Republicans starting to worry about a deadlocked convention

:-) Read the rest of this post...

New from Apple: The iRack

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Letter to the editor: Who can we really trust in Washington?

From time to time I'm going to publish (with permission) interesting emails I get from some of our readers. Here's one.

I am sick of politicians not being clear about what their goals are for this country. I want someone to tell me how they are going to help me and actually follow through with their promises.

What a mess we have become. It is getting so hard for us in the middle. My husband works 60+ hours a week, I work doubles on the weekend. We barely make it. Sure we have health care, which is over 100 dollars a week out of my check, yet we still can't afford to go to the doctor. Oh don't get me started on the economy! We work ourselves to death, never making any more, yet the price of groceries has skyrocketed and gas, well frankly everything has gone up in price. It is pretty sad when you have to pass on feeding your family to pay your utilities, or pass going to the doctor because you can't afford to take the time off work. I am sick of working myself to death so someone can get richer. I am sick of not having quality time with my family so someone can throw a 150,000 dollar party. I am sick of seeing the young men I know in the neighborhood going to die in some God forsaken country so someone can give more money to their rich friends.

Someone please tell me when will the corruption end and the fight for the people begin?

Amy
Greencastle, Indiana

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GOP may hold stimulus package hostage so they can cut taxes, again

Yeah, so what if the economy is heading towards a massive George Bush recession. What matters is holding 300 million Americans hostage so that the GOP can get their beloved tax cuts, AGAIN. Read the rest of this post...

Disenfranchisement case to be heard in Nevada tomorrow. Could be impacted by unanimous Supreme Court decision made today

The attempt by supporters of Hillary Clinton to change the rules of the Nevada Democratic caucus, which have been approved for months, goes to court tomorrow. A Supreme Court decision issued today based on a case from New York State seems to undermine the arguments of the plaintiffs.

For me, this episode is one of the most despicable acts we've seen in the campaign so far this year. We expect Republicans to block voters from participating, but not Democrats. According to the Las Vegas Sun (my new favorite paper, for this week anyway) the case may be doomed already over timing issues. Basically, the plaintiffs waited too long to file:

It appeared that the plaintiffs, another legal expert said, “just waited too late in the day to entertain these types of issues.”

The doctrine is meant to prevent last-minute litigation when rules could have been challenged earlier, said Edward B. Foley, professor of law at Moritz College of Law and the director of the election law program at Ohio State University.

“The court is likely to ask: Why couldn’t they have brought this sooner? Why is it filed now?”

Supporters of the lawsuit have said they didn’t become aware of the caucus rules until recently, though the rules were passed by the state party in March.

They became very "aware" of the rules after Obama got endorsement of the Culinary Workers Union. Which brings me to today's Supreme Court ruling explained after the break.

One of the legal expert interviewed by the Sun made this astute comment:

Even if the judge discounts the timing, Foley said, courts have largely given wide latitude to parties to come up with their own rules.

“This is arguably an internal party matter,” he said. “Case law from the U.S. Supreme Court gives considerable deference to parties.”

Astute, because interestingly, a Supreme Court case unanimously decided today may undermine the lawsuit brought by the Clinton supporters. That case revolves around political parties in New York State choosing judicial candidates. From The NY Times:

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld New York's unique system of choosing trial judges Wednesday, setting aside critics' concerns that political party bosses control the system.

''A political party has a First Amendment right to limit its membership as it wishes and to choose a candidate-selection process that will in its view produce the nominee who best represents its political platform,'' Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court.

The Nevada State Democratic Party chose a candidate-selection process that was accepted by all the players -- until just about a week ago. On an early reading, seems like today's Supreme Court decision works in the favor of the state party's approved plan. Read the rest of this post...

Former GOP congressman indicted on terrorism charges

Why does Ronald Reagan hate America? From CNN:

A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al Qaeda and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.

The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.

A 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Missouri, accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying -- money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Siljander, who served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, was appointed by President Reagan to serve as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations for one year in 1987.

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Switching word definitions as an argument tactic

I've been occasionally following the discussions of Jonah Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascism," and Sam Boyd hits on a crucial point in terms of the entire analysis:

Goldberg reminds me of a friend of mine with a taste for arguments about philosophy. His secret was that he cheated. He'd argue some seemingly absurd premise but then retreat to a definition of a key word that was so different from a reasonable one that it was unrecognizable. You'd try and keep in mind his weird vocabulary, but the words maintained the force of their original meaning and it was hard to keep your argument straight. A similar thing is going on with Godlberg.

I don't have much to add to that very solid analysis, except to say that this kind of bait-and-switch, whether about words or concepts, seems to be increasingly prevalent on the right. I think this is mostly because so many conservative ideas have been implemented to such disastrous results that there's an intense period of rationalization going on. In my little area of knowledge, though, I notice it most often with talk of the surge. Since it didn't work as planned, now proponents are retreating to talking about it as focused on something totally different. It's nearly impossible to have an honest discussion about significant ideas when this is the default style of argumentation. Read the rest of this post...

Romney holds fake photo opp with typical Michigan mom... who happens to have a son on his staff

He either thinks we're complete morons, or he himself is a complete moron. I tend to think both are true. Read the rest of this post...

Because the Middle East needs more weapons lying around

The inconsistency and hypocrisy of US policy in the Middle East continues to abound and astound.

To thank the Saudis for supporting the latest, feeble U.S. peace efforts in the Middle East, Bush is promising them 20 billion dollars in sophisticated weapons -- including 121 million dollars worth of precision guided bombs.

Bush gives a speech criticizing Iran for a lack of democracy and the audience is . . . Abu Dhabi and Dubai. He slams Iran for wanting weapons . . . and then sells $20 BILLION worth to the Kingdom. The article does a fantastic job of explaining the contradictions of our policy, as well as some of the results of the current sky-high oil prices; it's well worth a read. The whole thing makes me want to, well, you know. Read the rest of this post...

AP on Romney: The most malleable — and least credible — major presidential candidate

Brutal. And accurate. Brutally accurate:

Mitt Romney's victory in Michigan was a defeat for authenticity in politics.

The former Massachusetts governor pandered to voters, distorted his opponents' record and continued to show why he's the most malleable — and least credible — major presidential candidate.

And it worked.

It worked so well that Romney is now the GOP frontrunner. He's the new "comeback kid." Read the rest of this post...

Rumblings on damaged state of US economy

When you hear this on CNBC, you know there's a problem. Even Larry Kudlow can't put a happy face on this news.

“It now seems like we’re falling off a precipice,” says [Carl] Icahn. “It’s not the end of the world forever but I think there are shoes that could fall. For instance, commercial real estate could get hit hard. There was just too much leverage put on them… and retailers are down a lot, perhaps too much. They may be cheap. But that said, American management teams are, apparently, not up to the job.”

And from Governor Spitzer on Subprime crash: “All the financial services companies need to get rid of the junk on their balance sheets,” he says, “and then raise the capital needed.”

“What worries me most is that their capital debt is going to have a huge negative impact on the lending capacity and that could drag the whole economy down,” he adds. “The magnitude of this is grossly underestimated.”

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread

He's back. After spending tens of millions of dollars of his family fortune, Mitt finally won a primary. He had to out pander himself but he did it. So, that means media darling McCain is no longer the front-runner. That lasted a week. On to South Carolina this weekend for the GOP. Who wins there? Huckabee. Or does Thompson awaken from his slumber? The Republicans got no one to love. It's great.

Let's get started. Read the rest of this post...

FDA says no need to inform consumers of Franken-food

I wish I could say this is unbelievable but this is just another example of how Bush has ruined the FDA and sided with industry, again. Americans (and Europeans and everyone else who has been asked) have strongly rejected the idea but that doesn't matter. The business lobbyists want to do this so they will. Don't like it? Tough. Afraid of the consequences of eating Franken-food? I don't care what these political hacks at the FDA say, I don't believe them.

But it will be hard to tell which foods do contain ingredients originating from cloned animals. The Food and Drug Administration ruled that labels won't have to reveal whether the food comes from cloned cows, pigs or goats, or the clones' offspring, because those ingredients are no different than meat or milk from livestock bred the old-fashioned way.

"We found nothing in the food that could potentially be hazardous. The food in every respect is indistinguishable from food from any other animal," FDA food safety chief Dr. Stephen Sundlof said. "It is beyond our imagination to even find a theory that would cause the food to be unsafe."

Every time I read about the US economy running on the backs of consumers - 70% of the economy comes from consumers - I scratch my head and wonder how the system has become so rigged against them. Is Congress going to lend a helping hand and demand proper labeling or are consumers going to get shafted again? Read the rest of this post...

Citigroup loss is largest in 196 year history

The quarterly losses were hideous, setting a record low for the Wall Street bank. Considering the awful state of banks (in both the US and Europe) at the moment and the recession talk, it's only a matter of time before voters start digging deeper into the economic plans offered by presidential candidates.

Krugman had an interesting article yesterday on this that's worth investigating. The leading GOP candidate has some amazing remarks that are worth noting. McCain does not sound like someone we need during these times.

Take, for example, John McCain’s admission that economics isn’t his thing. “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,” he says. “I’ve got Greenspan’s book.”

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