TexanInfidel's Blog

So HotAir.com continuously entertains me!  This is totally how I see the Obamaheads...  Except this makes more sense.

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http://hotair.com/archives/2008/05/07/awesome-yes-w
e-can-cobra-commander-edition/

Beware the cult of personality in all its forms.

 

Blowback

From HotAir.com...  You know, the most thoughtful and wise professor I had used the following illustration of how the laws of free speech apply:  Your right to swing your fists wildly ends where my face begins. 

Obviously if you say that life begins in the womb (backed by scientific evidence of feelings and personalities developed in the womb - and not to mention that any mother can testify the rate at which her child develops inside) you have no right to voice your opinion.  But if you want to destroy someone else's planned, permitted, executed silent protest no one can touch you.  I think I'm going to start posting every leftist nut job that interrupts a peaceful protest with a tantrum...

And call me judgemental, but I don't know that this guy is going to be reproducing any time soon anyway...

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http://hotair.com/archives/2008/05/07/video-pro-lif
e-memorial-destroyed-because-abortions-a-right-and-your
e-not-allowed-to-challenge-that/

And before you ask, no, your right to free speech that he’s challenging doesn’t count. Exit question one: This sort of makes sense by Doug Kmiec standards, no? Exit question two: “If there’s a student on this campus that … might be having an abortion, might be going through this, you’re going to put this up in front of them? Are you crazy?”

 

I'm looking for someone to vote for... This post is for GrayWolf:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20
08/05/05/AR2008050502314_pf.html

Paul Campaign Never Ended, Spokesman Says

By Garance Franke-Ruta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 6, 2008; A08



As the Democratic presidential candidates held pre-primary rallies yesterday in Indiana and North Carolina, and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain spoke to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, another major-party presidential candidate continued his own quest for nomination, headlining a "Freedom Rally" on a Fort Wayne, Ind., university campus.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) told supporters in early March, through a Web video, that he knew he was no longer in the running for the presidency, and aides said his campaign would be "winding down." But it turns out Paul never stopped running for president.

"He put out a video in which he said victory in the conventional sense was not available to us, but there was still much the campaign could try to accomplish," Ron Paul 2008 spokesman Jesse Benton said yesterday. "People in the press reported that as him dropping out when he was not dropping out."

Paul's campaign has shrunk from a high of more than 150 staffers before Super Tuesday on Feb. 5 to around 15, according to Benton, and his record-breaking Internet fundraising operation has turned off its online ticker. But with more than $4 million in cash on hand, his campaign says there is no good reason to stop.

He is still racking up votes, for one thing, having garnered 16 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania's Republican primary on April 22. And his supporters are still active at the grass-roots level: GOP officials abruptly canceled the Nevada state convention when it became clear that Paul's backers outnumbered those for McCain and stood ready to take control of the delegate process.

Paul's campaign hopes to turn such support into upward of 50 delegates for the party's national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul in September, where he is gunning for a speaking slot.

There's also the matter of Paul's book. "The Revolution: A Manifesto" hit stores on April 30. His campaign is prohibited from selling it, but a continued presence on the speaking circuit is sure to stoke sales. (The book debuted at No. 1 on Amazon.com's "Hot New Releases in Books.")

The former Libertarian Party nominee has "no plans and no intentions" to switch to any other party when the time comes to end his bid, Benton said.

"If it was just for the presidency, it would have ended a long time ago," says supporter Tom Martin, 50, a database administrator from State College, Pa. "The idea was to reinvigorate the Republican Party back to its principles and, more than that, to reinvigorate the American people back to its principles."

Arthur Brooks has his own take as to why conservatives are generally happier than liberals.  It is not necessarily due to their political beliefs but due to their personal lives.  Please please, add your take on this.  A storm is coming so that is all the insight you get for now - otherwise I might end up with lightning hands / powers.

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http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/politics/2008/0
5/05/why-conservatives-say-they-are-happier-than-libera
ls_print.htm

Why Conservatives Say They Are Happier Than Liberals Q&A with Arthur Brooks, whose new book says the liberal agenda takes a personal toll By Bret Schulte Posted May 5, 2008

What's the key to happiness? Liberals might tell you a hot latte, vivid expressions of diversity, and a copy of the New York Times. That doesn't sound too bad, but in data mined for his new book, Gross National Happiness, Arthur Brooks, a professor of business and government at Syracuse University, finds that conservatives are twice as likely as liberals to say they're happy. That's not necessarily because of their politics but because they are statistically more likely to be married, go to church, and be optimistic about their future—boosting personal happiness. For liberals, the rates are lower. The author suggests that while the liberal equity agenda may be honorable, it exacts a personal toll. Indeed, happiness is full of surprises: Political ideologues are positively joyful—by making others miserable. Brooks explains to U.S. News the quirks and politics of happiness.

Related News

• London Elects Conservative Boris Johnson Mayor
• U.S. Blames Iran for Training Iraqi Extremists
• Another Record High for Crude Oil Prices
• GOP Prefers to Face Obama Rather Than Clinton

Why are liberals so bummed out?
Liberals are more likely to feel like victims and feel that collective action is the best way to make things happen. That may be right, but it's a frustrating way to live. The Democratic Party is a coalition of oppressed groups. These are legitimate grievances in a lot of cases, but that does not make for a happy party.

So is this book another thing for liberals to feel bad about?
It shouldn't be. There's something like 17 million happy liberals in America. America is a happy country notwithstanding its politics. But there is a political breakdown. If we understand why certain groups have the happiness edge, there's no reason other groups can't get it, too. Liberals shouldn't read this book and say, "Hey, the reason I'm unhappy is because I'm evil and wrong." There is no claim that conservatives are better or righter. But it's undeniable that there is something conservatives have in their lives that makes them happier than liberals.

Conservatives aren't known as a jolly bunch. What makes them feel so happy?
Half of the difference between conservatives and liberals is demographic. It has to do with religion and marriage, which is more frequent among conservatives. The real question is why is the other half unexplained? Conservatives have a different orientation. Conservatives think there is a lot of opportunity in America. A lot of liberals feel this way, too, but conservatives overwhelmingly believe if you go around and work hard and persevere, you're going to get ahead, as opposed to you are a victim of circumstance or oppression and you are screwed in life. Again, that might be right, but it's not happy.

Plenty of liberals' reaction to that would be, "Well, ignorance is bliss."
That, of course, is the fox and the grapes. It's Aesopian. The Republicans get out their big foam fingers on this, and Democrats say it's all baloney anyway. They say, "You would be depressed if you had any idea what's going on." Again, I don't think it's like that. My own feeling is that conservatives are a lot more optimistic about what opportunities are out there for them.

The fact that people who are on the fringes politically—in other words, ideologues—are most likely to describe themselves as very happy makes one question the merits of happiness.
Is happiness legitimate if your enemies have it? I can't answer that. It's a universal human cognition; people have it. We can measure it. How you get it can be suspect. You can feel good from smoking crack. That doesn't make feeling good a bad thing, but the means to it can be a bad thing. I'm just observing these are the people who are happy. There are things we can do: One is to make our politicians not accountable to extremists; the other is to stop feeding them because they are political entertainment.

But you also argue that religion may be the biggest factor of all.
Religious liberals are pretty happy people. And you can say conservatives don't care about the needy, but you'll find conservatives are giving more to private charity. That's not because of their politics; it's because of their religion. There is this view that liberals believe in human goodness and conservatives are hardhearted, but the data don't bear that out.

So, what is the cure for miserable liberals? Will turning them into conservatives put a smile on their faces?
You can't vote against your principles, or you'll be less happy. I don't want to turn liberals into conservatives. I don't want to make people who have sincerely held beliefs that preclude religion go to church. That's not just silly, it's un-American. I do believe people can cultivate their spiritual life—even if it's a nontheistic spiritual life. We need to take more seriously, as a country, spiritual life. This should be an American national priority. People who take their spiritual life seriously are dramatically happier than people who don't.

Does the same apply for family life?
It's not necessarily traditional marriage between a man and woman that makes people happy. People need to be in a serious, loving relationship, and we need to make it easier for people to do that as a culture.

Is worrying about happiness an indulgence for rich Americans?
Happiness is a goal to which we should aspire universally. People don't get dramatically unhappier because they get richer, once they're above the level of subsistence.

If happiness follows partisan lines, does having our party control the White House fill us with joy?
There is a natural tendency for someone like me or a political journalist to be really shocked to find if you're conservative and a liberal wins the White House it wouldn't make you less happy. Most Americans just don't care that much. What determines whether or not they're happy is their private lives. Politics thankfully is not that important to people.

I highly suggest that anyone who hasn't yet  done so sign up at Grassfire.org.  What will all of these people do with there time once humans are shown to be less powerful than the sun or Atlantic winds?  I'm sure they will find something else to control...

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From the Desk of:
Steve Elliott, President, Grassfire.org Alliance

5/5/2008

The latest "computer models" from global warming scientists show that global warming will be in retreat at least until 2015.

Combined with the fact that there has been no global warming since the peak year of 1998, even Climate Alarmist scientists are being forced to recognize that we could be looking at nearly a two-decade hiatus from global warming.

For the record, here's the history of global warming back to 1940 and projected through 2015:

          1940-1974 (34 years) -- global cooling
          1975-1998 (23 years) -- global warming
          1999-2015 (17 years) -- temperatures level then cool

Go here for access to resources on these newest reports:

http://www.grassfire.net/r.asp?u=6797&RID=12795903a>

+ + Helping you expose the hoax

Al Gore's idea that man-made global warming has created a "planetary emergency" is a hoax. But the overwhelming barrage from the media and Hollywood means you and I still have an uphill fight to stop the Al Gore tax.

Steve

Here is a lovely article about "do as I say, not as I do" celebrities that preach to us about how the earth will be destroyed immediately if we don't buy hybrid cars and cut out all of our energy usage and pollution...  See my next blog for the new stats on global saming...  On a side note, I do have to confess that Brad Pitt sure looks good for an idiot.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/show
biz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=564215&in_page_id=17
73

You hippy-crites! When it comes to saving the planet do celebrities practise what they preach?

Last updated at 10:15am on 6th May 2008

Comments (3)

Is the hot air emitted by celebrities when they spout ecological platitudes a greenhouse gas?

 

If so, then the melting of the polar ice caps just moved a step closer, following calls by Trudie Styler, a leading celebrity ecological hypocrite - call them hippy-crites for short - for the general public to eat more locally grown vegetables.

 

Campaigning against food miles might seem an unlikely cause for Styler, given that a tribunal last year heard how she ordered her personal chef to travel over 100 miles to make a bowl of pasta for her youngest child and has sold olive oil and honey from her Tuscan estate, Il Palagio, 1,000 or so miles away, in Harrods in London.

 

So it was hardly surprising that an alert journalist present at the lecture, which was being staged as part of the Earls Court Real Food Festival, had the wit to question the environmental record of Styler and her husband Sting.

The couple's carbon footprint, the impertinent ink-stained wretch pointed out, has been estimated at 30 times greater than the average Briton's. How did Styler and Sting - who have seven homes - square that with their environmental crusading?

Styler conceded that as Sting "has a 750-person crew to bring around the world, it is a difficult challenge".

Her rare moment of ecological candour was shortly replaced by the more familiar self-congratulation and justification, however.

"I would like to think that we both work pretty hard for the rights of indigenous people and for the rights of conservation of the Amazon rainforest, but we do need to get around," she said.

Of course, Sting and Trudie's "do as I say not as I do" approach to the dilemma of environmental pollution is by no means unusual among the carbon-guzzling lifestyle of the celebrity elite.

Here's a roll call of some other startlingly hippy-critical celebrities:

 

Scroll down for more...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Globalwarming has decided to be merciful and kind to his loyal minions!  As a reward for tribute concerts and obscene tithing, the all powerful globalwarming has blessed us with a break!  Followers celebrate and sing praises!  All hail the all knowing Algore for leading us into the grace of globalwarming's majesty! /sarc

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&
sid=aU.evtnk6DPo

Ocean Cooling to Briefly Halt Global Warming, Researchers Say
By Jim Efstathiou Jr.

April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Parts of North America and Europe may cool naturally over the next decade, as shifting ocean currents temporarily blunt the global-warming effect caused by mankind, Germany's Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences said.

Average temperatures in areas such as California and France may drop over the next 10 years, influenced by colder flows in the North Atlantic, said a report today by the institution based in Kiel, Germany. Temperatures worldwide may stabilize in the period.

The study was based on sea-surface temperatures of currents that move heat around the world, and vary from decade to decade. This regional cooling effect may temporarily neutralize the long- term warming phenomenon caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases building up around the earth, said Richard Wood, a research scientist at the Met Office Hadley Centre, a U.K. provider of environmental and weather-related services.

``Those natural climate variations could be stronger than the global-warming trend over the next 10-year period,'' Wood said in an interview. ``Without knowing that, you might erroneously think there's no global warming going on.''

The Leibniz study, co-written by Noel Keenlyside, a research scientist at the institute, will be published in the May 1 issue of the journal Nature.

``If we don't experience warming over the next 10 years, it doesn't mean that greenhouse-gas warming is not with us,'' Keenlyside said in an interview. ``There can be natural fluctuations that may mask climate change in the short term.''

CO2 Surge

Carbon dioxide, produced mainly from burning fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas, is the chief pollutant blamed for global warming. Since 1988, CO2 levels in the world's skies have increased by 9.8 percent, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Scientists debate how much carbon can be pumped into the atmosphere before the effects of climate change, including droughts, floods and reduced fresh water supplies, become irreversible. For every 1 million molecules in the atmosphere, about 384 are carbon dioxide, according to NOAA.

Global temperatures can't rise by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) without risking the worst effects of climate change, according to the European Union. A scenario to stay below that limit suggests that CO2 levels must be stabilized between 350 and to 400 parts per million.

Long-term climate changes in the North Atlantic region affect ``hurricane activity in the Atlantic, and surface temperature and rainfall variations over North America, Europe and northern Africa,'' according to the study.

`Cold Direction'

``Natural variations over the next 10 years might be heading in the cold direction,'' Wood said. ``If you run the model long enough, eventually global warming will win.''

The world will become at least 2.5 degrees Celsius warmer by 2100, compared with the pre-industrial period, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said in March.

``We thought a lot about the way to present this because we don't want it to be turned around in the wrong way,'' Keenlyside said. ``I hope it doesn't become a message of Exxon Mobil and other skeptics.''

Exxon Mobil Corp. spokesman Gantt Walton said managers of U.S. oil company ``take the issue of climate change seriously and the risks warrant action,'' in an interview today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 30, 2008 13:00 EDT

So the true Lesbians, people from Lesbos (a Greek island) are suing to get the word "Lesbian" taken out of a gay group's name.  This is awesome.  Are the people of Tampa next?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080430/ap_on_re_eu/gre
ece_lesbian_pride

"People of Lesbos take gay group to court over term 'Lesbian'

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 16 minutes ago

ATHENS, Greece - A Greek court has been asked to draw the line between the natives of the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos and the world's gay women.

Three islanders from Lesbos — home of the ancient poet Sappho, who praised love between women — have taken a gay rights group to court for using the word lesbian in its name.

One of the plaintiffs said Wednesday that the name of the association, Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, "insults the identity" of the people of Lesbos, who are also known as Lesbians.

"My sister can't say she is a Lesbian," said Dimitris Lambrou. "Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos," he said.

The three plaintiffs are seeking to have the group barred from using "lesbian" in its name and filed a lawsuit on April 10. The other two plaintiffs are women.

Also called Mytilene, after its capital, Lesbos is famed as the birthplace of Sappho. The island is a favored holiday destination for gay women, particularly the lyric poet's reputed home town of Eressos.

"This is not an aggressive act against gay women," Lambrou said. "Let them visit Lesbos and get married and whatever they like. We just want (the group) to remove the word lesbian from their title."

He said the plaintiffs targeted the group because it is the only officially registered gay group in Greece to use the word lesbian in its name. The case will be heard in an Athens court on June 10.

Sappho lived from the late 7th to the early 6th century B.C. and is considered one of the greatest poets of antiquity. Many of her poems, written in the first person and intended to be accompanied by music, contain passionate references to love for other women.

Lambrou said the word lesbian has only been linked with gay women in the past few decades. "But we have been Lesbians for thousands of years," said Lambrou, who publishes a small magazine on ancient Greek religion and technology that frequently criticizes the Christian Church.

Very little is known of Sappho's life. According to some ancient accounts, she was an aristocrat who married a rich merchant and had a daughter with him. One tradition says that she killed herself by jumping off a cliff over an unhappy love affair.

Lambrou says Sappho was not gay. "But even if we assume she was, how can 250,000 people of Lesbian descent — including women — be considered homosexual?"

The Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece could not be reached for comment."

So color me unsurprised.  Seriously, it is a color now.  The Reverend Jeremiah who preaches the evils of white America and encourages racial divisions has security provided by the Nation of Islam.  I have been yelling that he sounds like someone out of the Nation of Islam for a while now, and my suspicions of his ties to them has been reinforced.  Again I ask, how is this encouraging to African Americans?  Wouldn't it be more productive to preach FROM THE BIBLE?  Why blame other people?  There is nothing about placing blame on others for your troubles in the Bible.  Seriously people, this guy preaches the evils of rich white folks while his church buys him a $1.6 million dollar home after he quits preaching there.  It is a money thing and a power thing for Reverend Wright and nothing more.  His military service is appreciated but when he spews his divisive venom from the pulpit he undoes the good he has accomplished.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/roughsketch/2008/04/
obamas_pastor_reignites_race_c.html

Wright's Voice Could Spell Doom for Obama

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, explaining this morning why he had waited so long before breaking his silence about his incendiary sermons, offered a paraphrase from Proverbs: "It is better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

Barack Obama's pastor would have been wise to continue to heed that wisdom.

Should it become necessary in the months from now to identify the moment that doomed Obama's presidential aspirations, attention is likely to focus on the hour between nine and ten this morning at the National Press Club. It was then that Wright, Obama's longtime pastor, reignited a controversy about race from which Obama had only recently recovered - and added lighter fuel.

Speaking before an audience that included Marion Barry, Cornel West, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party and Nation of Islam official Jamil Muhammad, Wright praised Louis Farrakhan, defended the view that Zionism is racism, accused the United States of terrorism, repeated his view that the government created the AIDS virus to cause the genocide of racial minorities, stood by other past remarks ("God damn America") and held himself out as a spokesman for the black church in America.

In front of 30 television cameras, Wright's audience cheered him on as the minister mocked the media and, at one point, did a little victory dance on the podium. It seemed as if Wright, jokingly offering himself as Obama's vice president, was actually trying to doom Obama; a member of the head table, American Urban Radio's April Ryan, confirmed that Wright's security was provided by bodyguards from Farrakhan's Nation of Islam.

Wright suggested that Obama was insincere in distancing himself from his pastor. "He didn't distance himself," Wright announced. "He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was anti-American."

Explaining further, Wright said friends had written to him and said, "We both know that if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected." The minister continued: "Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls."

Wright also argued, at least four times over the course of the hour, that he was speaking not for himself but for the black church.

"This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright," the minister said. "It is an attack on the black church." He positioned himself as a mainstream voice of African American religious traditions. "Why am I speaking out now?" he asked. "If you think I'm going to let you talk about my mama and her religious tradition, and my daddy and his religious tradition and my grandma, you got another thing coming."

That significantly complicates Obama's job as he contemplates how to extinguish Wright's latest incendiary device. Now, he needs to do more than express disagreement with his former pastor's view; he needs to refute his former pastor's suggestion that Obama privately agrees with him.

Wright seemed aggrieved that his inflammatory quotations were out of the full "context" of his sermons -- yet he repeated many of the same accusations in the context of a half-hour Q&A session this morning.

His claim that the September 11 attacks mean "America's chickens are coming home to roost"?

Wright defended it: "Jesus said, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic divisive principles."

His views on Farrakhan and Israel? "Louis said 20 years ago that Zionism, not Judaism, was a gutter religion. He was talking about the same thing United Nations resolutions say, the same thing now that President Carter's being vilified for and Bishop Tutu's being vilified for. And everybody wants to paint me as if I'm anti-Semitic because of what Louis Farrakhan said 20 years ago. He is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century; that's what I think about him. . . . Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy. He did not put me in chains, he did not put me in slavery, and he didn't make me this color."

He denounced those who "can worship God on Sunday morning, wearing a black clergy robe, and kill others on Sunday evening, wearing a white Klan robe." He praised the communist Sandinista regime of Nicaragua. He renewed his belief that the government created AIDS as a means of genocide against people of color ("I believe our government is capable of doing anything").

And he vigorously renewed demands for an apology for slavery: "Britain has apologized to Africans. But this country's leaders have refused to apologize. So until that apology comes, I'm not going to keep stepping on your foot and asking you, does this hurt, do you forgive me for stepping on your foot, if I'm still stepping on your foot. Understand that? Capisce?"

Capisce, reverend. All too well.

By Eric Pianin |  April 28, 2008; 12:55 PM ET

I have taken the liberty of highlighting some phrases.  From the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120899654405739949.
html?mod=rss_opinion_main

OPINION

Is Obama Ready for Prime Time?

By KARL ROVE
April 24, 2008

After being pummeled 55% to 45% in the Pennsylvania primary, Barack Obama was at a loss for explanations. The best he could do was to compliment his supporters in an email saying, "you helped close the gap to a slimmer margin than most thought possible." Then he asked for money.

With $42 million in the bank, money is the least of Sen. Obama's problems. He needs a credible message that convinces Democrats he should be president. In recent days, he's spent too much time proclaiming his inevitable nomination. But they already know he's won more states, votes and delegates.

Chad Crowe

His words wear especially thin when he was dealt a defeat like Tuesday's. Mr. Obama was routed despite outspending Hillary Clinton on television by almost 3-1. While polls in the final days showed a possible 4% or 5% Clinton win, she apparently took late-deciders by a big margin to clinch the landslide.

Where she cobbled together her victory should cause concern in the Obama HQ. She did better – and he worse – than expected in Philadelphia's suburbs. Mrs. Clinton won two of these four affluent suburban counties, home of the white-wine crowd Mr. Obama has depended on for victories before.

In the small town and rural "bitter" precincts, she clobbered him. Mr. Obama's state chair was Sen. Bob Casey, who hails from Lackawanna County in northeast Pennsylvania. She carried that county 74%-25%. In the state's 61 less-populous counties, she won 63% – and by 278,266 votes. Her margin of victory statewide was 208,024 votes.

Mrs. Clinton's problem remains that she's behind in the delegate count, with 1,589 to Mr. Obama's 1,714. Neither candidate will get to the 2,025 needed for nomination with elected delegates. But the Democratic Party's rules of proportionality mean it will be hard to close that margin among the 733 delegates yet to be elected or declared. Mrs. Clinton will need to take 58% of the remaining delegates. Thus far, she's been able to get that or better in just four of the 46 contests.

Her path gets rougher. While Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Puerto Rico are good territory for her, Oregon and Montana may not be. And Mrs. Clinton will be outspent badly. She entered April with $9.3 million in cash, but debts of $10.3 million. Mr. Obama had $42.5 million but only $663,000 in unpaid bills.

In Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama's money could only wipe out half a purported 20% deficit, but the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls shows Mr. Obama behind by 2% in Indiana and ahead in North Carolina by 16%. Those states will vote in two weeks. The financial throw weight he will have in the Hoosier State could more than erase Mrs. Clinton's lead there, while keeping North Carolina solidly in his column. His money could give him a double knockout on May 6, which would effectively end her bid for the presidency.

If she wins Indiana, however, she will surely go forward – and Democrats run the risk of a split decision in June. Mr. Obama could have more delegates, but she could have more popular votes. In fact, on Tuesday night she actually grabbed the popular vote lead: If you include the Michigan and Florida primary results, Mrs. Clinton now leads the popular vote by a slim 113,000 votes out of 29,914,356 cast.

Mr. Obama will argue he wasn't on the ballot in Michigan and didn't campaign in Florida. But don't Democrats want to count all the votes in all the contests? After all, Mr. Obama took his name off the Michigan ballot; it isn't something he was forced to do. And while he didn't campaign in Florida, neither did she.

And what about the Michigan and Florida delegates? By my calculations, she should pick up about 54 delegates on Mr. Obama if they are seated (this assumes the Michigan "uncommitted" delegates go for Mr. Obama). If he is ahead in June by a number similar to his lead today of 125, does he let the two delegations in and make the convention vote even closer? Or does he continue to act as if two states with 41 of the 270 electoral votes needed for the White House don't exist?

The Democratic Party has two weakened candidates. Mrs. Clinton started as a deeply flawed candidate: the palpable and unpleasant sense of entitlement, the absence of a clear and optimistic message, the grating personality impatient to be done with the little people and overly eager for a return to power, real power, the phoniness and the exaggerations. These problems have not diminished over the long months of the contest. They have grown. She started out with the highest negatives of any major candidate in an open race for the presidency and things have only gotten worse.

And what of the reborn Adlai Stevenson? Mr. Obama is befuddled and angry about the national reaction to what are clearly accepted, even commonplace truths in San Francisco and Hyde Park. How could anyone take offense at the observation that people in small-town and rural American are "bitter" and therefore "cling" to their guns and their faith, as well as their xenophobia? Why would anyone raise questions about a public figure who, for only 20 years, attended a church and developed a close personal relationship with its preacher who says AIDS was created by our government as a genocidal tool to be used against people of color, who declared America's chickens came home to roost on 9/11, and wants God to damn America? Mr. Obama has a weakness among blue-collar working class voters for a reason.

His inspiring rhetoric is a potent tool for energizing college students and previously uninvolved African-American voters. But his appeals are based on two aspirational pledges he is increasingly less credible in making.

Mr. Obama's call for postpartisanship looks unconvincing, when he is unable to point to a single important instance in his Senate career when he demonstrated bipartisanship. And his repeated calls to remember Dr. Martin Luther King's "fierce urgency of now" in tackling big issues falls flat as voters discover that he has not provided leadership on any major legislative battle.

Mr. Obama has not been a leader on big causes in Congress. He has been manifestly unwilling to expend his political capital on urgent issues. He has been only an observer, watching the action from a distance, thinking wry and sardonic and cynical thoughts to himself about his colleagues, mildly amused at their too-ing and fro-ing. He has held his energy and talent in reserve for the more important task of advancing his own political career, which means running for president.

But something happened along the way. Voters saw in the Philadelphia debate the responses of a vitamin-deficient Stevenson act-a-like. And in the closing days of the Pennsylvania primary, they saw him alternate between whining about his treatment by Mrs. Clinton and the press, and attacking Sen. John McCain by exaggerating and twisting his words. No one likes a whiner, and his old-style attacks undermine his appeals for postpartisanship.

Mr. Obama is near victory in the Democratic contest, but it is time for him to reset, freshen his message and say something new. His conduct in the last several weeks raises questions about whether, for all his talents, he is ready to be president.

Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.

Please be advised that this story may scare men and boys:

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUS
N2319603620080423?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews
&rpc=22&sp=true

Penis theft panic hits city..

Wed Apr 23, 2008 1:06pm EDT  

By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

"You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We've had a number of attempted lynchings. ... You see them covered in marks after being beaten," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.

"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Oleko said.

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members.

"It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.

(Editing by Nick Tattersall and Mary Gabriel)

Leave it to Iran to punish people in a rational, proportionate to the crime way...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/new
s/worldnews.html?in_article_id=561277&in_page_id=1811&i
to=1490

"Iran's answer to dangerous drivers: flog them

Last updated at 18:25pm on 22nd April 2008

Dangerous drivers in Iran face being flogged under a tough new law that comes into effect next month.

 

Traffic chiefs hope the draconian measures will help reduce the bloodshed on Iran's highways, which are among the world's most dangerous.

Road accidents have claimed at least 100,000 lives in the past five years.

A Tehran driver, in a Hillman Imp-based Peykan, faces flogging if he drives dangerously

"Drivers who commit dangerous acts will be referred to court for harming public order and the court can sentence violators to three months to a year in jail or 74 lashes," said Iran's traffic police chief, Mohammad Rouyanian.

The Iranian authorities have until now penalised bad drivers with a fine, seizing their driving licence or confiscating their vehicles.

The congested roads in Tehran, Iran's sprawling capital of 12 million people, are especially notorious.

Few motorists bother with seat belts and few motorcyclists wear crash helmets.

Despite surveillance cameras and police patrols, drivers often speed and overtake on the wrong side of the road. Recklessness, speeding and road unworthy vehicles account for most accidents.

Drink driving is less of a problem because alcohol is forbidden in the Islamic Republic, although it is available on the black market.

The majority of cars on Iran's roads are home-produced ancient Peykans, which are identical twins of the extinct and inefficient British Hillman Hunter.

Scroll down for more...

This flogging was delivered for abusing alcohol and having sex outside marriage

The car was originally designed and manufactured by the British Rootes Group which began exporting the vehicles in kit form in 1967.

Mahmoud Khayami, owner of the Iran Khodro company and factory, had accurately predicted that Iran was in need of a simple "no-frills" automobile within the price range of ordinary people.

In 1979, after Peugeot took over the Rootes company after it collapsed under the ownership of Chrysler Europe, production in Britain stopped and Peykans began being built from scratch.

The car - always based on the 1966 Hillman Imp - remained in full-scale manufacture under Peugeot license until 2005.

The Samand, commonly referred to as the "New Paykan", is currently being produced by Iran Khodro as a modern, more fuel-efficient substitute.

The Paykan's production line has now been moved to the Khartoum Transportation Company in Sudan, while auto-parts production for the Paykan still continues by third party manufacturers in Iran. "

From the AP/FoxNews:

 

"Saudi Arabia Executes Convicted Murderer in 48th Beheading This Year

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia —  The Saudi Interior Ministry says authorities have beheaded a man convicted of murder.

The ministry says Hamoud al-Ansi stabbed another man to death during a conflict over a piece of land. His execution took place Tuesday in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which those convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape or armed robbery are executed in public with a sword.

Tuesday's execution brings to 48 the number of beheadings in the kingdom this year, according to an Associated Press count. Saudi Arabia beheaded 137 people last year, up sharply from the 38 executed in 2006."

 

---

 

These are our good buddies.  For those of you who oppose the death penalty as it exists in Texas, imagine if it was expanded to include any murder (as opposed to murder in the commission of another felony or of a public servant), drug dealing, rape, and armed robbery.  Then imagine if it was carried out in public with a sword.  This is scary business people - We definitely have some nasty friends.

So Barack refuses to debate, refuses to talk to the press at a diner in Scranton, PA.  To add insult to injury, a Hillary supporter has listed the uneaten waffle, silverware, and the plate.

http://cgi.ebay.com/OBAMA-SCRANTON-PA-DINER-4-21-08
-CAMPAIGN-BREAKFAST_W0QQitemZ170212526773QQihZ007QQcate
goryZ39721QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebaypho
tohosting

As if things couldn't get worse, the diner patron used Barack's MIDDLE NAME in the listing!  This could be the start of a fantastic breakdown - the current bid is over $10,000.  All proceeds go to Hillary's campaign.

A note from the McCain campaign:

Team,

Wednesday's Democratic debate provided insight into Barack Obama's positions on key foreign policy issues. As president he says he would immediately withdraw our troops from Iraq- even if he were strongly advised against this by our nation's top military commanders. He would also hold direct talks with the Iranian regime- a regime that does not recognize Israel and is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. Iran's president has even called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

During the debate, Barack Obama once again refused to condemn former President Jimmy Carter- who publicly supports Obama- for holding talks with the Hamas terrorist group, a group supported financially, politically and militarily by Iran.

Barack Obama's foreign policy plans have even won him praise from Hamas leaders. Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Hamas Prime Minister said, "We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election. He has a vision to change America."

We need change in America, but not the kind of change that wins kind words from Hamas, surrenders in Iraq and will hold unconditional talks with Iranian President Ahmadinejad.

John McCain's foreign policy provides a stark contrast to the policies of Barack Obama. As president, John McCain will provide the leadership we need to win the war against Islamic extremists. We need your help today to reach out to Americans across the country to spread the message of John McCain's plan for your national security. Please follow this link to make a financial contribution to our campaign today.

We are in the middle of a hard-fought campaign, and I am confident that the leadership and bold solutions John McCain will provide as our commander in chief are what our nation needs. We need your immediate donation to take John McCain's solutions to the American people.

John McCain will always put the interests of American families above all else. This is the type of leadership we need as a nation, and I hope you will take the time today to join our campaign and make a financial contribution to ensure the policies of Barack Obama do not become the policies of America.

Sincerely,

Christian Ferry
Deputy Campaign Manager

 

 

I bet this is one endorsement Obama wishes he didn't have, like Hanoi Jane and Jimah Carter.