Articles of Interest 4-28-2008

191 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

CARDINAL MAIDA and Arch Bishop Tamkevicius from Lithuanian officiated at our sons Confirmation yesterday.  It was an inspirational celebration.

CONG. JOE KNOLLENBERG…joined our Confirmation and the celebration of 100th Anniversary of our parish Divine Providence in Southfield.  Cong. Knollenberg addressed the over 500 parishioners during our lunch and congratulated the newly Confirmed youngster and talked with Cardinal Maida and the Arch Bishop for a bit.

REV. WRIGHT…The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the outspoken former pastor of Barack Obama, told an audience of nearly 10,000 on Sunday that despite what his critics say, he is "descriptive," not "divisive" when he speaks about racial injustices.
"I describe the conditions in this country," Wright said during the Detroit NAACP's 53rd annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner.  Ummm….very “descriptive”.

FORBES RATE MI CITIES…and it doesn’t look good.  Michigan’s cities round off the “worst” cities…  http://www.forbes.com/leadership/2008/04/10/best-cities-jobs-lead-cx_kb_0410jobs.html

TAX REVOLT?...the Wall Street Journal wrote a great commentary that every taxpayer should read… http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2008/04/tax-revoltare-y.html

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
http://www.migop.org/precinctdelegate/PD_Affidavit.PDF

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.

PETITION CIRCULATORS…time is running out.  If you have petitions for judicial or federal candidates…please mail them in so they can track their progress.

THE REST OF THE STORY:

No further commentary today.

Saul Anuzis

STATE STORIES

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/POLITICS/804280385

Calls grow for relief from business tax

Mark Hornbeck /

Detroit

News

Lansing

Bureau

Monday, April 28, 2008

LANSING

-- The outcry from

Michigan

companies stunned and angry about their new tax bills has touched off a scramble in the state capital, where politicians are mindful about scaring away business in an already floundering economy.   Responding to calls and e-mails from business owners complaining bitterly about their escalated liability under the new Michigan Business Tax, which went on the books at the start of the year, senators last week rushed to pass a $240 million tax relief bill.   Some lawmakers and business groups are pressing hard to roll back at least a portion of a $500 million, 22 percent surcharge on the new tax that replaced a short-lived tax on services late last year.    Also, House and Senate tax committees have launched work groups to listen to the litany of complaints and figure out what, if anything, they should do.   "People are hopping mad," said Linda Jolicoeur, whose tax bill at Target Equipment Leasing in

Farmington Hills

is doubling. "Every service business person I've talked to is seeing a tremendous increase in taxes. This bill was not written with job creation in mind. We're driving businesses out of the state."   Adjustment period needed  First quarter receipts from the new tax will roll in through early May and business leaders are watching to see whether revenues will exceed projections.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/POLITICS01/804280368/1408/LOCAL

Head of DNC points finger at Mich., Fla.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Gordon Trowbridge /

Detroit

News

Washington

Bureau  Democratic

Dean insists he wants their delegations seated, but calls states' primary problems self-inflicted.  National Committee Chairman Howard Dean on Sunday repeated his pledge that delegates from

Michigan

and

Florida

should be seated, but he also had tough words for politicians in the two states and signaled no intention of intervening in the dispute.   "It wasn't my decision to make these changes," Dean said during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." "

Florida

and

Michigan

both voted for a set of rules, and then they decided to push ahead of everybody else."   Dean criticized

Michigan

and

Florida

for moving their primaries into January, ahead of the date allowed under Democratic Party rules. Leaders in the states have said they made the move to counteract the unfair influence New Hampshire and Iowa hold over the presidential nomination process, but Dean portrayed it as "stepping on" those states, as well as Nevada and South Carolina, which were the only states approved to hold January contests.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/NEWS01/804280327/1001/NEWS

Proposal would expand bottle refund law

Some businesses with collection centers dubious of ability to handle extra load

Tim Wardle Capital News Service

April 28, 2008

Picking up roadside trash soon may become a lucrative business, should a revived proposal pass.  The latest version - proposed by Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing - would expand

Michigan

's bottle refund law to include most packaged beverage containers. That would mean almost everything from a water bottle to an energy drink could be exchanged for a dime.  Some products would be excluded, such as milk and dairy drinks, which Meadows described as basic food items.  In a 2002 campaign debate, Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed the state should expand the law to include tea and juice containers. State Sen. Michael Switalski, D-Roseville, has a nearly identical bill that is stalled in the Senate.  The idea has come under harsh criticism from some in the business community, mainly those that would be responsible for handling all the new empty containers.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/NEWS04/804280329/1005/NEWS04

Granholm touts energy that's green

Governor backs bill pushing renewable sources like wind

David Eggert

Associated Press

April 28, 2008

OLIVER TWP - They look like small propellers from a distance.  But up close, new wind turbines dotting corn and sugar-beet farmland in

Michigan

's Thumb are anything but specks on the horizon. They're as tall as a 26-story building and have three 135-foot-long blades that, with the rotor, weigh a combined 145,000 pounds.  Gov. Jennifer Granholm last week toured the 32-turbine Harvest Wind Farm between Pigeon and Elkton in

Huron

County

's

Oliver

Township

. She says the sheer size alone of a turbine is an economic opportunity for

Michigan

.  The turbines at the state's first commercial-scale wind farm that opened in January were shipped all the way from

Europe

, which Granholm suspects was neither cheap nor easy.  "That's ridiculous. We should be making them right here," she said.  The governor says

Michigan

already has advantages to attract companies that make components for wind turbines - manufacturing capacity, skilled workers and a windy shoreline - along with the ability to transport parts and supplies on the

Great Lakes

.  But one crucial ingredient is missing, Gran-holm says - a law requiring that a certain amount of the state's electricity come from renewable sources such as wind. Twenty-five states have

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-53/120934166410650.xml&storylist=newsmichigan&thispage=1

Obama's former pastor addresses

Detroit

NAACP dinner

4/27/2008, 9:06 p.m. EDT

By JEFF KAROUB

The Associated Press   

DETROIT (AP) — The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the outspoken former pastor of Barack Obama, told an audience of nearly 10,000 on Sunday that despite what his critics say, he is "descriptive," not "divisive" when he speaks about racial injustices.  "I describe the conditions in this country," Wright said during the Detroit NAACP's 53rd annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner.  "I'm not here for political reasons. I'm not a politician. I know that fact will surprise many of you because many in the corporate-owned media made it seem like I am running for the Oval Office. I am not running for the Oval Office. I've been running for Jesus a long, long time and I'm not tired yet."  Receiving a lengthy and loud standing ovation, Wright was following in the footsteps of Obama, President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton with his address to the event, a $150-a-plate fundraiser billed as the largest sit-down dinner in

America

.  Obama distanced himself from Wright after publicity over the minister's sharp criticism of

America

's racial history and government policies.  The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the

Detroit

branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said at a press conference before the dinner that he was excited to invite the "hottest brother in

America

right now."

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/METRO/804280387

Detroit

NAACP Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner

Fiery Wright calls for change at NAACP dinner

Minister defends diversity: 'Different is not deficient'

Gordon Trowbridge and David Josar / The

Detroit

News

Monday, April 28, 2008

DETROIT

-- The Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered an unapologetic speech on Sunday, alternately fiery and humorous as he defended the preaching that has taken center stage in the presidential campaign.   "I am not running for the Oval Office," said the controversial

Chicago

minister, recently retired from Sen. Barack Obama's church, addressing a sold-out fundraiser for the Detroit NAACP. "I have been running for Jesus for a long, long time, and I'm not tired yet."   As Wright prepared to speak in

Detroit

, presidential candidates Obama and John McCain were debating his relevance to the election, with McCain edging closer to making the minister's controversial remarks a part of the campaign.   But Wright showed little sign of backing away, making reference to "corporate media" he has said have taken his sermons out of context to portray him as anti-American.   He singled out Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, referring to the breakfast forum for Metro Detroit business and political leaders earlier this month in which Patterson called Wright "one of the most divisive people I've ever heard speak."

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/NEWS06/804280436

Jeremiah Wright urges racial understanding

Controversial preacher speaks at NAACP dinner Sunday night

BY KATHLEEN GRAY and ROBIN ERB

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

April 28, 2008

The simple message that being different doesn't mean a person is deficient was delivered with passion, anger, even humor Sunday night by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as the controversial Chicago minister captivated a sell-out crowd at the NAACP's Freedom Fund dinner.  Through language, music and the ways people learn, Wright showed that African Americans and European Americans are merely different from each other, not inferior or superior in any way.  "In the past, we were taught to see others who are different as deficient, and that anybody not like us was abnormal," said Wright, former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. "But a change is coming because we no longer see others who are different as deficient; we just see them as different."  The theme, repeated throughout a 40-minute speech, was especially powerful coming from Wright, who has been targeted in recent weeks as an anti-American, anti-white preacher because of snippets from sermons he has given over the years that have been played and replayed on network news shows.

http://www.forbes.com/leadership/2008/04/10/best-cities-jobs-lead-cx_kb_0410jobs.html

Best And Worst Cities For Jobs

Kurt Badenhausen 04.10.08, 3:00 PM ET

The past five years have been a boon to the economies of cities across

Florida

as housing prices soared and new construction was rampant.   With these gains came an influx of jobs. In southwest

Florida

, which includes highfliers like

Naples

and

Cape Coral

, 25% of jobs were housing-related at the peak in 2006, compared with 10% nationally, according to the economic research firm Moody's Economy.com.  With the housing market scorching, the

Cape Coral

metro area had the fastest job growth in the country the past five years, at 5.4% annually.

Naples

is close behind at 4.5% annually, fifth fastest in the country. A look at the 10 metros with the fastest job growth includes a who's who of housing boom towns. Port St. Lucie and

Ocala

in

Florida

make the list. So do

Las Vegas

,

Phoenix

and

Riverside

,

Calif.

  "These were housing-juiced economies and were ground zero for the housing boom," says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Economy.com.  As the housing market skidded, the fallout has been severe in these areas. Job growth slowed dramatically in all of these metros in 2007. Housing prices fell 11% in Port St. Lucie in 2007, and they got a 7% haircut in Vegas and

Cape Coral

.

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/OPINION01/804270307/1008

Keep an eye on contractors who donate to defense fund

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Editorial

Some of the major organizers of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's legal defense fund either already have or are seeking contracts with city government. Supporters of the mayor have every right to contribute to his defense fund, but Detroit City Council members must make sure that people seeking work from the city don't face undue pressure to make a contribution to the fund.   It would be in the city's best interest for council to closely monitor those who do business with the city and also contribute to the legal defense fund.   The Detroit News has reported that fundraisers for the operation have at least $5 million in current or pending city contracts. Of the 13 known committee members on the mayor's defense fund, five have either city contracts or other financial ties to the city or mayor.   Among them, The News reported, are attorney David Baker Lewis, whose firm the mayor wants to handle bond sales for his $300 million economic stimulus package; banker Donald Davis, who has two proposals pending before the city, and the Rev. Horace Sheffield III, who already has city contracts.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/METRO/804280365

Lawyer: No texts in Greene suit

Beatty's attorney seeks to quash subpoenas seeking city, police officials' messages.

George Hunter and Paul Egan / The

Detroit

News

Monday, April 28, 2008

DETROIT

-- The attorney for former mayoral chief of staff Christine Beatty wants text messages that were sent between city and police officials excluded from a lawsuit brought by the family of Tamara Greene, the exotic dancer who was killed in a 2003 drive-by shooting.   Mayer Morganroth, Beatty's attorney in the Greene case, on Friday filed a motion in U.S. District Court to quash subpoenas seeking the text messages, claiming the federal Stored Communications Act bars their release in a civil lawsuit, unless the person sending or receiving the messages gives permission for their release.   "This court should prohibit all discovery of electronic communications purportedly pertaining to Beatty from any source whatsoever inasmuch as Beatty has not authorized the release of any communications relating to her," Morganroth wrote in his motion.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/BIZ/804280386

Housing slump hits builders

Suppliers, jobs vanish as piles of unsold homes in Metro

Detroit

make new construction rare.

Louis Aguilar / The

Detroit

News

Monday, April 28, 2008

Metro

Detroit

's dismal residential housing market -- gridlocked and stagnant amid a global mortgage loan crisis, consumer sentiment at a 26-year low and a glut of unsold and foreclosed homes -- has cast a pall over local builders who only a few years ago were enjoying boom times.   Now, half-built subdivisions dot the region, construction workers are fleeing south and companies from family-owned shops to global firms like Pulte Homes Inc. are bracing for what could be their worst year yet.   One national player, Dallas-based Centex Corp., has decided to leave

Michigan

altogether. The company has built 4,400 homes in Metro Detroit since 2001 but no longer sees prospects here.   Said Centex spokesman Eric Bruner: "We are in the middle of the worst housing market in modern history."

NATIONAL STORIES

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90ADOSO1&show_article=1&catnum=3

McCain calls Obama insensitive to poor people 

Apr 27 04:02 PM US/Eastern

By RASHA MADKOUR

Associated Press Writer

CORAL GALBES, Fla. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Sunday called Democratic rival Barack Obama insensitive to poor people and out of touch on economic issues.   The GOP nominee-in-waiting rapped his Democratic rival for opposing his idea to suspend the tax on fuel during the summer, a proposal that McCain believes will particularly help low-income people who usually have older cars that guzzle more gas.   "I noticed again today that Sen. Obama repeated his opposition to giving low-income Americans a tax break, a little bit of relief so they can travel a little further and a little longer, and maybe have a little bit of money left over to enjoy some other things in their lives," McCain said. "Obviously Sen. Obama does not understand that this would be a nice thing for Americans, and the special interests should not be dictating this policy."   The

Arizona

senator deflected questions about his record on the Bush administration's tax cuts—he initially opposed them but now supports extending them—by again criticizing Obama.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2548652220080428?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true

McCain focuses on lower costs on health-care tour

Mon Apr 28, 2008 12:35am EDT

By Steve Holland

LITTLE ROCK,

Arkansas

(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain and former rival Mike Huckabee dodged talk of whether Huckabee could be McCain's vice presidential running mate as they campaigned together on Friday.  Former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee maintained his race for the Republican presidential nomination even after it was clear McCain was going to clinch the position, only withdrawing once McCain secured sufficient nominating delegates in March.  The two men, however, have developed a friendly relationship -- based in part on the chats they had while sometimes waiting lengthy periods for questions to come to them during many Republican presidential debates.  McCain considers Huckabee quick on his feet with a quip and likes his ability to attract conservative Republicans, who were cool to McCain during much of his race for the nomination.  Huckabee has called the vice presidential position a job that no one could refuse but also one he does not expect to be offered. That has not stopped pundits from speculating about the possibility of a McCain-Huckabee ticket.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/gop_needs_new_strategy_in_the.html

GOP Needs New Strategy in the South

By David Broder

April 27, 2008

TUPELO, Miss. -- While the eyes of the political world were focused on Pennsylvania last week, I played hooky for a day at the invitation of the Lee County Library and bumped into a story as revealing in its way as the latest round in the struggle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Among other things, it explains why John McCain found it useful to spend last week touring poverty-stricken areas in the South, where Republicans rarely go.  On the same day that Pennsylvanians gave

Clinton

a victory that still left unclear who will eventually be the Democratic nominee, voters in

Mississippi

's 1st Congressional District failed to settle who will fill the seat left vacant when Republican incumbent Roger Wicker was appointed to the Senate.  The seat has belonged to the GOP ever since the retirement of the legendary Jamie Whitten, a conservative Democrat, who held it for 53 years. Wicker succeeded him in 1994 and established a Whitten-like hold on the district, winning with 79 percent and 66 percent of the vote in the last two elections. President Bush carried it easily in both his races too.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0408/Citing_Obama_McCain_shifts_on_use_of_Wright.html

Citing Obama, McCain shifts on use of Wright

By Jonathan Martin 04:52 PM

April 27, 2008

Pointing to Barack Obama's remark today on "Fox News Sunday" that his former pastor was "a legitimate political issue," John McCain this afternoon brought up two new controversial statements by Jeremiah Wright that have recently surfaced.  "I saw yesterday some additional comments that have been revealed by Pastor Wright, one of them comparing the United States Marine Corps with Roman legionnaires who were responsible for the death of our Savior," said McCain, responding to a question only about the North Carolina GOP ad, at a news conference in Coral Gables, Fla,  He also cited comments Wright made that seemed to compare the United States and Al Qaeda.  But even while raising the Wright comments unprompted, McCain continued to say that he didn't think Obama held similar views.  When it was noted that he had previously said Wright was not fair game, McCain again alluded to Obama's statement this morning.  "But Senator Obama himself says it's a legitimate political issue, so I would imagine that many other people will share that view, and it will be in the arena," McCain said.

Pointing to past comments by McCain and his advisers that they would stay away from Wright, Obama's campaign quickly pounced.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0408/Dems_out_with_new_ad_hitting_McCain_on_war.html

Dems out with new ad hitting McCain on war

April 27, 2008

Having hit McCain on the economy last week, the DNC rolls out an ad today with some arresting images from

Iraq

going after him for his "100 years" comment and tying him to Bush.  It will air this week on cable channels.  Howard Dean offered the preview on "Meet the Press" and laid down a pre-emptive response to the McCain/GOP response that McCain was alluding to a peaceful U.S. presence in the country a la South Korea or post-WW II Germany :  “Now, does anyone think who's watching this show that if you keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years, people won't be attacking them and won't be setting off suicide bombs and won't be having militias go after them? I don't think so. And most Americans don't think so."  The McCain camp deferred its response to the RNC, which noted recent reports of meetings between DNC officials and the two Democratic campaigns in charging that the ad represented an illegal in-kind contribution.  “This morning we saw yet another advertisement being announced by the Democrat National Committee which is not only illegal, but a complete distortion of Senator McCain’s comments and record."

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26248

Chicago

Redux in

Denver

by Jed Babbin

Posted: 04/28/2008

Barack Obama did something important yesterday. He proved that a neophyte politician can learn enough on the job to be a credible presidential candidate.  But what he still lacks is the power and stature to heal his divided party.  In a Fox News Sunday interview with Chris Wallace, Obama appeared poised, charming and reasonable.  Wallace pressed him gently on a number of issues: taxes, the effect of his race on his competitiveness, and the war, among others.  Gone were the flutters and flusters of the ABC Pennsylvania primary debate, the abrupt reactions in the post-Ohio press conference.  You can’t credit his handlers for a performance like this.  He’s not the “Obambi” deer-in-the-headlights any more.     Obama seemed confident that he could unify a Democratic Party that is more divided, more wounded than at any time since Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek his party’s nomination for president in 1968.  But can he?

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26240

Federally Mandated Health Care Ahead?

by Brian Darling

Posted: 04/28/2008

Are we getting closer to socialized medicine? Some in the Senate are pushing for a bill to replace our current flawed health system with one that involves a complete federal takeover of our health care system, complete with mandates and federally approved, state-crafted plans.  This Hillary Care-light approach, sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah) is called the “Healthy Americans Act.” We’re already dangerously close to socialized medicine; some estimates predict that health care spending is approaching a 50/50 split between the public and private sectors. Yet the Wyden-Bennett approach would lead to even more government control of individual health care decision-making.   Federal mandates and new taxes for people who refuse to buy insurance sound like a combination only a liberal would embrace. Yet some right-leaning Republicans have jumped aboard because the bill addresses some tax inequities in our health care system.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26250

The War Among the Democrats

by John Batchelor

Posted: 04/28/2008

With four months to go until the Democratic National Convention in

Denver

Colorado

August 24-28, what is now clear is that the two warring camps in the party mean to fight out the nomination to the floor itself and at least the first ballot.  This is a full scale civil war in the Democratic Party.  Both camps identify four major fronts where the combat will be sophisticated, ruthless and round-the-clock.   The first major battlefront is cash.  The Obama campaign is clearly dominant, raising a dumbfounding $235 million overall, with $42 million on hand and more each hour.  I received four requests for $25 in the first half day after

Pennsylvania

was declared.   Accordingly the Obama campaign now makes the sharp attack that the

Clinton

campaign is in debt and cannot get to the convention at the burn rate of up to $1 million per day.  The

Clinton

campaign reacted sharply.  Phil Singer of the

Clinton

campaign was keen to text message Politico.com on Tuesday night of

Pennsylvania

, "As of 1130 PM tonight, we are nearly at $2.5 million since PA was called for HRC…."  By the next day it was up to $10 million on the website, and the

Clintons

were opening offices and dispatching field teams to

North Carolina

. The

Clintons

cannot match the Obama cash machine, but the

Clinton

campaign can finance the journey to

Denver

.  Counting on either side to run short of cash is like waiting for Lee or Grant to run out of bullets.

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/OPINION01/804270560/1068/OPINION

Muscle up for fair trade

Next president must push hard to open foreign markets to

U.S.

goods

April 27, 2008

The

United States

cannot back away from free trade nor put the globalization genie back in a bottle. But the next administration has to do far more to ensure fair trade, using the muscle of the American market to make sure everyone is playing by the same basic rules.  American manufacturing doesn't need protection from the global economy; it needs access and a president who will be aggressive about maintaining it.  Working through the World Trade Organization, which the

United States

was instrumental in establishing 15 years ago, the goal of

U.S.

trade policy should be pretty simple: fairness, both ways, a concept not yet widely accepted in the every-nation-for-itself realm of global commerce. Everybody wants access to the American market. Fine. But if you want to ship stuff here, open your markets there to U.S.-made goods -- and all the way. Enforce intellectual property laws that are supposed to protect ideas from being stolen and copied. And don't send those knockoffs here.  If you want to sell something here, then make it here or make it right, which means make it safe for American consumers. Call it a form of protectionism, if you want, but what's wrong with the U.S. government getting serious about protecting people in this country from shoddy, unsafe or illegal copycat products through much more thorough cargo inspections at all U.S. ports of entry?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120916804732546311.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Twenty-Five Years Later, A Nation Still at Risk

By

CHESTER

E. FINN JR.

April 26, 2008; Page A7

Today marks the 25th anniversary of "A Nation at Risk," the influential Reagan-era report by a blue-ribbon panel that alerted Americans to the weak performance of our education system. The report warned of a "rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people." That dire forecast set off a quarter century of education reform that's yielded worthy changes – yet still not the achievement gains we need to turn back the tide of mediocrity.  After decades of furthering educational "equality," the 1983 commission admonished the country, it was time to attend to academic excellence and school results. Educators didn't want to hear this and a generation later many still don't. Our ponderous public-school system resists change. Teachers don't like criticism and are loath to be judged by pupil performance. In educator circles, one still encounters grumbling that "A Nation at Risk" lodged a bum rap.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1089968

Voters will fall into (party) line come November

By Ann McFeatters

Sunday, April 27, 2008 - Added 19h ago

WASHINGTON - At various times during the past few months, as many as 25 percent of Democrats have said they’ll vote for John McCain if Barack Obama/Hillary Rodham Clinton is not the party nominee.  Some conservative Republicans have said stormily they’ll vote for the Democrat over McCain because they think he’s too liberal.  After the sturm und drang of the Democratic primary season (and it will end), what can we expect for the fall election?  We will see both parties running full-tilt to win the White House. The issues are simply too critical for mainstream Democrats and mainstream Republicans to 1) throw away their vote or 2) sit out the election.  If the nominee is Obama - as mathematics still would indicate, despite

Clinton

’s victories in

Ohio

and

Pennsylvania

- thousands of newly registered Democrats will vote, and vote enthusiastically. Even the

Clinton

machine will go into hyperdrive to try to help make sure he beats McCain.  If

Clinton

somehow rallies to secure the nomination, some Obama-or-bust backers may stay home, but rank-and-file Democrats will be out in force.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9902.html

Obama's senior difficulty

By DAVID PAUL KUHN

4/27/08 5:19 PM EST 

Barack Obama’s difficulty attracting older voters now far exceeds Hillary Rodham Clinton’s own weaknesses with youth.   Repeatedly during the tight race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama, who’s been defined in part by his popularity among young voters, has seen that strength undercut by his failings with seniors.   In the Pennsylvania and Ohio primaries, Obama lost older whites by 30 percentage points, while Clinton split white voters under age 30 in both critical contests. Obama’s senior problem is even greater among Hispanics. The

Illinois

senator lost older Latinos by 40 to 60 percentage points in

Texas

,

New Mexico

and

California

.   Obama has acknowledged the issue, telling reporters on Wednesday that “older voters are very loyal to Senator Clinton” and citing it as “the problem” underlying his loss in

Pennsylvania

.   Within his campaign, though, one senior adviser allowed, there has been no detailed polling or focus groups to help better understand the problem.   In many respects, age is proving perhaps the most immutable fault line of the Democratic race. Older, college-educated voters consistently favor

Clinton

, though by small margins. Obama’s weakness is largely among seniors without college degrees, whom

Clinton

wins 3-to-1.  Even in

Wisconsin

, where the white working class moved to Obama, he lost whites age 60 and older by 9 percentage points.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/04/27/obamas_mainstream_friends/

Obama's 'mainstream' friends

By Jeff Jacoby

Globe Columnist / April 27, 2008

SHOULD VOTERS care that Barack Obama is friendly with William Ayers, a onetime leader of the Weather Underground terrorist group that committed dozens of bombings and other violent crimes between 1969 and 1975? That question came up during the recent Democratic debate in

Philadelphia

, and scorn by the bucketful was heaped on the ABC moderators who asked it.  The Washington Post's Tom Shales, for example, was appalled that Obama should be confronted with "such tired tripe" as the fact that he "once associated with a nutty bomb-throwing anarchist." Michael Grunwald of Time derided the "extremely stupid politics" responsible for questions like the one about the "obscure sixties radical" with whom Obama "was allegedly 'friendly.' " Other commentators were even more outraged.  The chorus of protests echoed Obama's own defense. When George Stephanopoulos challenged him to explain his relationship with the unrepentant former terrorists - "I don't regret setting bombs," Ayers told The New York Times. "I feel we didn't do enough" - the senator dismissed the issue as irrelevant.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/04/27/2008-04-27_obamas_race_talk_off_point.html

Obama's race talk off point

Sunday, April 27th 2008, 4:00 AM

The old tale is a personal favorite for its insight into racial and ethnic calculation in politics. It goes like this: A fictitious town whose population is 90% Irish Catholic and 10% Jewish is electing a mayor and there are two candidates, one Irish and one Jewish.   The Irish candidate wins 90% of the vote, to 10% for the Jewish candidate. The winner begins his victory speech by praising his Irish Catholic supporters, then deplores the clannishness of the Jews!  Fast forward to the presidential race, where reality imitates comedy. With Barack Obama routinely getting 90% of the black vote, but only about 35% of the white vote, his top campaign aides are suggesting white racism is a problem.   "I'm sure there is some of that," David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, told The New York Times about the impact of race after Obama lost Pennsylvania by 10 points. Axelrod added: "Here's a guy named Barack Obama, an African-American guy, relatively new. That's a lot of change."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080427172850.c85q9ia0&show_article=1&catnum=3

Obama says he will set timetable for

Baghdad

 

Apr 27 01:29 PM US/Eastern

Democratic Senator Barack Obama warned Sunday that if he is elected president he would set a performance timetable for the Iraqi government and not sit aside "while they dither."   Asked in an interview on Fox News how he would handle the US mission in Iraq if he wins the presidency in the November election, he left open the possibility that he would would continue to work with the war's current architects, including General David Petraeus, who was named last week to lead US forces in the entire Middle East, pending Senate confirmation.   "I will listen to General Petraeus, given the experience that he's accumulated over the last several years. It would be stupid of me to ignore what he has to say," Obama said.   "What I will do is say, we have a new mission. It's my strategic assessment that we have to provide a timetable to the Iraqi government," he added.   Obama said that while he would welcome tactical advice from the current

US

commanders, "What I will not do is to continue to let the Iraqi government off the hook and allow them to put our foreign policy on ice, while they dither about making decisions about how they're going to cooperate with each other."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134398

Only in

America

Barack Obama is a Niebuhr-reading ESPN watcher. The origins of his troubles with the 'other' tag.

By Evan Thomas, Holly Bailey and Richard Wolffe

NEWSWEEK

May 5, 2008 Issue

There was a time, not so long ago, when the advisers to John McCain worried a great deal about running against Barack Obama. "We'll never get those kind of crowds," a McCain aide admitted, almost mournfully, to a NEWSWEEK reporter as they stood watching television coverage of a packed Obama rally in

South Carolina

last January. Obama seemed to have a kind of transcendent power, an ability to convince voters that he was not just another politician. Most McCain aides at the time wanted to run against Hillary Clinton, whom they regarded as a traditional tax-and-spend Democrat with unusually high negative ratings.  But lately, McCain aides have been making gleeful jokes about Obama. On the campaign trail, at dinner with reporters, they sometimes order the arugula salad, poking fun at some comments Obama made last summer in Iowa ("Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?"). "Do you see how much they are charging for this?" a McCain aide asked a reporter at one such dinner at a restaurant, pointing to the menu and feigning shock.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/TWSFPView.asp

 

More Obama on FNS 

Posted by Michael Goldfarb at 04:15 PM

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Chris Wallace asked Obama if he would vote to confirm Petraeus as commander of CENTCOM. Obama responded:  Yes. I think Petraeus has done a good tactical job in

Iraq

. I think as a practical matter, obviously that’s where most of the attention has been devoted from this administration over the last several years.  I was also a big respecter of Admiral Fallon, who Petraeus is now replacing and I think it was unfortunate that the administration wasn’t listening more to the observations of Fallon that we have to think about more than just

Iraq

. That we’ve got issues with

Iran

and

Pakistan

and

Afghanistan

and our singular focus on

Iraq

I think has distracted us.  My hope is that Petraeus would reflect that wider view of our strategic interests.  Obama has no choice but to pretend that

Iraq

is a tactical sideshow with little relevance to our broader conflict against Islamic extremism. This is why he praises the 'good tactical job' Petraeus has done in

Iraq

but in the same breath falsely asserts that the general hasn't viewed

Iraq

in the 'wider view of our strategic interests.' Though ignored by most in the media, just two weeks ago Petraeus explained, in his opening congressional testimony, how Iraq fits into our broader conflict with al Qaeda and why success there will strike a significant blow against Islamic extremism:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/opinion/27dowd.html?hp

Desperately Seeking Street Cred

By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: April 27, 2008

Maybe I’ve been reading too many stories about the fad of teenage vampire chick lit, worlds filled with parasitic aliens and demi-human creatures, but there’s something eerie going on in this race.  Hillary grows more and more glowy as Obama grows more and more wan. Is she draining him of his precious bodily fluids? Leeching his magic? Siphoning off his aura?   It used to be that he was incandescent and she was merely inveterate. Now she’s bristling with life force, and he looks like he wants to run away somewhere for three months by himself and smoke.  Hillary is not getting much sleep or exercise, and doesn’t, like the ascetic Obama, abstain from junk food and coffee and get up at dawn to work out on the road. She’s still a long shot and she’s 14 years older than her rival.   Yet she’s the one who is more energetic and focused and beaming, and he’s the one who seems uneven and gauzy, often fatigued and unable to disguise being fed up with the slog. Even his speeches don’t have the same pizazz.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9891.html

Obama team remains unshaken and unstirred

By CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN

4/27/08 7:48 AM EST 

After Sen. Barack Obama’s third major primary loss and endless media coverage dedicated to dissecting the apparent weaknesses of his candidacy, one of the most striking elements of his campaign this week was what’s missing: any hint of internal upheaval.   At Obama headquarters in

Chicago

, hundreds of miles removed from the Beltway bubble, advisers held steadfast in their adherence to The Plan, a blueprint devised 15 months ago by the same inner circle that runs the campaign today, supported by the candidate and carried out by a tight-knit staff.   Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s operation could not be more dissimilar. Her campaign, ensconced in a

Washington

suburb, has experienced two major staff shakeups fueled by high-level staff rivalries, shifting strategies and an unusual degree of finger-pointing.   The contrast raises the question: How has the Obama campaign managed to maintain an island of comparative calm?  A winning record undoubtedly aids the cohesion, Obama advisers and unaffiliated Democratic strategists said, but so do other key dynamics: a candidate intolerant of infighting, a clear line of authority and a healthy distance from the city they want to take over.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/026gnplm.asp

Carter's Heir

He's a senator from

Illinois

.

by Matthew Continetti

05/05/2008, Volume 013, Issue 32

"Senator Obama does not agree with President Carter's decision to go forward with this meeting because he does not support negotiations with Hamas until they renounce terrorism, recognize

Israel

's right to exist, and abide by past agreements."

--Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki, April 10, 2008  Jimmy Carter met with Hamas anyway, of course. He embraced Khaled Meshal, its leader, in

Damascus

on April 18. On April 19--Passover Eve--Hamas terrorists driving armored personnel carriers and car bombs disguised as Israeli Defense Force jeeps attacked border crossings in the Gaza Strip, wounding more than a dozen Israeli soldiers. All as Hamas fired rockets into the Israeli city of

Sderot

, home to some 20,000 men, women, and children. The goal? Same as always: terror and death.  On April 21, Carter announced to the world that Hamas would honor a peace deal with

Israel

negotiated by the Palestinian Authority if a majority of Palestinians also assented in a referendum. A few hours later, Carter's new friend Meshal contradicted him in public.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134316

Questions for Obama

Have you told young couples straining to buy their first home that declining prices of houses are a misfortune?

THE LAST WORD George F. Will

May 5, 2008 Issue

Senator, concerning the criteria by which you will nominate judges, you said: "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old." Such sensitivities might serve an admirable legislator, but what have they to do with judging? Should a judge side with whichever party in a controversy stirs his or her empathy? Is such personalization of the judicial function inimical to the rule of law?  Voting against the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts, you said: Deciding "truly difficult cases" should involve "one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one's empathy." Is that not essentially how Chief Justice Roger Taney decided the Dred Scott case? Should other factors—say, the language of the constitutional or statutory provision at issue—matter?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/27/ST2008042702368.html?hpid=topnews

Democrats Registering In Record Numbers

1 Million New Voters For Last 7 Primaries

By Eli Saslow

Washington

Post Staff Writer

Monday, April 28, 2008; Page A01

RALEIGH, N.C. -- They lined up shoulder to shoulder inside the gray high-rise downtown, their politics as diverse as their backgrounds. An ex-felon who needs health insurance, followed by a high school student seeking empowerment, followed by a Marine Corps veteran who wants to prevent his country from crumbling.   Like hundreds of others, their quests led them to the

Wake

County

voter services office this month to register as Democrats for the first time. The line of newcomers that snaked across the checkered tile floor was emblematic of those that have formed across the country this year: black voters, young voters, lifelong Republicans switching parties -- all registering in record numbers, and all aligning as Democrats.   Elections Director Cherie Poucher waited for them behind a counter with a jar of pens and a 10-inch stack of registration forms. She had hired 10 people from a temp agency to help handle the rush on this final day of

North Carolina

voter registration. Now, as she watched four more people file through the door, Poucher wished she had hired more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/opinion/28kristol.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Hillary Gets No Respect

By WILLIAM KRISTOL

Published: April 28, 2008

I normally don’t claim to speak for other members of the vast right-wing conspiracy. After all, we’re each nefarious in our own, individual way. Indeed, we often disagree with one another.  But I do think I can speak for most of my fellow right-wingers when I say this: We once looked forward with unambivalent glee to the fall of the house of

Clinton

. Many of us still do. But we also see the liberal media failing to give Hillary Clinton the respect she deserves. So, since we conservatives believe in giving credit where credit is due, it falls to us to praise Hillary.  The fact is Hillary Clinton has turned out to be an impressive candidate. She has consistently defeated Barack Obama when her back was to the wall — first in New Hampshire, then in several big primaries on Super Tuesday, on March 4 in Ohio and Texas, and then last week in Pennsylvania, where she was outspent by almost 3 to 1, yet won handily.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3822537.ece

Hillary Clinton risks rift in Democrats by ‘cheating’ black voters

April 27, 2008

Hillary Clinton is pinning her hopes on the party’s superdelegates to gift her the nomination. But America’s most senior black congressman warns she is playing with fire and could force a split in the Democrats  Sarah Baxter in Fayetteville, North Carolina   The most senior black congressman in America had a tough warning for Hillary Clinton this weekend as she fought to wrest the Democratic presidential nomination from Barack Obama.   “We’ll be playing with fire if we interfere with the voters’ choice,” James Clyburn, the party’s chief whip in the House of Representatives, told The Sunday Times. “African-Americans will feel cheated.”   

Clinton

is hoping to win by persuading superdelegates – the party officials with a free vote and the power to tip the nomination at the Democratic convention in August – to back her, even if Obama is in the lead once all the primaries and caucuses have been held.   But Clyburn, who has yet to endorse either candidate, believes this path would be suicidal for the Democrats. African-Americans were not the only ones who would feel betrayed, he said. “Barack Obama has brought in a lot of young voters for the first time, and they’ll feel cheated too.” Many

Clinton

supporters are equally adamant that their candidate must win because white Americans are not going to elect a black president. Either way, Democrats are on a collision course.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/clintons_endearing_fictions.html

Clinton

's Endearing Fictions

By Steve Chapman

April 27, 2008

During the

Pennsylvania

primary campaign, Barack Obama made a rather charitable gesture not only toward his Democratic rival but toward the presumptive Republican nominee as well. "You have real choice in this election," he told a crowd in

Reading

. "You know, either Democrat would be better than John McCain, but ... all three of us would be better than George Bush."  That was all it took to set off Hillary Clinton. She rattled off a list of McCain's misguided positions, asking her audience over and over, "Is that better than George Bush?" She concluded, "We need a nominee who will take on John McCain, not cheer on John McCain, and I will be that nominee."  It came as a revelation to hear that Obama, who I thought was plotting to become president, actually has been shrewdly maneuvering himself in position to lead the pom squad at McCain's inauguration. But there was something else that struck me as strange about

Clinton

's reaction: Obama was not the first of the two Democrats to say something nice about the

Arizona

senator. He was the second.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/opinion/27rich.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

How McCain Lost in

Pennsylvania

By FRANK RICH

Published: April 27, 2008

IT’S a nightmare. It’s the Bataan Death March. It’s mutually assured Armageddon. “Both of them are already losing the general to John McCain,” declared a Newsweek columnist last month, predicting that the election “may already be over” by the time the Democrats anoint a nominee.  Not so fast. If we’ve learned any new rule in the 2008 campaign, it’s this: Once our news culture sets a story in stone, chances are it will crumble. But first it must be recycled louder and louder 24/7, as if sheer repetition will transmute conventional wisdom into reality.  When the

Pennsylvania

returns rained down Tuesday night, the narrative became clear fast. The Democrats’ exit polls spelled disaster: Some 25 percent of the primary voters said they would defect to Mr. McCain or not vote at all if Barack Obama were the nominee. How could the party possibly survive this bitter, perhaps race-based civil war?   But as the doomsday alarm grew shrill, few noticed that on this same day in Pennsylvania, 27 percent of Republican primary voters didn’t just tell pollsters they would defect from their party’s standard-bearer; they went to the polls, gas prices be damned, to vote against Mr. McCain. Though ignored by every channel I surfed, there actually was a G.O.P. primary on Tuesday, open only to registered Republicans. And while it was superfluous in determining that party’s nominee, 220,000 Pennsylvania Republicans (out of their total turnout of 807,000) were moved to cast ballots for Mike Huckabee or, more numerously, Ron Paul. That’s more voters than the margin (215,000) that separated Hillary Clinton and Mr. Obama.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/the_parker_six_beat_mccainism.html

The Parker Six Beat McCainism

By George Will

April 27, 2008

WASHINGTON

-- Ugly locutions often crop up in the promotion of ugly politics. Consider the threat of "scrutinization."   It has been made against some residents of Parker North,

Colo.

, who expressed a political opinion without first getting their state government's permission for political activity. Herewith another example of what is being done around the nation in the name of political hygiene, as that is understood by "campaign finance reformers," those irksome improvers whose animating ideology is McCainism.   Parker North is a cluster of about 300 houses close to the town of

Parker

. When two residents proposed a vote on annexation of their subdivision to Parker, six others began trying to persuade the rest to oppose annexation. They printed lawn signs and fliers, started an online discussion group and canvassed neighbors, little knowing that they were provoking

Colorado

's speech police.   One proponent of annexation sued them. This tactic -- wielding campaign finance regulations to suppress opponents' speech -- is common in the

America

of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. The complaint did not just threaten the Parker Six for any "illegal activities." It also said that anyone who had contacted them or received a lawn sign might be subjected to "investigation, scrutinization and sanctions for campaign finance violations."

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2743592420080427?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Embattled

Puerto Rico

governor seeks re-election

Sun Apr 27, 2008 5:08pm EDT

By John Marino

SAN JUAN

, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - A month after his

U.S.

federal indictment on campaign finance fraud charges, Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila said on Sunday he will seek re-election in November.  The announcement came at a meeting of Acevedo Vila's Popular Democrat Party in

San Juan

, where more than 5,000 delegates ratified a resolution vowing to support him as their candidate despite his legal problems.  The party favors maintaining Puerto Rico's status as a commonwealth rather than seeking full

U.S.

statehood for the

Caribbean

island.  "I am ready to bring you the victory we need," the governor told cheering supporters.  "Federal authorities think they can subvert the will of our party. They thought by this date, this party would be on its knees. This is the answer to their abuse of power."  Acevedo Vila has accused

U.S.

federal authorities of filing trumped-up charges against him to help his opponent in the November election, Luis Fortuno, the Republican head of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party.

Federal prosecutors indicted Acevedo Vila on 19 criminal charges on March 27. Twelve of his political associates, including contributors, campaign staff and aides, were indicted on related charges.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/26/ST2008042602333.html?hpid=topnews

The New Economics of Hunger

A brutal convergence of events has hit an unprepared global market, and grain prices are sky high. The world's poor suffer most.

By Anthony Faiola

Washington

Post Staff Writer

Sunday, April 27, 2008; Page A01

The globe's worst food crisis in a generation emerged as a blip on the big boards and computer screens of

America

's great grain exchanges. At first, it seemed like little more than a bout of bad weather.   In

Chicago

,

Minneapolis

and

Kansas City

, traders watched from the pits early last summer as wheat prices spiked amid mediocre harvests in the

United States

and Europe and signs of prolonged drought in

Australia

. But within a few weeks, the traders discerned an ominous snowball effect -- one that would eventually bring down a prime minister in Haiti, make more children in Mauritania go to bed hungry, even cause American executives at Sam's Club to restrict sales of large bags of rice.   As prices rose, major grain producers including

Argentina

and

Ukraine

, battling inflation caused in part by soaring oil bills, were moving to bar exports on a range of crops to control costs at home. It meant less supply on world markets even as global demand entered a fundamentally new phase. Already, corn prices had been climbing for months on the back of booming government-subsidized ethanol programs. Soybeans were facing pressure from surging demand in

China

. But as supplies in the pipelines of global trade shrank, prices for corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, rice and other grains began shooting through the roof.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3822830.ece

Britons kidnapped in

Iraq

are ‘held by

Iran

’

April 27, 2008

Uzi Mahnaimi and Michael Smith

Five British hostages who were kidnapped in

Iraq

almost a year ago are being held inside

Iran

by Revolutionary Guards, according to two separate sources in the Middle East and

London

.   The hostages were handed over to the Revolutionary Guards by their Iraqi kidnappers last November, the sources believe. One of the sources said they were being held in the western Iranian city of

Hamadan

.   If confirmed, the involvement of Revolutionary Guards would be seen as evidence that senior figures in the Iranian government had backed the decision to hold them in the country.   However, British officials said that while there had been rumours that the five were in

Iran

, they had seen no evidence to support the idea. The hostages are said to be in good physical shape but spending much of their time in solitary confinement.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/what_petraeus_would_face_in_af.html

What Petraeus Would Face in

Afghanistan

By David Ignatius

April 27, 2008

KABUL

-- For many Americans who are weary of

Iraq

,

Afghanistan

is the "good war" where the

U.S.

and its European allies are destroying what's left of al- Qaeda and the Taliban. That view certainly holds with the Democratic presidential candidates, who talk of adding more troops in

Afghanistan

next year even as they pull troops out of

Iraq

.   But "bad"

Iraq

has more in common with "good"

Afghanistan

than people sometimes realize. Both have evolved into classic counterinsurgencies with a "clear and hold" strategy for providing security; both show the benefits of a military surge; and both run the risk of failure because of weak and corrupt host governments.   Soon, the same

U.S.

commander -- Gen. David Petraeus -- will be overseeing both battlefields. If confirmed in the new post as head of Centcom, Petraeus will have to balance

U.S.

military needs in

Iraq

with those in

Afghanistan

. Given that Petraeus literally wrote the book on counterinsurgency for the military, his oversight should be good for both theaters.