Lou Dobbs Almost Calls Condi A "Cotton Picker"

From the Huffington Post

Lou Dobbs visited Wolf Blitzer in the "Situation Room" on Friday and railed against Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice for saying that race is still an issue in America because it was an American "birth defect."

Dobbs dismissed Rice's very notion, claiming race is no longer an issue in a society as diverse as modern day America. "The reality is, this is the most socially, ethnically, religiously, racially diverse society on the face of the earth," Dobbs said. "Now, Wolf, we don't make enough of that in the national media. We listen to some idiot say you can't talk about race."

Then Dobbs tripped over his words, as he declared, "Not a single one of these cotton...[stammering]...these just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race."

Watch:

Controversial LeBron James Vogue Cover

Ever since Vogue put basketball star LeBron James on its cover — only the third man, and the first African American man, to gain that distinction — the cover has sparked discussion. Critics have slammed Vogue for "perpetuating racial stereotypes," depicting the "dangerous black man" running off with a beautiful white woman (model Gisele Bundchen).

Now, Sportsfilter blogger Rogers Cadenhead (via Portfolio.com's Jeff Bercovici) uncovered a possible (likely) inspiration for the Annie Liebovitz shoot: a famous World War I recruitment poster from 1917.

The poster, which shows a gorilla and says "Destroy This Brute," would seem to justify any sort of outrage over the racial stereotypes perpetuated by the Vogue cover.


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Did John McCain Collaborate with the enemy in Vietnam?

Let the swiftboating begin!!!

Why aren't we allowed to criticize Israel?

There seems to be such a taboo in the media about anyone or any story that is critical of Israel. Witness the recent attacks on the Obama campaign via activities by his ex-pastor that was considered "Anti-Israel". Remember the vicious treatment that Jimmy Carter got for mentioning the words "Apartheid" and Israel in his book title? Candidate after candidate has to pay lip service and claim his blind allegiance to that state... and why? why is it the "kiss of death" to be critical of Israel.

Israel is by far the largest recipient of our tax dollar funded foreign aid, shouldn't we able to question the actions of that state? A lot of damage has been done in our name (and at our expense), yet we can't seem to questions anything in public without being castrated as social pariahs... Why is it much easier to criticize Israel in Tel Aviv then it is in Washington DC?

Here is what I know:

- Israel has maintained one of the longest occupations in modern history controlling the fate of over 2 million palestinians

- Israel is the only nuclear country in the area with no open access to their inventory and no signatures on any non-proliferation agreements

- Israel maintains one of the largest concentration camp style prison in the world known as Gaza. And yes, that's exactly what it is if you look at the living conditions of people there.

- Israel maintains an apartheid style system in the West Bank with separate roads and services for different groups.

- Israel continues to deny the right of return to over 2 million refugees spread all over the world for more than 50 years... can you imagine living in shanty towns and tents for over 50 years??

- Israel maintains a racial based system of government based on the failed ideology of Zionism. An ideology that at heart is based on racist nationalism granting rights to one "ethnic" (or is it religious?) group only

- While Israel claims to be living in the constant fear of terrorism, the death ratio of Palestinians vs. Israeli is roughly 13 to 1. Yet, somehow, they are the victims, and our media pushes that notion on us (and we wonder why the world hates us).

- Israel has TWICE invaded its northern neighbor, Lebanon and continues daily violations of its air space. Complaints to the UN are constantly blocked by, guess who?, the USA.

This list can go on longer, but I think I made my point.

So why, knowing all that, it is still a major faux pas for anyone to question our relation with Israel. And please don't give me the "You're an anti-semite" line... Being critical of Israel does not make one an anti-semite or a self hating Jew. Why is it that at a time when the US is heavily involved in a huge mess in the middle east, that our politicians, thinkers, activists, do not dare discussing the issue that is at the heart of the conflict?

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SADDAM HANGED FOR BUSH’S CRIMES

Below you will find enough evidence that George W. Bush is the enemy of the Iraqi people, not Saddam Hussein as he would like us to believe…

While the majority of Iraqis know that the current Sunni-Shiites tension did not exist before 2003, no one can deny that after five years of U.S. occupation, sectarian tension is now a reality. Sectarianism is another disaster that was brought to Iraq by the war and occupation of Iraq.

The U.S.-led invasion did not only destroy the Baath political regime, it also annihilated the entire public sector including education, health care, food rations, social security, and the armed forces. The Iraqi public sector was a great example of how millions of Iraqis: Arabs and Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites, Muslims and Christians, religious and secular, all worked together in running the country. The myth that the former Iraqi government was a “Sunni-led dictatorship” was created by the U.S. government. Even the Iraqi political regime was not “Sunni-led,” let alone the rest of the public sector. A good way to debunk this fairy tale is through a close look at the famous deck of cards of the 55 most wanted Iraqi leaders. The cards had the pictures of Saddam, his two sons, and the rest of the political leadership which most Iraqis would recognize as the heads of the political regime. What is noteworthy is that 36 of the 55 were Shiites. In fact, the two vice presidents were a Christian and a Shiites Kurd.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians also have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003, although estimates of a specific figure vary widely because of the difficulty in collecting accurate information.

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Hannity Denies Association With White Supremacist

Why are they Angry?

White Pator comes to the rescue of Obama and Wright

All I can say is WOW!!!

Condi Rice's State Department Spies on Barack Obama?

From The Huffington Post

Operatives from one of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's web of privatized contractors within the State Department, which includes Blackwater, on at least three occasions scrutinized Barack Obama's passport information probably in search of something that could be used against him politically in some unforeseen way, and provide ammunition for well-timed leaks.

The political nature of this latest episode is clear from the fact that the dates of the breaches were January 9, February 21, and March 14, which correspond with the New Hampshire primary, the Democratic debate in Texas, and the day the Jeremiah Wright story became major news.

If Rice's State Department had its "security" breached when Obama's passport information was pilfered on January 9 then why didn't it set off alarm bells right then and there? Why wasn't this first breach brought to her attention and an investigation launched?

And why were two other breaches able to occur on February 21 and on March 14?

The episode represents a major security breach of a VIP who is currently running for president, which raises the question of whether or not the Bush White House was informed of this violation of Obama's privacy rights.

Are we to believe that these contractors "routinely" combed Obama's passport information without recognizing the fact that he is currently a presidential candidate?

Was it just incompetence like when Condi Rice missed the President's Daily Brief of August 6, 2001 entitled: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the United States?" Or is it something more sinister like Karl Rove cooked up for the Justice Department and the politicization of the U.S. Attorneys?

Congress must begin its own inquiry into this potentially grave abuse of federal power. We cannot allow the federal machinery to be used in political warfare.

The Hillary Clinton campaign also has some explaining to do since Maura Harty, who was President Bill Clinton's ambassador to Paraguay, resigned her post with the Bush State Department between the second and third breach of Obama's passport information.

Pat Buchanon says slavery is the best thing to happen to black people

From Daily Kos Barack Obama's speech this past week illuminated aspects of the racial divide in this country in a nuanced and respectful manner. This speech offered an opening for dialogue. Pat Buchanan has offered his response.

America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Buchanan amazes with a tone deaf defense of white resentment by claiming slavery is the best thing that ever happened to black people in a posting on his website yesterday. Buchanan's contribution to this dialogue is as appalling as Obama's contribution is appealling.

Buchanan continues by dismissing a host of government programs designed to assist the working poor and our least advantaged citizens as giveaways to the African American community.

N]o people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.

Conservative commentators like Buchanan and right wing media outlets like Fox News continue to foster white resentment for political gain. They perpetuate the myth of the social safety net only benefiting people of color or illegal immigrants. Their aim is to engender bitterness among "honest, hard working, tax paying" whites.

America’s New Slavery: Black Men in Prison

Excerpt
A new American slave trade is booming, warn prison activists, following the release of a report that again outlines outrageous numbers of young Black men in prison and increasing numbers of adults undergoing incarceration. That slave trade is connected to money states spend to keep people locked up, profits made through cheap prison labor and for-profit prisons, excessive charges inmates and families may pay for everything from tube socks to phone calls, and lucrative cross country shipping of inmates to relieve overcrowding and rent cells in faraway states and counties.


Advocates note that the constitution’s 13th amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States, but provided an exception—in cases where persons have been “duly convicted” in the United States and territory it controls, slavery or involuntary servitude can be reimposed as a punishment, they add. The majority of prisoners are Black and Latino, though they are minorities in terms of their numbers in the population.

According to “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008,” published by the Pew Center on the States, one in nine Black men between the ages of 20-34 are incarcerated compared to one in 30 other men of the same age. Like the overall adult ratio, one in 100 Black women in their mid-to-late 30s is imprisoned.

****

Four US soldiers killed in Iraq

Excerpt Four more US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, bringing the death toll since the invasion in 2003 close to 4,000.

The US military said that in the latest incident on Saturday, three soldiers died when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb north-west of Baghdad.

Another soldier died from injuries sustained in an attack south on Friday.

The latest deaths would bring the total of US fatalities to 3,996, according to a count kept by the independent website icasualties.org.

What the Wright issue is really about: "Black privilege"

I doubt that the majority of those upset by Rev. Wright's statements honestly believe that Obama is a closet Black Panther who will make Louis Farrakhan his secret aides-de-camp while in the White House. Obama's life story, personality, and political record make him more vulnerable to the "Uncle Tom" label than the "Angry Black Man" one. So why are some people so upset about Wright?

Quite simply, they think it's yet another case of Black Privilege, of how Blacks can get away with things that Whites can't. These people constantly refer to events like the OJ Simpson trial, the Duke lacrosse scandal, and the Imus controversy as great injustices perpetrated upon Whites by an oppressive Black oligarchy. Add to the fact that these Blacks are also allegedly stealing jobs and college spots via affirmative action, and you've got a swelling of White resentment. To these people, they look at Tiger Woods and see that all racial chasms have been fixed, and that any further gripes from the Black community amount to nothing more than whining.

Then along comes this Reverend Wright, a sort of Mike Huckabee of the left (good man, says decent things most of the time, but has a tendency to go off the deep end from time to time). They are absolutely incensed that a Black man can get away with having a pugnacious Black preacher, while a White man probably couldn't get away with having a pastor who blamed Blacks for economic and social woes. Their limited cognitive abilities can't look beyond the immediate past and present to the historical perspectives of the Black and White experience, and how Black and White politicians aren't exactly interchangeable. Here, how about a deal? McCain gets to have a White version of Jeremiah Wright, but he has to do so in a country where Whites were enslaved for centuries, Jim Crow-ed for one more, and where no White man has EVER been remotely close to winning the White House.

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Five Years of a Disastrous War and the Bills are Coming Due

It’s appropriate that on this week of the fifth anniversary of the criminal US invasion of Iraq, we are also seeing several other things: the death toll of American troops in that doomed adventure is rising past 4000, the economy is sliding into a recession which could be deep and long, and the financial markets are teetering on the edge of a possibly historic collapse.

The conjunction of all of these dire things is no coincidence.

The war on Iraq was a predictable disaster from day one, when the administration tried to do it on the cheap, using less than half the manpower that Bush’s own generals said would be needed to control the country after the inevitable collapse of its government and military. But of course the US had to conduct this war on the cheap because the country was never really behind the war in the first place. It was a war that was "marketed" to us like a risky financial investment or a badly designed new car. The idea was to close the sale and get away from the deal as quickly as possible, leaving no office forwarding address.

The problem was that Iraqis, the victims of our attack, didn’t cooperate. They didn’t lie down and play dead. They decided to resist our effort to take over their country and run it like a retail gas station. So now the US has wasted over $500 billion in a country trying--and failing--to gain control over a country no bigger than a mid-sized state, battling against resistance forces armed with homemade bombs, obsolete grenade launchers and Vietnam-era AK-47 rifles.

But because the Bush/Cheney administration could never admit to Americans what this war would be costing, and has cost, all that money has been borrowed. As for the deaths and the tens of thousands of injuries, the government has hidden these, flying in the casualties in the dead of night and burying them quickly and as quietly as possible, while sticking the wounded in closed off VA hospitals and rehab centers, from which the press, for the most part, are barred (if they even bother to try and do a story).

That need to hide the truth means that the real cost of the war is running into the trillions of dollars, because of the interest on the debt, and because of the the future costs of providing for all those who are injured.

The war in Iraq has helped to bankrupt this country, which, to be honest, is the state we’re in when the US, year in and year out, is buying more than it is selling, leaving creditor nations like China, Japan and Saudi Arabia owning trillions of dollars in debt that cannot be repaid. It has also distorted the economy. By pushing up the price of oil to record levels of above $100/barrel, a result of uncertainty about supplies, plus the virtual removal of Iraq, the world’s second or third-largest oil-producing region, from the market, not to mention the jeopardizing of the entire oil supply through the Persian Gulf, which accounts for over 20 percent of the world’s oil, the Iraq War has thrown the US economy into a slump, while at the same time pushing up inflation.

In order to keep things going in the face of all this, the administration and the Federal Reserve for years have kept mortgage rates low and encouraged homeowners to borrow on their home equity in order to keep spending, and thus the whole system, afloat. That gambit has now run its course, with the housing bubble finally bursting.

It would seem that there is little left to keep the economy going.
The housing crisis has left the nation’s banks and investment banks holding trillions of dollars in assets that are actually worth only a fraction of their face value. So rickety is the system that over the weekend, as the Federal Reserve worked frantically to prevent the collapse of Bear Stearns, the nation’s fifth-largest investment bank, there was real fear of a total collapse of the finance system, ala 1929. Such a thing could still happen, when the next bank or investment bank comes a cropper.

Consumers, for their part, are spent out.

And the war continues apace, the bodies, and the bills, piling up.

President Bush is saying it was all worth it. Cheney, touring the Middle East while trying to drum up support for what would be a catastrophic and even more criminal attack on Iran, is saying that the “progress” in Iraq has been “phenomenal.” And John McCain, the addled, past-his-sell-date Republican candidate for president, is committed to continuing this madness for another century, even if he cannot remember who the US is fighting over there (he confused the so-called “Al-Qaeda in Iraq” group--all Sunni--with the Shia militias and had to be corrected by his travel buddy, Sen. Joe Lieberman).

It’s a somber anniversary. Five years of a war that never should have happened. A country destroyed. America on the ropes economically. A million Iraqi civilians dead. 4000 American soldiers killed and another 20,000 maimed.

At some point, the American people will finally say they’ve had enough of this madness, manipulation and malfeasance.

The question is what will be left of this place when they finally put a stop to it and bring the troops home to a jobless economy.

The hucksters and flim-flam men who produced this mess have had their fun and are preparing to run off with their winnings. We should really organize a pitchforks and torches march on the White House and Congress and run them out of town on rails, tarred and feathered, while we can. They’ll be hard to track down once people realize how we’ve all been had.

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Obama's Speech on Race on Video

Full Text Here

Chinese 'arming Darfur conflict'

Excerpt Chinese sales of assault rifles and other weapons to Sudan have grown rapidly during the conflict in the western Darfur region despite a UN arms embargo, according to a US-based rights group.

Human Rights First said on Thursday that a study of Sudanese and UN trade data showed that China was virtually the only supplier of small arms to Sudan.

Khartoum pays for the weapons it buys from Beijing with its growing oil revenues, the rights group said.

"The people of Sudan's Darfur region will endure more death, disease and dislocation, and this will be due in no small part to China's callousness," the report said.

The group called on Beijing to stop all arms sales to Sudan and urged the world to link that campaign to the Beijing Olympics.

"We believe that China is particularly vulnerable in the lead up to the Olympics, Betsy Apple, a spokeswoman for Human Rights First, said.

"We want to see China's concrete action that matches its rhetoric."

Global protests against Iraq war

Excerpt Tens of thousands of protesters across the world have taken part in a day of protests demanding the withdrawal of US and British troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The World Against War action was organised to mark the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20.

In London, police said that 10,000 activists had rallied at Trafalgar Square before marching the short distance to parliament. Organisers said that between 30,000 and 40,000 people had gathered.

A spokesman for The Stop The War coalition said that five years after the invasion of Iraq, military action had only managed to make the world "a much more dangerous place".

"Estimates suggest as many as one million people have died violent deaths as a result of the occupation of Iraq," Paul Collins said.

He said that Gordon Brown, Britain's prime minister, was sending more troops to Afghanistan and claimed "this hidden war is fast becoming a disaster mirroring Iraq".

Demonstrators outside parliament waved placards which said "Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan", "Don't attack Iran" and "Freedom for Palestine".

'War crimes'

Caroline Lucas, the Green Party's member of the European Parliament, called for Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, and Gordon Brown to be prosecuted for war crimes.

"They need to know you cannot bomb your way to peace," she said.

Tony Benn, a former Labour Party minister, said that Britain's involvement in Iraq, where the country has 4,100 troops, and Afghanistan, where it has 7,800, had caused "devastation".

But Britain's foreign office disputed Stop the War's conclusions.

"In Iraq, there is clear evidence we are making steady progress, particularly in terms of security," a spokesman said.

"In Afghanistan, Nato forces are winning the struggle against the Taliban."

Elsewhere in Europe, around 500 people opposed to the US presence in Iraq marched through Stockholm city centre in freezing rain carrying banners with messages including "Yankees Go Home" and "Five years of war, one million dead."

"I'm here because I think it is extremely important to demonstrate against American policy in Iraq, especially now that the media is focusing less on the tragedy there," Leif Staalhammer, a 67-year-old actor, said.

'Sorrow and anguish'

In Los Angeles, organisers said that up to 10,000 people took to the streets of Hollywood, many carrying banners denouncing George Bush, the US president, and calling for an end to the conflict.

Police said that around 2,000 protesters had turned out for the rally.

Ron Kovic, a Vietnam war veteran whose book Born on the Fourth of July was turned into a film with Tom Cruise, joined the march down Hollywood Boulevard in his wheelchair.

***

The march ended on Sunset Boulevard where organisers said that they hoped several California politicians and actors would join the demonstrators.

"We've been in the war for five years, right now we're about to be in a recession, and trillions of our dollars are going to a war we don't want to be in," one protestor told the crowd.

Demonstrations also took place Saturday across Canada, including in Toronto, where 1,000 people protested against parliament's decision last week to extend Canada's 2,500-strong deployment to Afghanistan.

Christine Jones, co-chairwoman of the Canadian Peace Alliance, said parliament's vote on Afghanistan was misguided.

"Afghanistan is worse off because of the military occupation and Canadians are more opposed to the war than ever before," she said.

Good Negro Down

A post from Raving Black Lunatic


Katt Williams is a popular comedian with a short stature and a big mouth.

With his slickly processed hair and glib tongue, he seems to fit the pimp persona he deploys in his comedic routines. One of the most popular phrases from his first nationally televised show was "Pimp down!," a phrase the diminutive jokester claimed to have used when knocked to the ground during a fight.

Collectively, I believe most of the Negro community is now yelling "Good Negro down!."

From all accounts, Barack Obama is a good Negro. He's educated, clean, articulate, friendly and ambivalent about race. Obama graduated from Harvard and Columbia, doesn't have a baby's momma and has stayed off welfare his entire adult life. Sure, he smoked a little weed and snorted some coke in college, but he doesn't have cornrows and none of his teeth shine.

Clear characteristics of a good Negro.

Obama doesn't remind people about racism. He's not one of those angry Negroes who sits by themselves in the cafeteria. He gets it. As one of his colleagues in the state legislator noted, Obama doesn't make white people feel more white. He actually transcends race.

For a long time, Obama had achieved the highest echelons of Negro life as many white voters proudly proclaimed they had actually forgotten that he was a Negro.

He understood the rules.

Rule 1. A Negro looking for success should never discuss the entrenched racism in America and must never insinuate that he worked harder than a white person to achieve his present position in life.

Rule 2. A Negro should never become angry at racist comments or attribute those comments to the racist beliefs of the speaker or those agreeing with the speaker. No Negro is mentally equipped to identify racism.

Rule 3. Racism is a myth perpetuated by angry Negroes who do not want to work. If immigrants can make it, everybody can be successful.

There are many more rules, but Obama has managed to keep them all. He hasn't fallen into the traps laid by corrupting forces who would force him to make reparations or discrimination a central part of his campaign. He's avoided the tempations of Evil Negroes like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan who love to talk about the "race problem." Obama understands the big picture. Hell, he's almost white.

But, sometimes almost just is not good enough if you truly want to be an unhyphenated American.

See, Hillary Clinton and her supporters have broken the spell that the Magical Negro named Obama initially cast over the electorate. By reminding angry white voters that "the blacks" regularly steal jobs they don't deserve, sell drugs to innocent white kids and love to play the victim, Clinton has placed Obama's Good Negro status on life support. After all, even if he has similar political qualifications to FDR, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, he's still a Negro. And, it's indisputable that Negroes are never qualified for a job that a white person wants.

Never.

Consequently, Obama is now scrambling to get his campaign back on track.

This development has perplexed the many Typical Negroes who support Obama in overwhelming numbers. They have watched him follow all the rules, they have watched him avoid all the pitfalls, and yet, he seems to be getting treated like a Bad Negro. It's as if no matter what a Negro does, he can never wipe away the stain of bad negritude. It waits around ever corner, ready to brand him as "one of them."

Many Typical Negroes are upset by this development. After all, most of them readily admit that they have not managed to follow the Good Negro script as well as Obama. They often slip up and discuss racism as a systemic problem, not a collection of personal anecdotes. They can't seem to avoid pointing out the enduring effects of past discrimination on the current plight of Negroes.

In fact, most Typical Negroes cannot go a single day without forcing white people to remember that they are Negroes. They just don't get it.

Typical Negroes are worried because if Obama's perfection is not protection enough from being branded a Bad Negro, what hope do they have? How can they every be considered solely on their merits? How can they ever be considered qualified if Obama failed? What do they tell their children?

A Good Negro is down, and Black People are confused.

'Stop the Fox News Virus

"[Obama] is a 'Halfrican'."
"He sounds like Hitler."
"Will Prez Barack blame America first?"
"Patriotism makes [Obama] a little uncomfortable."
"He's so liberal, he's anti-American!"

These are just a few examples of the many biased attacks coming from the right-wing Fox News channel towards Democratic White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, argues a coalition of media watchdogs and progressive groups in a new video. Brave New Films highlights these and other audio and video clips to demonstrate what the filmmakers call the "Fox News Virus".

To illustrate the way these narrative attacks work, clips are shown of Fox News hosts or guests making a statement about Obama, along with the date of the statement, followed by a later statement from a pundit on a different channel. The idea, the filmmakers suggest, is that attacks are repeated by Fox News hosts and guests on the channel over the course of weeks and months until they eventually spill over into other news outlets. The Brave New Films video, the most recent in an ongoing series, offers multiple examples of this

This phenomenon, which David Brock, himself a former, self-described conservative attack-journalist, described in his book The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy, is nothing new. Brock later went on to leave right-wing media and founded Media Matters for America, an organization that aims to expose and counter bias in the media. In a similar fashion, Brave New Films, founded by filmmaker Robert Greenwald, also aims to counter bias and misinformation.

Obama is a lucky bastard

Clinton/Obama has turned into a boring, slowed-down basketball game in the last 2 minutes

From BuzzFlash.com

I'm not a basketball fan. Oh, I used to follow basketball. And living in Chicago in the 1990s, you couldn't help but follow Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

One element of basketball that I hated even when I did follow the sport was the last two minutes of the game. Teams always seem to have tons of timeouts that come out of nowhere. And the team that is behind fouls the other team to force them to the free throw line, which slows down the game even more.

I feel like the Democratic presidential race is a basketball game in the last 2 minutes. Barack Obama is winning, but not by a huge margin. Hillary Clinton is behind and committing fouls to try and get her back in the game.

And it's boring and really not entertaining.

Basketball is a rather popular sport, more so than hockey right now. And in hockey, the last two minutes of a close game are exciting. Often, the losing team will pull its goalie to give them an extra skater. Rare is a penalty in the last two minutes. And the best part, each team gets ONE timeout for the whole game. And yet, basketball is more popular than hockey.

In basketball, the losing team does what it can to try and come back. As distasteful as the strategy is, in basketball, without it, you can't win. But it involves not so much winning, but forcing the winning team to make mistakes. In the basketball analogy, you slow things down to take away momentum and force (ideally) a poor free-throw shooter hoping that person misses shots.

But as basketball fans can tell you, the strategy almost never works. And when it does, the result is usually a lot of luck from the comeback team and horrible mistakes from the team that had been winning.

Obama has done rather well under the circumstances -- he has made some free throws, but has missed a few as well. Clinton has shown expertise in fouling Obama without it being flagrant (in basketball, flagrant fouls allow for more ways to score points for the team in front). Her people say horrible things while the candidate doesn't say them.

And Clinton has also done well in "working the refs." Her masterful "why do I get the first question in the debate" move during the Cleveland debate was a prime example. While Clinton can legitimately complain about her press coverage for most of the campaign, she is getting much more consideration from the press. They won't even touch the credibility of her "35 years of experience" claim, and what that actually means.

So do we blame Clinton for trying this strategy? Yes and no. If winning is the only thing, it's the only thing she can do, even if it is almost certain that it won't work. But in the process, it makes the winning person weaker, regardless of who that is. And there is a rested opponent ready to face the winner of this game. This isn't the important game -- the next one is.

Bush says Afghanistan challenge romantic

US President George W Bush says he would fight in Afghanistan if he was younger.

President Bush spoke of his dream to work on the frontline in Afghanistan during a video conference with US military and civilian personnel in the war-torn country.

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said.

"If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," President Bush said.

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ISRAEL CAN GET AWAY WITH MURDER ~~ THAT’S JUST THE WAY IT IS

Of course, Israel has the right to launch hundreds of missile strikes on the crowded Gaza Strip for days, for weeks, for months. It did not mean for its air strikes to massacre a Palestinian family of seven enjoying a picnic on a beach, or wipe out three Palestinian children playing in the street, or slam into a pregnant Palestinian woman and her brother having lunch together. That’s just the way it is.

Of course, Israel has the right to blockade the Palestinian territories and impose curfews for days, for weeks, for months, denying people the basic necessities of life—food, water, medicine, electricity, freedom of movement, their very livelihoods. It does not mean to visit oppressive collective punishment upon the Palestinian population. That’s just the way it is.

Of course, Israel has the right to hold over 10,000 Palestinians in its jails, to arrest or kidnap anyone suspected of knowing a terrorist, to assassinate anyone it wishes to target for assassination. It does not mean to imprison civilians—men, women, children—whose only crime is to say “No!” to a brutal Occupation. That’s just the way it is.

Of course, Israel has the right to lay waste to anything in its path, to bulldoze houses, to uproot ancient olive groves, to confiscate land, to obliterate basic infrastructure. It does not mean to vandalize radio and TV stations, destroy NGO offices and cultural centers, shell hospitals, mosques, and schools. That’s just the way it is.

Of course, Israel has the right to manipulate the narrative of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, hiding the full truth, playing the anti-Semitism card whenever anyone dares to question its perverse interpretation of events. It does not mean to cast itself as the most justified victim of all time. That’s just the way it is.

Of course, Israel has the right to behave any way it wants to, as if it really were not accountable to anyone. President Bush and the U.S. Congress aren’t going to tell Israel otherwise, or to stop funding Israeli military aggression with US taxpayer dollars to the tune of 3 to 4 billion a year. That’s just the way it is.

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Zimbabwe to restrict white-owned firms

President Robert Mugabe, campaigning for upcoming elections, has signed a new law requiring foreign- and white-owned businesses to hand over 51% control of their operations to blacks, state media reported Sunday.
Cranking up his campaign theme of "economic empowerment" in the impoverished African nation, Mugabe also unveiled plans to distribute tractors, generators, gasoline and cattle to black farmers who have resettled on white-owned land seized by the government since 2000.

"This equipment and implements now form a critical mass that should be deployed effectively so as to meaningfully uplift productivity levels," the state-owned Sunday Mail reported Mugabe as saying at a Harare ceremony Saturday.

The new program comes three weeks before Zimbabweans vote in crucial presidential, parliamentary and local council elections in which Mugabe, 84, is running against former finance minister and ruling party loyalist Simba Makoni, 57, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55.


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Another Lie Debunked: Obama actually outperforms Clinton in the Big States

The last myth standing is that Hillary has outperformed Sen. Obama in the "big states that really count"

The only problem, is that with all most all the other Clintonian spin it is not true.


1)In the top Nine contested primaries to date Sen.Obama has outperformed Sen Clinton by 156,000 votes

Here they are:


State . . . . . Obama . . . . . . Clinton

California. . . .2,126,000 . . . . . . .2,553,000

Texas . . . . . .1,358,000 . . . . . . .1,459,000

New York. . . . .698,000 . . . . . . . 1,003,000

Illinois. . . . . 1,302,000 . . . . . . . .662,000

Ohio . . . . . . 982,000. . . . . . . 1,212,000

Gerogia. . . . . . 704,000 . . . . . . . 330,000

New Jersey. . . .492,000 . . . . . . . 603,000

Virginia . . . . . 627,000 . . . . . . . 350,000

Washington . . . 354,000 . . . . . . . 316,000


Total . . . . .8,643,000 . . . . . . . .8,487,000

Source

10 Questions for Hillary Supporters

From the Huffington Post

1. When did Sen. Clinton cross the Commander-in-Chief threshold?

2. Was it before or after October 11, 2002 when she flunked the biggest foreign policy test of her career and voted to authorize the war in Iraq?

3. How can a candidate claim to be ready on Day One when on Day 646 of her senate career she voted for a war without reading the 90-page National Intelligence Estimate that so convinced senate colleague Bob Graham the war was a mistake?

4. Are you okay with the Clinton campaign darkening Sen. Obama's complexion in its ads and would you be okay with it if that's what it took to win the nomination?

5. Do you think Sen. Clinton's failure to plan for a primary campaign beyond Feb. 5 -- best exemplified by the Iowa insult of Mississippi that she figured would never come back to haunt her -- demonstrates the foresight you want in a president?

6. Do you think Sen. Clinton's top-down, consultant-heavy campaign spending -- that necessitated her $5 million loan to the campaign -- is an indication that she'd be a good steward of the economy?

7. Are you okay with a Democratic candidate suggesting that the Republican nominee would make a better Commander in Chief than her Democratic rival?

8. Do you agree with Howard Wolfson's charge that asking a presidential candidate to release her tax returns is tantamount to Ken Starr's $40M fishing expedition?

9. Do you agree with Mark Penn's suggestion that some states are significant and some states are insignificant?

10. Are you looking forward to another I-was-for-the-war-before-I-was-against-it general election campaign?

International experts foresee collapse of U.S. economy

Excerpt

And you thought that I had a gloomy outlook on the economy. Now the bad news pops up everywhere.

Harry Koza in the Globe and Mail quotes Bernard Connelly, the global strategist at Banque AIG in London, who claims that the likelihood of a Great Depression is growing by the day.

Martin Wolf, celebrated columnist of the U.K.-based Financial Times, cites Dr. Nouriel Roubini of the New York University's Stern School of Business, who, in 12 steps, outlines how the losses of the American financial system will grow to more than $1 trillion - that's one million times $1 million. That amount is equal to all the assets of all American banks.

Every day now, thousands of people all over the U.S. and Great Britain are walking away from their homes - simply mailing their house keys to the banks - as housing bailout plans fail.

With unemployment growing, the next phase will hit commercial real estate making the financial institutions the unwilling owners not only of quickly depreciating houses, but also of empty strip malls and even larger shopping centres.

The next domino to fall will be credit card defaults, and after that... who knows? There are so many exotic funds out there, with trillions of dollars in paper - or rather computer-screen money - all carrying assorted acronyms, and all about to disintegrate into nothingness. Over the next couple of years, scores of banks that have thrived on these devices, based on quickly disappearing equities, will fail.

The most frightening forecast so far comes from the Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin (GEAB), available for 200 euros - about $300 - for 16 issues annually. Its prediction is quite specific.

Where my warnings never spelled out an exact date, this think tank has it pegged precisely. Here are its very words:

"The end of the third quarter of 2008 (thus late September, a mere seven months from now) will be marked by a new tipping point in the unfolding of the global systemic crisis.

"At that time indeed, the cumulated impact of the various sequences of the crisis will reach its maximum strength and affect decisively the very heart of the systems concerned, on the front line of which (is) the United States, epicentre of the current crisis.

"In the United States, this new tipping point will translate into - get this - a collapse of the real economy, (the) final socio-economic stage of the serial bursting of the housing and financial bubbles and of the pursuance of the U.S. dollar fall. The collapse of U.S. real economy means the virtual freeze of the American economic machinery: private and public bankruptcies in large numbers, companies and public services closing down."

The report goes on to say that we are entering a period for which there is no historic precedent. Any comparisons with previous situations in our modern economy are invalid.

NEW Will.I.Am song for Barack Obama We are the Ones

Nice song by Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas in support of Barack Obama

Rapper Juvenile's daughter killed in Ga.

A 17-year-old boy has been charged with murder in the fatal shootings of his mother and her two little girls, one of whom was rap star Juvenile's 4-year-old daughter.

Anthony Tyrone Terrell Jr. was charged Friday in the deaths at the family home near Lawrenceville, where the bodies were found the night before, said police spokeswoman Illana Spellman.

She identified the victims as Gwinnett County Sheriff's Deputy Joy Deleston, 39, and her two daughters, Micaiah, 11, and Jelani, 4. The motive was still unclear.

Deleston brought a paternity lawsuit in 2004, claiming that the 32-year-old rap star Juvenile, whose real name is Terius Gray, was Jelani's father, Gwinnett County court records show.

Attorney Randy Kessler, who represented Juvenile in the proceedings, said the case was resolved peacefully by consent order in 2006. Both parties agreed Juvenile was the father.

Kessler said Saturday he had not talked with the rapper about the killings. "Anytime you have a situation like that, it's shocking," Kessler said.

Terrell was taken to jail in neighboring DeKalb County to avoid any potential conflict because Deleston worked for Gwinnett County, Spellman said. He is being held without bail.

Because of his age, prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty against Terrell. A preliminary hearing will be set next week in Gwinnett County Superior Court, said prosecutor Danny Porter.

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