Dead Pet Pig Gets Registered to Vote

This says something about our voting system and how overzealous voter groups can lead to unintended results. I've heard of dead people voting; but dead pigs? If animals could be registered to vote can you imagine how many illegal aliens are registered?

Ricin Suspect had Anarchist Handbook, Guns

This story gets more and more mysterious as the authorities insist that the suspect who had ricin in his Las Vegas hotel room, along with guns and an anarchist handbook, was not involved in any terrorist activity. Then what were his plans?

Obama: A Thin Record For a Bridge Builder

This article asks a fair question: will Obama make the changes he promises and are necessary. I don't believe he would. Having said that, I believe he would make a better President than either Hillary Clinton or John McCain. Nevertheless, It won't be real change. The kind of change we need. We will still have a nation on the decline. We need a revolution. Barack Obama is one man. If he becomes President he will still be part of a two-party system that is the problem in the first place:

Hillary Clinton has been trying to make a point about Barack Obama that deserves one last careful look before Tuesday's probably decisive Democratic primaries: If Obama truly intends to unite America across party lines and break the Washington logjam, then why has he shown so little interest or aptitude for the hard work of bipartisan government?

This is the real "Where's the beef?" about Obama, and it still doesn't have a good answer. He gives a great speech, and he promises that he can heal the terrible partisan divisions that have enfeebled American politics over the past decade. This is a message of hope that the country clearly wants to hear.

But can he do it? The record is mixed, but it's fair to say that Obama has not shown much willingness to take risks or make enemies to try to restore a working center in Washington. Clinton, for all her reputation as a divisive figure, has a much stronger record of bipartisan achievement. And the likely Republican nominee, John McCain, has a better record still.

Obama's argument is that he can mobilize a new coalition that will embrace his proclamation that "yes, we can" break out of the straitjacket. But for voters to feel confident that he can achieve this transformation should he become president, they would need evidence that he has fought and won similar battles. The record here, to put it mildly, is thin.

What I hear from politicians who have worked with Obama, both in Illinois state politics and here in Washington, gives me pause. They describe someone with an extraordinary ability to work across racial lines but not someone who has earned any profiles in courage for standing up to special interests or divisive party activists. Indeed, the trait people remember best about Obama, in addition to his intellect, is his ambition.

Read the entire Washington Post op-ed by David Ignatius

Congressman Fights Nuclear Waste Imports

This is what we've come to. America is a dumping ground. At least one American politician hasn't been bought off:

A Utah congressman is fighting against a proposed project that he says could turn the United States into a nuclear waste dump for the world.

The Christian Science Monitor reported Friday that U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, a Democrat, is battling efforts to allow the Utah firm EnergySolutions to import large amounts of low-level radioactive waste from Italy.

"I recognize that small amounts of waste have been permitted entry into the U.S. in the past; however, encouraging other nations to actively pursue disposal options in the U.S. seems shortsighted at best," the Utah Democrat wrote in a letter this week to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Environmentalists too are opposed to the project that would allow the company to ship up to 20,000 tons of mildly radioactive material from Italian nuclear-power plants to Tennessee to process it, then dispose of the waste in Utah.