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."