabilizing
implications of the Administration view that executive orders can be
"waived" by the President without notice to Congress or the public.
The prepared statements from the Senate hearing are available here:
http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=3305
For all of the differences of opinion, there was also a provisional
consensus that the executive branch should be required to report to
Congress when it significantly interprets or reinterprets a statutory
requirement.
Chairman Feingold announced that the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence had notified him that several long-sought opinions of the
Office of Legal Counsel concerning interrogation of enemy combatants
would be provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee and possibly, in
some form, to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Feingold said he
would continue to seek public disclosure of the opinions, a move that
is not currently contemplated by the Administration.
Wrap...
SECRET LAW DEBATED IN SENATE HEARING
Secret law that governs the conduct of government activities but is
inaccessible to the public is "a particularly sinister" phenomenon that
is "increasingly prevalent," said Senator Russ Feingold today at a
hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the
Constitution.
The hearing produced a particularly rich record on the subject of
secret law from a broad and diverse set of perspectives (including one
view that "there is no such thing" as secret law).
In my own testimony, I provided a catalog of the many current forms of
"secret law" and some of their objectionable consequences.
"If the rule of law is to prevail, the requirements of the law must be
clear and discoverable," I suggested. "Secret law excludes the public
from the deliberative process, promotes arbitrary and deviant
government behavior, and shields official malefactors from
accountability."
http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2008/043008aftergood.pdf
The classification of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memorandum of
torture authored by John Yoo was "one of the worst abuses of the
classification process I have seen during my career," testified J.
William Leonard, the former director of the Information Security
Oversight Office.
More generally, "OLC has been terribly wrong to withhold the content of
much of its advice from Congress and the public," said Prof. Dawn E.
Johnsen, former head of the OLC, "particularly when advising the
executive branch that in essence it could act contrary to federal
statutory restraints."
Current OLC director John P. Elwood contended that current OLC
disclosure policy "is consistent with the approach of prior
Administrations."
Brad Berenson, a former associate counsel to the President, articulated
"legitimate interests in secrecy" and cautioned against disclosure
initiatives that could have unintended consequences.
Prof. Heidi Kitrosser explained the constitutional framework within
which secrecy disputes take place and urged more "effective
congressional oversight" to restrain abuses of secrecy.
Attorney David Rivkin, a frequent defender of Administration policies,
said that the "law of war" paradigm with all of its attendant secrecy
remains the appropriate one.
Sen. Sam Brownback expressed skepticism about new disclosure
requirements, while Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse probed the destabilizing
implications of the Administration view that executive orders can be
"waived" by the President without notice to Congress or the public.
The prepared statements from the Senate hearing are available here:
http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=3305
For all of the differences of opinion, there was also a provisional
consensus that the executive branch should be required to report to
Congress when it significantly interprets or reinterprets a statutory
requirement.
Chairman Feingold announced that the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence had notified him that several long-sought opinions of the
Office of Legal Counsel concerning interrogation of enemy combatants
would be provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee and possibly, in
some form, to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Feingold said he
would continue to seek public disclosure of the opinions, a move that
is not currently contemplated by the Administration.
Wrap...
Superclass: These men rule the world...
From Newsweek...an excerpt:
The iconic symbol of superclass unity is the Gulfstream private jet. In fact, one way to measure the clout of an event is to count the private jets at the nearest airport. According to Gulfstream, Davos traditionally attracts more of its planes than any other gathering, drawing up to 10 percent of the 1,500 planes in service to Zurich airport. But this year's Olympics in Beijing will give it a run for its money, as typically do events as diverse as the Monaco Grand Prix, China's Boao Forum, the Geneva Auto Show or Allen & Co.'s annual getaway for media magnates in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Globalization looks different when you can tell the pilot when to leave and where to go, and when there are no security lines to wait in when you are heading off for distant destinations. Those who are free to move about the planet this way come to have more in common with themselves than with their own countrymen. "What happened to us, that we walk through the Davos party and know more people than when we were walking across the village green in the town we live in?" wonders Mark Malloch-Brown, former Deputy Secretary General at the United Nations and now a senior official in the British Foreign Ministry. In fact, Davos is a village green for the superclass. It's at such a gathering that leaders get to know one another, hatch deals and exercise perhaps the greatest power the superclass has collectively: to shape conventional wisdom.
In these conclaves, priorities are not only for their own constituencies, but for entire regions and the world at large. Possibly the premier gathering in Latin America is the "Fathers and Sons" event held annually by the world's richest man, Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim, who presides over groups of Latin American corporate giants and their scions. The telecom billionaire pays for the entire event himself and orchestrates the schedule, which according to recent participants is "quite work intensive" but includes some time for tennis, golf, even, on one occasion and despite the absence of women, dancing among the fathers and sons when the music went on at the end of the day. The Slim event illustrates the importance to the heirs of Latin America's traditional elite culture of connecting across borders, of forging international alliances within the subset of the global superclass with whom they have the most in common.
Thanks to this kind of social interaction, large portions of the global superclass are well acquainted with each other. Says Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Wall Street's Blackstone Group, "The world is pretty small. In almost every one of the areas in which I am dealing or in which we at Blackstone are looking at deals, you find it is just 20, 30 or 50 people worldwide who drive the industry or the sector." Numbers tell the same tale. If you take just the people who serve in top management positions or on the boards of the five biggest companies in the world, you'll find they also serve on the boards of an additional 140 other major companies and 22 universities. To Schwarzman, being a member of the superclass means being able to "get to anybody in the world with one phone call."
These kinds of connections can work to stabilize the world in a crisis. But not necessarily. I once overheard a dinner conversation among the CEO of a leading aircraft manufacturer and a senior member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee. "Here's the deal," said the CEO. "I want to sell a plane to Muammar Kaddafi and he wants to buy one. But we have sanctions in place that won't let me sell to him. The U.S. wants this guy dead. So, what I'm thinking is, if you help me get the OK to sell him the plane, I'll build with explosive bolts connecting the wings to the fuselage. Then, one day he's up flying over the Med and we push a button. He's gone. I make my sale. Everyone's happy." Fortunately, the conversation took place in the 1990s, a time before U.S. foreign-policy makers began bending international laws to achieve national security goals. The congressperson declined the offer.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130637
[Use link above to read entire article]
Wrap...
The iconic symbol of superclass unity is the Gulfstream private jet. In fact, one way to measure the clout of an event is to count the private jets at the nearest airport. According to Gulfstream, Davos traditionally attracts more of its planes than any other gathering, drawing up to 10 percent of the 1,500 planes in service to Zurich airport. But this year's Olympics in Beijing will give it a run for its money, as typically do events as diverse as the Monaco Grand Prix, China's Boao Forum, the Geneva Auto Show or Allen & Co.'s annual getaway for media magnates in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Globalization looks different when you can tell the pilot when to leave and where to go, and when there are no security lines to wait in when you are heading off for distant destinations. Those who are free to move about the planet this way come to have more in common with themselves than with their own countrymen. "What happened to us, that we walk through the Davos party and know more people than when we were walking across the village green in the town we live in?" wonders Mark Malloch-Brown, former Deputy Secretary General at the United Nations and now a senior official in the British Foreign Ministry. In fact, Davos is a village green for the superclass. It's at such a gathering that leaders get to know one another, hatch deals and exercise perhaps the greatest power the superclass has collectively: to shape conventional wisdom.
In these conclaves, priorities are not only for their own constituencies, but for entire regions and the world at large. Possibly the premier gathering in Latin America is the "Fathers and Sons" event held annually by the world's richest man, Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim, who presides over groups of Latin American corporate giants and their scions. The telecom billionaire pays for the entire event himself and orchestrates the schedule, which according to recent participants is "quite work intensive" but includes some time for tennis, golf, even, on one occasion and despite the absence of women, dancing among the fathers and sons when the music went on at the end of the day. The Slim event illustrates the importance to the heirs of Latin America's traditional elite culture of connecting across borders, of forging international alliances within the subset of the global superclass with whom they have the most in common.
Thanks to this kind of social interaction, large portions of the global superclass are well acquainted with each other. Says Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Wall Street's Blackstone Group, "The world is pretty small. In almost every one of the areas in which I am dealing or in which we at Blackstone are looking at deals, you find it is just 20, 30 or 50 people worldwide who drive the industry or the sector." Numbers tell the same tale. If you take just the people who serve in top management positions or on the boards of the five biggest companies in the world, you'll find they also serve on the boards of an additional 140 other major companies and 22 universities. To Schwarzman, being a member of the superclass means being able to "get to anybody in the world with one phone call."
These kinds of connections can work to stabilize the world in a crisis. But not necessarily. I once overheard a dinner conversation among the CEO of a leading aircraft manufacturer and a senior member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee. "Here's the deal," said the CEO. "I want to sell a plane to Muammar Kaddafi and he wants to buy one. But we have sanctions in place that won't let me sell to him. The U.S. wants this guy dead. So, what I'm thinking is, if you help me get the OK to sell him the plane, I'll build with explosive bolts connecting the wings to the fuselage. Then, one day he's up flying over the Med and we push a button. He's gone. I make my sale. Everyone's happy." Fortunately, the conversation took place in the 1990s, a time before U.S. foreign-policy makers began bending international laws to achieve national security goals. The congressperson declined the offer.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130637
[Use link above to read entire article]
Wrap...
Obama = gentleman. Clinton is no lady....
From Political Wire:
Clinton Accepts Offer of Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Sen. Hillary Clinton accepted a Montana newspaper publisher's "invitation to participate in a Lincoln-Douglas debate in Missoula, while her Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama's campaign said it was evaluating the offer," the Billings Gazette reports.
"Lincoln-Douglas debates don't have moderators and are considered to be more freewheeling. Each candidate gets an allotment of time, followed by the other candidate and then the first person goes again"
NOTE: Yeah, I'll bet she did since that's what she's been asking for. I can see it all now....Obama is a gentleman. In debates with Clinton, that fact has hurt him. In a Lincoln-Douglas style debate, with no moderator(s), Clinton is not going to pay a whole lot of attention to allotments of time. She will not stop talking when her time runs out. Obama will try to speak and she will simply raise her voice and continue. Obama is not going to yell or raise his voice to override hers...because he is a gentleman. She, unfortunately, is no lady. All of which leaves Obama in a very awkward position.
Wrap...
Clinton Accepts Offer of Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Sen. Hillary Clinton accepted a Montana newspaper publisher's "invitation to participate in a Lincoln-Douglas debate in Missoula, while her Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama's campaign said it was evaluating the offer," the Billings Gazette reports.
"Lincoln-Douglas debates don't have moderators and are considered to be more freewheeling. Each candidate gets an allotment of time, followed by the other candidate and then the first person goes again"
NOTE: Yeah, I'll bet she did since that's what she's been asking for. I can see it all now....Obama is a gentleman. In debates with Clinton, that fact has hurt him. In a Lincoln-Douglas style debate, with no moderator(s), Clinton is not going to pay a whole lot of attention to allotments of time. She will not stop talking when her time runs out. Obama will try to speak and she will simply raise her voice and continue. Obama is not going to yell or raise his voice to override hers...because he is a gentleman. She, unfortunately, is no lady. All of which leaves Obama in a very awkward position.
Wrap...
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