The Phoenix is on Mars and its sending back images

Pretty cool:

A small science probe blazed through the salmon-colored skies of Mars on Sunday, touching down on a frozen desert at the planet's north pole to search for water and assess conditions for sustaining life, NASA officials said.

The spacecraft, known as Phoenix, landed at 4:53 p.m. PDT after a do-or-die plunge through the planet's thin atmosphere and thruster-jet landing to the Mars surface. It marked the first time that a spacecraft had successfully landed at one of the planet's polar regions.

And, the pictures are starting to roll in:



More here Read the rest of this post...

Liz Trotta, Fox News analyst, laughed about knocking Obama "if we could." She should be investigated by the authorities.

Hillary Clinton has tried to make it acceptable to invoke assassination. Today, Terry McAuliffe and Howard Wolfson were in full spin mode today trying to justify her sick remarks. Watch Wolfson's pathetic performance here. When you watch McAuliffe and Wolfson, keep in mind what former Clinton supporter David Geffen said last year about the Clintons and their people: "Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling."

NOTE FROM JOHN: That's okay. If Hillary's people think assassination talk is fair game, then we'll just see how the superdelegate members of Congress feel about it when we call their offices on Tuesday and ask them. I'm gonna guess now that they won't be too thrilled.

That's bad enough. It's getting worse.

Enter Liz Trotta, a Fox News analyst.



It's not funny. It's sick. And, the Secret Service needs to make an example of Ms. Trotta and put an end to this craziness, fast. Read the rest of this post...

Would Hillary talk about hijackings in the security line at the airport?

Just curious since, you know, people trying to blow up planes are historical facts. Read the rest of this post...

Stephanopoulos continues doing the Clinton's dirty work

Today, ABC's George Stephanopoulos kept saying that Obama was somehow to blame for Hillary's assassination comments on Friday. Per Stephanopoulos' logic, the sin here wasn't Hillary invoking Obama's assassination as a reason to stay in the race. Oh no. The sin was that Obama's campaign said that Hillary's comments were "unfortunate." Unfortunate! The heathens! What kind of crass politics is Obama practicing, calling assassination talk "unfortunate." Has he no shame?

Stephanopoulos then went to say a real whopper (and one that was debunked a few weeks ago).

STEPHANOPOULOS: What is unusual this year is to have the presumptive nominee, the candidate who clearly has the most delegates, losing states by such a wide margin. In the last couple of weeks, 40-point loss in West Virginia, 35-point loss in Kentucky. A lot of Democrats look at that and say 'how can Barack Obama be losing these states so badly when he's going to be the nominee.' "

In fact, Huckabee beat McCain by 44 points in the Kansas caucuses, 40 points in the Arkansas primary, and 21 points in the Iowa caucuses, and Romney beat McCain by 85 points in the Utah primary, 40 points in the Colorado caucuses, 38% in the Nevada caucuses, 31% in the Maine caucuses, and 19% in the Minnesota caucuses. So your point being? Yes, whatever will we do if Obama can't beat Hillary in two of the smallest states in the union. Add this to the list of things that apparently don't count - any Obama victories larger than West Virginia and Kentucky. Read the rest of this post...

Danica Patrick Insists She'll Keep Driving Around Track Even if She Loses Indy 500

Via Daily Kos:

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - Today at the Indianapolis 500, Danica Patrick, IndyCar's premiere female driver, insisted that she would keep driving around the track affectionately known as the Brickyard even if she lost today's race.

"You can't win it unless you are in it," she said. When questioned on what was the point of driving around a track after you've lost the race, Danica responded, "Well, see the race isn't over until all the cars cross the track at 550 mile." Then she insisted that the Indianapolis 500 was actually the Indy 550, according to crew chief Terry McAuliffe's own map of the racetrack.

"You know a lot of people want me to get out of the race," Danica Patrick said. "I can't really figure it out. I don't know why... In 1995 Jacques Villeneuve didn't win until the last lap of the race, and in 1974 Swede Savage died before he could finish the race. So I couldn't answer -- Couldn't tell you why people want me to get out."

Danica Patrick refused to answer speculation that she would be joining Team Alegre - MYDD Racing next year.

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Does Howard Dean even want to beat John McCain?

I'm just having a hard time understanding why Howard Dean seems more interested in sucking up to Hillary than beating John McCain in the fall. Today we have definitive proof, again, of how Hillary is literally and quantitatively hurting our battle to win the White House, and Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid - and the superdelegates - aren't doing nearly enough about it.

From today's Washington Post we learn - as I've been saying for weeks - that Hillary's insistence to stay in the race, even though she's already lost - is hurting the DNC's fundraising in their efforts to take on John McCain.

From today's Washington Post:

In a banner fundraising year for Democrats, the struggles of the Democratic National Committee to stockpile cash are frustrating party leaders and complicating efforts to define Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee....

[A]s of the end of April, the DNC had collected $22.8 million this year and had $4.4 left to spend; the Republican National Committee finished April with $57.6 raised and $40.6 million in its accounts.

DNC supporters say several factors have contributed to the shortfall. Among them, they say, are that the protracted race between Obama and Clinton has soaked up funds that would otherwise go the party committee...

One longtime party strategist familiar with the inner workings of the DNC went further, acknowledging that although raising money is always "a difficult thing during a primary" for the DNC, "there is serious concern about their complete lack of fundraising success."...

A high-ranking DNC official who spoke with The Washington Post on the condition he not be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation said he worries that the party's impaired financial condition is leaving it powerless to help define McCain.

"Both campaigns have expressed a desire for us to attack McCain," the official said. "We made a small media buy. But we simply cannot sustain the kind of advertising we need right now. We can't even sustain even a national cable buy for a month."

But hey, Hillary has a bruised ego, and she's now hell-bent on convincing her supporters that the election was stolen from her by misogynist voters and superdelegates and mathematicians, so what's a lost presidency compared to Hillary's fragile emotions? Yes, Dean and Pelosi and Reid have talked to Hillary privately. That's nice. It clearly didn't work. Then again, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that Dean, Pelosi and Reid never exacted a "no assassinations-talk" promise from Hillary, so technically she may not have breached their agreement. (Never get into a land war in Asia, and never get into a parsing contest with the Clintons.)

Everyone in the party is afraid of the Clintons. Far too many superdelegates are still not picking a side because they don't want to offend either Hillary or Obama. Take Rep. Clyburn. He's African-American and a superdelegate, and this weekend he expressed outrage at Hillary's assassination comments. But even so, he's still "undecided" as to who should be president. Apparently, hinting at the assassination of a black presidential candidate isn't enough to tip the scales for the most senior African-American member of the House. Maybe he's waiting to hear Hillary's position on slavery.

The superdelegates, our party leaders, are more interested in not offending Hillary than they are in winning the White House in the fall. So, we'll continue talking about "white Americans" and "assassinations" all the way until the convention, ripping our party in two, and defunding the effort to beat John McCain in the fall, because Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of the superdelegates don't have the backbone to tell Hillary that it's over.

And these people wonder why we lose. Read the rest of this post...

Shameless HiIllary blames all of us for her sick "assassination" remarks on Friday, which have redefined the Macaca moment

[NOTE FROM JOHN: I had to add the word "assassination" to Joe's title because he refuses to even write the word. That's how much of a taboo there is about it. Hillary's use of the word assassination was vulgar and intentional - she'd done it before, she wasn't just "tired." And her defense of it now, blaming everyone else, rather than simply apologizing and taking full blame, is childish and arrogant, and sickening. Any human being with a shred of dignity left would concede this race.]

Clinton's comments invoking the assassination of Robert Kennedy have caused a firestorm. Those insensitive and ill-timed remarks pretty much ended her presidential campaign and whatever dim hopes she had of being V.P.

Watching and reading commentary today has been fascinating.

Today, Clinton blamed everyone else for taking her comments out of context:

Almost immediately, some took my comments entirely out of context and interpreted them to mean something completely different - and completely unthinkable.

I want to set the record straight: I was making the simple point that given our history, the length of this year's primary contest is nothing unusual.

Once again, she's the smartest person ever -- and everyone else is wrong. Oh, she's also staying in the race. Big surprise. But, what she doesn't get is that there is no context that would make what she said acceptable.

It doesn't matter how Hillary Clinton or her flacks try to spin those remarks. When George Allen had his macaca moment, it took some time for it to circulate. And, the video required a bit more explanation. We had to learn what "macaca" meant. We had to know that the person at whom it was aimed was Siddarth, an American of Indian descent. It took a couple extra steps to put the pieces in place.

Not so with Clinton's remarks. The video wasn't just on YouTube. It was everywhere. It is everywhere. And, no explanation is required. Anyone who sees the video knows exactly what she is saying. It's jarring. The very words she uses in the context of the current political situation speak for themselves. No one has to provide additional context or definition. That's why, for Clinton, this redefines the Macaca moment.

Clinton can blame everyone else. But, she's at fault here. And, she's the one who destroyed the last shreds of her credibility. Watch the video again.

Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Another weekend discussing the Democratic nomination when we should be talking only about the general election. But, that's where we are. Just more endless drama provided by Hillary Clinton and her crew. She lost the nomination several months ago. But, Hillary and her campaign operatives lost every last shred of credibility last week.

Russert doesn't have any real guests -- again. Terry McAuliffe is on his favorite network -- again. And, who cares what Karl Rove thinks? He's a bombastic buffoon -- the pundits hang on his every word. But, he sure left Bush and the GOP hanging.

Here's the lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Karl Rove, former White House deputy chief of staff; David Axelrod, campaign adviser for Sen. Barack Obama.

___

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Howard Wolfson, campaign adviser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

___

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Panel discussion of 2008 presidential election.

___

CNN's "Late Edition" — Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq; Reps. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and David Dreier, R-Calif.; former Labor Secretary Robert Reich; Gene Sperling, Clinton campaign adviser; Douglas Holtz-Eakin, campaign adviser for Sen. John McCain.; Mary Tillman, mother of deceased Army Ranger Pat Tillman.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe; Reps. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

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Danger of collapse at 69 dams in China

Back in 2002 while in South Africa, I remember reading a study by a local researcher who talked about the correlation between dams and earthquakes. When this terrible earthquake struck China and reports of damage to numerous dams was announced I immediately thought back to that South Africa study. Take a look at this BBC article from 2002 about the link between dams and earthquakes and note the comments about the Three Gorges dam.

It's easy to understand China's thirst for energy as the country grows. The downriver impact outside of China along the Mekong (another massive dam project) has disturbed me because people in neighboring poorer countries live and breath the Mekong so any changes can have catastrophic results.

Even in China, the dams have caused problems beyond the well publicized issues of lost villages and forced relocations. Rescue missions for the earthquake victims were delayed due to remote locations, bad weather and an inability to send heavy supplies via riverboats, the more traditional method of transportation. Is there a connection between this massive earthquake and the series of dams in the region? In time we will find out. China has done an impressive job responding to this emergency but I hope that they take a fresh look at dams and their broad impact. Energy is only part of the debate and certainly not the only issue, as we are discovering. Read the rest of this post...

Zimbabwe opposition leader returns

The presidential run-off election is scheduled for late June though the political violence led by the Mugabe regime continues. Looking at what has gone on in Zimbabwe, it's pathetic not to mention offensive that Hillary Clinton could compare Florida's vote to Zimbabwe. Unless Floridians are being tortured and killed then Hillary still owes an apology to the people of that troubled country.

Tsvangirai -- who contends he won the presidential race against longtime Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe -- returned despite what his party said was a plot by the country's military to assassinate him and other party leaders.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, after a long delay, ruled that neither candidate won a necessary majority of the vote and set a date of June 27 for Tsvangirai to again face Mugabe in a runoff vote.

Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have called for international observers to be allowed to monitor the runoff election, but Mugabe's government has refused the demand.

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