Energy and Hurricanes

Kobe Keys Lakers' Rally As L.A. Rolls To NBA Finals

Bounce 2 ESPN for game highlights

If they were running for president of Italy, England, France, Germany...

(Q) A new Telegraph survey finds Obama dominant in polls of European countries, with McCain in the single digits. McCain is in the running, oddly enough, only in the one country that isn't much of an ally: Russia.

Obama is especially popular in Italy, where a remarkable 70 per cent would vote for him if they could.

In France, historically the European country with the strongest anti-American sentiment, 65 per cent would back Mr Obama. In Germany, the Democratic Senator would get 67 per cent of the vote - while Mr McCain would receive a derisory six per cent.

Mr Obama appears to have made less of an impact in Britain than elsewhere in Europe. A relatively modest 49 per cent of Britons would vote for him, while 14 per cent would back Mr McCain - twice the totals favouring the Republican candidate in Germany or France....

The only country where Mr McCain can rival his opponent's popularity is in Russia, where anti-American feeling is strongest. The Republican appears to have made a striking impression on Russians, with 24 per cent saying they would vote for him if they could - a mere seven points behind Mr Obama.

McClellan Defends Memoir

Previewing Saturday's DNC Rules Committee Meeting

Here's some "pre-game" analysis:

1. While the room will be packed with lawyers, everyone should realize the decision will be less about actual rules than the politics and perceptions of the Democratic primary process. There is no way the DNC will let a rules committee decide the victor of the nomination.
2. Don't expect many fireworks. The Obama campaign is urging its supporters to stay quiet and protests by Clinton supporters could backfire and cause the committee to reject the challenges entirely.
3. The most likely outcome is that the rules committee will reinstate 50% of the Florida and Michigan delegates. According to a memo, party lawyers don't believe they have the authority to do any more than that.
4. The twist, as First Read notes, are the "uncommitted" delegates from Michigan's primary. "If the Rules committee decides to accept the January primary results then it's not clear, via the DNC charter, that it's within the party's rules to assign uncommitted delegates to Obama."
5. Although she will probably have succeeded in changing the "magic number" for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton will still likely be disappointed by the committee's decision. The math doesn't work for her now and won't work for her after Saturday either.

Think Gas is High? Try Europe

On Tuesday, hundreds of British truck drivers in London and Cardiff brought traffic to a crawl in a campaign to get their government to lower taxes on diesel fuel, which now costs over $11 per U.S. gallon (3.8 liters). Other businesses owners who rely heavily on gas use — including farmers, ambulance and taxi drivers, and private bus companies — have joined the protest movement or are preparing to do so.

Why so high?

One big reason for the difference is that European governments put a much higher tax burden on fuel than the U.S. does. State and federal taxes currently make up just 11%of the pump price in the U.S., according to the Energy Information Administration; in France and the U.K., taxes account for an average of around 70%. Bounce 2 Time to read full article.

Russert: Reacts to Scott McClellan's book

Kobe's 28 Points Leads Lakers Past Spurs

Meet The Press

A few things struck me about this. Number one, race isn't an "obstacle," racism is an obstacle. The problem isn't that Obama is black, the problem is that some folks have a problem with the fact that Obama is black. Courtesy Jack and Jill Politics

Portland's Shooting Guard

A Real Shocker!

A Newsweek poll homes in:

Who exactly are these high Racial Resentment Index voters? A majority, 61 percent, have less than a four-year college education, many are older (44 percent were over the age of 60 compared to just 18 percent under the age of 40) and nearly half (46 percent) live in the South.

And we wonder why Clinton won Appalachia....

The Lakers' Win Over The Spurs, Up 2-0

Keith Olbermann on Clinton's RFK Assassination Comment

Profiling California's war dead

A census of some of the best of America. And how moving that so many were immigrants:

At 7, Victor H. Toledo-Pulido was smuggled across the border from Mexico through rugged mountains into California. He and another soldier were killed in May 2007 when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle southeast of Baghdad.

"They judge us, and they say we just come to take their jobs and positions, but we also make sacrifices. Victor worked since he was little, in the fields and in restaurants," his mother, Maria Gaspar, said after the 22-year-old Mexican was killed in Iraq. "He was Mexican, but he thought like an American. And he gave his life for this country."

Dozens more were the children of immigrants, including Bunny Long, 22, a Marine lance corporal whose parents came from Cambodia, where the Khmer Rouge imprisoned them for four years in a labor camp.

"This is our home," his father, Sim Long, said after his son died. "I'm very proud that Bunny was able to give back to his country. Our country."

Read more after the Bounce 2 LA Times

"We All Have A Piece Of Each Other"

Petraeus: More troop cuts possible

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday that a decision on Iraq troop levels is likely by September...

The Border Fence

As the Department of Homeland Security pushes to complete 670 miles of fencing along the Mexican border by the end of this year, it is confronting the sharpest resistance yet...
Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff:

"I don't believe the fence is a cure-all," Chertoff said. "Nor do I believe it is a waste. Yes, you can get over it; yes, you can get under it. But it is a useful tool that makes it more difficult for people to cross. It is one of a number of tools we have, and you've got to use all of the tools."

Patricio Ahumada Jr., the mayor of Brownsville, Texas:

"Homeland Security is using it to give a false sense of security to middle America that it will keep illegal immigrants and terrorists out, but it just isn't true."

To read on Bounce 2 International Herald Tribune

Racial Attitudes: Kentucky and Oregon Comparison

Kentucky:
About one in five whites said race played a role in choosing a candidate Tuesday _ on par with results in several other Southern states. Nine in 10 of that group backed Clinton _ the highest proportion yet among the 28 states where that question has been asked in exit polls.

Only three in 10 whites who said race was a factor said they would vote for Obama should he oppose McCain in November. Nearly four in 10 said they would back McCain, while the rest said they wouldn't vote.

Oregon:
...only one in 10 voters in Oregon said the race of the candidates was important, one of the lowest proportions in primary states this year. They were evenly divided between the two Democrats, but heavily backed Obama when he was pitted against McCain.

Russert: What the Results Mean...

Magic Numbers

With just 86 pledged delegates up for grabs in Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota, and 212 remaining undeclared superdelegates, Obama just needs about 20-25 superdelegate endorsements to hit the magic 2,026 number to claim the Democratic nomination, assuming he just splits the remaining 86 in half. But it’s quite likely that the magic number is going to change, because it appears that the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee has every intention of coming up with some sort of Florida/Michigan compromise. The one number we know it won’t be is 2,210 -- the number the Clinton campaign keeps using, because there seems to be little appetite among DNC types (still angry at the calendar mess those two states created) from seating the delegations in full. That means some sort of cut. The most likely magic numbers would be 2,131 or 2,118, which would cut the two delegations in half, either keeping the supers fully in tact (the former number) or cutting them in half, too (the latter). And so if you have those new magic numbers, then Obama needs approximately 50 new superdelegate endorsements to take enough delegates off the table that there is no mathematical possibility for Clinton to secure enough delegates to win the nomination without somehow convincing Obama pledged delegates and/or supers to switch.

McCain's Visit to SNL

Obama + PDX = 75,000

(Q) Some 75,000 people flocked to Portland’s waterfront Sunday to watch Barack Obama speak, making it the biggest rally the campaign has held to date. Thousands stood on the lawn, dozens watched from boats and from the bridge stretching across the Willamette River. A few kayakers held their paddles and tried to keep their kayaks straight as they watched the candidate, who stood on a makeshift platform. Bounce 2 First Read
Andrew Sullivan: I ask again: who else can do this? In any party? Anywhere?

The Real McCain/Rubin Interview

Life = Risk

Obama Responds to Bush and McCain Foreign Policy Attacks

4 National GDPs as US Regions

Today, we see GDP of the top four national economies in the world (after the US), expressed as US regions by GSP.
Courtesy World Bank Look at Countries GDP as US States.

Chip Off Old Block

No one -- let alone a 36-year-old -- hits .400 anymore. Not in this era of specialization. Then again, we're talking about a 36-year-old named Larry who calls himself Chipper. So ... enjoy the ride! Bounce 2 ESPN

Johnny "Come Lately" Edwards

(Q) Just when Hillary Clinton had the news cycle in her favor after her victory in West Virginia, along comes Johnny!
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards threw his support behind Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday, urging the party to unite to send a Democrat to the White House.

Standing alongside Obama at a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., Edwards said poor Americans have been shut out of the health care and education systems. Obama, he said, would tear down the walls that divide the rich and poor with universal health care and educational opportunities for impoverished students.

"There is one man who knows this is the time for bold leadership ... and that man is Barack Obama," said Edwards, a former North Carolina senator.

Hillary as the Dead Parrot

Read the article after the Bounce 2 Washington Post and then enjoy Monty Python.

Holy Cow!

Weighing 1.25 tons, and towering 6ft 6in at the shoulder, Chilli dwarfs most horses, is the same height as a small elephant, and could provide enough steaks to feed an army.
Despite his size, Miss Clarke described him as being “very friendly and gentle.”

The steer grazes on grass during the day and enjoys the occasional swede as a treat. A farmer abandoned him and his twin sister Jubilee on the sanctuary's doorstep in September 1999, when he was six days old. The sanctuary named him Chilli because it already had a cow called Chutney.

He would normally have been on a farm and slaughtered for meat at an early age. But because he has been in a sanctuary he has lived to the age of nine.

Miss Clarke said: “As the years passed we noticed he was getting rather tall.

”Although he weighs over a ton he is quite lean and not as fat as some of his companions. We don't know what has made him so tall. He doesn't eat that much and Jubilee is 6ft in comparison. His feet and head are in proportion; he is just very large.”

Balancing him on a set of scales would need 16 St Bernard dogs; 12 newborn elephants; five adult gorillas; or 1.5 Smart cars. He could provide 5,510 8 oz steaks.

The sanctuary has referred Chilli's details to Guinness World Records in the hope that it might claim a record. Guinness World Records said it was researching the application.

As of November last year, the record for the tallest oxen is Fiorino, an Italian chianina ox who measured 6 ft 8 in to the withers.

The largest cow on record was an American Holstein-Durham cross named Mount Katahdin, which stood at 6 ft 2 in and had a girth measuring 13 ft. The cow died in a barn fire in 1923. Courtesy Telegraph.co.uk

President Reagan's Humor

A montage of President Reagan at his comedic best.

Clinton: It'd be 'terrible mistake' to pick McCain over Obama

Clinton says it would be a "grave error" if her supporters voted for McCain

Anybody who has ever voted for me or voted for Barack has much more in common in terms of what we want to see happen in our country and in the world with the other than they do with John McCain," Clinton said

Mrs. Clinton goes on to talk about the unity issue...

"I'm going to work my heart out for whoever our nominee is -- obviously I'm still hoping to be that nominee, but I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that anyone who supported me ... understands what a grave error it would be not to vote for Sen. Obama."

This has to be good news for the party elders of the Democratic Party and Barack Obama.

Clinton wins West Virginia, with race a factor

(Q) Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won a lopsided victory over Senator Barack Obama in the Tuesday primary in West Virginia, where racial considerations emerged as an unusually salient factor. Clinton drew strong support from white, working-class voters who have spurned Obama in recent contests.

The number of white Democratic voters who said that race had influenced their choices on Tuesday was among the highest recorded in voter surveys in the nomination fight. Two in 10 white West Virginia voters said race was an important factor in their votes. Read on after the Bounce 2 International Herald Tribune

McCain Backer John Hagee Apologizes to Catholics

(Q) John Hagee, the controversial evangelical pastor who endorsed John McCain, will issue a letter of apology to Catholics today for inflammatory remarks he has made, including accusing the Roman Catholic Church of supporting Adolf Hitler and calling it “The Great Whore.”

After Hagee’s endorsement of McCain, both came under fire after the spotlight was placed on other disparaging comments Hagee has made in the past. The dissection of their relationship – How did the McCain campaign court Hagee’s endorsement? Did he know about Hagee’s comments at the time? – coincided partly with the attention placed on Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of Barack Obama.

Read more after the Bounce 2 The Wall Street Journal

Racism Alive and Well

On the campaign trail in 2008...
Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded:

"Hang that darky from a tree!"

Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said she, too, came across "a lot of racism" when campaigning for Obama in Pennsylvania. One Pittsburgh union organizer told her he would not vote for Obama because he is black, and a white voter, she said, offered this frank reason for not backing Obama:

"White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people."

Obama campaign officials say such incidents are isolated, that the experience of most volunteers and staffers has been overwhelmingly positive.

The campaign released this statement in response to questions about encounters with racism:

"After campaigning for 15 months in nearly all 50 states, Barack Obama and our entire campaign have been nothing but impressed and encouraged by the core decency, kindness, and generosity of Americans from all walks of life. The last year has only reinforced Senator Obama's view that this country is not as divided as our politics suggest."

Campaign field work can be an exercise in confronting the fears, anxieties and prejudices of voters. Veterans of the civil rights movement know what this feels like, as do those who have been involved in battles over busing, immigration or abortion. But through the Obama campaign, some young people are having their first experience joining a cause and meeting cruel reaction. Read the full article after the Bounce @ MSNBC

Obama has commanding lead in Oregon

Illinois senator leading former first lady 55-35
A bit more than a week away from Oregon’s May 20 primary, Barack Obama has amassed a nearly insurmountable lead in the Democratic presidential race, according to statewide polling conducted by Portland’s Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall Inc. for the Portland Tribune and FOX 12 News. Read more after the Bounce 2 Portland Tribune It's classic Obama country - but the margin over Clinton, even among women voters, is a useful counterpoint to West Virginia.

Obama VP Discussion

Last night on Hardball Democrats float ideas about who is Barack Obama's best running mate...interesting names bandied about by the pundits.

It's Baseball Season

The unassisted Triple Play!

McCain Playing Centerfield

McCain's new ad on climate change:

Voter ID Battle Shifts to Proof of Citizenship

Lillie Lewis, 78, with a letter from Mississippi saying it had no record of her birth. “That’s downright wrong,” she said

(Q) The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote.

The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter ID requirement recently upheld by the Supreme Court, in which voters had to prove their identity with a government-issued card.

Sponsors of the amendment — which requires the approval of voters to go into effect, possibly in an August referendum — say it is part of an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from affecting the political process. Critics say the measure could lead to the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of legal residents who would find it difficult to prove their citizenship. Read on after the Bounce @ NYT

Pathetic...

"I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife's an atheist," - Leonard Simpson, a West Virginia Democrat. Then this:

Josh Fry, a 24-year-old ambulance driver from Williamson, insisted he was not racist but said he would feel more comfortable with Mr McCain, the 71-year-old Vietnam war hero, in the White House. "I want someone who is a full-blooded American as president," he said.

Meanwhile, I get an email like this:

This guy is a muslim trying to take over religion, rights, gunns, and lastly our country.

Does anyone remember 911. He's cunning and a racists. He is connected with dirty money and bad connections in the rest of the world.

Obama's got his work cut out with these people when he gets the nomination. A summer of engaging and listening with rural non-college educated white folk would help - why not hold a series of town hall meetings in rural America? I don't think any region should be written off by any candidate, especially if the major objections seem racial or religious. Courtesy Andrew Sullivan

Lions vs. Buffalo

Now this is what you want to see when you go on Safari in Africa...

Hillary Clinton skewered by SNL as a Sore Loser

Now Obama leads in California

The big state gave Clinton a ten-point victory in its primary. A new SUSA poll gives Obama a 6 point edge. When you look at the demographic date, you find that the black vote hasn't changed much, unlike in other states. And Latino support for Clinton has dropped, but Obama hasn't managed to gain. White males have moved decisively to Obama but the biggest swing appears among Asian-Americans. The Asian vote has gone from 71 - 25 for Clinton to 54 - 37 for Obama.

The Last Lecture

Hillary Who?

Obama turns his attention to John McCain.

LA Times: “Confident that he has built a near-impregnable lead, his campaign aides said Wednesday that Obama would begin shifting his focus toward the general election.”

Politico: Obama intends to start gearing his travel schedule toward general election states.

Which might be a good idea, because the Republicans have already started to focus on him.

Plus: Former Edwards manager and ex-Michigan Rep. David Bonior endorses Obama Thursday.

Throwing in the Towel

Lots of Clinton backers and undecideds are talking on the record. “‘The air is completely let out of them,’ said first-term Rep. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania, who is uncommitted to either candidate, referring to the Clinton supporters among his congressional colleagues. ‘They are resigned to the fact that it's probably not going to work out.’”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, per the New York Post: "It's her decision to make and I'll accept what decision she makes," he said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein told The Hill: "I, as you know, have great fondness and great respect for Sen. Clinton and I'm very loyal to her," Feinstein said. "Having said that, I'd like to talk with her and [get] her view on the rest of the race and what the strategy is. I think the race is reaching the point now where there are negative dividends from it, in terms of strife within the party."

The Los Angeles Times: “‘It's a tough race,’ said Don Fowler, a former national Democratic Party chairman and Clinton superdelegate from South Carolina. ‘If things had been a little better in North Carolina, we would be stronger than we are today. But the game's not over till it's over.’”

“‘She has to look realistically at the vote [Tuesday] and decide what's best for her candidacy, what's best for the country, what's best for the party,’ said Democratic Rep. Dale E. Kildee, a longtime Clinton backer.”

George Will

McCain's problem might turn out to be the fact that Obama is the Democrats' Reagan. Obama's rhetorical cotton candy lacks Reagan's ideological nourishment, but he is Reaganesque in two important senses: People like listening to him, and his manner lulls his adversaries into underestimating his sheer toughness — the tempered steel beneath the sleek suits. Courtesy Jewish World Review

Rove: A Tough Race for the GOP

Karl Rove: "This will be a very difficult year for Republicans. The economy's shaky state, an unpopular war, and the natural desire for partisan change after eight years of one party in the White House have helped tilt the balance to the Democrats."

However, Sen. John McCain "is the best candidate Republicans could have picked in this environment. With the GOP brand low, his appeal to moderates and independents becomes even more crucial."

Relief for World Food Crisis Made More Difficult by Cyclones, Riots

In the wake of the devastating cyclone in Myanmar and widespread rioting in Somalia, the international community continues to try and respond with food relief to confront the rising need. World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran discusses those efforts. Streaming Video

You Can't Make This Up!

Hillary Clinton enthusiastically picked a filly named Eight Belles to win the Kentucky Derby and compared herself to the horse. Eight Belles finished second. The winner was the favorite, Big Brown.

Eight Belles collapsed immediately after crossing the finish line, and was euthanized shortly thereafter.

China now No. 1

(Q) China has overtaken the USA to become the world's No. 1 industrial source of carbon dioxide, the most important global-warming pollutant, according to a scientific study to be published today.
The study and two others — one recently published and another coming — agree that China's carbon-dioxide emissions surpassed those in the USA in 2006. That's decades earlier than had been predicted by the International Energy Agency four years ago.

All three studies examine emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal. Energy usage is the most significant man-made source of carbon dioxide, which accumulates in the atmosphere and traps heat.

Unless China sharply cuts its emissions, "the situation is pretty bleak," says Richard Carson of the University of California, co-author of a study in today's Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. "There's a lot less time to do something than people previously thought."

China's total emissions in 2006 roughly tied U.S. emissions, according to another study in the April 24 issue of Geophysical Research Letters. But China's monthly production of carbon dioxide overtook the USA's in mid-2006, the study says. "Nobody could anticipate the rate of growth that's taken place in the last six or eight years in China," says Gregg Marland of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of the authors of that study. Courtesy USA Today

Obama Leads in Oregon

With three weeks until Oregon's Democratic primary, Sen. Barack Obama edges Sen. Hillary Clinton, 50% to 44%, according to a new SurveyUSA poll.

Compared to an identical tracking poll three weeks ago, Obama is down 2, Clinton is up 2 -- "small movement to be sure, and within the survey's margin of sampling error, but movement away from Obama and to Clinton nonetheless."

Poll: Bush most unpopular in modern history

(Q) A new poll suggests that George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush his handling his job as president.

"No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

"Bush's approval rating, which stands at 28 percent in our new poll, remains better than the all-time lows set by Harry Truman and Richard Nixon (22 percent and 24 percent, respectively) but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s," Holland added. "The previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 67 percent disapproval in January 1952."

CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider adds, "He is more unpopular than Richard Nixon was just before he resigned from the presidency in August 1974." President Nixon's disapproval rating in August 1974 stood at 67 percent.

McCain & Clinton Fail Economics 101

I don't know why, but I always seem to be surprised by the pandering of politicians. I guess that makes me somewhat naive.

The latest bit of idiocy from two of the three candidates for the highest office in the land was a suggestion that federal gasoline taxes -- 18.4 cents a gallon -- be suspended from Memorial Day to Labor Day. To his credit, Barack Obama dismissed this as counter-productive gimmick. I don't have a horse in this race, but I am heartened to see at least one candidate is not clueless.

A quick lesson in Supply & Demand 101 for the Maverick McSame and Yoko: Strong demand and limited supply of a product lead to price increases. If you artificially lower the price of something -- i.e., waive taxes for a period of time -- all you will have accomplished was stimulating more demand. The higher demand and increased consumption eventually lead to even higher prices.

Hence, the expression the cure for high prices is high prices.

Put this plan into effect and long before summer's end, gasoline prices would have risen to the pre-tax holiday levels. Then, we slap that tax back on, and the electorate is pissed at you. Then, neither of you gets elected. Not only bad economics, but bad politics.

We have no energy policy, and none on the horizon. Candidates serious about the issue of high energy prices should be discussing increased CAFE standards, capital gains tax waivers for alternative energy investments, greater offshore drilling, Pigou taxes, rapid nuclear plant approvals, a huge increase in the basic R&D the government does on energy -- a Manhattan project for energy and transportation science.
Courtesy The Big Picture