Articles of Interest 3-1-08

MORNING UPDATE:

Today I’m off to work with my old boy scout troop, we’re setting up for our annual Scout Bizarre at our church which will take place tomorrow after mass.

Here is an example of why we want an ever-growing internet industry, that’s competitive and open.  The buzz word “net neutrality” allowing “anything” to flow over purchased bandwidth is critical in more ways than one.

Vice President Dick Cheney will be visiting Marshall on March 7 to be the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for Congressman Tim Walberg. The doors open at 3:00 p.m. and the event cost $500 per person for general admission or $1000 per person for a special Photo reception with the Vice President. For more information and to rsvp please contact Sandra Baxter at 248-514-6884 or email her at sandrabaxterE@aol.com .

We have had so many areas where more than one person wanted to serve…I am going to encourage our county & district parties to “open” up the participation and attempt to “maximize” the number of potential precinct delegates…not minimize them.  If you are willing to run, work and be part of the team…we want you on board!  Our party needs to grow!!!

Michigan Republicans have updated our web page with our own 2.0 version …easier to navigate, more information…and still under construction…so please be patient. 

BECOME A PRECINCT DELEGATE!!  Fill out and return the Affidavit of Identity to your county clerk or send it to the state party…we’ll handle the filings. Link to form

Many folks have asked…what does a precinct delegate do?  Here is some basic information about how we try and organize our precinct delegates to be part of our “political machine” to help elect Republicans.

Let’s at least DOUBLE the number of precinct delegate slots available and start encouraging those who are interested to join!

THE REST OF THE STORY:

POLITICO’s Sunday Talk Show Tip Sheet:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8773.html

On the eve of make-or-break primaries in Texas and Ohio, the Democratic presidential race once again dominates the Sunday television talk shows.

CBS’s “Face the Nation” features a pair of former Democratic presidential hopefuls — Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson — to break down the race.

Will the two offer any inside dirt, having waged firsthand battle with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton?

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh  — long on the list of potential Clinton running mates — rounds out the CBS lineup.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean leads the way on CNN’s “Late Edition,” offering his perspective as the race, perhaps, nears resolution.

Host Wolf Blitzer also discusses the controversial electronic surveillance legislation stalled in Congress with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas).

And Blitzer follows with more discussion of the surveillance measure, the war in Iraq and other national security issues with House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.).

Finally, Blitzer interviews NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, fresh off his Friday visit with President Bush at the White House.

“Fox News Sunday” also leads with the surveillance debate, with interviews with Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees.

And Karl “The Architect” Rove, the former top Bush strategist turned part-time Fox analyst, follows with his own spin — and likely a few jabs.

NBC’s “Meet the Press” dedicates its full hour to a roundtable on the presidential race: Host Tim Russert surveys the landscape with the ubiquitous political power couple Democrat James Carville and Republican Mary Matalin, as well as Republican strategist Mike Murphy and Democratic strategist Bob Shrum.

Will they predict doom and gloom for Clinton, or do they see signs of another comeback?

Remember New Hampshire?

ABC’s “This Week” also goes the roundtable route, breaking down the latest political developments with New York Times columnist David Brooks, Republican strategist Matthew Dowd, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile and ABC’s George Will.

Bloomberg’s “Political Capital” devotes its weekend show to analyzing the presidential race, with host Al Hunt discussing all of the ins and outs with syndicated columnist Robert Novak and Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson.

C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” focuses on the electronic surveillance issue, with an interview with Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee.

Smith will be questioned by Roll Call’s Jennifer Yachnin and Politico’s Martin Kady II.

Saul Anuzis

STATE STORIES

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080229/METRO/802290462

Detroit City Council member may ask Granholm to remove Mayor Kilpatrick

Friday, February 29, 2008

Christine MacDonald / The

Detroit

News

DETROIT

-- Councilman Kwame Kenyatta said Friday in a statement that the city charter doesn't allow the council to remove Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, even if council passes Kenyatta's resolution calling on Kilpatrick to resign. But, the councilman plans on forwarding the resolution, if passed, to Gov. Jennifer Granholm for possible action.

A rarely used state law gives the governor the power to remove city leaders for official misconduct, willful neglect of duty and other offenses. On Thursday, Granholm's office said it wouldn't speculate on what could happen.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080229/METRO/802290462/1361

Council votes to open minutes from closed session on whistle-blower lawsuit

Friday, February 29, 2008

Christine MacDonald / The

Detroit

News

DETROIT

-- The Detroit City Council voted unanimously Friday on three issues, dealing with the recent mayor scandal. The council voted in a special session to waive confidentiality surrounding their minutes from a closed session Sept. 19, when they discussed the police whistle-blower lawsuits. That move could require going to court to officially waive the confidentiality of the minutes because they were taken during a closed session.  Earlier this week, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's last-ditch effort to shroud a secret deal that ended an $8.4 million whistle-blowers action against the city after documents revealed that the mayor and city attorneys maneuvered to conceal details from the City Council and the public.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080229/NEWS01/80229029

Ficano says Kilpatrick should not resign yet

By CHRIS CHRISTOFF

February 29, 2008

EAST LANSING

-- Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is distracted at times by the text message scandal that has rocked his administration, but should not step down just yet, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano said Friday morning. "We're tying to do some very serious issues with him, such as

Cobo

Center

and the a regional justice center and other things. Quite frankly, he can't take his eye off the ball, because we've got too much to lose if he does," Ficano said during a taping of

Michigan

public television's "Off the Record."

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080229/OPINION01/802290329/0/OPINION02

Council must be strong on scandal and finances

February 29, 2008

Detroit

Free Press Editorial

The Detroit City Council can send a strong signal to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick next week by passing a resolution that requests his resignation. Passing such a resolution is not the same as launching the formal process needed to remove him. But it would be a civic and political earthquake. The council, made up of the top nine candidates in the last citywide election, would in effect be telling the mayor that -- despite his own election victory -- he no longer has the confidence or political support of a majority of his constituents.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080301/NEWS05/803010339

Mayors convention to skip city in wake of scandal

Text message scandal cited; some disappointed

BY ROBIN ERB

March 1, 2008

About 2,500 mayors and staff members who were to converge on

Detroit

in April -- bringing an economic boost and national exposure to a beleaguered city -- are rerouting to

New Orleans

. Asked if the decision to move the annual convention was tied to the text message scandal, Vanessa Williams, executive director of the National Conference of Black Mayors, told the Free Press, "I think anyone can look around and see what's going on."

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080229/OPINION02/802290327/0/OPINION02

Editorial: Lawyers deserve investigation, too

February 29, 2008

Detroit

Free Press Editorial

Do not overlook the lawyers. The Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission has ample reason to investigate all of those who had a hand in the text-message scandal involving Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, himself an attorney, and initiate action over violations of ethical standards and rules of professional conduct. The commission, an arm of the state court system, takes cases before the Attorney Discipline Board, which can mete out penalties ranging from reprimand to suspension to loss of law license.

http://macombdaily.com/stories/022908/loc_local01.shtml

Governor dodges mayor scandal

Granholm visits

Macomb

, hammering need for work force diversity

Friday, February 29, 2008

By

Chad

Selweski

 

Gov. Jennifer Granholm held a roundtable discussion in

Clinton

Township

on Thursday with local business owners and unemployed workers.  Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Thursday dodged questions about whether Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick should resign, but the governor said she hopes the city can quickly "turn the page" by concluding the ongoing investigations of the text messaging scandal. Granholm acknowledged that Kilpatrick's secret settlement of whistle-blower lawsuits had generated negative national media reports about

Detroit

and had also cast a shadow over

Michigan

.

http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-24/1204297522297050.xml&coll=3

Bill to ban hallucinogen passes House committee

Wednesday, February 29, 2008

By Danielle Quisenberry

Efforts by the

Waterloo

Township

public safety Explorers to make a readily available hallucinogen illegal in

Michigan

are getting attention. Legislation to make the perennial herb salvia divinorum a banned narcotic passed Thursday in the state Healthy Policy Committee and will head to the House floor for a full vote, according to a news release from Rep. Mike Simpson's office. Simpson,

D-Liberty

Township

, introduced the legislation after the Explorers, a group of teens interested in firefighting and law enforcement, began campaigning against salvia.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080229/SCHOOLS/802290391/1022/POLITICS

Firm stand urged on grad rules

State superintendent asks lawmakers to stay course; parents say kids struggle with stricter curriculum.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Karen Bouffard / The

Detroit

News

LANSING

-- Michigan School Superintendent Mike Flanagan asked

Lansing

lawmakers Thursday to stay the course on tough new graduation requirements under attack by some parents and educators. Flanagan appeared at the first meeting of a state House of Representatives education subcommittee reviewing how the requirements are working. This year's ninth-graders are the first required to take three or four years each of English, science, social studies and mathematics, including algebra II, to get their diplomas.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080229/OPINION01/802290312/1007/OPINION

Tighten absentee voter rules statewide

Uniform procedures would make process more credible

Friday, February 29, 2008

The

Detroit

News Editorial

A patchwork of city clerk practices with absentee ballots should be abandoned in favor of uniform rules statewide. A recent Wayne Circuit Court ruling, for example, barred sending out an application for an absentee ballot unless a voter requests it.But some clerks are asking voters to sign a "permanent" list to get an absentee ballot automatically year after year.Some communities might adopt such lists. Others won't. Some officials push to continue blanket mailings to everyone in their community over the age of 60 -- a practice that might strike some sexagenarians as ageism, assuming they can't make it to the polls on election day.

http://www.dailytribune.com/stories/022908/loc_localn02.shtml

Library porn incident prompts call for filters

Oversight board upholds current policy on adult computers

February 29, 2008

By Catherine Kavanaugh

ROYAL OAK -- The recent arrest of a man accused of viewing child pornography in the Royal Oak Public Library adult computer lab has at least one elected official calling for the installation of filters to block obscene Web sites. City Commissioner Terry Drinkwine said he will raise the issue at a Monday meeting. He would like the commission to pass a resolution asking the Library Board to install technology that could prevent similar incidents.

http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/02/flint_truck_plant_is_victim_of.html

Flint Truck Plant is victim of American Axle strike; Plant shut down coming tonight

by Ron Fonger

Friday February 29, 2008

FLINT

,

Michigan

-- A strike at a key General Motors parts supplier will temporarily shut down the Flint Truck Assembly Plant starting tonight. GM spokesman Tom Wickham said the shutdown is day to day and will effect all but maintenance and some salaried employees after second shift ends at 11:30 p.m. The shutdown is due to a strike against parts supplier American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc., which makes truck axles. "Employees are being notified as we speak that at the end of second shift tonight the plant will have not enough parts to build trucks," Wickham said.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080229/BUSINESS01/80229025

American Axle strike will idle 3 more GM plants

By JEWEL GOPWANI

February 29, 2008

The American Axle strike will force three more General Motors Corp. plants to shut down late today. The automaker expects to idle pickup and SUV plants in

Flint

,

Ft. Wayne

,

Ind.

, and

Oshawa

,

Ontario

, at the end of today’s second shift, or between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., said GM spokesman Tom Wickham. All three plants make the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. Those are also made at GM’s Pontiac Truck & Bus plant, which was idled Thursday due to a parts shortage.

http://michiganmessenger.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=B461E0DFFD3833F639B3F2501C9D93A2?diaryId=927

Michigan

representatives demand information about blocked

Great Lakes

health report

by: Eartha Jane Melzer

Thursday (02/28)

Michigan Democratic Reps. John Dingell, chairman of the House committee of Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak, chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, announced an investigation today into the apparent suppression of a Centers for Disease Control report that links

Great Lakes

pollution to increased cancer and infant mortality in the region. Earlier this month the House Committee on Science and Technology also demanded that the CDC explain why it canceled the scheduled release of "Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern" and why it reportedly retaliated against the report's author.

http://www.record-eagle.com/local/local_story_060094603.html

Company charged customers 'unlawful' prices

February 29, 2008

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

GRAYLING -- A circuit judge ordered a Gaylord company to reimburse its customers for overpriced propane this winter and issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the company from collecting fees or continuing to overcharge customers. Inergy Propane of

Kansas City

,

Mo.

, and the various companies it owns in northern

Michigan

charged at least $1 per gallon more than competing companies, 46th Circuit Trial Court Judge Janet Allen said. Anyone charged more than $3 per gallon deserves a refund, she ruled, citing terms of the Michigan Consumer Protection.

http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/506317.html?nav=5006

Groups sue over mine

By JOHN PEPIN

February 29, 2008

MARQUETTE

– Attorneys working for the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company and Michigan Department of Natural Resources were expected to be poring over the contents of a new lawsuit today. Four groups opposed to Kennecott’s nickel and copper mine on the Yellow Dog Plains filed suit against the DNR Thursday in Ingham County Circuit Court in

Lansing

. The National Wildlife Federation, the Huron Mountain Club, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve oppose Kennecott’s plans to construct surface facilities for its underground mine on 120 acres of state land. The DNR granted approval for a surface use lease earlier this month to Kennecott, which will have exclusive use of the land for decades.

NATIONAL STORIES

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/mccain-assails-democrats-on-nafta/

McCain Assails Democrats on Nafta

February 29, 2008

By Elisabeth Bumiller

ROUND ROCK, Tex. — ­Senator John McCain threw himself into the trade fight between his Democratic rivals on Friday as he belittled Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton for threatening to opt of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement and undermining, Mr. McCain said, Canadian military help in Afghanistan.

“We need our Canadian friends and we need their continued support in Afghanistan,’’ Mr. McCain said at a town-hall style meeting at the headquarters of the Dell computer company in Round Rock, Tex. “So what do we do? The two Democratic candidates for president say that they’re going to unilaterally abrogate the North America Free Trade Agreement. Our biggest trading partner, they made a solemn agreement with, they’re going to unilaterally abrogate that. Now how do you think the Canadian people are going to react to that?’’

http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/080229nj3.htm

McCain Adviser: Plans For The Future -- And For A Break

By John Maggs, National Journal

Friday, Feb. 29, 2008

John McCain plans to come off the campaign trail in late March after wrapping up the Republican presidential nomination, his advisers say, so he can put together detailed policy proposals on health care and other subjects that would be rolled out later in the spring. In a wide-ranging interview, McCain's de facto policy director sketched out the campaign's plans for moving from the primary to the general election. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who serves as McCain's chief economic adviser, also offered an explanation for McCain's recent admission that "the issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8701.html

Romney, look to Nixon and Reagan

By: Julian E. Zelizer

Feb 26, 2008

With Mitt Romney long gone from the Republican presidential nomination fight, he needs to start thinking about what to do next. If he wants to run again in 2012 or 2016, good role models would be Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Nixon lost to John F. Kennedy in 1960 in one of the closest presidential elections in American history. Many Republicans felt that the Kennedy family had stolen the election through their connections in

Illinois

. When Nixon lost his campaign to become governor of

California

in 1962, his political career seemed dead; he famously told reporters that they would not have Nixon to “kick around anymore

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/02/28/AR2008022804208_2.html?hpid=topnews&sub=AR&sid=ST2008022900113

Democrats Blaze Trails In February Fundraising

By Matthew Mosk

Friday, February 29, 2008

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama continued to rewrite fundraising records this month, with Clinton announcing yesterday that she had rebounded from a disappointing showing in January to raise $35 million in February, by far her biggest one-month total of the campaign. Obama (

Ill.

), who raised $36 million in January, has not yet announced a total for February, but aides said it will be "considerably more" than that raised by his rival for the Democratic nomination. Their combined total appeared poised to surpass the $71 million raised by President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) in March 2004, the previous record for fundraising by two candidates for the presidency in a single month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/us/politics/29texas.html?ref=politics

Texas

on Pace for Record Voter Turnout

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

Published: February 29, 2008

SPRING,

Tex.

— Anita Dawkins has never voted early. But there she was Wednesday, a 48-year old homemaker, or “domestic engineer,” as Ms. Dawkins called herself, lining up outside the Barbara Bush Branch Library in this fast-growing northern Houston suburb “to beat the crowds” and cast her primary ballot for Senator Barack Obama. “I’m very excited; we need all the help we can get in the state of

Texas

,” said Ms. Dawkins, who also hopes to attend a Democratic Party caucus.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b6dc1c0e-e669-11dc-8398-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

Concerns over Obama's shift to left

By Edward Luce in

San Antonio

,

Texas

February 29 2008

Until a few weeks ago Barack Obama's economic platform was the most centrist of the three Democratic contenders remaining after John Edwards, the flag-bearer of the left, dropped out in late January. Since Super Tuesday on February 5, that has changed. Scenting, perhaps, the chance of settling the nomination next week (when

Ohio

,

Texas

,

Rhode Island

and

Vermont

go to the polls), Mr Obama has indulged in a bidding war with Hillary Clinton to see who can rail most strongly against globalisation. Campaign veterans say much of the rhetoric can be discounted as classic primary season politicking that will be diluted when it comes to the general election. But sympathetic economists have expressed concern about proposals Mr Obama has unveiled in the past two weeks since campaigning began in earnest to woo the workers of

Ohio

.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/us/politics/29oppo.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

For Obama, a Taste of What a Long

Battle

Would Hold

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: February 29, 2008

WASHINGTON — When Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton goes after Senator Barack Obama these days, she presses him on the details of his health care plan, criticizes the wording of his campaign mailings and likens his promise of change to celestial choirs.But if Mr. Obama becomes the Democratic presidential nominee, he is sure to face an onslaught from Republicans and their allies that will be very different in tone and intensity from what he has faced so far.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/819177,CST-NWS-sweet29.article

Obama tells Blacks: Shape up

February 29, 2008

BY LYNN SWEET

FORT WORTH, Texas -- On the campaign trail, Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama talks about how he would use the bully pulpit if president, and he offered a demonstration Thursday when he drew wild cheers as he told a mostly African-American crowd that parents need to shape up, turn off the TV, help their kids with their homework and stop letting them grow fat eating Popeyes chicken for breakfast. "It's not good enough for you to say to your child, 'Do good in school,' and then when that child comes home, you got the TV set on, you got the radio on, you don't check their homework, there is not a book in the house, you've got the video game playing," said Obama while in Beaumont, in southeast Texas.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1718255,00.html

Why Is Obama's Middle Name Taboo?

Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008

By NATHAN THORNBURGH 

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.: that is the full name of the junior Senator from

Illinois

— neither a contrivance nor, at face value, a slur. But John McCain couldn't apologize quickly enough after Bill Cunningham, a conservative talk radio host, warmed up a

Cincinnati

rally with a few loaded references to "Barack Hussein Obama." Asked afterwards if it was appropriate to use the Senator's middle name, McCain said, "No, it is not. Any comment that is disparaging of either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is totally inappropriate."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/topstories/stories/022908dnpolobama.81c65a8.html

Obama accuses McCain of flawed economics, pledges relief

In state sweep, hopeful pledges relief from economic struggles

Friday, February 29, 2008

By TODD J. GILLMAN / The

Dallas

Morning News

FORT WORTH

– With oil prices hitting a record Thursday, Barack Obama crisscrossed

Texas

promising relief and accusing President Bush and the Republicans' likely presidential nominee of plying flawed economics. "People are struggling," Mr. Obama told a noisy rally at the

Fort Worth

Convention Center

, as he had earlier in Austin and Beaumont. "Everywhere you see it. ... They've never paid more for college. They've never paid more for gas at the pump. It is harder to save."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/28/AR2008022803229.html

Words Aren't Cheap

By Michael Gerson

Friday, February 29, 2008

When Hillary Clinton sensed her presidential hopes beginning to slip away, she turned to an attack on Barack Obama's rhetoric. "There's a big difference between us," she argued, "speeches versus solutions, talk versus action. . . . Words are cheap." And further: "Speeches don't put food on the table" -- as though her own hectoring and position papers were an all-you-can-eat buffet. John McCain will be tempted to make a similar attack, having already accused Obama of offering "only rhetoric." And it, too, would be a mistake.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080228/turkey_Gates_080228/20080229?hub=TopStories

Obama campaign mum on NAFTA contact with

Canada

Fri. Feb. 29 2008

CTV.ca News Staff

Despite repeated requests, Barack Obama's campaign is still neither verifying nor denying a CTV report that a senior member of the team made contact with the Canadian government -- via the

Chicago

consulate general -- regarding comments Obama made about NAFTA. Allegations of double talk on the North American Free Trade Agreement from both the Obama and Clinton campaigns dominated the

U.S.

political landscape on Thursday.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-camp-says-new-clinton-ad-will-backfire-2008-02-29.html

Obama camp says new

Clinton

ad will backfire 

By Sam Youngman 

Posted: 02/29/08

Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) campaign manager said Friday morning that a new ad on national security from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) will backfire as it will only remind voters that

Clinton

voted for the

Iraq

war. Entitled “Children,” the spot features sleeping children and says: “It's 3 a.m., and your children are safe and asleep. But there’s a phone in the White House, and it's ringing. Something’s happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/clinton-talks-about-stepping-up-effort-in-afghanistan/

Clinton

Talks About Stepping Up Effort in

Afghanistan

February 29, 2008

By Katharine Q. Seelye

WACO, Tex. — Here’s something that got lost today in all the coverage of Senator Hillary Clinton’s rally here, where she further questioned Senator Barack Obama’s readiness to serve as commander in chief: She also suggested she wanted to step up action in Afghanistan. She did not specify military action, but that was the strong implication. Her audience of about 1,200 people had applauded her every time she took a swipe at Mr. Obama. But they seemed decidedly cool toward the idea of deeper involvement in

Afghanistan

. When she mentioned it, the applause meter dropped.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTBhYzNiNDVhZTYxZmNlZDIzMjhmYjQ5MDUwZWFlYzI

Hillary: "We've Got Two Wars. We've Got To End One, We've Got To Win The Other."   

February 29, 2008

By Byron York

Hillary Clinton put her views of the wars in

Iraq

and

Afghanistan

in pretty stark perspective during an appearance in

Belpre

,

Ohio

Wednesday night: “We're going to inherit so many challenges from President Bush.  When you think about it, we have two wars, not one.  We don't talk about

Afghanistan

enough.  We've got two wars.  We've got to end one, we've got to win the other.” Why not try to win both?  There's simply no military solution in

Iraq

, she said.  But when it came to

Afghanistan

, she sounded tougher than anybody

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080229/NATION/549665486/1001

Clinton

ad draws on terror crisis

By Christina Bellantoni

February 29, 2008

HOUSTON

,

Texas

— Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is targeting her Democratic rival with a new ad that asks voters who they want in the White House during a national security crisis. “It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep, but there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing," a narrator says in her new ad, playing in

Texas

before the state's March 4 contest. On the screen are dark images of children sleeping and a mother checking on them. Mrs. Clinton does not speak in the ad beyond the required disclosure that she approved the message.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5580749.html

State Democrats say

Clinton

camp may sue

Legal action could disrupt or delay caucuses, party says

Feb. 29, 2008

By JAY ROOT

AUSTIN

— The Texas Democratic Party warned Thursday that election night caucuses scheduled for Tuesday could be delayed or disrupted after aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton threatened to sue over the party's complicated delegate selection process.

In a letter sent out late Thursday to both the

Clinton

and Barack Obama campaigns, Texas Democratic Party lawyer Chad Dunn warned a lawsuit could ruin the Democrats' effort to re-energize voters just as they are turning out in record numbers. Spokesmen for both campaigns said there were no plans to sue ahead of the March 4 election.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022903316.html?hpid=topnews

Bush Plans Further Reduction in Forces

Pause to Be for Review, White House Says

By Peter Baker

Saturday, March 1, 2008; Page A11

President Bush expects to pull more

U.S.

troops out of

Iraq

before he leaves office next January, a senior administration official said yesterday, dismissing suspicions that a pause in withdrawals this summer would freeze

U.S.

force levels until the next president takes office. The temporary halt in troop reductions now expected this summer would last just four to six weeks to assess conditions on the ground, the official said, and, assuming the situation does not deteriorate, would be followed by more withdrawals later in the year. The official would not predict how many more troops might be pulled out by the end of Bush's term.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/naders-running-mate-was-not-such-a-fan-in-04/

Nader’s Running Mate Was Not Such a Fan in ‘04

February 29, 2008

By Ariel Alexovich

Back in June 2004, Matt Gonzalez, the young president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, spoke candidly to a group of the nation’s top college journalists as part of a prestigious writing competition. As a prominent Green Party member, Mr. Gonzalez was asked how he felt about Ralph Nader taking another shot at the presidency. And what he said back then could make things a little awkward on the trail now that he’s Mr. Nader’s 2008 running mate.

http://www.nysun.com/article/72119

Is Matt Drudge the World's Most Powerful Journalist?

By The Daily Telegraph

February 29, 2008

Ten years ago, he was a reclusive 31-year-old who, bashing away on a laptop in his grungy

Hollywood

apartment, shot to prominence after he broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal that threatened to bring down Bill Clinton's presidency. Now, Matt Drudge owns a luxurious home on

Rivo

Alto

Island

in

Florida

's Biscayne Bay, a condominium at the Four Seasons in

Miami

, and is said to drive a black Mustang. He remains an elusive, mysterious figure, but the Internet pioneer is arguably the world's most powerful journalist.

http://www.telecommagazine.com/newsglobe/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_3997

FTTH 2008: Internet set to reach Zetabyte heights by 2015

Emerging applications drive continued growth

by Sean Buckley

Thu. February 28, 2008         

It seems fitting at this week’s FTTH Council Europe event in

Paris

,

France

—an event where the focus is on delivering tens and potentially hundreds of megabits of bandwidth to the home—that the growth of the Internet is a major discussion point. Bret Swanson, a senior fellow at

Seattle

’s Discovery Institute, spoke at Wednesday’s opening keynote, "Estimating the Exaflood: The Impact of Video and Rich Media on the Internet." Citing the lesser-known French economist Jean-Baptiste Say’s theory of “supply creates its own demand,” Swanson said the growth of new Internet applications is on a similar path.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/world/asia/28cnd-harry.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Prince Harry Withdrawn From

Afghanistan

By SARAH LYALL

Published: February 29, 2008

LONDON

— The Defense Ministry announced Friday that Prince Harry, the third in line to the British throne, would have to come home from

Afghanistan

because it was too risky for him to stay there. The prince, 23, has been in

Helmand

Province

with the British Army since December with the knowledge of most of the British news media, who agreed to keep the news secret for security reasons. Details of his deployment became widely known only when they were reported by the Drudge Report on Thursday and the British media decided that the agreement was off.

http://www.nysun.com/article/72125

Iraq

Clears Way for 'Chemical Ali' Execution

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

February 29, 2008

BAGHDAD

—

Iraq

's presidential council has endorsed the execution within a month of Saddam Hussein's cousin, known as "Chemical Ali," for his role in the 1980s scorched-earth campaign against Kurds, officials said today. But it spared the life of two other officials amid Sunni protests that they were only following orders. The approval by President Jalal Talabani and two vice presidents was the final step clearing the way for Ali Hassan al-Majid's execution by hanging. It could now be carried out at any time, a government adviser and a prosecutor said.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8V45DC00&show_article=1&catnum=2

Putin's Legacy: a Rigid Political System 

Feb 29 2008

By

DOUGLAS

BIRCH

MOSCOW

(AP) - When Vladimir Putin was elected president in 2000, Russian television was a rough-and-tumble place, broadcasting fierce debates and biting satire. One by one, those programs were taken off the air. Sunday's presidential election marks a symbolic end to

Russia

's tortured post-Soviet odyssey from poverty and despair to economic might. But along the way, the country has embraced a rigid political orthodoxy—call it "Putinism"—that the Kremlin has used to crush the independence of political parties, civil society and the media.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/02/29/do2904.xml

Vladimir Putin's poodle may yet bite

By Con Coughlin

29/02/2008

No one is looking forward to Dmitry Medvedev's decisive victory in this weekend's Russian presidential election more than the incumbent, Vladimir Putin. Ever since Mr Putin realised that not even such an autocratic ruler as himself could tamper with the constitution to secure a third term, he has been scratching around for ways to maintain his stranglehold over the Kremlin's levers of power - while still maintaining the pretence that Russia is now a truly democratic country.