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

Sticking To Their Bad Ideas

(Q) It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit. Read more of Thomas Friedman

Inflation Abounds

Click on Graph to View (Q) The Federal Reserve is now in day 1 of their two day meeting. The statement we get tomorrow, and the minutes we will read next month are likely to be intriguing.

Why? The longstanding official myth that inflation is modest, and contained is starting to be recognized for the fraud that it is.

Examples abound: The Times of London: Food-price inflation has already pushed up a typical family’s weekly shopping bill by 15 per cent in a year (Era of cheap food ends as prices surge). Yet here in the US, the BLS has food prices up only 4.5% year over year (that's with the dollar down ~2% vs. the pound)

The price of rice has increased dramatically in recent weeks due to crop failure overseas and resulting hoarding… Rice has doubled in price in six months. (Bay Area Shoppers Asked To Limit Rice Purchases)

During the first week of April…leisure fares from traditional carriers on 280 major routes rose 13 percent from the previous year...We've got an industry that's in trouble," said Vaughn Cordle, chief executive and chief analyst at AirlineForecasts in Washington. "If oil prices stay anywhere near $100, $120 for the year ... we'll have a massive restructuring of the airline industry." (Summer travel headaches loom as airlines' woes deepen).

All these obvious price increases are begining to undermine confidence in the Federal Reserve. Courtesy The Big Picture