OCEAN WASTELAND

Out to Sea – The Plastic Garbage Project just opened in the Zurich Museum of Design / Switzerland.
Photo: The central installation: Every 15 seconds this amount of plastic garbage gets released into the sea…. Free entrance. Program: www.PlasticGarbageProject.org

Christians Vs Jews: Romney -- Everybody's Second Choice

Foster Friess ....................................... .....................Sheldon Adelson

March 7th, 2012

Well, well, well... The morning after Super-Tuesday in the GOP primaries political reality sets in. Mitt Romney would and could well lose his tenuous hold on the Republican Presidential nomination this year were it not for a religious standoff between the two humongous donors who alone are keeping financially alive the candidacies of his only real challengers.

Had either Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich been given a clear field yesterday to unify the right-wing discontent that holds ex-Massachusetts' Governor Romney in contempt his candidacy would have ground to a halt. The possibility remains it might still. Without both candidates vying for the same voters yesterday and last week, Rick Santorum would have won Michigan, Ohio and Georgia, in addition to Tennessee, North Dakota and Oklahoma, and Mr. Romney's candidacy would be in utter shambles.

Mr. Adelson, Gingrich's lone financial supporter, has quite publicly declared his fondness for Mr. Romney. The only major Santorum funder, Mr. Friess loathes Mr. Gingrich but appears quite ready to support Mr. Romney should he win the nomination. The millions they are donating to Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum, respectively, both of whom have virtually no other financial support to keep their campaigns going, appear to be advanced against the possibility either Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum would find themselves as the sole 'conservative' candidate.

Up until this moment it has seemed the height of stupidity. Why would two billionaires waste money backing utterly implausible candidates whose candidacies would implode without them? That is, until this morning. The results of the ten primaries yesterday make clear these moguls are no fools. They have been, as usual, prescient. With only one or the other of them operating their "first choice" candidate would now be the presumptive frontrunner. The GOP would be in a state of near-total collapse.

Without them both making it impossible for either Santorum or Gingrich to walk away from their vast financial commitments, their opposite number would have unified the anti-Romney voters (simply through grassroots and small dollar donations) and yesterday overwhelmed the Romney behemoth.

The otherwise reckless and ridiculous sums they have spent seemed sheer idiocy before now. However, today it is clear Romney could not make his way to the nomination without their countervailing donations to Santorum and Gingrich.

The Teaparty should be furious. But that they are very dim bulbs has once again been proved, this time by the fact they have not twitched to the game even yet.

A quick look at the very different lifestyles and political agendas of the 'gentlemen' above explains how and why they have become natural nemeses. What shouldn't be lost on observers is that they have both been proved cannily right. Absent the other Mr. Romney's candidacy would have sunk yesterday, laid low by either Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum. And Ron Paul's part in this play is morally loathsome. He has neutralized and thoroughly neutered the Libertarian vote in the service of nominating a big business, big government, big military candidate -- a man who shares absolutely none of the values of his constituency.

True, Gingrich and Santorum are both incompetent -- one a zealous, unprincipled demagogue, the other a moral idiot. But Paul claims to be running to further ideals both of these men share. What's his idealistic motive for furthering Mitt Romney?

Iowa: What Counts -- The Romney Takeaway

Mitt wins IOWA 2012 by 8 votes, 6 votes less than he received in 2008.

The chattering classes have another 28 days until South Carolina to fan the dying embers of this Republican Primary season into something more than a fizz-out. Romney will win New Hampshire and come very close if not outright win in South Carolina and it will be all over but the shouting. Here's a sampling of such pointless punditry:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71061.html

http://www.thetakeaway.org/2012/jan/04/

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-big-takeaway-from-iowa-75-percent-of-republicans-dont-want-mitt-romney-2012-1

The voters who will decide this year's Presidential election are still asleep.

What matters is not that Mitt Romney is clearly an underwhelming choice for President as viewed by Iowa caucus-goers and the right-wing, dogmatic, misinformed base of his own party.

What matters is that Mitt Romney will be an attractive choice for the undogmatic, uninformed will-o-the-wisp independents who decide American elections.

Iowa and the lunacy of the GOP field up until now is just so much sausage-making.

GRASPING AT STRAW POLLS

The perhaps more telling vulnerability that Mitt has shown appeared again last night in his 'victory' speech. It was in his forced, emotionally disconnected, pressurized ramble. Like his offer to bet Perry "10,000 dollars" it had the impulsive, thin-skinned hauteur he shows when he's threatened and disappointed.

Last night in Iowa that was likely due to the fact his 'handlers' had told him he would win and allowed him to go out and publicly declare himself the likely winner -- which he did -- only to find himself in a tie with a political non-entity, the latest NOT-ROMNEY.

Likely, most of the sturm-und-drang for Mitt the Twit is over for now. At the hands of our overly-civilized President he's likely to have a cushy ride until the end of October. But, if the economy ticks up and Romney's numbers go a bit south, the breathless, desperate Mitt and his wacky faith in his own anointment could provide the result most desired and that's best for the country.

Romney will undoubtedly be forced to run away from the Tea Party death squads in Congress who have destroyed every positive, conciliatory initiative the Democrats have offered. With no coat-tails of his own then, even a fairly narrow defeat of Romney could portend a sizable rollback of the Congressional crazies and leave a second Obama term with a thin, but governable working majority.

Well, No Newt Is Good Newt

Gingrich out of Virginia primary election

www.reuters.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has failed to meet the requirements to be in the primary election in his home state of Virginia, the state's Republican Party



Would someone please excoriate the GOP and the media for treating this unseemlyl food fight they call a nominating process as though it were a serious exercise when in fact it's transparently been 6 dwarfs on a book and self-promotion tour (ala Palin, the Queen of the new “Reality Show” politics-as-a means-of-achieving-instant-celebrity and wealth) with a petulant periennial candidate who their whole party basically can’t stand (Mitt the upperclass twit).

Breaking Non-News! Palin Not Running

Just wanna say before yall come breakin' down my door asking me to run for President, just to save ya the time and energy now that that fat guy from New Jersey has said he's not gonna run either, I figure I should let you know before that groundswell of support I could feel building out there got to be a regular Tsuranami, that I, Sarah Palin, won't be running for President either... So you don't need to bother asking.

The Book Biz -- 1201 SE 7th Avenue Portland, OR -- What Amazon Allows

"Dropshippers?"

What are they?

A 'dropshipper', for the uninitiated, is a volume buyer of books -- college texts, art books, any item at all -- who then ships them on to buyers elsewhere. At much higher prices, to places many local sellers may not want, or be able, to ship to, e.g., Eastern Europe.

The above address -- 1201 SE 7th Avenue Portland, OR -- is one most sellers on Amazon greet with dismay when it appears as the destination of a sales order. There are a host of buyers at that address, all possessed of Eastern European surnames (their nationality being utterly irrelevant except as it connects them) whom most surmise are "dropshippers".

At least that's been their cover. There's no law against it and no reason, therefore, Amazon should not allow them to operate with impunity.

Except these folks generate a huge number of seller complaints. Why?

Because they chronically harass small sellers with bogus orders, subsequent email requests for unpaid expedited shipping and refund demands for flawless items.

It happens with such regularity buying books would hardly seem to be their sole object.

Long threads on the AMAZON SELLERS COMMUNITY are filled with similar complaints. These complaints are met with lots of pushback from a handful of repeat "posters" (whose posts number in the thousands, "posters" whose names are unconnected to any seller account and who post so frequently they could hardly be managing sales operations). These "posters" appear to be professional scolds. Acting anonymously, they repeatedly attest to the reliability of these "dropshippers" and uniformly bat down, sometimes nastily, the complaints and demand sellers comply dutifully with sales requests.

It's hard to tell, consequently, how much of the "dropshippers" buying is untroubled and headed overseas, and how much is systematic harassment.

Not coincidentally, a software company at the same address sells an automatic "book pricing" product -- a product that insures a seller's price will remain lower than his competitors' by automatically lowering the price to below that of a comparable book.

That company, too, is headed by persons of the same nationality (again relevant only as it suggests a connection to the dropshippers) and a transparent connection to the dropshipping operation (whose seller name cannot be ascertained) has been suggested.

What both organizations have in common appears to be a form of price-influencing.

The dropshippers "buyer harassment" buys frequently target small sellers (and items) whose prices have undercut the outrageous sums some huge Amazon sellers ask for allegedly "new" out-of-print books. These huge sellers, who almost all certainly use pricing software on their cheaper books, can ask and get extravagant prices for rare "new" books when they are able to maintain a monopoly on books listed in "new" condition.

Both organizations at this Portland address appear to be coordinating what is essentially an 'arbitrage' operation. (They buy a 50-buck book to remove it from the market so the volume seller can sell their copies at $200 while degrading the value of the small seller's book through shipping wear and their assertion the book was never "new"). This complements their predatory pricing software in instances where volume sellers specifically don't want software to automatically reset prices -- i.e., dropping their $200 allegedly "new" book to $49.95.

And Amazon would appear to benefit from these harassing practices. It keeps prices and Amazon commissions high! So that while the pricing software sold at this address may make the price of many abundant, inexpensive book titles somewhat more competitive, Amazon gains far more by allowing these buyer/seller price-fixers to use the advantage of their size and coordination to maintain monopolies on "new" condition hard-to-find titles.

That Amazon is aware of these activities and account aliases and links (having spoken and written repeatedly to them) seems almost certain.

But, crucially, it would be hard to prove in court without access to all Amazon emails (including internal ones).

Why they don't stop them -- since Amazon is a power unto itself -- appears not unrelated to the fact pattern here presented.

But the real tortious question may be how much damage they do not to sellers, but to buyers. When Amazon is faced with a class action they may move expeditiously to end these practices.

Sheen For Gaddafi Switch Shakes Up TV Schedule

2 AND A HALF MEN to resume production with 'new' dictator; Libya to be ‘liberated’ by 'Carlos' Sheen.

In a daring move that both sides hope will immediately calm roiled waters, CBS and Tripoli switched-out self-proclaimed avatar geniuses. While the result appears to simultaneously solve huge PR and logistic problems sources close to the deal acknowledge the hasty trade of drug-addled stars involves substantial risks.

“I have told CBS that, while I am very excited for this new opportunity, I can only commit to one season,” said the former ruler from the Endeavor offices of agent Ari Emanuel. "Though I am thrilled to be working with the greatly talented Jon Cryer and Chuck Lorre, two giants of our industry.”

Meanwhile, frosh helmer Sheen subtlely shifted the focus of his recent diatribes. “Libya, under my leadership, remains unalterably opposed to the state of Israel and its terrorist agent, Chaim Levine.” On ankling his CBS series, the sitcom wildman said, “Sure, I hate to walk away from a fight, but do you know how much rock I can buy with 30 billion dollars?”

Sheen may at best be a temporary fix for Libya an aide to Secretary of State Clinton conceded, and execs at CBS were more than a little worried their top-rated show can survive with the Libyan strongman headlining. “Look, there’s no doubt Moamar can do comedy. But it remains to be seen whether American audiences will buy a show topped by a delusional egomaniac who isn’t a child of Hollywood royalty.”

Internet Access Blocked In Egypt -- Could It Happen Here... PLEASE!!

BEST CASE SCENARIO FOR 2012 ELECTION: If the 2010 midterms are a Republican Landslide

October 18th, 2010

The Democratic Prospects For 2012 Through Rosey Colored Glasses

The over/under on the midterms for Congress is, as of today, a likely loss of 50 seats by the Democratic majority. That's 11 more than the GOP need to take control of Congress. It's a very large shift even for an off-year electon where the out-party traditionally picks up seats.

Reliable pollsters say it's possible the Republican may even pick up as many as 70 seats. And should they merely pick up 40 seats on election day, falling far short of prognostications, the national media will nonetheless paint this as an epochal defeat for the Democrats, for this administration, for health care, liberals and progressives of all-stripes.

In the short-term we will be asked to believe the sky is falling, or has fallen, that the Tea Party has completely altered the political landscape, and that Barack Obama is fated to be a one-term President.

Okay. Not so fast. Rationally it simply does not add up.

So, in coming weeks, when you feel an anxiety attack coming on, when you begin to wonder what again is wrong with this nutty nation of ours, stop and take several deep breaths.

Then consider the actual political landscape and the inevitable swings and over-reaches that occur. Because, in fact, objectively, prospects for 2012 (even if the Republicans manage to exceed a netgain of 50 seats) will remain rather good. Maybe even better than good.

First off, remember, out-parties almost never nominate candidates for President from their ideological base EXCEPT in years where they stand little chance of winning. (E.g., Barry Goldwater in 1964).

However, 2012 might prove the exception. Like Reagan in 1980 who was the exception to prove the rule, a candidate who had nearly ousted the incumbent President, Ford, in 1976, and bowed out relatively gracefully after, Reagan was owed the nomination. But there don't appear to be any Reagans out there right now.

Additionally, there are a number of developments with probabilities that have to be graded as better-than-even that will make a Republican nominee's prospects difficult. (Better-than-even events listed in red)

1) An improving economy. Signs are that as low as we have gone and as uneven as it has been, continued growth, though slow, decreasing unemployment numbers and slight inflation (rather than the dreaded 'deflation') are the most likely conditions the next 24 months. And it is all about the economy. Period. A positive directionality will favor the party in power.

2) The Republican takeover of the House will produce vivid scenes of Republican-led legislative chaos and internecine bloodletting. Boehner's leadership will see a challenge. Someone has to introduce a repeal of Heathcare. There will be other Angles, O'Donnells, Bachmanns and the '94 Contract On America Congress will probably look like a well-ordered Weimar rally by comparison. No one will be able to ride herd on these cats.

3) Talks with the Taliban. Likely? Maybe not. But it's in the air, and how would that fact coupled with a careful, cautious, orderly draw down of troops in Afghanistan beginning in July of 2011 look?

4) The repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" with the blessings of the Joint Chiefs. You think not?
The commission reports in December. I bet it will at worst merely be equivocal, favoring the repeal and the open service of gays and lesbians in the military.

5) The Obama Deficit Reduction Commission also is due to report in December. It will lead to deficit proposals and legislation.

6) How about instead of another terrorist attack on American soil, or in Europe, something slightly unexpected -- the capture or killing of Bin Ladin? Impossible?

No matter the fine-grain outcomes, the likelihood is that January, 2012, when the first Presidential Primaries roll around chances are Obama's re-election won't appear certain, but good enough to guarantee a contentious, expensive, divisive battle between the Republican establishment (Mitt Romney probably backed by Glenn Beck) and the insurgent Tea Partiers, hopefully led by Sarah Palin. That will be a knife-fight that should make Obama-Clinton look like a love-in.

This battle royale, even if it sucks most of the oxygen out of the media air, won't be stealing fire from a weak, crowded field of hopefuls struggling for attention. Like in '08. It will be backstopped by the sight of a confident, competent leader dealing with the day-to-day business of governing this lunatic asylum we call a country.

Don't be too quick to bet against President Barack O'Xanax in that scenario whatever the noise is now.

Obama Aides Unanimous -- Woodward "A Dick"

BP means Blowout Preventer

from the bp media glossary

Blow·out pre·vent·er: \'blō-aut pri-'vent-ur\ 1. an untested virtual device whose “failure" and/or "malfunction” is designed to deflect blame in the event of an actual blowout.

Obama Says "April Fools -- No Healthcare!"

"Or drilling off the coasts. Gosh, you'd think folks would know me better than that by now."

Actually, the WGP thinks #44 may be getting the hang of this POTUS job. No, oil drilling will not be the boon its' proponents suggest. But if you're dealing with a lethally toxic environment, and that's what energy, health care, the environment and all things political have become you have to be prepared to face reality.

The reality is that there is oil off American shores, an enormous, ever-increasing demand for energy worldwide and, in an economic environment that leaves progressives almost no margin for error, no room in which to gesture grandly toward one's base making awkward shows of idealistic principle before facing the real politik of life on this planet in 2010 .

It asks progressives of every stripe to, "Grow up." Immediately. Or, in the less sensitive, but more spot-on assessment of Rahm Emanuel, to not be "retarded."

This includes the venerable but not worthy of veneration New York Times who today ran a piece of 'news analysis' or 'idea-lite', an everything-you-need-to-know-is-in-the-title article with this piece of thoughtfulness: RISK IS CLEAR IN DRILLING, PAYOFF ISN'T by John Broder and Clifford Krauss. Hope that didn't take you all day, guys.

The WGP is also very much for the nuclear option. And not just for use on Republicans and tea party people (see, I called them 'people'). But as a carbon-clean transitional energy source, along with wind and solar. Bury the stuff. Deep. 10,000 years is a long time. If the French can do it without a 3-Mile Island maybe we can, too. With French governmental regulation.

Scott Brown, Sarah Palin Merge To Create Super-race Of Stupid Republicans

Or was that "stupid race of super-Republicans?"

No matter. It's still an irresistible match, even if only envisioned with the help of free morphing software.

CNN: Please, Turn Us Off! (Climategate)

CNN habitually provides a platform for the likes of Christopher Horner, a man essentially shouting fire in a crowded theater when it comes to global climate change.

It allows boldly asserted lies, e.g., his assertion that the climate change data has been fabricated, to go essentially unchallenged – as though the most outrageous statements need no refutation, and then CNN’s anchors (in this case Campbell Brown) take the provocateur’s statement as the predicate (“Climategate”) for a debate among responsible talking heads who are asked to defend against these baseless charges.

The result is irresponsible journalism of the most egregious kind. But 'good' TV as a TV producer might say. It's the modus operandi of this so-called news organization. Never, for example, in Horner’s case are his thoroughly disreputable and totally self-interested bonafides stated, let alone questioned. In fact, Horner’s only ostensible means of income is the CEI, an advocacy group based in Washington DC that calls itself "a non-profit, non-partisan research and advocacy institute dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government,” but is, in fact ,a consortium of rabid, unrepentant and unscrupulous energy companies, energy company-owned foundations, and private foundations whose fortunes were amassed from tobacco and oil. But his wholely unfounded claims become the basis of a bogus discussion. His expertise, if he has one, is as a lawyer/lobbyist, a paid flack with no science background whatsoever. "Why," Campbell Brown then opines with a supercilious shake of her walnut mane, "Why would climate scientists around the world conspire to claim the earth is getting warmer?" What ensues, inevitably interrupted by the energy company pitbull Horner with snide insinuation and totally groundless authority, centers on what motivation NASA, NOAA and the world community of climate scientists could possibly have to conspire to rig data or falsify a conclusion about global warming. Reasons are inevitably offerred and apologies and explanations profferred. But the entire exercise is an obscenity -- a big lie. It’s an abuse of the air-waves. It should be punishable by FCC license revocation as once-upon-a-time it was.

CNN is simply a money-grubbing rumor-mill. No better than Fox in many ways, and hardly superior to the kind of ranting and hyperventilating found on MSNBC by Keith Doberman. Why do they do it?

Below, from Simulmedia.com are two graphs which explain why absolutely NO REPORTING of any kind was done for over two hours during CNN's promotion of the bogus balloon boy story October 15th, 2009.

As we see in the chart and graph below, the CNN ratings skyrocketed with the balloon’s flight last Thursday as the story first “aired.”

The set top box tune in to CNN Newsroom between 1 and 4 pm EST on October 15^th was more than 1.6 times higher than on the three previous Thursdays at the same time. The tune in to The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer more than doubled in comparison to each of the three previous Thursdays. At 6:14pm EST, CNN reported that young Falcon Heene had been found. The story’s arc culminated for the night, and the prime time CNN ratings returned to normal levels.

The less obvious effects of spectacular viewership spikes on breaking news may prove more interesting.

http://www.simulmedia.com/2009/10/cnn-ratings-soar-with-the-balloon-boy/

simulmedia.com yuliya torosjan

(BLOG IN PROGRESS...)

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, FT. HOOD & THE RIGHT

Or, You Can Get Anything You Want... Except An Honorable Discharge!!!

THE PALINS & CHENEYS who know so much about the armed forces in general, never having served, are leading the chorus of blathering 'tea-baggers' and morons-general, sounding the alarm of political correctness.

They hint, over and over, ad nauseum, that the reason Nidal Malik Hasan wasn't drummed out of the service before he became the shooter in the Fort Hood 'terrorist attack' -- and it's critical to them it be called a 'terrorist attack', as if the term weren't meaningless enough, believing there's political gold to be mined suggesting it represents a lessened level of alert now that W and his crew of incompetents are gone -- is that these days our armed services are incredibly sensitive to political correctness.


Are they insane?! Short answer: Yes. Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, these guys think driving a Hummer makes them military experts.

You don't get out of this man's Army, now or ever, particularly after they've spent HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of DOLLARS training your sorry-ass to become a DOCTOR, when you couldn't have got into a legitimate med school as a civilian with an automatic weapon -- just because you've printed up some business cards with SofA (Soldier of Allah) on it.

Or made your Muslim, anti-war on terror views publicly known. Or merely acted crazy.

"No way, Pal. You think this is going to get you a discharge?!" The Army Brigadeer says to Dr. Hasan when he submits his umpteenth discharge request. "Now, suddenly, you're a conscientious objector? I'll tell you what THIS is going to get you -- a deployment to Iraq!!

According to NPR, fellow students and faculty were strongly troubled by Hasan's behavior, which they described as "disconnected," "aloof," "paranoid," "belligerent," and "schizoid."

"And I walked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper, said,
"Kid, see the psychiatrist, room 604."

And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill.  I mean, I wanna, I
wanna kill.  Kill! I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and
guts and veins in my teeth!!!... And the sargent came over,
pinned a medal on me,sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."...

And when I finally came to the see the last man, I walked in
and I walked up and said, "What do you want?"  He said,
"Kid, we only got one question. Have you ever been arrested?"

And I'm pleased to see this man's army hasn't changed one whit.

Obama Wins Cy Young & MVP in National League

"I'm humbled," The President said today when he heard of the announcements, "I'm honored, and I have to say I do think, in this case, the Cy Young, at least, is premature. " Off the record a surprised White House Staffer was heard to say, "What the 'eff'? Who's the American League going with, C.C. Sabathia?"

On the heels of the Nobel Peace Prize, an undeniable momentum seems to be building for the newbie Prez. At Harrah's, a representative for the Sports Book said it was, in his view, unprecedented. "I have to tell you, we haven't even made our book yet. But moving into the awards season, unofficially, he's odds-on to win Best Director, I shit you not."

Vegan: Won't Eat Anything That Has A Facebook Page

Creature from Vega

Given it's deeply held conviction about the sanctity of life, this visitor from a neighboring solar system has vowed NOT to eat social networkers. Weekdays.

Vega, of course, is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, the fifth brightest star in the night sky and the second brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus. It is a relatively nearby star at only 25 light-years from Earth, and, together with Arcturus and Sirius, one of the most luminous stars in the Sun's neighborhood.

So, it really makes a lot of sense that a being from Vega might take such a stance.

What is more surprising perhaps is what this reseacher discovered on his own:

RAPIDLY SPINNING STAR HAS COOL DARK EQUATOR

That's right, good diet can really make a difference in your appearance. And one thing it effects is your waist. If you're cutting down on fat calories stay away from empty ones.

Fox News Finds Commie Czars On Nobel Committee!

"Yes, 'Commie Czars'!, or, oops, correct that, 'commissars'... How do you pronounce that word? Where's my producer? Who works here now? This can't be right.. 'Obama wins the Nobel'? Okay. Would somebody please check the wire services. This is a joke...Isn't it? Frank,' Commissars' or ' Commie Czars', what am I supposed to be saying here?"

On an open mike, Fox News Announcer (or Correspondent) Carl Cameron was heard to mutter the above today. Yes, the President of the United States was handed the Nobel Peace Prize today, and, yes, Fox News has it on good authority -- none -- that members of the Nobel Prize committee are both communists and pre-soviet totalitarian royalists, the two not being mutually exclusive in the world of Fox News.

Which is more surprising, the enthusiasm for the Obama Presidency on the Nobel Committee, or the certainty it's the work of a conspiracy by America's number one source of cable news?

OUSTED HONDURAN PRESIDENT ZELAYA WON'T RETURN -- WILL ASSUME GOVERNORSHIP OF SOUTH CAROLINA!

Former President ZELAYA -- He's the new Governor!

In a cagey bit of state-craft Wednesday, the Obama administration defused two potentially volatile political situations with one move. Gov. Mark Sanford (R) of South Carolina in a bloodless surrender of power in Columbia announced that on Thursday he plans to vacate the remainder of his term. "I hope to devote myself full-time to interviews and a book of love poetry." One he said he's been hankering to write, "for quite some time now."

Meanwhile, President Zelaya will assume Sanford's duties, retaining the option to run for another term in 2010 -- a sticking point in the Honduran upheaval. In agreeing to assume the governorship, Zelaya is seen as avoiding a likely violent confrontation with the military and oligarchs in his native Honduras had he chosen to return.

Former Governor Sanford -- "He's Zelaya!" says his wife

Reports that the former Governor will go back to Honduras himself later this week seeking to serve out the remainder of President Zelaya's term are called 'premature'. An aide said, "Mark's experience with Latin America, though positive, has been very limited up to now. And he's not sure he's prepared to go there yet. In fact, avoiding an armed confrontation -- with his wife Jenny -- was what drove this decision in the first place."

Best Articles On The Economic Crisis / Credit Meltdown

Here are the best pieces by general consensus on our American-led worldwide economic woes, credit crunch, financial collapse. Up to now. No keywords excluded. All suggestions welcome.

Many will have read much that's here. Finally willing to take a look at the ongoing implosion, it was surprising not to find in googling a single site offerring the best of these worst of times.

Please don't hesitate to recommend links. Articles will be added as they appear. Michael Lewis's Portfolio.com piece is highly recommended.

Portfolio.com: The End Of Wall Streets Boom

Vanity Fair: Wall Street Lays Another Egg

Rolling Stone: The Big Takeover

Atlantic: Why Wall Street Always Blows It

Wired: Recipe For Disaster

Atlantic: How The Crash Will Reshape America: Meltdown Geography

Harry Shearer / Le Show Receive Federal Bailout

Ahead of the nation's automakers and subprime mortgageholders, humorist Harry Shearer and his Le Show radio program have received a generous bailout package from President-elect Barack Obama. Heard locally on KCRW, 89.9, Santa Monica, Le Show has for the last 16 years depended on two recurrent serials, Clintonsomething and phone calls between 41 and 43 (the senior and junior Georges Bush) for much of its mirth, and audience.

With the election of Barack Obama, Le Show, however, appeared headed for comedic Chapter 11. After all, how far can one go airing Apologies Of The Week? Deprived of its two hit staples, the extent of Le Show's impending woes were only fully revealed this morning when the versatile voice-artist delivered an absolutely 'brown bag' impersonation of the new President. Hopeless.

The nondescript phone-distorted voice of the Illinois senator was heard successfully negotiating with Hillary Clinton to become the next Secretary Of State. The ever-resourceful Shearer, having prevailed upon friends Bill and Hillary to take the cabinet post, then used today's episode to launch a revamped version of one of his most popular long-running satires.

Clintonsomething: The Obama Years will, hopefully, provide Shearer's Sunday morning show with sufficient chuckles to bridge any laugh deficits before the next election cycle. Which begins in early March.

ANOTHER BLACK EYE FOR THE G.O.P.

McCain Worker Attacked And Brutalized Over Bumper Sticker

Published October 24, 2008

In an incident which seems like it epitomizes much of the anger and bitterness of this election season, a McCain campaign worker from College Station, Texas who was in Pittsburgh helping to work a phone bank was robbed and then attacked, brutalized, and disfigured in what appears to be a politically motivated hate crime...

Police Declare 'Mutilation' of McCain Campaign Worker a Hoax

By Greg Mitchell

Published: October 24, 2008 2:00 PM ET

NEW YORK It had drawn wide local and national -- even political attention, with some of the candidates for president/vice president weighing in or even calling -- but now the story has fallen apart. Police in Pittsburgh have declared it all a hoax, and are charging the McCain worker at the center of the episode...

John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News, commented on his blog that "this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election. If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee. If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."

Hey, GOP! It’s Not Too Soon To Start Pointing Fingers

Well, it sure looks like McCain has lost. The real question now is how badly and why?

Enthusiasm for a prospective Obama Administration is only exceeded these days by hopes for a very public internecine conflagration in the Grand Old Party. There's so much blame to go around, so many villains -- dupes, incompetents, mush-headed intellectual poseurs, con artists, buffoons, bullies, liars and plain, old hypocrites -- that the circular firing squad will need gatlin guns. And who but the Republicans come well-armed enough for this kind of genocide?

It would require a virtual Encyclopedia Of 21st Century Republican Blunders to tell the whole story. In reverse chronological order one wonders who’s to blame for: The Ayers Strategy, The Palin Choice, The McCain Campaign Suspension To Do Nothing About The Bailout Package, The World Financial Crisis, The Military Failure In Afghanistan, The Iraq War Debacle, The Katrina Disaster, The Global Warming Denials, The 10 Trillion Dollar Deficit, Enron, Energy Deregulation…?

What’s next? Who’s going to lead your party?

What’s the GOP's next new great idea?

Got Ideology? Milk it.

Is Palin the future of your party?

Is Romney?

How bout Mike Huckabee?

Are you set to become the party of the low-information right and hidebound social conservatives too resentful to vote their own self-interest? Or... What other choices do you have?

For a history and credit list of McCain's Campaign Bunglers, see next weekend's New York Times Magazine article, "The Making And (Re)Making Of John McCain"


A powerful and somewhat counter-narrative about the selection of Sarah Palin can be found in Jane Meyer's "The Insiders" piece this week in the New Yorker.


The real story of Sarah's selection will be some time in the making. Clearly, the competing stories have as their essential difference the extent to which John McCain was the agent of or the unwitting victim of her selection.

Someone, whom exactly varies with the version (and neither of these articles even tries to dabe dabes), apparently told the Senator that he could not have his first choice, Joe Lieberman. The real question is who put their foot down, how hard and with what rationale.

The Palin battle for the soul of the party looms as the most interesting and potentially devastating conflict on the GOP horizon. But the number of self-inflicted wounds that her nomination has already caused is heartening.

For example, the doyenne of conservative commentators, the ever-fatuous and dishonest Peggy Noonan who is treated with such undeserved deference and is such an unabashed shill for whatever bullshit is being peddled by the Republicans, has this performance after the Palin-Biden debate to live down.

"She killed"

For Noonan to then write, a few days later in the WSJ, when it was apparent Palin's debate performance was largely a flop:

"In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism."

Makes her over-the-top "assessment" a transparent instance of the kind of tone-deaf, and to a degree ideologically blindered punditry, she has always practiced. Her cred suffers. She, after all, helped give us W., too.

McCain UnAbel

McCain UnAbel to stop his war machine.

Now we have some inkling of what John McCain's "my fellow prisoners" slip was about. He views himself as surrounded by hostiles. This isn't a unique situation for him. It's likely the reason McCain repeatedly boasts of not having been voted "Miss Congeniality" in the Senate. At heart, McCain is a man who really can't tolerate affiliation. He shamed his father by finishing next to the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy. Short of permanently destroying his own future, one can only guess how tempted he must have been to accept the offer of early release from his captors at the Hanoi Hilton since it also offered him the ultimate opportunity to humiliate his father.

He disdains everybody, that's the kind of "Maverick" McCain is -- no surprise his campaign lurches from scheme to scheme, that it's been criticized for having no governing philosophy. He flies, when he's not crashing, by the seat of his pants.

But in this parallel to the Cain and Abel story, McCain has once again crashed into enemy territory. His palin' around with Palin has him rolling around in the rabble-dregs of his potty. Embraced by the base he hated.

Now that he has them up in arms, he's bearing the mark of Cain. The election is pretty much over, even should there be a terror attack. But in the combustible climate of the current financial meltdown McCain needs to pull ads and publicly retract the Ayers' crap if he wants deniability when the shooting starts. Some trigger happy gangstas should let Cain know he's marked if anything happens to O.. No Keating.

WGP PREDICTS: OBAMA'S VEEP... GOV. ED RENDELL

May have waited too long to make this prediction. I posted the reasons on WikiAnswers about a week ago.

Recapping, here's why... Gov. Ed Rendell will BE the Vice Presidential nominee.

He of all the name office-holders best serves the most compelling of the Obama campaigns needs. Besides bagging PENNSYLVANIA, he is

1)The least objectionable and probably closest FOB and FOH of the prospects
2)The best demographic fit with OHIO voters
3) Jewish, offering Obama a huge leg up in FLA.
4) He is a middle-class "lunch bucket" moderate who is the former Chairman of the DNC (Unity, unity, unity)
5) His strength is pocketbook domestic issues (bucked Unions and instituted an Rx program in Penn), i.e. he helps most with white middle-class men.
6) His lack of national foreign policy experience is preferrable to being out of touch with working-class white men in an election that will turn on a souring economy.
7) He blows the 'elitist' label out of the water. Particularly if McCain chooses Romney.
8) His having been kept out of the national limelight will make his choice seem an energizing stroke of genius. Which is probably why the 3 dwarves (Kaine, Bayh and Biden) have been so publicly paraded.

RICHARDSON is the other, even greater choice, but the Clintons have probably vetoed his nomination, refusing to let will him to be rewarded for what they regard as his treachery.

Earlier prediction is available at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Would_Barack_Obama_consider_Rendell_for_VP_running_mate

Top 10 Reasons Hillary Should NOT Be The V.P. Nominee

If an impartial or inexperienced observer doubted how ruthless, unethical, shameless and destructive the Clintons can be, the last days of her campaign should have now erased any uncertainty.
Having fueled her bankrupt campaign using the kamikaze calculation that she had nothing to lose (that her negative, attacking posture would either result in a victory or force Senator Obama to assume her debts -- the 11 million dollars she loaned her campaign) she’s now attempting through minions like George Stephanopoulos, whose Clinton White House exit was dogged by whispers of proclivities which could account for his servility, to coerce a place on the ticket.

So here are the TOP 10 REASONS WHY HILLARY CLINTON SHOULD NOT BE OFFERED THE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION

10. The only undisclosed location where she truly feels secure is inside the Oval Office.

9. Socks, the Clinton cat, needs a larger lawn to mark her territory… as does Bill (and to those who say she’s dead, the Clintons point out only the superdelegates can determine that)

8. Though older White Women love her, they make up a smaller proportion of general election voters than in the primaries. And only they, among the voters she scared up in the last phase of the race, are her native constituents. Poorer and less educated whites were, in general, voting a preference and are far more likely to be attracted to a Democratic ticket where the VP-nominee actually appeals to them (e.g., Edwards, Clarke or Jim Webb).

No matter how many boilermakers she pretends to knock back, or how good she gets at pumping gas, these folks are not her folks. And everybody knows it.

7. She should be offered the Vice Presidential nomination after, and only after, Bill Clinton heads off on his critical, four-year fact-finding mission… to Uranus.

6. She brings enormously high negatives. Not only would she, personally, be a drag on the ticket, she comes with heavy baggage. Beyond Bill, the laundry list of suspicious dealings, shady characters and scandals that were scrupulously not trotted out by the Obama campaign, or the media, will be endless aired in the general election.

5. Though 60 to 70 % of all Democrats consistently rated her campaign more negative and attack-oriented, Clinton voters consistently reported they would defect to McCain at higher rates. Typically 30% to 20%. Gee, what could explain it?

How about, she was losing. In other words, childish resentment. Had the situation been reversed the numbers would have been higher, and for cause.

So it's a good index of particular partisans' transient unhappiness with the state of the primaries, but a poor indicator how Democratic voters will behave in the election.

4. The raison d’etre for many Democrats in the primaries was to find an electable candidate who would not carry the deficits of a Bill or Hillary Clinton into the Fall.

Giving her the Vice Presidential nomination utterly and totally defeats the point of his insurgency.

3. If an Obama/Clinton ticket did somehow manage to win the election it would almost certainly lead to a fractious, volatile, divided government, two centers of power with differing constituencies vying in an endless rivalry.

That, in and of itself, would be reason for any unbiased, thoughtful, non-partisan voter to NOT vote for the ticket. Period.

2. The mere fact Hillary Clinton needs the Vice Presidency means she hasn’t, like Lyndon Johnson, been able to achieve a decent working relationship with Senators of even her own party let alone members of the other.

She soiled her nest. Let her clean it up.

She’s a straw dog.

We’ll listen and applaud loudly to her long, rousing primetime speech at the convention.

We will honor her and her husband's long service to the nation.

She should, perhaps, have a voice in choosing the Veep, even some influence on Obama's advisers and cabinet.

But the Number One reason Hillary Clinton can and should be denied a place on the Democratic ticket is...


She lost the goddamn nomination, goddammit!!!

MORMONS HAVE GREAT SECTS

A nation rubbernecks. Texas

Who's more Waco, the state's child protective services for rounding up 416 people with April 19th fast approaching on the basis of a single phone call placed on a cellphone (i.e., from 'anywhere, u.s.a.), or the co-religionists practicing multiple marriage and statutory rape within?

Compounding a felony

Bill Clinton Comes To Jesus -- "I Love My Wife, But I Support Barack Obama"

"The speech Senator Obama delivered today -- on Race in America -- was so extraordinary, such a remarkably frank opening toward a healing of our national divides, I have no choice but to acknowledge the obvious and offer my own personal witness to the exceptional opportunity his candidacy provides...

This man, this senator, this Barack Obama is the man this country has long waited for, the man this country needs, the man we, indeed, must elect our next President. I'm sorry, Hillary. I hate to disappoint you. Again. But the truth is the truth, and when the spirit moves us, the flesh must follow..."

IF HILLARY OUTRUNS THE TIDAL WAVE...

Today, Frank Rich agreed with our post of February 21st, "Hillary's Blunder From Day One"

OPINION February 24, 2008 Op-Ed Columnist: The Audacity of Hopelessness By FRANK RICH "The Clinton camp has been the slacker in this presidential race, and its candidate’s message, for all its purported high-mindedness, is self-immolating."

He goes on to point out that Obama has so far evidenced far and away the superior management skills

And here is another disturbing fact that has also so far gone under reported, ignored, or simply unnoticed. Perhaps in attempting to be balanced no one has noted the main determinant behind the trendline that has been moving in Barack Obama's direction since "Day 1".

The movement of support for Hillary to support for Obama has thus far followed a simple, straightforward information pyramid. A game of telephone.

In fact, it appears to be the only rule support for Obama has obeyed. His growing 'movement' has resisted confinement to the categories on which political bases are normally founded. So far, his appeal has had almost nothing to do with interest groups. Neither race, religion, economic strata, education, nor ethnicity has been relevant in determining where his core support lies

Only one factor has been a reliable predictor -- access to information.

Obama's support has increased obeying a simple metric, moving from those most informed (the college educated) to those less informed to those least informed. The only possible exception might have been his support among African-Americans that took a sudden jump just before and after the South Carolina primary. But Bill Clinton whacked the jungle drum exceedingly hard those days (under an assumption that has always proved true in the past, the more black support a black candidate has the more uneasy white support becomes). That may well account for the sudden dramatic shift to Obama in that community.

If you have any doubt check out the two new polls in Ohio just released today. (Linked below)There's been a big switch in just the last two weeks. At the top of the information totem pole. College-educated voters have gone from +5 for Hillary to +25 for Obama.** (again, see below)

That shift accounts for almost all the gain in the Quinnipiac survey in the last two weeks. And that corresponds to every other shift we've seen. If California's primary were help today Hillary Clinton would lose. Nationally, she's now trailing by a good margin. The Obama wave sweeps over each primary state as the primaries come into focus in each new information micropolis.


The point is this -- even if Hillary Clinton should somehow manage to outrun the information stream long-enough to capture the nomination she will be viewed, ultimately, fairly or not, as undeserving of the nomination. It isn't worth it at that price. Or, certainly, it shouldn't be.

**A Quinnipiac University Poll indicates Clinton's lead over her opponent has slipped to 51 percent to Obama's 40 percent. Less than two weeks before, Clinton was favored 55 percent to Obama's 34 percent. Ohio's primary will be held March 4.

The poll, which surveyed 1,853 registered Ohio voters from Feb. 18-23, shows a particular erosion of support for Clinton among college-educated voters, who favored the candidate 46 percent to Obama's 41 percent earlier in the month. That sector of voters now favors Obama 58 percent to Clinton's 33 percent. http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2008/02/25/daily3.html

Hillary's Blunder From Day 1 -- Running Obama's Campaign Pt. 5

The campaign sound-bite that Senator Clinton has offerred ad nauseum for her candidacy emphasizes her readiness "from Day One" -- ''Both Senator Obama and I would make history, but only one of us is ready on Day 1 to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy, and ready to defeat the Republicans."

As sloganeering goes, it's sad. It draws attention to a deficit even as it trumpets her main asset. What about "Day Two," and Three, Four and Five..?

Not only is the claim modest, it seems to concede her learning-curve might not be as steep as her opponents'. Should a crisis arise sometime after the first weeks and months of the next President's inauguration, her edge is debateable. But even this claim has been called into question by the on-the-ground reality of the primary season.

Having watched her campaign flounder attempting to find a compelling rationale for her candidacy, or a consistent message, while squandering huge sums of money -- her husband had the temerity to suggest her campaign's under-performance this month was, in fact, over-achieving given it's been run on 'a shoestring' -- it's no longer fair to assume she has any edge over Senator Obama in competency. From Day 1, or otherwise.

In fact, the management of these rather massive political campaigns, both Republican and Democratic, are a very good measure of the candidates aptitudes for governance. They are the biggest executive operations any of them have ever managed. And if people are truly interested in judging their management skills, rather than making empty debating points, you have a pretty fair indication of what to expect.

"What has Barack Obama ever accomplished?"

Well, this campaign season, he and his staff have run a seamlessly efficient operation. Mere competence has triumphed over massive advantages in experience. McCain's campaign went broke, absolutely belly-up, dead in the water. It was the result of a management style that befits him, inattentive delegation to the nuts and bolts of the operation. His professed weakness, a disinterest in economics, reared it's head. It's a style much like George W. Bush's, without the dishonesty.

Hillary's campaign has been plagued by dissension. Not surprising. Conflict is her (and her husband's) metier. This battling and embattled style is further weakened by another design flaw, one that seems to flow from Hillary's own disposition. After all, it was she who blamed "a vast right wing conspiracy" for sabotaging her husband's administration. Consequently, she has surrounded herself, again, by an arrogant, closed circle unable or unwilling to learn from events.

The organization that has appeared most organized?

Judging by his campaign, this guy Obama should run for President.

A famous fighter, Oscar Bonavena, once said of experience, "Experience is like being given a comb after they have shaved your head."

Raw "experience" is over-rated as a crucible of character. Since every morning brings a new day, and each new day entirely new situations, "learning" from experience is a unique aptitude that shows up early, or not at all.

Hillary and John McCain haven't learnt much from their experiences.

IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR THE SKINNY ON OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN STAFF, their bios and positions, scroll down to Running Obama's Campaign, Pt. 3