Articles of Interest 3-22-2008

228 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

A state run Democrat “do-over” Presidential Primary election seems to be “dead in the water”.  As Clinton supporters maneuvered to get something passed, Obama supporters quietly worked to stop it.  This was all inside baseball on the Dem front and Republicans got to sit back and watch!

TAXPAYER WARNING: Apparently the House Democrats didn't learn anything from last year's budget debacle. They are once again spending more than we can afford, setting the stage for another tax hike in the near future.  More info below.

Maybe enacting constitutional amendments requiring a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature to raise taxes isn’t such a bad idea.  I remember Sheriff Mike Bouchard pushed something like this when he was in the State Senate.

There will be NO Articles or Commentary on Easter Sunday.

THE REST OF THE STORY:

-Democrats are setting us up for another TAX increase…TAXPAYERS BEWARE.
The Democrat budget increases spending and creates programs that add to our structural deficit. It does not include any significant long-term reforms.

The director of the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency said we cannot afford the governor's proposed budget, which includes $462.6 million in new spending. Several of the House Democrat budgets spend even more. What are they thinking?

Republicans successfully offered an amendment to increase government transparency by requiring the state to post expenses online.

Apparently the House Democrats didn't learn anything from last year's budget debacle. They are once again spending more than we can afford, setting the stage for another tax hike in the near future.
We cannot ignore the lack of reforms or new structural deficits this budget creates - both of which will force us to raise taxes again in the near future…if we don’t change.

Not enough was done last year to cut waste and reform government, and as a result our taxes went up by a staggering $1.4 billion. If we want to fix our economy, we need to get our spending problem under control. This budget doesn't do that.

We successfully fought for amendments to increase transparency by posting state expenses online. This will expose waste and hold the government responsible for how it spends taxpayer dollars.  Taxpayers beware…the Democrats are coming back at us.

There will be NO Articles or Commentary on Easter Sunday.

Saul Anuzis

STATE STORIES

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03/gop_hunting_for_candidates.html

GOP hunting for candidates

by Kristin Longley | Jackson Citizen Patriot

Friday March 21, 2008, 9:26 AM

With two first-term Democrats holding state House seats in

Jackson

County

, Republicans are working to find firm candidates for this year's election.  David Elwell, a Republican county commissioner and

Columbia

Township

police chief, said Thursday he is dropping out of the 65th District race against Rep. Mike Simpson,

D-Blackman

Township

, because a family member has been hospitalized.  The diagnosis is one that will take "an immense amount of time and support from the family," he said in a statement. Elwell announced in February he would run, criticizing Simpson as being out of touch with constituents.

"I remain as committed as ever to the fact that Mike Simpson needs to be replaced for the betterment of the families and taxpayers of the 65th District," he said.

The question is: Who will replace him?  No one aside from Elwell has stepped forward to run against Simpson or Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson.

Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis said there are several potential candidates but declined to name any. He said both races will "absolutely" be contested.

The filing deadline to run for the seats is May 13, which leaves plenty of time to jump in the race.

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080322/NEWS04/803220322/1005/news04

A boost to safety:

Michigan

set to adopt law requiring booster seats for small kids under 8

Christine Rook

Lansing

State

Journal

Published March 22, 2008

If Julie Laxton's 5-year-old whines about sitting in a car booster seat, she already has prepared an answer.  "Sorry," she'll soon be able to tell him. "There's no negotiation.  "It's the law."  The 39-year-old

East Lansing

mom welcomes what is soon to be a new rule regarding child-safety restraint.  Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected as early as next week to sign legislation requiring children ages 4 through 7 to be fastened into a booster seat. Only children in that age bracket who are at least 4-foot-9-inches tall will be allowed to use adult-sized seat belts alone.  "I'm 100 percent for it," Laxton said. "It gives me backup."  The new law, which follows the recommendations of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, will take effect July 1, if signed.

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080322/OPINION01/803220306/1008

Let

Detroit

council subpoena evidence

The

Detroit

News

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Wayne Circuit Judge Robert Colombo, in ruling that certain text messages from Christine Beatty will be made public after they are reviewed, also denied a motion from the Detroit City Council to enforce its subpoena for the text messages from both the former mayoral chief of staff and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. He said the council does not have subpoena power, The Detroit News reported. The Detroit City Charter states at Section 4-110 that the council "may require the production of evidence in any matter before it" and "to enforce a subpoena or order production of evidence shall apply to the appropriate court." If some section of state law invalidates this provision of the City Charter, that ought to be cleared up promptly by

Detroit

lawmakers, so the council has appropriate powers to obtain evidence for its oversight duties.   Another kickoff for the Silverdome? 

Pontiac

has decided to reopen talks with an attorney who wants to build a thoroughbred race track and casino on the site of the abandoned Silverdome stadium. At this point, anything would be preferable to the vacant property and interminable dawdling of city officials. The City Council earlier had pulled several bids and reopened the bidding process.

When H. Wallace Parker upped his offer to $21 million from $12 million, the council voted 4-2 to start renegotiating. Whether the decision pans out is iffy, since it remains difficult to get a gaming license from the state. But at some point, the

Oakland

County

community must get rid of the property, get it back on the tax rolls and let a private entrepreneur try to revitalize it.

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080322/BIZ/803220402/1001/BIZ

Tribes,

Mich.

settle gaming funds dispute

Tim Martin / Associated Press

Saturday, March 22, 2008

LANSING

--

Michigan

officials announced Friday the settlement of a dispute with two American Indian tribes over the portion of gambling revenues paid to the state.

The deal announced by Gov. Jennifer Granholm with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians will pump millions of dollars into funds used to boost economic development in the state.

The tribes, in the northwest part of

Michigan

's

Lower Peninsula

, contended that the Michigan Lottery's Club Keno game violated an exclusivity clause in their 1998 compacts with the state. The tribes withheld revenue sharing payments to the state as a result, starting in 2004, and the dispute wound up in court.

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080322/POLITICS01/803220320/1409/METRO

Dems look at divvying up delegates

Candidates nix mail-in or caucus voting, so attention turns to a negotiated division.

Gordon Trowbridge and Mark Hornbeck / The

Detroit

News

Saturday, March 22, 2008

A process of elimination is leaving

Michigan

Democratic leaders with a series of unappetizing choices: accept a negotiated split of the state's convention delegates, hope a nominee emerges who can lift the national party's ban on

Michigan

, or pursue a divisive, long-shot fight for the state's place in

Denver

.   With efforts to set up a June 3 state-run primary dead in

Lansing

, aides to presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on Friday ruled out two likely alternatives: a mail-in primary or caucuses run by the Michigan Democratic Party. Even with approval from the candidates, either plan would face steep logistical hurdles. And there were few ideas beyond those two for how the state could hold a nomination contest that would bring it back within the national party's rules.   The panel of four influential Democrats who proposed the do-over primary conferred again Friday afternoon, searching for an alternative that would be acceptable to the state and national parties, and Obama and Clinton.

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080322/BUSINESS07/803220321/1002/BUSINESS

Electricity use debate slows new state laws

BY DAVID EGGERT • ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 22, 2008

LANSING

-- A popular argument for rewriting

Michigan

's energy laws this year is that more electricity will be needed by 2015 -- not a lot of time for new power plants to be built.  But predicting energy usage is tricky.  Big utilities and others have tried to bolster their case for legislative changes by citing a January 2007 report from then-Michigan Public Service Commission Chairman J. Peter Lark.  The 21st Century Energy Plan estimated electric demand would grow an average 1.3% a year through 2025 and, as a result, require the construction of at least one large, multibillion-dollar power plant by 2015.  A year earlier, though, the regulatory agency had said electric use would grow at a higher rate. And the state's largest utility, Detroit Edison, told regulators last month sales in its service area would grow less than half of what Lark had predicted.

Economist David Littman forecasts that electric demand actually will drop over the next decade, not increase, because of

Michigan

's declining population, jobs and income.

Attorney General Mike Cox cites slipping estimates of future electric use to criticize proposed revisions to Public Act 141, a 2000 state law opening up regulated monopolies Detroit Edison and Jackson-based Consumers Energy to competition from alternative power suppliers.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080321/METRO/803210434

Judge says he will release Beatty's text messages after review

Christine MacDonald / The

Detroit

News

Friday, March 21, 2008

DETROIT

-- Wayne County Judge Robert Colombo said Friday morning he intends to release selected text messages from former mayoral Chief of Staff Christine Beatty from 2002 and 2003 after reviewing their content.   And, he ordered whistle-blower attorney Michael Stefani and several other lawyers for the city and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to produce a proposed motion crafted by Stefani for attorney fees that included portions of the messages. Kilpatrick dropped an appeal of a jury's verdict in the whistle-blower case after the city's outside attorney, Sam McCargo, saw the motion.  

Colombo

made the rulings in the Freedom of Information Act case brought against the city by The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. He said he will only release the messages that pertain to any romantic relationship between Kilpatrick and Beatty and any messages related to discussion of the firing of ex-Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown.

http://blog.mlive.com/cns/2008/03/state_beefs_up_measures_agains.html

State beefs up measures against blight

Posted by Clay Taylor | Capital News Service March 21, 2008 13:07PM

LANSING

- A 1982 Atlantic Monthly article popularized the "broken window" theory: the longer broken windows are left broken, the more likely vandals will break more.

New efforts are underway to fix

Michigan

's broken windows and keep the rest intact.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced plans to continue cleaning up blight in eight cities:

Benton

Harbor

,

Detroit

,

Flint

,

Hamtramck

,

Highland Park

,

Muskegon

Heights

,

Pontiac

and

Saginaw

, each chosen based on their poverty rate.   The blight elimination program is a piece of her $25 million, four-year Cities of Promise initiative that would create jobs to improve up to 1,511 blighted sites. If all the sites are cleaned up, it will cost the state $4.78 million this year. Each property is allotted up to $4,000 in repair costs.

"By providing resources to eliminate blight, we will help make neighborhoods safer for citizens and more inviting for businesses and economic investments," Granholm said. "Establishing thriving and healthy communities is a critical part of our plan to transform

Michigan

's economy and create jobs for our workers."  The state defines blighted property as including: a public or attractive nuisance; a fire hazard; a building left vacant for five years or a severe and immediate health and safety threat.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080322/NEWS01/803220343/1003

Contempt threats loom for city's law chief, mayor's cousin

Explain snubs of Worthy in perjury probe, judge orders

BY JIM SCHAEFER, M.L. ELRICK and JOE SWICKARD • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • March 22, 2008

The City of

Detroit

's top lawyer and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's cousin -- a high-ranking city official -- could be held in contempt of court for not cooperating with the

Wayne

County

prosecutor's criminal investigation of the mayor and his former chief of staff.

The revelation was contained in an order the Free Press found Friday taped to the locked front door of the city's Law Department, above another note that said the office was closed for Good Friday. Another copy was posted at the city's human resources office in City Hall. Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny signed the order.

The document directs Corporation Counsel John Johnson Jr. and Patricia Peoples, the city's deputy director of human resources, to appear at a 9 a.m. hearing Monday in front of Kenny to explain why they have ignored the prosecutor's investigative subpoenas and why they should not be held in contempt.  Kenny's order does not spell out why the pair are accused, and he declined comment. It does say that Prosecutor Kym Worthy's investigation centers on "possible perjury of Kwame Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty." Beatty resigned as chief of staff in early February.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080322/NEWS01/803220344/1003

City council gains in effort to obtain secret documents

BY DAVID ASHENFELTER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • March 22, 2008

A Wayne County Circuit judge granted on Friday the Detroit City Council's request to intervene in a Free Press lawsuit seeking secret documents in the scandal that engulfed Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick after he abruptly settled police whistle-blower lawsuits for $8.4 million.  Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr. also opened the door to the release of more messages and other records in the controversy. And he ordered lawyers who took part in the settlement to produce a key document that prompted Kilpatrick to suddenly reverse course last October and settle the suits that he had promised to keep fighting.

"I don't think there is any dispute that these are public records,"

Colombo

said during the latest hearing in the Free Press' effort to obtain all the records surrounding the settlement.

Bill Goodman, the council's independent attorney, hailed the rulings, saying the case shows the need for the council and the judge to serve as "the checks on the misuse of executive power" in the city.

http://blog.mlive.com/cns/2008/03/solar_tax_credit_proposed_to_l.html

Solar tax credit proposed to lure mid-Michigan plant

Posted by ANDREW McGLASHEN | Capital News Service March 21, 2008 12:43PM

LANSING

- A new Senate bill could make

Michigan

's business climate sunnier for companies that make technology to harness solar energy.  It would create a Michigan Business Tax credit of up to 50 percent for companies involved in making the technology.  Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, the primary sponsor, said the credit would apply to "anything that goes into the business that starts with sand and ends with solar cells.  "We need to move to where the world is going," he said, "and the world's going to businesses related to technology. This is about keeping faith with our kids, creating jobs for them and preparing for the future."  The credit is designed to lure the Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. to build its Phase IV expansion in

Michigan

.

The Hemlock-based company manufactures polycrystalline silicon, the major component of solar panels. It is a joint venture of Dow Corning Corp. and two Japanese firms.

Jarrod Erpelding, a communications representative at Dow Corning, said roughly a quarter of the world's solar panels contain silicon from Hemlock.

The Phase IV expansion is needed to help the company meet rising demand for solar power, Erpelding said, although he said it's too early to know where the expansion facility will be built.

NATIONAL STORIES

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9149_Page3.html

Story behind the story: The

Clinton

myth

By JIM VANDEHEI & MIKE ALLEN | 3/21/08 1:32 PM EST 

This is true, as a matter of math. But even the

Clinton

campaign’s own best-case scenario has her finishing behind Obama when all the nominating contests are over.   “She will be close to him but certainly not equal to him in pledged delegates,” a

Clinton

adviser said. “When you add the superdelegates on top of it, I’ll think she’ll still be behind him somewhat in total delegates — but very, very close.”   The total gap is likely to be 75 to 110, the adviser said. That means Clinton would need either some of those pledged delegates to switch their support — which technically they can do, though it would be unlikely — or for the white-dominated group of superdelegates to join forces with her to topple Obama.   To foster doubt about Obama,

Clinton

supporters are using a whisper and pressure campaign to make an 11th-hour argument to party insiders that he would be a weak candidate in November despite his superior standing at the moment.

“All she has left is the electability argument,” a Democratic official said. "It’s all wrapped around: Is there something that makes him ultimately unelectable?”

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080321/campaign_finances.html?.v=1

Obama Spends $1.5 Million a Day

Friday March 21, 8:22 am ET

By Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press Writer 

Obama Outspends and Outraises

Clinton

, Ends Month With More Cash on Hand

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton upped the tempo of her fundraising and her spending last month, only to be eclipsed by rival Barack Obama. At month's end, with debts of nearly $9 million, her money was nearly spent and he was sitting atop $30 million in available cash.Obama's campaign spent at a rate of nearly $1.5 million a day in February, a crucial month that began with the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday and ended with both candidates marching to a showdown March 4 in Texas and Ohio.

Clinton

, riding her best fundraising period yet, spent about $1 million a day on average.

But reports filed with the Federal Election commission late Thursday showed that Obama set a single-month fundraising record, with more than $55 million in contributions.

Both Democrats ended up with more than $30 million in the bank, but

Clinton

can't use two-thirds of her cash on hand because it's only for the general election. That and her debt left her with less than $3 million in the black. The debt doesn't include the $5 million she lent her campaign in January.

Obama's fundraising juggernaut is unprecedented and gave him a significant advantage this month as they prepared for a confrontation in

Pennsylvania

on April 22. Obama's spending edge continued into March. An analysis of ad spending between Feb. 10 and March 10 by TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG had Obama spending $17 million to

Clinton

's $8.6 million.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=3105288&page=1

The Note: After Midnight

Obama as Cinderella in What Could Have Been a Rough Week.

By RICK KLEIN with MIKE ELMORE

March 21, 2008

Share Sometimes, like a Cinderella team marching through March, Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign seems nothing short of charmed.

It helps that while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has 10 weeks to make Obama totally and entirely unelectable, Obama just has to wait out the clock.

But the outside help Obama is getting (some that he asked for, some that he didn't) is the X-factor -- and it means that, even as Obama grapples with perhaps the biggest challenge to his candidacy, he will be the nominee short of something else dramatic happening in the race that's already seen everything.   To survey the data points on a good Friday in Obamaland, in what had the potential to be a very rough week:   - Obama controls Friday's marquee event -- a 12:30 pm ET endorsement in Oregon by Governor/superdelegate/former Clinton Cabinet secretary/former candidate Bill Richardson, D-N.M., who provides a handy answer to the he's-not-ready argument (and who resisted the full Clinton press).   Richardson's key line, from the endorsement announcement (news of which broke, for what it's worth, a few minutes after 3 am, prompting different kinds of phone calls): "There is no doubt in my mind that Barack Obama has the judgment and courage we need in a commander in chief when our nation's security is on the line."

http://www.forbes.com/home/wallstreet/2008/03/20/banking-bernanke-frank-biz-wall-cx_lm_0320fed.html

Fed Up

Liz Moyer, 03.20.08, 3:20 PM ET

One consequence of the Federal Reserve's attempt to save the financial system will be more regulation, particularly of the Wall Street investment banks that got the economy into this mess in the first place.  It seems almost a foregone conclusion--especially after the Fed officially opened its $700 billion portfolio of U.S. Treasuries holdings to direct borrowing by investment banks, in exchange for a broader and riskier array of collateral than it has accepted in the past.  "Clearly they're in new territory here," said Donald Mullineaux, a banking professor at the

University

of

Kentucky

and a former Fed staffer.

At the heart of a brewing controversy in

Washington

and in banking circles is the inherent difference in the way Wall Street firms and their commercial bank counterparts are regulated, and whether big changes need to be made less than a decade after the last round of major reform.  Commercial banks--Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people ), JPMorgan Chase (nyse: JPM - news - people ) and Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ) are the three largest--take federally insured deposits, and, as such, must adhere to a long slate of regulations and meet "safety and soundness" requirements, (i.e., maintain high capital levels).   They answer to a number of regulators, including the Fed, the Office of the Comptroller (in the case of nationally chartered banks) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120605851874053429-lMyQjAxMDI4MDI2MTAyNTE4Wj.html

Small Donors Take Big Role in Election

By MARY JACOBY

March 21, 2008; Page A8

The recent flood of Internet donations that has helped pump 2008 presidential campaign coffers to highs also is accomplishing what Watergate-era campaign-finance regulations set out to do: dilute the influence of special interests and wealthy donors.

The main beneficiaries of the boom in small donors are Democratic contenders Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Both were expected to file reports with the Federal Election Commission Thursday night detailing their February fund raising. The Obama campaign has released numbers indicating the

Illinois

senator would report raising about $55 million in February, a one-month record for a primary candidate. About 90% of the total came from donors who gave in increments of $100 or less.

New York Sen. Clinton also has seen a jump in small donations: For the $35 million she received in February, the average donation was about $100, and about 80% came over the Internet, campaign officials said. In January, 35% of her money came from donors giving $200 or less, compared with 16% from such donors in the last three months of 2007, according to the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute in

Washington

. "I think what it shows is you can run major campaigns on small donations. The Internet makes it more possible," said Brad Smith, a former Republican chairman of the FEC, and now chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics, a conservative legal organization in

Alexandria

,

Va.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200803/POL20080321a.html

Poll: Divisive Dem Contest Could Boost McCain

By Fred Lucas

CNSNews.com Staff Writer

March 21, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - The lengthy Democratic primary contest bodes well for Republican chances of holding the White House, a new poll suggests.   As Democratic Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York slug it out for the nomination, many of their supporters -- at least in Pennsylvania, site of the next major primary -- aren't committed to the party's ticket in November, according to a Franklin & Marshall College Poll.   Among Obama supporters, 20 percent said they would vote for Sen. John McCain of

Arizona

, the Republican nominee, if

Clinton

beats their candidate for the nomination. Among

Clinton

supporters, 19 percent said they would support McCain in November if Obama is the Democratic nominee. (See poll)  The significant number of potential defectors underscores how divisive the Democratic primary has been.

Democrats won

Pennsylvania

in the 2000 and 2004 presidential races, but it was a competitive state in both election cycles. McCain, meanwhile, has touted his appeal to swing voters.   "

Pennsylvania

is a must-win state for a Democratic presidential nominee," Nathan Gonzalez, political editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, told Cybercast News Service. "If there is a significant weakness for a Democrat in

Pennsylvania

, it could indicate a weakness in

Ohio

or other key states."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VI2KDG0&show_article=1&catnum=3

Candidates' Passport Files Breached 

Mar 21 05:32 PM

US

/Eastern

By DESMOND BUTLER and ANNE FLAHERTY

Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) - At least four State Department workers pried into the supposedly secure passport files of presidential contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, abashed officials admitted Friday in a revelation that had Condoleezza Rice promising a full investigation and telephoning the candidates to personally apologize. The snooping incidents raised questions as to whether there was political motivation and why two contractors involved were fired before investigators had a chance to interview them. The State Department's inspector general was probing, with the Justice Department monitoring the effort, but Obama said that was not enough. He urged congressional involvement "so it's not simply an internal matter."

The unauthorized digging into electronic government files on politicians recalled a 1992 case in which a Republican political appointee at the State Department was demoted for searching Bill Clinton's passport records when

Clinton

was running against President George H.W. Bush. McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting, said there should be an investigation of the new snooping as well as an apology.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VI36103&show_article=1&catnum=3

Obama Has Clear Money Advantage 

Mar 21 06:10 PM

US

/Eastern

By JIM KUHNHENN

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton lived hand to mouth during the rush of presidential primaries while Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama outspent her and put money in the bank. New Federal Election Commission reports show Obama raised at a clip of nearly $2 million a day in February, an open spigot of money that left him with $30 million in the bank for March.

Clinton

had her best fundraising month as well, at $34.5 million. But counting her debts to vendors she ended with a net $3 million. And that's not factoring the $5 million she lent her campaign and has not paid back.

The current respite between primaries—the next one is April 22 in

Pennsylvania

—may cut back on some of the spending. It also denies the two campaigns the head-to-head contests that drive fundraising.  "Fundraising has always been event-driven," said Donald Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman. "The American people just don't sit around trying to think up ways of giving up money. Something has to draw attention to the need." Fowler, a superdelegate who has endorsed

Clinton

, conceded that Obama has a network that is better able to raise money quickly. But Obama himself played down his March fundraising on Friday.

http://nymag.com/news/businessfinance/bottomline/45299/

The Bear Stearns Bull

With the collapse of the country’s fifth-largest bank, the market hit bottom. The bear (small b) has finally been tamed.

By James J. Cramer Published Mar 21, 2008

What do you call it when the stock of the country’s fifth-largest investment bank trades at $50 on a Thursday and at $3 the following Monday? It’s been called the most dramatic fallout from the credit crisis, an epic stock analysts’ whiff, and one of Wall Street’s greatest collapses. All true. But I call it something else. I call it a bottom. Not just for the stock itself, which happens to be the venerable Bear Stearns, but for the whole stock market, and for the long-suffering housing market, too.

For the past eight months we’ve been in a terrible bear market in this country, with the Wall Street averages cascading down by double-digit percentages, and many banks and brokerages losing more than 50 percent of their value. Throughout the decline we’ve seen a complacent Federal Reserve and an indifferent Treasury Department that have seemed more worried about inflation than about deflation or losses, not just in stocks but in the most important assets for the vast majority of Americans: their homes. The Fed and Treasury wrote off their critics as alarmists and doomsayers, when, in fact, they had no idea of how bad things were. That changed the weekend Bear Stearns collapsed. The overnight demise of the bank, one that traded at $150 a year ago, finally woke up Hank “Rip Van Winkle” Paulson and the professor Ben Bernanke to the harsh reality: The whole darned banking system is drowning in a toxic sea of bad home mortgages.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/iraq_the_real_story.html

Iraq

: The Real Story

By Oliver North

March 21, 2008

WASHINGTON

-- Five years ago this week, 170,000 American and coalition soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. When they commenced their attack, they were outnumbered nearly three to one by Saddam Hussein's military, yet it took U.S. troops just three weeks to liberate Baghdad. No military force in history has accomplished that much so fast with so few casualties.

Despite a lightning-fast victory over the dictator's army, Republican Guard and fedayeen, the challenge of leaving Iraq better than we found it proved to be daunting and dangerous. Unfortunately, few Americans know what their countrymen in uniform have accomplished in the Land Between the Rivers.

On the way to

Baghdad

, American and allied forces were accompanied by more than 700 print and broadcast reporters. Once the dictator's capital was liberated, most of the media elites either headed for home or sequestered themselves inside the Green Zone. There they bought photos, footage and "news" from photographers and "reporters" traveling with our adversaries.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VIEL1G0&show_article=1&catnum=3

McCain Meets Sarkozy, Comments on

China

 

Mar 22 07:13 AM

US

/Eastern

By ELAINE GANLEY

Associated Press Writer

PARIS (AP) - campaign_minute Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain said Friday that

China

is harming its world image with its crackdown in

Tibet

and expressed hope

Beijing

would seek a peaceful solution to the crisis. McCain did not discuss the issue during a 45-minute meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but told reporters later the subject was "one of the first things I would talk about if I were president of the

United States

today."

China

's crackdown "is not correct," McCain said in the courtyard of the French presidential

Elysee

Palace

. "The people there are being subjected to mistreatment that is not acceptable with the conduct of a world power, which

China

is," McCain said in response to a question by a Chinese television journalist.

"There must be respect for human rights, and I would hope that the Chinese are actively seeking a peaceful resolution to this situation that exists which harms not only the human rights of the people there but also the image of

China

in the world."

The White House has urged

Beijing

to respect Tibetan culture and multi-ethnicity in its society. McCain was in

Paris

for a matter of hours at the end of a weeklong tour of the Middle East and

Europe

. He was traveling as part of a

U.S.

congressional delegation—including Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.—that visited

Iraq

,

Jordan

,

Israel

and

London

.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080322084514.2a53eay4&show_article=1&catnum=3

Cheney, Saudi king discuss energy stability 

Mar 22 04:45 AM

US

/Eastern

 

US Vice President Dick Cheney and Saudi King Abdullah had a "very thorough" discussion of short, medium and long-term fixes to chaotic global energy markets, a

US

official said on Saturday.

In meetings that also included Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi, there was "a lot of commonality in their assessment about the structural problems confronted by the global energy market now, and some discussion of probably the way forward," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VIBPN00&show_article=1&catnum=3

Obama Aide: Bill Clinton Like McCarthy 

Mar 22 03:58 AM

US

/Eastern

By MATT APUZZO

Associated Press Writer

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is trying to clarify comments by former President Clinton that seemed to question Barack Obama's patriotism—comments an Obama aide likened to Joseph McCarthy.

Clinton

's campaign said the comments were being misinterpreted and quickly posted a clarification on its Web site. But retired Air Force Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak said he was disappointed by the comments and compared them to those of McCarthy, the 1950s communist-hunting senator. The former president made the comments while speculating about a general election between his wife and Republican John McCain. "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country," said Clinton, who was speaking to a group of veterans Friday in Charlotte, N.C. "And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics." McPeak, a former chief of staff of the Air Force and currently a co- chair of Obama's presidential campaign, said that sounded like McCarthy.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=25655

PA Vet Tossed Out of

Clinton

Rally

by Robert Maginnis

Posted: 03/22/2008

An army veteran was hauled away by secret service agents from a

Clinton

rally for disputing former president Bill Clinton’s claim that his wife, Hillary, would make a “great commander-in-chief.”  Last Wednesday, Rick Brown, a Pennsylvania resident and a 1973 graduate of West Point, attended a Hillary Clinton town hall meeting in Bethlehem, PA, a community 70-miles north of Philadelphia. Former president Bill Clinton was the featured speaker who arrived an hour and a half late to promote his wife’s credentials for the presidency. That state’s presidential primary is scheduled for April 22nd.  Twenty-minutes into

Clinton

’s speech Brown, a five-year army veteran, said he had heard enough and shouted his question.

Clinton

had claimed that there were 34 general officers who endorse Hillary for president and that she would make a “great commander-in-chief.”   Brown, whose son is a junior at West Point, interrupted

Clinton

to ask whether Hillary, if elected, would gut the military. Brown later explained that he wanted to dispel the myth that Hillary would make a “great commander-in-chief.” After all, Brown explained, “Bill Clinton had gutted the military during his term in office” which left the nation unprepared after the attacks on September 11, 2001.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/us/politics/22richardson.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

First a Tense Talk With Clinton, Then

Richardson

Backs Obama

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY

Published: March 22, 2008

PORTLAND, Ore. — “I talked to Senator Clinton last night,” Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico said on Friday, describing the tense telephone call in which he informed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton that, despite two months of personal entreaties by her and her husband, he would be endorsing Senator Barack Obama for president.   “Let me tell you: we’ve had better conversations,” Mr. Richardson said.  The decision by Mr. Richardson, who ended his own presidential campaign on Jan. 10, to support Mr. Obama was a belt of bad news for Mrs. Clinton. It was a stinging rejection of her candidacy by a man who had served in two senior positions in President Bill Clinton’s administration, and who is one of the nation’s most prominent elected Hispanics. Mr. Richardson came back from vacation to announce his endorsement at a moment when Mrs. Clinton’s hopes of winning the Democratic nomination seem to be dimming.

But potentially more troublesome for Mrs. Clinton was what Mr. Richardson said in announcing his decision. He criticized the tenor of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. He praised Mr. Obama for the speech he gave in response to the furor over racially incendiary remarks delivered by Mr. Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.  And he came close to doing what Mrs. Clinton’s advisers have increasingly feared some big-name Democrat would do as the battle for the nomination drags on: Urge Mrs. Clinton to step aside in the interest of party unity.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/another-day-another-bill-clinton-quote/

Another Day, Another Bill Clinton Quote

By Sarah Wheaton

March 21, 2008,  7:20 pm

Former President has made yet another comment ripe for interpretation as a swipe at Senator Barack Obama. NBC reports on his musing about a general election fight between Senators John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton:

“I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country,” he said in Charlotte, N.C. “And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.”

The remark comes amid criticism that Mr. Obama did not adequately disassociate himself from comments by his pastor that some see as unpatriotic. NBC’s Carrie Dann also has the response from Mr. Clinton’s spokesman:  Actually, as is indicated by the quote itself, President Clinton was talking about the need to talk about issues, rather than falsely questioning any candidate’s patriotism.

He was lamenting that these kind of distractions ‘always seems to intrude’ on political campaigns.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/poll-obama-receives-high-marks-for-race-speech/

Poll: Obama Receives High Marks for Race Speech

By Dalia Sussman

March 21, 2008,  4:59 pm

A new national poll released Friday showed voters who heard or read about Barack Obama’s speech on his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and race relations, broadly approved of it.  Seven in 10 said he did a good job talking about race relations and as many said he did a good job explaining his relationship with Reverend Wright, according to a CBS News poll conducted Thursday.  More than six in 10, moreover, said they mostly agreed with what he said about race relations in this country, including a broad majority of Democrats and independents, but fewer — four in 10 — Republicans.

How the issue will ultimately affect Mr. Obama’s presidential aspirations remains to be seen. But seven in 10 voters nationwide who have followed the issue said it will make no difference in their vote decision, while the rest evenly divided over whether they will be more or less likely to vote for him.  Still, the poll found that public perceptions that Mr. Obama would be able to unite the country as president have fallen. Just over half of registered voters now say he would be that kind of president, down from two-thirds who said so a month ago.  The CBS News poll was conducted March 20 among 542 registered voters who were initially interviewed in a March 15-18 CBS News poll. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/clintons-february-fec-filings/

Clinton

’s February F.E.C. Filings

By Michael Luo

March 21, 2008,  3:25 pm

Despite a strong month of fund-raising in February in which she brought in $35 million, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton finished the month essentially in the red, once her campaign’s outstanding debts are factored in, as well as her personal loan, according to filings submitted late last night to the Federal Election Commission.

After spending about $31 million in her efforts to keep up with Senator Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton finished February with more than $33 million in cash on hand, but $21.5 million of that is earmarked exclusively for the general election, leaving her with $11.7 million for the primary.  Mrs. Clinton, however, loaned her campaign $5 million earlier this year and she listed $8.7 million in debts to various vendors, making clear why she has not yet paid herself back from her loan.  By way of comparison, Senator Barack Obama, her Democratic opponent, brought in $55 million in February, a record-setting sum, and spent about $43 million, leaving him with $31.6 million in cash on hand available for the primary and $7.3 million set aside for the general. He also did a much better job paying his bills, listing just $625,000 in outstanding debts.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/hillarys_balkan_adventures_par.html

Hillary's Balkan Adventures, Part II

"I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

--Hillary Clinton, speech at

George

Washington

University

, March 17, 2008.  Hillary Clinton has been regaling supporters on the campaign trail with hair-raising tales of a trip she made to

Bosnia

in March 1996. In her retelling, she was sent to places that her husband, President Clinton, could not go because they were "too dangerous." When her account was challenged by one of her traveling companions, the comedian Sinbad, she upped the ante and injected even more drama into the story. In a speech earlier this week, she talked about "landing under sniper fire" and running for safety with "our heads down."

There are numerous problems with

Clinton

's version of events.

The Facts

(Updated below)

As a reporter who visited

Bosnia

soon after the December 1995 Dayton Peace agreement, I can attest that the physical risks were minimal during this period, particularly at a heavily fortified U.S. Air Force base, such as

Tuzla

. Contrary to the claims of Hillary Clinton and former Army secretary Togo West,

Bosnia

was not "too dangerous" a place for President Clinton to visit in early 1996. In fact, the first

Clinton

to visit the Tuzla Air Force base was not Hillary, but Bill, on January 13, 1996.

Had Hillary Clinton's plane come "under sniper fire" in March 1996, we would certainly have heard about it long before now. Numerous reporters, including the Washington Post's John Pomfret, covered her trip. A review of nearly 100 news accounts of her visit shows that not a single newspaper or television station reported any security threat to the First Lady. "As a former AP wire service hack, I can safely say that it would have been in my lead had anything like that happened," said Pomfret.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080322/NATION/243762495/1001

Passports probe focuses on one worker

By Bill Gertz and Jon Ward

March 22, 2008

The State Department investigation of improper computer access to passport records of three presidential candidates is focusing on one remaining employee — a contract worker with a company headed by an adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama  The probe by State's inspector general will include polygraph tests for supervisors in the passport section to find out whether the three contract employees who accessed the records had a political motive or were part of a political operation to obtain personal data on Mr. Obama, Sen. John McCain or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.  Two of the three contract employees had been fired before The Washington Times first reported Thursday on security breaches involving Mr. Obama's passport records. The furor expanded yesterday to incidents involving the passport records of Mr. McCain and Mrs. Clinton.  The third employee, who has not been fired, worked for The Analysis Corporation (TAC), which is headed by John O. Brennan, a former CIA agent who is an adviser to Mr. Obama's presidential campaign on intelligence and foreign policy.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080322/NATION/212746989/1001

Clinton

advised to drop her bid

By Christina Bellantoni and Sean Lengell

March 22, 2008

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson yesterday suggested when endorsing Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton should drop out because a primary-election lawsuit had made it tougher for the former first lady to secure the party's nomination.  The one-time candidate's endorsement helped Mr. Obama at the end of a difficult week, giving him the support of another former

Clinton

administration official who also is a superdelegate and a high-profile Hispanic.

"You will be an outstanding commander in chief," Mr. Richardson told the

Illinois

senator at a rally in

Portland

,

Ore.

, yesterday. "Above all, you will be a president who brings this nation together."  The former energy secretary and

U.S.

ambassador to the United Nations during President Clinton's administration also said in an e-mail to his supporters on behalf of Mr. Obama yesterday that it may be time for Mrs. Clinton to get out of the race  "My affection and admiration for Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton will never waver," he said. "It is time, however, for Democrats to stop fighting amongst ourselves and to prepare for the tough fight we will face against John McCain in the fall.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/03/ron-paul.html

What's this? Ron Paul runs a conservative campaign with no loans?

Rep. Ron Paul of

Texas

and his thousands of fervent supporters may be fighting more over the soul of the Republican Party nowadays than they are for the actual presidential nomination, seeing how the congressman is more than 1,000 delegates shy of what he'd need to head the ticket.  And John McCain has already wrapped up the September nomination so tightly he's not even campaigning and has headed off on an overseas trip this week with congressional colleagues.  This just so happens to provide photos back home of him talking to foreign leaders like a president and praying at the Wailing Wall while Democrats argue over

Florida

again.  McCain's entourage includes

Connecticut

's Joe Lieberman, former Democratic vice presidential candidate, former Democratic senator, current independent senator and probably McCain's future secretary of defense. Although that hasn't been officially announced yet because McCain first has to win this little thing called a presidential election.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PAKISTAN_POLITICS?SITE=MIBAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Musharraf's Allies Withdraw PM Candidate

Mar 22, 8:18 AM EDT

By LAUREN FRAYER

Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Allies of President Pervez Musharraf withdrew their candidate for Pakistan's prime minister, clearing the way for whomever is nominated Saturday by the new parliamentary majority to run for premier uncontested.  Musharraf's supporters said their decision was a "good will gesture" to slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's followers, who won the most parliamentary seats in elections last month. It was the biggest indication yet that Musharraf and his loyalists were willing to cooperate with a new Pakistani government dominated by their opponents.  Makhdoom Amin Fahim, an aristocratic party stalwart, has long been considered the front-runner for prime minister. As vice-chair of the Pakistan P