198 Days until Election Day
MORNING UPDATE:
Democrats continue to fight it out heading into Pennsylvania. Can the Clinton machine engineer a come back and get the nomination? Next step, Tuesday.
I received a bunch of emails and Facebook connections this weekend. Thank you all for your support and willingness to join our cause and help win Michigan. As conservatives and Republicans, we have a unique opportunity to work together for a better Michigan…and a better America. Keep the faith!
The MSU College Republicans are organizing a campaign event called “Spartans Storm the Seventh” this Saturday, April 26th. It will be a full day of phone calls and door-to-door to help re-elect Congressman Tim Walberg. Volunteers will gather at 9:00 AM at the Walberg for Congress campaign headquarters located at 317 W. Washington Ave. in downtown Jackson. This event is not limited to just MSU College Republicans – all are welcome to volunteer…even if you’re a Wolverine! Please contact Ben Morlock via e-mail at morlockb@msu.edu to get involved.
THE REST OF THE STORY:
Give a Gift that Will Last a Lifetime!
The Michigan Republicans moved their headquarters to the Secchia-Weiser Republican Center in 2006 and plan to install a legacy site to honor those who have served the party and the citizens of Michigan. The legacy site will create a well-deserved tribute to honor Michigan’s past, present, and future Republican leaders! Buy a brick to celebrate, to inspire, or to commemorate friends, family, or yourself this holiday season! They are a great way to honor others in memoriam, birthdays, anniversaries, or any special occasion. Your honoree will receive a certificate commemorating their personalized brick. Choose from our four different options and be a part of the Michigan Republican Party Legacy!
To order your personalized Legacy Brick please visit www.migop.org/legacy, or contact Erin Meteer, Major Donor Program Manager at emeteer@migop.org.
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080420/COL24/804200572/1002/BUSINESS
Granholm pushes alternative energy
BY CAROL CAIN
April 20, 2008
It may not solve all of the state's economic ills, but Michigan's winds, forests and waters could spawn alternative energy opportunities that could reboot its future. "Michigan is positioned to take the lead in the development of alternative fuels and renewable power," Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Thursday during a taping of "Michigan Matters." The program airs at 11:30 a.m. today on WKBD-TV (Channel 50). Granholm has been crisscrossing the state talking about her plan to bolster Michigan's sagging economy. "We've lost 400,000 manufacturing jobs in recent years, but we can position ourselves for the future through diversification efforts like alternative energy," she said. Granholm wants the Legislature to require that more of Michigan's electricity come from wind, solar and other renewable sources. Her proposed renewable portfolio standard would require that 10% of the state's power come from renewable energy by the end of 2015.
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/NEWS04/804210323/1001/NEWS
Energy bill package put to Senate
Efficiency savings potential is 'enormous,' experts say
4/21/2008, 11:10 a.m. EDT
By DAVID EGGERT
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — As state lawmakers wrestle with how much more electricity Michigan will need in the future, many energy experts are saying: use less. The potential savings from using less energy are enormous. For every $1 invested in more efficient lighting and appliances, $2 to $3 is saved down the road by avoiding or at least delaying the need to build new multibillion-dollar power plants. "It's the cheapest power available," says Rep. Kathy Angerer, a Dundee Democrat who's sponsoring a bill that would put energy efficiency programs back in place. Sweeping energy legislation approved last week by the state House and now before the Senate includes a requirement that utilities restart efficiency programs canceled a decade ago.
http://theoaklandpress.com/stories/042008/opi_20080420372.shtml
States can tackle issue of illegals
By GLENN GILBERT
PUBLISHED: Sunday, April 20, 2008
While the federal government dithers about illegal immigration, states across the nation are taking matters into their own hands to deal with the issue. The number of state laws enacted in 2007 was nearly triple that in 2006:240 compared to 84. Immigration is being debated in all 50 state capitals, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some 1,562 bills were introduced in the 50 states. Laws were enacted in 46 states in 2007, compared to 32 states in 2006. "We can do a lot," says state Rep. David Agema, a west Michigan Republican and a leader on the issue in the Michigan House. Michigan has the reputation as one of the easiest states for illegals to access, Agema says. And although the state has taken recent action to deny driver's licenses for illegals, much of the damage had already been done. "Thousands upon thousands" of licenses have been issued, Agema says, and the state still hasn't done enough to tighten up the process. It is still possible for illegals to get Michigan driver's licenses with forged documents such as Social Security cards.
State's playing games on taxes
Property tax rule changes add to homeowner woes
Mike Connell:
April 20, 2008
Everyone knows the market is in the toilet. Everyone, that is, except Michigan's assessors, who have massaged the numbers and manipulated the math with such astonishing dexterity that they've managed to create a hard-times tax. Jerry Frendt and Mark Byrne are trying to get to the bottom of Michigan's dirty little secret tax. They're political activists and contributors to a Web site - www.local-opinion.com - that has delved into the issue. The question they're asking is this: How could our assessors, who are supposed to be honest and impartial to a fault, conclude the true market value of local property is rising? It is such a blatant lie, such an incredible fiction, that it seems ludicrous. The assessors, of course, explain it's far too complicated for common minds to comprehend. For starters, if X is pi, and if Y is a piece of cake, then Z is the inverse of obtuse, which is not to mention the Pythagorean factor.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/OPINION01/804210308
Keep cleanup funds coming
Detroit Free Press
April 21, 2008
Michigan has done far too little to rebuild its cities -- places that will determine the state's economic future. Instead of investing in education, transit and urban centers that attract young, skilled workers, the state cut revenue sharing and undertook an unfocused and largely unsuccessful Cool Cities initiative. However, one urban initiative that Michigan has done well is the redevelopment of brownfield sites. The state has become a national leader over the last two decades, spending more than $900 million to clean up 1,800 contaminated sites, sparking an estimated $3.1 billion of investment and creating more than 15,000 jobs, according to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. In Detroit, projects include $12.7 million to demolish the former Statler Hilton hotel and remove contaminated soil, $6.2 million to redevelop the Detroit River walkway, and $2.7 million to tear down three riverfront cement silos.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/BUSINESS06/804210358
Venture capital is down in state
Investments went into 9 deals in 1st quarter, data show
BY KATHERINE YUNG
April 21, 2008
Venture capital investment in Michigan companies dropped nearly 6% in the first quarter, a new report shows. The amount of investment totaled $24.9 million compared with $26.4 million in last year's first quarter, according to a study released during the weekend by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. The data do not include a deal involving Southwest Michigan First Life Science Venture Fund and Metabolic Solutions Development Co. of Kalamazoo, so the first-quarter 2008 number is actually a little higher. Altogether, the money went into nine deals, the most since the first three months of 2002, when 10 deals were completed. In the first quarter, 40% of the total venture dollars went to NanoBio Corp., an Ann Arbor-based company developing lotions for cold sores and nail fungus, and nasal vaccines for influenza and hepatitis B. It received $10 million from Washington, D.C.-based Perseus LLC.
http://theoaklandpress.com/stories/042008/loc_20080420386.shtml
Homeschooling parents say bill would strip their rights
By VALERIE WEST
PUBLISHED: Sunday, April 20, 2008
Legislation regarding homeschooling has some parents worried that the state of Michigan is entering territory where it doesn't belong. House Bill 5912, if passed, includes a condition where homeschooling parents would have to register information about their child or children -- such as age, address and the number of children being homeschooled -- within their respective school districts. "Even though it doesn't sound like a big deal, there's the potential for taking rights away," said Wendy Lyons, a Lake Orion mother who homeschooled her children. "And, it's unnecessary." Lyons' children all scored above average on state and national tests, including the MEAP, SAT and ACT. Her son scored a 34 out of 36 on the ACT, she said. While some are worried about the bill's implications, HB 5912 co-sponsor, Rep. Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park, said the bill is not meant to interfere with homeschooling, but rather to ensure accountability.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/OPINION01/804210324/1007/OPINION
Don't give up leverage for Detroit school reform
Detroit News
Monday, April 21, 2008
Boosters of the Detroit Public Schools are trying to pass protectionist legislation that will prevent the district from being pressured to undertake decades-overdue reforms. If they succeed, they will be doing a great disservice to the city and its students. Led by Rep. Bettie Cook Scott, D-Detroit, a group of state legislators have introduced a bill that would allow the district to keep its first-class status -- and its accompanying appropriation -- even after its student enrollment plunges below 100,000. This is expected to happen within the next 18 months or so. New enrollment figures confirm the district's tragic downward spiral. The district has lost more than 11,000 students since August alone, compounding its drop of at least 50,000 students in the last five years. The district's new official student count totals 106,485, according to a State Aid Financial Status Report dated today. That's down from 118,394 in August.
Dalai Lama speaks on environmental responsibility in Mich.
4/20/2008, 5:04 p.m. EDT
By JEFF KAROUB
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The Dalai Lama on Sunday said the need for environmental responsibility dovetails with Buddhist teachings on valuing human life — whether it's one person or the world's entire population. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader offered his trademark humor and humility before crowds of more than 7,000 at the University of Michigan that gathered for an afternoon lecture on sustainability and a morning teaching session. "Taking care of our planet, environment, is something like taking care of our own home," he told the audience at Crisler Arena, as he sat cross-legged on a chair on the main stage in his traditional saffron robes. "This blue planet is our only home."
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/NEWS06/804210331
Fieger legal team a dream Detroit
Big-time criminal attorneys known for winning high-profile cases across nation
BY DAVID ASHENFELTER
April 21, 2008
When a big-time lawyer like Geoffrey Fieger gets into trouble, who does he call? Other big-time lawyers, of course. Fieger has hired two nationally known criminal attorneys to defend him against charges that he and law partner Vernon (Ven) Johnson illegally contributed $127,000 to Democrat John Edwards' failed 2004 presidential campaign. The team is led by Wyoming criminal lawyer Gerry Spence, a 78-year-old author and legal commentator whose Web site boasts that he hasn't lost a criminal case in more than five decades. Spence's cocounsel is David Nevin, 58, a Boise, Idaho, lawyer who was tapped this month to help defend Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Mohammed is being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and faces the death penalty if convicted in an upcoming military trial.
http://www.record-eagle.com/opinion/local_story_111093601.html
Congressional Trails
BY GEORGE WEEKS
Published: April 20, 2008 09:36 am
Republican State Chairman Saul Anuzis says Stupak is vulnerable and Casperson, who defeated Stupak's wife Laurie to win the state House seat in 2002, has a good shot if he can become better known in the sprawling 31-county congressional district. "It falls on me...to get it done on the ground," said Casperson, who said he is getting commitments from some individual lawmakers in Washington, but has to convince the National Republican Congressional Committee that he "can make a race out of this." In that pursuit, he said, "I put 1,400 miles on my car (a 2000 Chrysler 300M showing about 153,000 miles) in one week below the bridge." Casperson, owner of a trucking business, acknowledges that the NRCC's Michigan priority is to keep the Knollenberg and Walberg seats. He said: "There's no guarantee it will cut me a check. ...I'm not expecting much."
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/METRO01/804210368/1408/LOCAL
Wayne Co. debates fairness of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's jury pool
Some say Detroiters are underrepresented and are concerned Kilpatrick won't get balanced trial.
Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News
Monday, April 21, 2008
DETROIT -- Legislation to restore Detroit Recorder's Court is renewing debate over the racial makeup of juries in Wayne County, an issue that has resurfaced as a nagging complaint about the perjury case against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty. The city-based court was founded in 1824, handled only felony cases and had mostly black juries before it was abolished in 1997. Merging it with Wayne County Circuit Court saved about $30 million but stoked resentment among many Detroiters, including Kilpatrick, who complain the switch reduced the number of black jurors and judges. Blacks make up about 27 percent of Wayne County juries, even though they comprise 42 percent of the county population. The court has worked for years to try to widen the pool. But the issue remains: Does race matter if justice is supposed to be color blind?
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/OPINION03/804210338/1322/OPINION0301
Detroit chaos ready to unspool
Monday, April 21, 2008
Daniel Howes
The city, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick says, would be plunged into "chaos" if he resigns amid scandal before his term ends -- proving once again that the man amid the maelstrom of his own making has a messiah complex. Isn't Detroit already in chaos? The mayor is under criminal indictment, with others expected to follow. Its council president ceded the moral high ground with a silly stunt over a budget address. Council's No. 2 member, Monica Conyers, regularly veers into immature tirades, while another member prefers to celebrate her birthday by wearing a tiara during a council meeting. Welcome, Detroiters, to the Theater of the Absurd. Here, the King of Kaos vies with the Klown Kouncil to maintain order, to keep the finances under control, to deliver municipal services which, on a good day, often fail to reach the people who pay for them.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/METRO/804210369/1408/LOCAL
Challenge targets whether SkyTel broke law when it released Beatty texts
Beatty's attorney says pager firm's release of text messages broke laws; damages claim possible.
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Monday, April 21, 2008
DETROIT -- SkyTel Corp., the city of Detroit's former pager company, could be subject to damages for unlawful release of text messages sent and received by former mayoral chief of staff Christine Beatty, her lawyer said. "Certainly they have exposure for it," Southfield attorney Mayer Morganroth said of SkyTel, which since 2007 has been part of Bell Industries Inc. of Indiana. "They never should have done that when they turned (the text messages) over in a civil case." Morganroth argues that under the federal Stored Communications Act, text messages can't be subpoenaed in civil lawsuits. SkyTel officials have declined repeated requests for comment since excerpts from text messages sent and received on Beatty's city-issued SkyTel pager, were first published by the Detroit Free Press in January.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/OPINION01/804210323/1007/OPINION
Editorial: Elect Detroit City Council by districts
Support a mechanism to make representatives more accountable
Detroit News
Monday, April 21, 2008
Detroiters should back proposals to elect city council members by district instead of at-large. The reform promises to improve city services and give each area of town more voice in city government. The current system isn't working. When a resident has a gripe about his neighborhood, no one of the city's nine council members is specifically responsible. Each of the nine is elected citywide. That creates an accountability void. Detroit is the 11th largest city in the country and the only one of the 11 with an all at-large city council. The top 10 cities each have some form of districts or wards. Houston and Philadelphia have a hybrid system -- some council members elected by district, some at-large. Cities went to a district or ward system as a way to give all areas a more potent voice in local government.
http://macombdaily.com/stories/042008/loc_local02.shtml
May 6 vote could change county for generations
By Chad Selweski
PUBLISHED: Sunday, April 20, 2008
The two-decade debate over revamping Macomb County government and putting an elected executive in charge will reach a crescendo on May 6 when voters countywide head to the polls for a historic election. The vote will decide if a series of government reforms are enacted in a "home rule" charter -- in effect, Macomb County's first-ever constitution -- or if the status quo prevails. The May 6 proposal was placed on the ballot by a petition drive that collected 35,000 signatures. The drive was led by a business-labor coalition known as Charter Equals County Executive. With the support of many county, city and township officials, the coalition is actively campaigning for the passage of the proposal as the election approaches. The opposition comes from a small, grassroots group that was formed in recent weeks. At issue is this: What is the most effective and efficient way to run county government?
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/NEWS01/804210330/1001/NEWS
Costs hit $380,000 in judge's litigation
Commission may rule today on sanctions for Nettles-Nickerson
Kevin Grasha
April 21, 2008
Costs are mounting as Circuit Judge Beverley Nettles-Nickerson waits to find out whether a state commission will recommend sanctions against her to the Michigan Supreme Court. Ingham County and the state, since June 2007, have paid more than $380,000 in various salaries and costs, as the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission pursued a complaint against the suspended judge, according to county officials and documents obtained from the Michigan Supreme Court. While recommendations for sanctions could come as early as today, that doesn't mean the case goes off the clock. Even if the Judicial Tenure Commission recommends a further suspension of the judge, it is not known when the state Supreme Court would hear oral arguments about the matter - a likely next step in the process. That means Nettles-Nickerson's paid suspension would remain in effect and a substitute judge likely would continue to hear her cases.
Capac police chief, shotting suspect remain hospitalized
4/21/2008, 12:09 a.m. EDT
The Associated Press
PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — The Capac police chief remains hospitalized in serious but stable condition after being shot at least twice.Raymond Hawks was shot Wednesday outside the home of Donald Burke while trying to arrest the 50-year-old man on suspicion of reckless driving. A St. Clair County sheriff's deputy suffered a grazing wound. Port Huron Hospital spokeswoman Sherry Sheleny says the 64-year-old Hawks was still on a ventilator Sunday. Burke, who's charged in a warrant with two counts of assault with intent to commit murder, underwent a "heart-related procedure" Friday at an area hospital. St. Clair County Prosecutor Mike Wendling says Burke will be arraigned after being released to the jail.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/mccains-campaign-account-grows/
McCain’s Campaign Account Grows
By Leslie Wayne
April 20, 2008, 5:58 pm
The pickup in Senator John McCain’s fund-raising was made official yesterday when his campaign reported that it had a war chest of $11.6 million at the end of March after raising $15 million that month. In filings with the Federal Election Commission, the McCain campaign reported that it had begun the month with $8 million in cash, raised a total of $15.4 million, spent $11.8 million and ended the month with $3.6 million more in cash than it started with. Even though Mr. McCain remains far behind Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton in overall fund-raising – and spending — his financial picture is changing from that of a scrappy and poorly financed underdog to a standard bearer who political success is translating into financial success. There were two signs of Mr. McCain’s improved finances in his federal filings.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9727.html
McCain overcomes rank-and-file concerns
By DAVID PAUL KUHN
4/20/08
Although John McCain's candidacy is still viewed with suspicion by many conservative leaders, polling suggests he has overcome the concerns of rank-and-file conservatives: McCain isn't viewed more unfavorably by conservative voters today than George W. Bush was at this point in the 2000 election cycle. In the latest CBS News/New York Times poll, 18 percent of conservatives said they have an unfavorable view of McCain. The same percentage expressed an unfavorable view of Bush in CBS News polls conducted in March and April of 2000; higher percentages of conservatives held unfavorable views of Bob Dole and George H.W. Bush at similar points in 1996 and 1988, respectively. Although some prominent conservatives continue to have deep reservations about McCain — a few still say they won't vote for him in November — interviews with a dozen conservative leaders confirm that the Republican base is largely coming to terms with the party's new standard-bearer.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1830069620080420
McCain visiting poor areas
Sun Apr 20, 2008
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain spends this week visiting economically struggling areas of the United States to show Americans he is a different kind of Republican. McCain's trip is part of a bid to attract more independent voters who could be crucial in the November election, taking advantage of the tense battle for the Democratic nomination between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. McCain, an Arizona senator, will travel to the "Black Belt" of Alabama, the Appalachia region of Kentucky, the hard-hit steel town of Youngstown, Ohio, and Hurricane Katrina-stricken New Orleans, reaching out to poorer areas where Republican candidates often do not go looking for votes. "We will travel to areas of this country that in many ways have been forgotten and left behind," said senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/OPINION03/804210320/1007/OPINION
McCain should copy Schwarzenegger, Reagan
Monday, April 21, 2008
Deb Price
My nominee for best ex-actor in a very supportive role: Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a few simple sentences, the muscular Republican governor of California did some heroically heavy lifting for all Americans who believe in equal marriage rights for those of us who're gay. Asked at the gay Log Cabin Republicans' recent national convention whether he would join them in opposing a proposed California ballot initiative that would prohibit gay couples there from achieving marriage equality, Schwarzenegger began, "First of all, I think that (such a ban) would never happen in California because I think California people are much further along on that issue." Then, as every heart in the room skipped a beat, he delivered some of the most important lines of his career: "And, No. 2, I will always be there to fight against that -- because it should never happen."
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9730.html
McCain questions Obama radical ties
By RYAN GRIM & MIKE ALLEN
4/20/08
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) stoked debate over a ’60s radical’s ties to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, saying Obama’s defense “borders on the outrageous.” William Ayers — a former member of the Weather Underground, which embraced bombing in its effort to end the Vietnam War — became an issue in the Democratic nominating race at last week’s debate. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said Obama’s past meetings with Ayers are part of a “larger set of concerns about how we are going to run against John McCain.” Asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether he has any doubt that Obama shares his sense of patriotism, McCain brought the subject up. “I'm sure he's very patriotic. But his relationship with Mr. Ayers is open to question,” McCain said.
DNC pores over agencies’ records for dirt on McCain
By Sam Youngman
Posted: 04/17/08
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) filed a number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with Cabinet-level agencies and inter-agency departments looking for opposition research to use against presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). In early February, there was a sharp uptick in the number of FOIA requests from the DNC with McCain as a specific target. February was about the same time McCain emerged as the front-runner and likely nominee. A review of FOIA requests and independent confirmations obtained by The Hill turned up requests from the DNC at at least four agencies – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of the Interior (DOI), the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Commerce Department.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/20/ST2008042002410.html
Obama Sharpens His Tone
As Pa. Vote Nears, Clinton Criticizes Rival's Negative Turn
By Dan Balz and Shailagh Murray
Monday, April 21, 2008; A01
READING, Pa., April 20 -- Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday traded accusations of negative campaigning as they headed toward a critical showdown in the Pennsylvania primary. The volleying in the final hours reflected the high stakes in Tuesday's contest. Clinton is favored to win, but the senator from New York may still face renewed pressure to end her candidacy unless she rolls up a sizable margin in the popular vote and significant gains in the overall delegate count. As the candidates jostled with one another, their advisers mounted a final effort to shape expectations for what will constitute victory on Tuesday. The Pennsylvania race has forced Obama to rewrite his script from earlier contests, with the result being a more aggressive tone and style in the final hours of this campaign than had been the case in previous states. Far more than at any other time in the campaign, Obama has applied pressure to Clinton, both on the stump and in his increasingly negative advertising.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/20/AR2008042001754.html
What's the Matter With Obama
By Robert D. Novak
Monday, April 21, 2008; A15
Traveling the country the past few months, I have encountered habitual Republican voters so entranced by Barack Obama's potential to lead the nation that they plan to vote for him in November. Once Hillary Clinton's supporters return to the fold, Obama Republicans could produce a Democratic presidential landslide. But Obama's recent missteps jeopardize their support and imperil his election. These apostate Republicans were never deluded into considering him anything other than a doctrinaire liberal who wants a more intrusive government, with higher taxation and tougher regulation. But they have leaned toward him as an exceptional candidate in the mold of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, a post-partisan leader and a welcome contrast to George W. Bush's failed presidency. That impression is threatened by Obama's performance the past 10 days, climaxing in Wednesday night's debate with Clinton.
The Rules Are Changing for Obama
A Commentary by Michael Barone
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Barack Obama seemed puzzled. Angrily puzzled. The apostle of hope seemed flummoxed by the audacity of the question. At the April 16 Philadelphia debate, George Stephanopoulos, longtime aide to Democratic politicians, was asking about his longtime association with Weather Underground bomber William Ayers. The Weather Underground attacked the Pentagon, the Capitol and other public buildings; Ayers was quoted in The New York Times on Sept. 11, 2001, as saying, "I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough." It was at Ayers' house that Obama's state Senate candidacy was launched in 1995; Obama continued to serve on a nonprofit board with Ayers after the Times article appeared.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/obamas_terrorist_connection.html
About Obama's Terrorist Acquaintance
By Steve Chapman
April 20, 2008
When William F. Buckley Jr. died in February, one of the things widely praised, by liberals and others, was his stalwart insistence on moral hygiene. Even when his conservative movement was small and embattled, he rejected the temptation to join forces with anti-Semites, the John Birch Society and other extremists. Later, he disavowed longtime confederates Pat Buchanan and Joseph Sobran for the sin of bigotry. Buckley knew the importance of choosing allies carefully. But some people who expect such care from conservatives don't practice it themselves. Among many liberals, extremism in the defense of "social justice" is no vice. When the folk singer Pete Seeger got a medal by President Clinton, no one cared that he was a veteran apologist for Stalin who still regarded himself as a communist. That indifference betrayed a double standard that conscientious liberals should reject.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/why_obama_stuck_by_rezko.html
Obama and the Chicago Insider
By David Ignatius
April 20, 2008
WASHINGTON -- The trial of Barack Obama's wheeler-dealer friend, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, was back in the news last week because of a disagreement over whether Obama did or didn't attend a party at Rezko's house for an Iraqi-born billionaire named Nadhmi Auchi. A prosecution witness testified that Obama and his wife were guests at the April 3, 2004, gathering in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette. The Obama campaign responded that neither of the Obamas recalled attending such an event. Auchi similarly has "no recollection of meeting Senator Obama at any party in 2004 or at any other time," according to his lawyer, Alasdair Pepper. The testimony was a reminder of the vortex of business and politics swirling around Rezko -- and of Obama's curious 17-year friendship with the indicted Chicago businessman. The Clintons rightly have gotten hammered over the years for their friendships with political fixers.
56% Disagree with Obama’s Comments on Small Town America
Rasmussen Reports
Monday, April 14, 2008
Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters nationwide disagree with Barack Obama’s statement that people in small towns “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 25% agree with the Democratic frontrunner while 19% are not sure. Partisan and ideological differences suggest that the comments are more likely to be a factor in the General Election than in the Primaries. A plurality of politically liberal voters—46%--agree with Obama’s statement while 33% disagree. Moderate voters take the opposite view and disagree by a 51% to 27% margin. Seventy-four percent (74%) of conservatives disagree with Obama’s statement, only 12% agree.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26075
Obama Woos Gun-Toting God Nuts
Ann Coulter
Posted: 04/16/2008
The Democrats' "Fake-Out America" adviser, Berkeley linguistics professor George Lakoff, must be beside himself. Despite Lakoff's years spent training Democrats to "frame" their language to stop scaring Americans, B. Hussein Obama was caught on tape speaking candidly to other liberals in San Francisco last week. One minute Obama was bowling in Pennsylvania with nice, ordinary people wearing "Beer Hunter" T-shirts, and the next thing you know, he was issuing a report on the psychological traits of normal Americans to rich liberals in San Francisco. Obama informed the San Francisco plutocrats that these crazy working-class people are so bitter, they actually believe in God! And not just the 12-step meeting, higher power, "as you conceive him or her to be" kind of God. The regular, old-fashioned, almighty sort of "God."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/opinion/20dowd.html?ref=opinion
Brush It Off
By MAUREEN DOWD
April 20, 2008
It had to be the first time in history that a presidential candidate had a hip-hop moment. Barack Obama, who says he listens to Jay-Z along with his “old school guy” favorites like Earth, Wind & Fire and the Temptations, alluded to the rapper’s 2003 hit “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” on Thursday to sweep away concerns about his pugnacity. After conceding that the Philly debate was tough, he brushed the imaginary lint of Hillary, George and Charlie from his shoulders, in a wordless reference to Jay-Z’s lyrics in his anthem about not letting anyone crimp your ride as you cruise from the bottom to the top: “Got some, dirt on my shoulder, could you brush it off for me.” There’s no doubt the cat is cool. It’s easy to imagine the wild reception many parts of the world would give a President Obama as he loped down the stairs of Air Force One in his aviator glasses, the chic and chiseled Michelle on his arm. The imagery of the 2008 race is all about cool and hot.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-michelle-obama_side_bdapr20,0,6411442.story
How broke were Obamas? Hard to tell
By Ray Gibson, John McCormick and Christi Parsons
4:13 PM CDT, April 19, 2008
The Obamas often say they would still be in debt if not for his best-selling books, which began to swell the couple's bank account in 2005. In fact, for some period of time, Michelle Obama tells audiences, the couple's college loan payments cost them more than their monthly mortgage. As young lawyers, the Obamas pursued non-profit or public service during much of the 1990s. Obama once said he was so broke when he arrived in Los Angeles for the Democratic National Convention in 2000 that his credit card was rejected when he tried to rent a car. Still, it's hard to tell just how broke they were, when and for how long. Public records paint only part of the financial picture. In 1993 they bought a condominium in Hyde Park for $277,500, paying about $111,000 as a down payment, according to county real estate records. As for income, they earned a combined household total of slightly more than $240,000 in 2000, according to tax records they have since made public. (Their income fluctuated in that range until 2005, when they reported earning $1.6 million.)
http://www.newsweek.com/id/132874
Obama: Can’t ‘Swift Boat’ Me
Seeing Ghosts: Obama's ties to Ayers and Auchi are distant, but his foes plan to pounce
By Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff
Apr 28, 2008 Issue
The Obama campaign is planning to expand its research and rapid-response team in order to repel attacks it anticipates over his ties to 1960s radical Bill Ayers, indicted developer Antoin Rezko and other figures from his past. David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, tells NEWSWEEK that the Illinois senator won't let himself be "Swift Boated" like John Kerry in 2004. "He's not going to sit there and sing 'Kumbaya' as the missiles are raining in," Axelrod said. "I don't think people should mistake civility for a willingness to deal with the challenges to come." The move appears to be an acknowledgment that the Obama campaign may not have moved aggressively enough when questions about Ayers and Rezko first arose, and it comes amid fresh indications that conservative groups are preparing a wave of attack ads over the links.
Trailing in Pennsylvania, Obama Sharpens Tone
By JEFF ZELENY and KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
April 21, 2008
READING, Pa. — Senator Barack Obama sharpened his tone against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday as the six-week Pennsylvania primary contest raced to a close, with the rivals marshaling extensive resources in a battle for undecided voters and delegates that could determine whether the Democratic nominating fight carries on. In television commercials and in appearances before crowded rallies, Mr. Obama, of Illinois, cast his opponent in one of the most negative lights of the entire 16-month campaign, calling her a compromised Washington insider. Mrs. Clinton, of New York, responded by suggesting that Mr. Obama’s message of hope had given way to old-style politics and asked Democrats to take a harder look at him. The fresh skirmishing unfolded across one of the most complicated battlegrounds in the race for the Democratic nomination. Both campaigns deployed thousands of paid workers, volunteers and surrogates to strategic points across the state.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article3778978.ece
Judgment Day looms for Hillary Clinton the wrecker
Andrew Sullivan
April 20, 2008
Even after all the hype, this Tuesday’s vote in Pennsylvania will be a watershed primary election. This isn’t because it could determine whether Hillary Clinton’s campaign continues on its brutal, nihilistic path towards the destruction of the most promising figure in the Democratic party since Kennedy. It isn’t because it’s been an age since the last primary vote and every nasty toxin in American culture has been drawn to the surface by the Clinton poultice. It isn’t even because Pennsylvania is an indisputably important and large state that any Democrat needs to win in November. It is because the Clintons have turned Pennsylvania into a microcosm of what they think the general election will be in November. And the Clintons are running as the Rove Republicans.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3779840.ece
Hillary Clinton's 'Republican' tactics backfire in battle for Pennsylvania
President Bush’s election guru Karl Rove tells our correspondent in Philadelphia that she has left it too late to assail Barack Obama
Sarah Baxter
April 20, 2008
WITH days to turn around her presidential campaign or face defeat, Hillary Clinton swung through Pennsylvania last week on a crash tour to squeeze every last vote out of the state after being outshone, outspent and outmanoeuvred by Barack Obama in a bloody campaign. For a moment, it appeared that the Clintons would stop at nothing to block the Illinois senator’s ascent to the nomination Hillary once regarded as rightfully hers. Chelsea Clinton appeared on a college stage with her mother and seemed to be hinting at a shock announcement. “As someone who is thinking of having my own family in the not too distant future . . .” she began. Chelsea, 28, extended the riff about her “children” for so long that it seemed possible she was about to declare herself engaged or perhaps even pregnant, but a campaign aide explained later that she was merely teasing Hillary who, like any mother, would love her to get on with marriage and a family.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/19/921148.aspx
Chelsea Stops Traffic on Gay Bar Crawl
Posted: Saturday, April 19, 2008 12:47 PM
by Domenico Montanaro
PHILADELPHIA -- Chelsea Clinton stopped traffic Friday night as she wandered the streets of Philadelphia on a gay bar crawl, winning rave reviews for both her politics and her appearance. Led around the neighborhood by Gov. Ed Rendell, Chelsea was mobbed by local gays and lesbians, as she walked from one club to the next. They ran up to hug her, posed for pictures and certainly invaded her personal space. “I grabbed her ass,” one young woman exclaimed to her friends after snapping a picture with her arm around the former first daughter. “Chelsea, the gays love you!” one fan exclaimed, as she took the microphone at Bump, a restaurant and bar that was her first stop. “Oh, gosh, I don’t know if everybody loves me,” she responded.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/POLITICS01/804210356/1408/LOCAL
Delegates remain undecided
Associated Press
Monday, April 21, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Many of the Democratic superdelegates who are still undecided say they just want a winner in November. Most of the more than 100 undecided superdelegates who discussed their decision-making with The Associated Press in the past two weeks agreed that the primaries and caucuses do matter. But few said the primaries will be the key to their decision. About a third said the most important factor will be the candidate they think has the best chance of beating Republican John McCain this fall. One in 10 said the biggest factor will be the candidate with the most pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses. One in 10 said what matters most is who won their state or congressional district in the primary or caucus.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/cs_20080416_3324.php
The First 21st-Century Campaign
The Democrats are reaching new heights in raising money, recruiting volunteers, hiring staff, buying TV ads, contacting voters, and generating turnout.
Ronald Brownstein
Sat. Apr. 19, 2008
In scope and sweep, tactics and scale, the marathon struggle between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton has triggered such a vast evolutionary leap in the way candidates pursue the presidency that it is likely to be remembered as the first true 21st-century campaign. On virtually every front, the two candidates’ efforts dwarf those of all previous primary contenders—not to mention presumptive GOP nominee John McCain. It’s easy to miss the magnitude of the change amid the ferocity of the Democratic competition. But largely because of their success at organizing supporters through the Internet, Clinton and, especially, Obama are reaching new heights in raising money, recruiting volunteers, hiring staff, buying television ads, contacting voters, and generating turnout. They are producing changes in degree from prior primary campaigns so large that they amount to changes in kind.
For Democrats, worrisome divide along class lines
Pa. split suggests trouble ahead
By Peter S. Canellos
Globe Staff / April 20, 2008
PITTSBURGH - The Lawrenceville neighborhood, with its car-repair shops and convenience markets giving way to coffee houses and yoga salons, represents both sides of the upscale/downscale electoral coalition that Democrats hope will carry them to the White House in November. But Lawrenceville, like many Democratic precincts, is increasingly divided in its politics along class lines. Last week, while 27-year-old Bronwyn Loughren, co-owner of an art gallery called La Vie, was expressing disgust over Hillary Clinton's hardball political tactics, beautician Jenny Skrinjar, 53, of the Style North Hair Salon was fuming about Barack Obama. "He looks down on people," she said. It is a division that seems to have widened as the pri maries moved to blue-collar states such as Ohio. And it's just one of several fractures in the Democratic coalition: Obama and Clinton have split the Democrats along age and some racial lines as well.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/elite_democrats_historically_los.html
Elite Democrats Lose
By Salena Zito
April 20, 2008
When it comes to racial issues, the 2008 Democrat primary has been lowered to the most politically correct campaign in history. So low that it has smudged the lens in the way we look at both of the Democrats' candidates. Political correctness or "PC" -- a clothesline tool typically used as a wedge issue against Republicans -- has backfired. To steal a phrase from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, PC is "coming home to roost" for Democrats. Purdue University political science professor Bert Rockman says we need to thicken our skins when it comes to race. "Why did anybody take umbrage at Bill Clinton's remark about Jesse Jackson in South Carolina when it was patently correct?" he asks. Everyone knows that blacks are voting heavily for Barack Obama, he explains, and only a moron would be surprised.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/opinion/21kristol.html?ref=opinion
Exodus Exegesis
By WILLIAM KRISTOL
April 21, 2008
Every presidential campaign has to produce a stream of appropriate statements for religious holidays, patriotic commemorations, and the like. Campaigns don’t expect to win votes with these messages. They produce them because there’s a risk of giving offense to some group or other if they don’t. And candidates do it because it looks presidential. After all, a substantial portion of any White House’s output consists of official messages recognizing various national milestones, group anniversaries and dignitaries’ birthdays. So, last week, in the midst of the excitement over the pope’s visit, the Clinton, Obama and McCain campaigns found time to issue Passover greetings. They were of course staff-produced, and somewhat formulaic. Still, differences among formulaic statements can be revealing. The Clinton statement is the most personal of the three. She claims she has “always been inspired by the enduring words of the Haggadah: ‘In every generation, each of us must see ourselves as if we personally came out of Egypt.’
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/business/media/21carr.html?ref=politics
The Media Equation
In Politics, the Gaffe Goes Viral
By DAVID CARR
April 21, 2008
In 1990, I was covering politics in Minnesota and Paul Wellstone was down double digits in the polls in the waning weeks of the Senate race. I watched in amazement as Mr. Wellstone’s campaign staff continued to fight tooth and nail for every vote, something I wrote off to a civic reflex that I didn’t possess. But Mr. Wellstone’s campaign manager, Patrick Forciea, told me that there was more than just blind loyalty at work. “If you stay close enough, long enough, there’s a good chance something will break in the media,” he said. “We are going to get as close as we can, wait for a lightning storm and then head out to the golf course and wave a 9-iron around.” The week before the election, supporters of Rudy Boschwitz, then the incumbent, sent out a letter asserting that while both candidates were Jewish, Mr. Wellstone “has no connection with the Jewish community” and his “children were brought up as non-Jews.” Cue the lightning. Mr. Wellstone won by a slim margin.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/the_fed_runs_wild.html
What the Fed's Job Isn't
By George Will
April 20, 2008
WASHINGTON -- And some say it will end because of subprime mortgages. But for those who cultivate fears of catastrophes as excuses for expanding government supervision of other people's lives, the bad news is that the world is not going to end -- not from global warming or economic cooling or anything else. Today's untethered Federal Reserve will, however, make the muddle-through interesting. The late Sen. William Proxmire, a populist Democrat who represented Wisconsin for 32 years, wanted all members of Congress to write on their bathroom mirrors, so it is the first thing they read each day, this: "The Fed is a creature of Congress." Congress created the Federal Reserve pursuant to its constitutional power "to coin money" and "regulate the value thereof." Fortunately, Congress has left the Fed free to go about its business.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11050146
The silent tsunami
Food prices are causing misery and strife around the world. Radical solutions are needed
Apr 17th 2008
From The Economist print edition
PICTURES of hunger usually show passive eyes and swollen bellies. The harvest fails because of war or strife; the onset of crisis is sudden and localised. Its burden falls on those already at the margin. Today's pictures are different. “This is a silent tsunami,” says Josette Sheeran of the World Food Programme, a United Nations agency. A wave of food-price inflation is moving through the world, leaving riots and shaken governments in its wake. For the first time in 30 years, food protests are erupting in many places at once. Bangladesh is in turmoil (see article); even China is worried (see article). Elsewhere, the food crisis of 2008 will test the assertion of Amartya Sen, an Indian economist, that famines do not happen in democracies.
http://thehill.com/john-engler/employee-free-choicefight-over-phrasing-2007-04-17.html
Employee free choice: fight over phrasing
By John Engler
Posted: 04/17/07
I convey congratulations, albeit grudgingly, to organized labor and its supporters on Capitol Hill for the way they have framed the debate over labor’s No. 1 priority in the 110th Congress — the infamous “card-check” bill. Using the time-tested strategy of naming legislation with a clever euphemism, union advocates are pushing legislation that would restructure radically the process of organizing a workplace under the pleasant-sounding, even stirring title, “The Employee Free Choice Act.” Warming to the public-relations challenge, they talk about the bill “leveling the playing field,” “empowering workers” and “ensuring workers’ rights.” To be sure, this campaign is being influenced by more than pretty words and clever phraseology. In March, major unions descended on Washington for their annual legislative conferences, with their members hearing from presidential candidates and elected officials and making scores of Hill visits. During the Easter break, organized labor rallied workers for the legislation and flooded newspapers with letters to the editor.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120873451908929781.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
What Nafta Trade Deficit?
By JOHN ENGLER
April 21, 2008; Page A15
It is amazing how some presidential candidates are blaming the North American Free Trade Agreement for U.S. job losses. They seem to believe that a substantial part of the three million manufacturing jobs lost since 2000 resulted from Nafta, and that outsourcing of manufacturing production to Mexico and Canada resulted in a huge trade deficit. Too bad they don't know that the growth in the deficit isn't due to manufactured goods, but to oil and gas imports. There is no question that the imbalance of trade within Nafta has soared since 2000. That deficit has almost doubled to nearly $140 billion in 2007, from $77 billion in 2000. But the deficit in manufactured goods did not displace U.S. factory production. What the antitrade advocates have been hiding from the candidates (or maybe don't know themselves) is that almost all of the increase in our Nafta deficit since 2000 has been in increased U.S. imports of energy from Canada and Mexico. In fact, $58 billion of the $62 billion increase in our Nafta deficit has been in energy imports. That's 95% of the total increase.
http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/013ctemf.asp
Nancy ♥ Hugo
Why House Democrats killed the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
by Matthew Continetti
04/28/2008, Volume 013, Issue 31
A war-torn country with a democratically elected government, plagued by militias, terrorists, and drugs--but one that is steadily making progress against all these evils--wants to strengthen its ties to the United States. The Bush administration acts to help this ally. What does the Democratic Congress do? It changes the rules so that the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CFTA), negotiated in good faith between the two governments and inked in 2006, can't come to a vote. Memo to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez: Send flowers to the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It is Chávez who profits most from the CFTA's demise. For years now, he's been locked in a struggle with Colombian president lvaro Uribe over the future of South America. Chávez wants that future to be socialist, authoritarian, friendly to other dictators, and belligerent toward the United States.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/20/AR2008042001755.html
Arizona's Immigration Two-Step
By Lee Hockstader
Monday, April 21, 2008; A15
PHOENIX -- Traumatized by a tidal wave of illegal immigrants, Arizona last year enacted the nation's most pitiless law to punish employers who hire undocumented workers. Now state lawmakers, having proved that they mean business -- even if it means killing off businesses -- are reconnecting with reality: They want to import Mexican workers. No state has been as unhinged by illegal immigration as Arizona, where by some estimates undocumented employees comprise up to 12 percent of the state's workforce of 3 million, more than twice the national average. They have also fueled Arizona's supercharged economy, which has grown faster -- and with less unemployment -- than almost anywhere else in the country. Recently I visited the north Phoenix neighborhood of Palomino, which was virtually all white and Anglo 25 years ago. Today it is overwhelmingly Latino, teeming with taco joints and home to the city's only day-labor center.
FLOCK FEELING HIS 'CHARISMA OF SINCERITY'
By PEGGY NOONAN
April 20, 2008
YOU knew he had arrived by the cheer that welled up from the street. It was electric. Suddenly inside the cathedral, where 3,000 people were waiting, it turned quiet and everyone turned. And now the great huge doors of St. Patrick's opened and sunlight poured in, crashed down, and there was the pope, and the crowd - nuns and religious, deacons and priests, meaning a lot of people who actually deserved to be there - sent a wave of applause crashing against the old Gothic dome. He reacted the way we now know Benedict does. Modest, meek, surprised by love, and then gamely, nodding, throwing his arms wide. You should have seen the nuns, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, Mother Agnes' Sisters of Life, from Yonkers, dozens of other orders. As he passed down the center aisle, they would reach out, rows of arms in robes reaching toward him. It was beautiful. If you didn't get choked up, you weren't alive.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080418/NATION/217666185/1001
Pope Benedict XVI tells U.N.: Don't forget 'human rights'
By Betsy Pisik and
April 18, 2008
NEW YORK — Pope Benedict XVI on Friday morning praised the United Nations' role in protecting human rights around the globe, urging the world body to do even more to guarantee the freedoms of those living under oppressive governments. In a lengthy address to diplomats and the governments they represent, the pope firmly placed the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the center of the on-going struggle to guarantee freedom, security and development all people. The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security," he said. "Indeed, the victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence, and they can then become violators of peace." The pontiff declared that all countries have a responsibility to step in and protect civilians when their own governments cannot or will not -- a controversial theory advanced that challenges notions of national sovereignty and is only gingerly embraced even by its supporters.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080420/D905KO080.html
Pope blesses ground zero in NYC, prays for peace
Apr 20, 9:55 AM (ET)
By RACHEL ZOLL
NEW YORK (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI visited ground zero on Sunday, blessing the site of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks and asking God to bring "peace to our violent world." Benedict was driven in the popemobile part of the way down a ramp now used mostly by construction trucks to a spot by the north tower's footprint. He got out, walked the final steps and knelt in silent prayer for a few moments. He then rose to light a memorial candle, pray and bless the site with holy water. Joining the pope at the site were survivors of the attacks and relatives of those who died, as well New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Cardinal Edward Egan.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/15937320/detail.html
Transcript: Pope's Remarks At Ground Zero
Pope Benedict XVI
POSTED: 9:48 am EDT April 20, 2008
O God of love, compassion, and healing, look on us, people of many different faiths and traditions, who gather today at this site, the scene of incredible violence and pain. We ask you in your goodness to give eternal light and peace to all who died here -- the heroic first-responders: our fire fighters, police officers, emergency service workers, and Port Authority personnel, along with all the innocent men and women who were victims of this tragedy simply because their work or service brought them here on September 11, 2001. We ask you, in your compassion to bring healing to those who, because of their presence here that day, suffer from injuries and illness. Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy.Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26103&s=rcmp
Who's Behind the Proxy Wars
by Patrick J. Buchanan
Posted 04/18/2008 ET
Iran is conducting a proxy war against the United States in Iraq, declared Ambassador Ryan Crocker last week. How? Gen. David Petraeus explained. The Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah are arming, training and directing the Shia militia fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces in Basra and firing rockets into the Green Zone. Said Petraeus, the Quds Force is responsible for killing hundreds of American soldiers. If true, these are acts of war from a privileged sanctuary. And Bush would be as justified in attacking these Iranian base camps as was Nixon in ordering U.S. forces to clean out the North Vietnamese sanctuaries in Cambodia. While there is no reason to question the truth of what Petraeus and Crocker allege, this proxy war raises a question. What is Tehran's motive?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351717,00.html
Carter-Hamas Meeting Comes on 25th Anniversary of Deadly Terror Attack
Fox News
Friday, April 18, 2008
Former President Jimmy Carter met Friday with the exiled leader of Hamas and the militant group's deputy chief — on the 25th anniversary of the deadly bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut. President Bush issued a statement Thursday calling on Americans to remember victims of the attack by a terrorist group known today as Hezbollah, which killed 17 Americans, 35 Lebanese citizens and wounded scores of others. "On the 25th anniversary of that bombing, we mourn for those who perished, and we honor the sacrifice of their family and friends and of the many who were wounded," he said. Bush also condemned "the regimes in Tehran and Damascus," which he said back Hezbollah and other terrorist groups. The U.S. State Department has designated Hamas a terrorist organization and refuses to negotiate with the group.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04202008/postopinion/editorials/when_to_talk_to_thugs_107301.htm
WHEN TO TALK TO THUGS
New York Post
April 20, 2008
You know Jimmy Carter has gone too far when even Sen. Barack Obama blasts him. Talking to Jewish voters Wednesday, Obama lit into Carter, saying he had a "fundamental disagreement" with the ex-prez regarding his meetings with Hamas. "We must not negotiate with a terrorist group intent on Israel's destruction," the junior senator from Illinois insisted. But what about when Obama was asked if he'd parley with Iran's leaders? Absolutely, he said. And throw in the heads of Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and Syria, too. "It is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them," he huffed. Hmm. Iran's leader, President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, says he wants to obliterate Israel, and his regime is well on its way to developing nuclear weapons. So what's the lesson?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/world/africa/21zimbabwe.html?hp
Human Wave Flees Violence in Zimbabwe
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
April 21, 2008
ALONG THE SOUTH AFRICA-ZIMBABWE BORDER — Sarah Ngewerume was driven to the river by despair. She said she had seen gangs loyal to Zimbabwe’s longtime president, Robert Mugabe, beating people — some to death — in the dusty roads of her village. She said Mugabe loyalists were sweeping the countryside with chunks of wood in their hands, demanding to see party identification cards and methodically hunting down opposition supporters. “It was terrifying,” said Ms. Ngewerume, a 49-year-old former shopkeeper. Last week she waded across the Limpopo River, bribed a man fixing a border fence on the other side and slipped into a nearby South African farm. She was among the latest desperate arrivals in what South Africa’s biggest daily newspaper is calling “Mugabe’s Tsunami,” a wave of more than 1,000 people every day who are fleeing Zimbabwe across the Limpopo to escape into South Africa.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080420075126.btgjbu4l&show_article=1
China hit by fresh anti-Western protests
AFP
Apr 20 03:52 AM US/Eastern
Fresh protests broke out across China on Sunday in reaction to the Western media's coverage of China's handling of Tibet ahead of the Beijing Olympics, state media said. The latest demonstrations came after thousands of Chinese rallied Saturday in support of their country, with branches of the French retailer Carrefour heavily targeted. People gathered in front of Carrefour stores, chanting slogans of "Oppose Tibet independence" and "Oppose CNN's anti-China statements," referring to the international broadcaster, the official Xinhua news agency said. They also chanted "Support the Olympics," "Play up! China," and "Condemn CNN" through loudspeakers. More than 1,000 people assembled in front of a Carrefour store in the northwestern city of Xian holding protest banners, Xinhua said. There were also demonstrations in the northeastern city of Harbin and the eastern city of Jinan, the report added.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/tibet.html
Torch Relay Inflames Tibet Supporters
By Richard Halloran
April 20, 2008
Two days of vigorous anti-Chinese protests by Tibetans and their Indian sympathizers culminated Thursday in New Delhi when 17,000 policemen and soldiers allowed Olympic torch bearers to run in lonely splendor through nearly deserted streets. The India Express newspaper said the capital had been turned into a "security citadel." The Hindustan Times said members of parliament accused the government of setting up a "police camp." A headline in the Times of India asserted: "Cops kill spirit to keep torch burning." Instead of the image of progress that China wanted to project, security arrangements to subdue demonstrations against Chinese suppression of Tibetans reinforced an impression of China as an authoritarian state. Moreover, protests are likely to continue along three parallel paths until the Olympics open in Beijing in August.
