"A stunning upset" in Illinois. Democrat wins seat of former Speaker Hastert

This is HUGE:

In a stunning upset Saturday that could be a harbinger of trouble for the GOP this fall, a little-known Democratic physicist won the special election for a seat drawn to re-elect former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Bill Foster defeated Republican Jim Oberweis, who lost his fourth high-profile election in six years, following an expensive and highly negative contest.

The win gives Democrats another House seat until at least the end of the year. It also could serve as an omen for November, when two other Illinois congressional seats are up for grabs following Republican retirements and Sen. Barack Obama could bring out a huge turnout if he's the Democratic presidential nominee.

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Bush = McCain

In case we had any doubt about whether Bush and McCain are the same creature, consider this: Bush's top two politicos, Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, have joined the McCain's campaign:

A top McCain adviser said both Mehlman and Rove are now informally advising the campaign.

Let's hope they keep that recent track record intact. Mehlman and Rove haven't had a new idea since 2002. They helped lose the House and Senate in 2006. They helped bring Bush to his extremely low approval ratings. It's good that McCain really is just Bush. They are the McSame. Read the rest of this post...

Obama wins Wyoming

CNN and MSNBC called it. Latest tally, 59% Obama to 40% Clinton. Add Wyoming to the long list of states that don't count.

No doubt, we'll hear the usual spin from team Clinton about this loss not mattering. But the Clintons did try to win Wyoming (and thought they had a shot) according to this report earlier today from the Caucus at the NYT:

For the time being, it doesn’t matter whether the Clinton campaign’s contention that caucuses are undemocratic is accurate – they count. And Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton appears determined to break her all-but-Nevada (and New Mexico!) losing streak in them. Over the past several days, she and her family have been stumping around Wyoming, which is holding Democratic caucuses throughout the morning and early afternoon today. The intensity of her late efforts there appear to be helping her catch up to Senator Barack Obama, according to state party officials, even though he was more organized there, meaning we’ve got a real race today in Vice President Dick Cheney’s home state.

A real race? Not really. All that campaigning didn't work out so well after all. Read the rest of this post...

Wyoming Caucus Update: Obama 58%, Clinton 41%

91% reporting. Read the rest of this post...

Wyoming Caucus Update -- Obama leads by wide margin

UPDATE at 5:27 PM Eastern, with 87% of precincts reporting, Obama's lead is 58% - 41%. 4,077 votes for Obama to 2,838 for Clinton. 1% is uncommitted. Check out the excellent updates from Pocketnines at DailyKos.

At 3:15 PM Eastern time, with 78% of precincts reporting, Obama leads 59% - 40%.

AP reports Wyoming Democrats "were showing up in "record numbers." Read the rest of this post...

Looks like Hillary's foreign policy credentials are based on one speech she made in 1995

We're entering into dangerous territory with one of our presidential candidates. And I don't mean dangerous in the sense Hillary claims - that she "risked her life" during multiple secret agent missions while she was juggling planning the White House Christmas party and solving world peace (if she'd only been First Lady during the Cold War think of the billions we could have saved by her single-handedly bringing down the Soviet Union). We're entering the "just because she says it doesn't make it true" territory. It's a category we traditionally reserve for George Bush and Republicans.

As we are all very well aware, Hillary Clinton is touting her foreign policy credentials. When asked to name them, she provides some examples:

You know, I was involved for 15 years in, you know, foreign policy and security policy. You know, I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland. I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo. I've been standing up against, you know, the Chinese government over women's rights and standing up for human rights in many different places. I've served on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Noticeably, no mention of her votes on Iraq and Iran. But, let's look at what she said. Let's see if it's true.

NORTHERN IRELAND
On Northern Ireland, via Ben Smith, Clinton's claim is harshly disabused and called "silly" by the Nobel laureate who actually brought peace to Northern Ireland:

Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a "wee bit silly" for exaggerating the part she played, according to Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former First Minister of the province.

"I don’t know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton] going around," he said. Her recent statements about being deeply involved were merely "the sort of thing people put in their canvassing leaflets" during elections. "She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience. I don’t want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player."

Cross Northern Ireland off.

KOSOVO
On Kosovo, CNN actually fact-checked:

In May of 1999, she was in Macedonia visiting refugee camps near the Kosovo border and meeting with Macedonia's president and prime minister.

Sources with knowledge of her visit say she discussed the refugees' plight with those leaders. It's not clear how much she helped since CNN reported at the time that Macedonia reopened its border to Kosovar refugees before Clinton's visit.

More on her dare-devil mission to Kosovo:

The dictum around the Oval Office in the '90s, she added, was: "If a place was too dangerous, too poor or too small, send the first lady."

It turns out that Clinton wasn't quite flying solo into harm's way that day.

She was, in fact, leading a goodwill entourage that included baggy-pants funnyman Sinbad, singer Sheryl Crow and Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, then 15.

So, if a place was "too dangerous," Hillary took her 15 year old kid, Sinbad and Sheryl Crow with? Oops. Cross that one off, too.

So, based on the examples Clinton provided, it looks like her foreign policy experience actually is based on one speech she made in 1995. How ironic.

I don't mean to belittle Hillary here, but she has developed a recent history of inflating her resume in a way that will lead to some pretty laughable and damaging GOP ads come the fall general election. It's "Al Gore created the Internet" all over again. That was never what Gore actually claimed, but the right wing pushed it so hard that the media adopted it. Hillary does have some strong experience. But, most Americans aren't going to believe that the First Lady, when not reading to children, was actually knee-capping terrorists a la Jack Bauer. Read the rest of this post...

Podcast: Will Hillary and Obama destroy each other?

In this episode, AMERICAblog deputy editor Joe Sudbay and I talk about the increasing nastiness in the campaign for the Democratic nomination and whether McCain is even relevant any longer.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking here. For those who don't know, a podcast is really just a radio show. Click the link and your computer should play it automatically, assuming you have speakers and your volume is turned up.

As always, you can subscribe to the AMERICAblog podcast via iTunes here, or you can subscribe to the podcast's RSS feed here. And you can listen to any of our old shows via either of the two links in the preceding sentence, or you can find them in the Podcast tab in the upper right corner of this page. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Quite a week, huh? The Wyoming Democratic caucuses are today. We'll have results as we get them. A great guide to the Wyoming caucus process -- with maps and schedules -- can be found in a recommended diary at Daily Kos by PocketNines,

Check out the poem of the week. It's a "lighthearted, stream-of-consciousness poem by Frank O'Hara." We could probably use a lighhearted, stream-of-consciousness to counter all the really ugly streams we've been hearing.

Open thread away. Read the rest of this post...

Democrat in Congress: "FAA needs to clean house from top to bottom"

The sooner, the better. The same needs to be done elsewhere because in one department after another, there's much too much concern for what industry wants without any consideration for consumers. Pick any industry and it's always the same. The Republicans have been more than content to have this system in place but thankfully Democrats are finally standing up and taking action. Well done by Congressman James Oberstar who is chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Oberstar also said he believes similar violations may have occurred involving other airlines, but that those who have such evidence are afraid to come forward.

"Complacency has likely set in to the highest levels of FAA management," the Minnesota Democrat said in a Capitol Hill news conference. "I think we have seen the pendulum swing away from vigorous enforcement of compliance toward a carrier-favorable, cozy relationship with the airlines."

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Blair to teach "faith and globalization" course at Yale

Reuters really skirts around a few stories with this one. While promoting his role as Palestinian peace envoy - though after the announcement, when have we heard anything? - they fail to mention his more recent position at JP Morgan as a $5,000,000 per year consultant. So the man who helped bring war, destruction and more poverty to the Middle East through a war based on lies is going to teach Yale students about bringing religions together for world peace? Only a school that allows people like Bush to buy his way into school could possibly think this is a good idea. What frauds.

This also again raises the issue of former politicians and their lobbying jobs. It's tiring to see all of these politicians (of both parties and globally) cash in after they leave office. When Reagan left office and then ran to Japan to make millions - when Japan was the biggest economic worry for Americans - it just seemed wrong. They all do it and yet last year when the British sailors were taken captive by Iran, there was outrage when they sold their stories to the press for peanuts. Is it so difficult too see that these jobs are obvious conflicts of interest? Who knows what kind of special favors were passed on then (or now) in return for a comfy consultant position. Read the rest of this post...

David Attenborough with gorillas

One of the most amazing moments in his brilliant career. Many credit Attenborough with bringing these wonderful animals to the attention of the west which has helped save them from what would have been extinction years ago. Even today the gorillas are in jeopardy once again due to conflict in the region. Pity to see Attenborough retiring. Read the rest of this post...