Billionaire Zuckerman: We are Headed for a Deep Recession

Mort Zuckerman is a real estate mogul and publisher. So he knows a little bit about the economy. He describes a very serious state of the economy. We need to worry. This is going to affect you.

Tibet Unrest Continues Despite China Crackdown

The press is starting ignore the Tibet resistance because of the lack of videos. That doesn't mean that the Chinese military have squashed the rebellion:

A mob wielding stones and knives killed a police officer in a Tibetan part of Western China, state media said on Tuesday, a sign of ongoing unrest despite a massive influx of police and troops.

The latest news of unrest comes after protesters seeking to put pressure on China tried to disrupt the Beijing Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Greece.

In Tibet's capital Lhasa, meanwhile, 13 people were arrested for a monk-led protest on March 10, the first announcement of consequences for those involved in that largely peaceful march.

The march came on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese Communist rule, days before rioting and looting that authorities say killed at least 19 people shook Lhasa.

China's assertion that protests have since faded after a massive influx of troops across Tibet and nearby areas was shaken when state media announced the death of the police officer in a fresh riot.

The Chinese rulers know that the key to making this problem go away is limiting the international press' access to the unrest in Tibet. If isn't reported then it isn't happening:

China will allow over 10 foreign reporters to visit Lhasa from Wednesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday, after facing international pressure to give the media access to the area hit by deadly rioting earlier this month.

"During their stay in Lhasa, the sponsoring authority will arrange visits to areas that were struck by rioters' destruction and interviews with concerned parties and victims," Qin Gang said at a regular press conference.

Foreign governments have pressed China to give foreign media access to Tibet, after it was struck by violence earlier this month.

China had so far not allowed foreign reporters to visit Tibet to report on the riots, citing physical danger as one of the reasons. International journalists who had been in Tibet at the time had left at the insistence of the Chinese authorities.

When asked about the reason behind the limited number of reporters to be allowed on the trip to Tibet and the standard of their selection, Qin only said, "We cannot satisfy every single media and reporters' wishes."

The protesters know that they must keep up their disrupting of the Olympic festivities in order keep their cause in the minds of the world. The Olympics are a big deal for the Chinese. If pro-Tibetan activists disrupt the torch relay it will be an embarrassment to the Chinese authorities:

The prospect of demonstrations throughout the 85,000-mile Olympic torch relay route leading to the Beijing games loomed Tuesday, a day after protesters of China's human rights policies disrupted the solemn flame-lighting ceremony.

Forecasts of clouds and rain had been considered the main threat to the pomp-filled torch-lighting. But it was the protesters who turned the joyful bow to the Olympics' roots into a political statement about China's crackdown in Tibet and other rights issues.

Three men advocating press freedom evaded massive security and ran onto the field at the ceremony in Ancient Olympia before they were seized by police. Minutes later, a Tibetan woman covered in fake blood briefly blocked the path of the torch relay.

[...] Protests are bound to follow the torch throughout its 136-day route across five continents and 20 countries. China pledged strict security measures to ensure its segment of the relay won't be marred by protests.

Tibetan activists have already said they plan to demonstrate elsewhere on the route.

"Later we will do protests in London and Paris," said Tenzin Dorjee, a member of Students for a Free Tibet who protested in Ancient Olympia.

Protests of China's rule turned violent March 14 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, sparking waves of unrest in surrounding provinces. China reported a death toll of 22 from the violence, but Tibet's exiled government says about 140 Tibetans were killed. Nineteen died in subsequent violence in Gansu province, it said.

A rising chorus of international criticism and floated calls for a boycott have unnerved the Chinese leadership, which has turned up efforts to put its own version of the unrest before the international public. China has blamed the riots on followers of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.

Cease-fire in Iraq Unravels as Death Toll Mounts

Chaos is returning to Iraq:

A cease-fire critical to the improved security situation in Iraq appeared to unravel Monday when a militia loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr began shutting down neighborhoods in west Baghdad and issuing demands of the central government.

Simultaneously, in the strategic southern port city of Basra, where Sadr's Mahdi militia is in control, the Iraqi government launched a crackdown in the face of warnings by Sadr's followers that they'll fight government forces if any Sadrists are detained. By 1 a.m. Arab satellite news channels reported clashes between the Mahdi Army and police in Basra.

The freeze on offensive activity by Sadr's Mahdi Army has been a major factor behind the recent drop in violence in Iraq , and there were fears that the confrontation that's erupted in Baghdad and Basra could end the lull in attacks, assassinations, kidnappings and bombings.

[...]On Sunday, a barrage of at least 17 rockets hit the heavily fortified Green Zone and surrounding neighborhoods, where both the U.S. and Iraqi government headquarters are housed, according to police. Most of them were launched from the outskirts of Sadr City and Bayaa, both Mahdi Army-controlled neighborhoods.

On Monday, the Sadrists all but shut down the neighborhoods they control on the west bank of Baghdad . Gunmen went to stores and ordered them to close as militiamen stood in the streets. Mosques used their loudspeakers to urge people to come forward and join the protest.

Fliers were distributed with the Sadrists' three demands of the Iraqi government: to release detainees, stop targeting Sadrist members and apologize to the families and the tribal sheiks of the men.

The Iraqi security forces issued a statement promising to deal with those who terrorized shopkeepers and students.

[...]As the troop presence has shifted, so has the violence. For the first time since January, a majority of U.S. troops were killed in Baghdad , not in outlying northern provinces. Indeed, the U.S. military reached the death of its 4,000th soldier in Iraq on Sunday, when four U.S. soldiers were killed in southern Baghdad .

So far, this month, 27 soldiers have been killed in Iraq . Of those, 16, or 59 percent, died in Baghdad . In January, 25 percent of U.S. deaths happened in Baghdad , or 10 of 40.

Civilian casualties in Baghdad are also on the rise, according to a McClatchy count. After a record low through November, when at least 76 people were killed and 306 were injured, the deaths began to rise. In December, it crept up to 88 people killed, in January 100 and in February 172. As of March 24 , at least 149 people were killed and 448 were injured.

4,000 Dead in Iraq, No Closer to Victory

Are we closer to victory? We are being told we are. But things could be returning to the bad ole days:

Tensions are simmering again in once bloody Anbar province, Washington's prize good news story for security in Iraq.

Along the main road through Anbar's second city of Falluja, a former insurgent stronghold and scene of fierce battles with U.S. forces in 2004, markets and car workshops are re-opening for business.

But many say that growing anger at a lack of jobs, basic services and political progress threatens to shatter peace in the western province, which makes up about a third of Iraq.

"The situation till now is still not certain in Anbar, and the peace is only relative to before. Calm always comes before a storm," Sunni tribal leader Sheikh Yaseen al-Badrani said.

The U.S. military said in January it could transfer security responsibility for Anbar to Iraqi forces as early as this month, but now it is more cautious.

In an interview with Reuters, Major-General John Kelly, commander of U.S. forces in Anbar, would give no time-frame, saying only that the handover would take place soon.

Sunni tribal leaders, credited with cutting violence in Anbar by ordering their men to turn on Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, are growing increasingly impatient with politicians.

"We thought that when security was established in Anbar, then the situation would turn to development and reconstruction, but we're surprised to see neglect from the government," said Kamal Nouri, a member of Anbar's tribal council.

The Sunni tribal leaders' thousands of followers, who once formed the backbone of a Sunni Arab insurgency against U.S. and Iraqi forces, are demanding to be drafted into Iraq's army and police force, or given other decent jobs.

"Where is the prime minister? Does he know what we have to do to earn a living to feed our families? Call this a job? The government has failed," said Salam Faraj, a petrol pump worker.

[...]Crucial to the turnaround in security in Anbar are the 4,000 members of the Awakening Councils, or Sahwa, a mostly Sunni movement dedicated to fighting al Qaeda. Many members were former insurgents.

The councils are headed by tribal leaders, who started the now nationwide movement in Anbar province because they were disgusted by al Qaeda's indiscriminate attacks and harsh interpretation of Islam.

At a police graduation ceremony in Falluja, trainers in close contact with the Sahwa said they were battling to keep the men at their posts.

The U.S. military pays Sahwa members $300 a month to patrol their neighbourhoods and man checkpoints. Many want to join the army and police, where the pay is better.

"If the Sahwa is not included in the security forces, there will be tensions. They fought the terrorists with us, and many of them were killed," police trainer Ahmed Marthy said.

"Some have quit, but we keep asking them to wait ... if this continues, we're really afraid tragedies will return," he added.

And if you think a McCain presidency would bring us victory just read this article:

Last week we finally got a clue as to why John McCain has been slavishly supporting the Bush administration policy on Iraq for all these years: He doesn't have a clue what it is.

That became obvious during a press conference in Jordan Tues day. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who had just come from Iraq, stated that "Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran."

This prompted his fellow senator and fellow neoconservative Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to whisper something in his ear. McCain promptly corrected himself. But the damage was done, forcing him to issue this elaboration later in the week.

"I corrected my comment immediately. To think that I would have some lack of knowledge about Sunni and Shiite after my eighth visit and my deep involvement in this issue is a bit ludicrous."

Ludicrous? No, It's true. What McCain's critics failed to note was that this gaffe fit within a pattern of gaffes that show not just a lack of knowledge but astounding ignorance. Consider this comment a few weeks earlier about al Qaeda's prospects in Iraq in the event of an American withdrawal: "My friends, if we left, they wouldn't be establishing a base," McCain said. "They'd be taking a country."

No, they wouldn't. The Sunni radical group al Qaeda is a minority within a minority in Shi'a-dominated Iraq. The real threat is from such radical groups as the Iranian- based Dawa Party and from that other Iranian-born group that until recently called itself the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

But we don't have to worry about Dawa and SCIRI taking over after we leave. They already run Iraq. The real tragedy of the Iraq War is that Iraq is now firmly in the hands of Iranian-allied Shi'a groups and will remain so no matter what we do.

China Jails man who Urged Rights over Olympics

Yang Chunlin will be forgotten eventhough he is a hero. He put his life in jeopardy in the interest of basic civil and human rights. Tragically the world will ignore his message in favor of the lure of China's Olympic propaganda show. We're even ignoring the fact that this country's economic leadership is poisoning the world's goods, massacring the freedom seekers in Tibet, and jailing people just expressing their sincere views, like with Chunlin. We must follow his example by boycotting the Chinese Olympic games this summer. Just as we should have boycotted the 1936 Berlin Olympic games:

Chinese dissident Yang Chunlin, who called for human rights to take precedence over the Olympic Games, has been sentenced to five years in jail on charges of inciting subversion, his family and lawyer said on Monday.

The unemployed factory worker from the northeastern city of Jiamusi in Heilongjiang province went on trial in February after he helped nearby villagers issue a petition about disputed land last year that declared: "We don't want the Olympics, we want human rights."

Yang's sister, Yang Chunping, said on Monday the reason he was jailed was because of essays he posted online that were critical of China's parliament, the ruling Communist Party and Communism in general.

"He said he's not guilty, and he was just exercising his freedom of speech and publication. But because courts lack legitimacy he said there was no use in appealing," she said.

Lawyer Li Fangping confirmed the sentence but said Yang Chunlin maintained his innocence.

"He believes that he's innocent," Li said. "After the official verdict is given to us, he'll have 10 days to decide what to do. So, we hope we can sit down with him so he can make a serious decision whether to appeal or not."

The petition touched a nerve in the Communist-run country that has been going all out to prepare for the Games. China's leadership is hoping the Games, which start in Beijing on August 8 will showcase the country's economic prosperity and social unity.

Prosecutors had said the petition stained China's international image and amounted to subversion.

Already some have taken the lead. Show the world that some of us haven't been bought off:

Rights activists and Tibetan protesters breached tight security to staged anti-Chinese demonstrations Monday at the lighting of the Olympic flame for the Beijing Games.

Three members of the Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reports Without Borders -- RSF) group unfurled a flag calling for a boycott of the Beijing Games during the ceremony.

Afterwards, about 10 Tibetan activists covered in red paint to simulate blood marched out of a hotel in Olympia and lay in the town's main street, shouting slogans against Chinese rule in Tibet.

Police detained the three RSF members, including its chief Robert Menard, and some of the Tibetan activists.

Menard and two other members of RSF staged their protest as the chief Chinese Olympics organiser, Liu Qi, made a speech before the flame was lit at the ancient Greek temple of Olympia.

One man unfurled a flag declaring "Boycott the country that tramples on human rights." Another tried to grab the microphone from Liu and shouted "freedom, freedom" at the official stand where International Olympic Committee chairman Jacques Rogge and other dignitaries were sat.

Security officers quickly dragged all three away.

"I think it's always sad when there are protests, but they were not violent and that's the most important thing," Rogge told reporters after the incident.

Greek police had imposed heavy security around the site, which included armed police watching down from nearby hills. Chinese intelligence was also involved in the security operation.

Several thousand people were at the ceremony but all were meant to have special accreditation.

Greek and Chinese state television quickly cut their live broadcasts to an image away from the protesters when the incident started.

RSF has made calls for international heads of state to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games on August 8.

Turnaround For Obama In Gallup Tracking Poll

The storm is over. Once again Obama bounces back from negative publicity and attacks. I wonder if the superdelegates are noticing:

After being as much as 7 points behind Hillary Clinton earlier in the week, Barack Obama has now edged past her, 48 percent to 45 percent, according to today's Gallup daily tracking poll conducted March 19-21. Although the difference matches the 3 percent margin of error, today's result does mark a turnaround from Obama who had been hurt in recent weeks by questions about his experience and the controversy over his ex-pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Gallup said: "Obama's campaign clearly suffered in recent days from negative press, mostly centering around his association with the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Perhaps as a result, Clinton moved into the lead in Gallup's Wednesday release, covering March 16-18 polling. But Obama has now edged back ahead of Clinton due to a strong showing for him in Friday night's polling, perhaps in response to the endorsement he received from well-respected New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former rival for the nomination."

In its general election match-ups, Gallup said both Democrats inched closer to McCain in its March 17-21 polling, with McCain ahead of Obama by 46 percent to 44 percent and Obama by 47 percent to 45 percent. The margin of error is 2 points.

If Hillary can't win her home State, she doesn't have a chance at becoming President. The superdelegates might want to look at that as well:

Hillary Clinton trails John McCain in a general election match-up in her home state of Arkansas and Barack Obama is not even close, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted March 18. McCain leads Clinton 50 percent to 43 percent and Obama by 59 percent to 30 percent. The margin of error is 4.5 percent. McCain far outpaces Clinton in favorability ratings, among voters by 66 percent to 50 percent. The economy is regarded as the top issue, with 48 percent of voters citing it, and among them, just 14 percent rate the economy good or excellent.

Rasmussen yesterday released a poll on Georgia conducted March 20 showing McCain leading Obama 53 percent to 40 percent and Clinton 54 percent to 34 percent. Georgia voters also named the economy as the most important issue (45 percent) and only 15 percent said the economy was good or excellent.

Nationally, the number of Americans who rate the economy good or excellent stands at 17 percent, according to today's Gallup daiy tracking poll.

Despite a bad week for Obama it could've been worse:

Barack Obama refers to the past couple of weeks as a tough, turbulent stretch.

And why not?

His foreign policy adviser quit for calling Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton a "monster." Then he had to distance himself from his longtime pastor's fiery statements, a controversy that threatened his image as a uniter. He trails in polls in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary. Obama also watched his lead wither in national opinion surveys.

"There's no doubt we had a turbulent couple of weeks but we've had turbulent weeks in the past," Obama told reporters Friday. "... It's not going to be a smooth straight line. There's times when the campaign is going well and there's times the campaign is not going well."

But as bad weeks go, things certainly could have been worse.

Obama received generally favorable reviews for his somber speech on the nation's racial divide, though it didn't completely silence the criticism over his former pastor's rhetoric. Then Florida and Michigan indicated they would not hold new primaries to replace the contests that favored Clinton but violated party rules. Campaign finance reports showed him far ahead in the money race. And finally, he picked up the much sought-after endorsement of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson — one Clinton also had coveted.

Most importantly, as the Illinois senator prepares to takes a break from campaigning for a brief family vacation, he retains a nearly insurmountable lead in pledged delegates and is winning the nationwide popular vote.

Obama Adviser Faults Bill Clinton Speech

The latest Clinton tactic is to paint Obama as unpatriotic. The reality is that they are no more unpatriotic people than the Clintons:

Former President Clinton is using divisive tactics and unfairly trying to question Barack Obama's patriotism, a retired general who has a prominent role in the Democrat's campaign said Saturday.

Merrill "Tony" McPeak said he was astonished and disappointed by recent comments Bill Clinton made while speculating about a general election between Obama's Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Republican John McCain.

Standing next to Obama on stage at a campaign stop in southern Oregon, the retired Air Force chief of staff repeated Bill Clinton's comments aloud to a silent audience.

The former president told a group of veterans Friday in Charlotte, N.C.: "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."

McPeak, a co-chairman of Obama's campaign, then said to his Oregon audience: "As one who for 37 years proudly wore the uniform of our country, I'm saddened to see a president employ these tactics. He of all people should know better because he was the target of exactly the same kind of tactics."

That apparently was a reference to Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, when he was accused of dodging the Vietnam War draft.

For his part, Obama is right to question the truthfulness of an opponent that lies like she breathes:

Barack Obama's campaign, on the defensive for the past week, yesterday launched its most pointed assault yet on the character of rival Hillary Clinton, accusing her of routinely misleading voters for political gain.
more stories like this

Obama's campaign, in a memo and conference call with reporters, asserted that Clinton had been untruthful about her foreign policy resume, her position on the North American Free Trade Agreement, her involvement in the 1993 passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, and her views on the renegade primaries in Michigan and Florida.

Clinton's campaign responded swiftly that Obama was in "political hot water given the news stories of the last few weeks and is desperate to change the subject." The Illinois senator has been dogged in recent days by his long association with a controversial Chicago pastor and tried to defuse the issue with a widely viewed speech Tuesday on race relations.

Obama's attack, the latest salvo in the two senators' increasingly acrimonious nomination fight, rounded up a number of earlier criticisms into a broad critique of Clinton's trustworthiness and her prospects in the fall against Senator John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee.

"The American people are simply not going to elect someone they think is not being honest and trustworthy," said Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, pointing to what he called a "character gap" revealed in a new Gallup poll, which found that 53 percent of voters do not perceive Clinton as "honest and trustworthy," while more than 60 percent believe both Obama and McCain are.

"She would be a deeply flawed nominee," Plouffe said.

Paul Krugman: Partying Like It’s 1929

Paul Krugman is an economist. He also knows his history and what happens when you ignore it. I know my history. But America has forgotten. Just as we forgot about Vietnam, and are repeating the same mistake in Iraq, so are we repeating the mistakes of the 1920s:

But what we should be asking is: How did we get here?

Why does the financial system need salvation?

Why do mild-mannered economists have to become superheroes?

The answer, at a fundamental level, is that we’re paying the price for willful amnesia. We chose to forget what happened in the 1930s — and having refused to learn from history, we’re repeating it.

Contrary to popular belief, the stock market crash of 1929 wasn’t the defining moment of the Great Depression. What turned an ordinary recession into a civilization-threatening slump was the wave of bank runs that swept across America in 1930 and 1931.

This banking crisis of the 1930s showed that unregulated, unsupervised financial markets can all too easily suffer catastrophic failure.

As the decades passed, however, that lesson was forgotten — and now we’re relearning it, the hard way.

But the root of the problem is debt. We are drowning in debt. For a long time that debt was profitable for the lenders. But the free ride is over. An economic system that runs on debt is one headed for disaster. We have a disaster on our hands:

If the subprime mortgage mess has taught us anything, it is that we are leverage addicts. Nearly all of us are -- from Northern Virginia, where we bought big houses with no money down, to Wall Street, where traders borrowed cash to make bigger bets on the housing market.

Seeing Zero Percent Interest Until Next Year! on envelopes causes us to tear them open, find the Web address, enter some information and send new credit cards hurtling toward our mailboxes. Financing cars for three years is so passe; we finance them for six or seven. And now we buy -- or used to buy -- houses with pick-your-payment mortgages. We are leveraged from here to China. U.S. consumers spend more than 14 percent of their after-tax income just to stay current on household debt.

The question worth asking now is: Why do we love leverage so much that it hurts?

The simple answer, according to personal finance experts, is that we want more -- more money, more house, more car, just more, more, more. We often think we deserve more. Leverage gets us more. With historically low interest rates, leverage is the easiest and quickest tool to get more stuff.

The problem is that too much leverage has a downside that is easy to overlook. When everyone else is using leverage so successfully to get more, do we wonder what will happen if interest rates go up? Not so much.

Cheney, Saudis Discuss Oil, Security

You can bet that none of those discussions have anything to do with anything that is good for the American people. More like keeping oil prices high and starting more wars:

Vice President Dick Cheney wrapped up his visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday after private talks with King Abdullah on stabilizing the volatile energy market.

It was not immediately clear whether Cheney asked the Saudi leader to increase oil production to hold down rising gasoline prices.

Cheney spent a little more than an hour in discussions Friday with the king at his horse farm on the outskirts of Riyadh. The vice president also spent one-half hour with the petroleum minister before a 3 1/2 hour dinner with the king. They discussed Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Mideast peace process and the energy markets.

Later Saturday, Cheney planned to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem. The vice president's schedule for Easter Sunday included a church service and talks in the West Bank with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Democrats Call for HUD Chief's Resignation

This has to be the most corrupt department in the White House. Stories of pervasive corruption in HUD has gone back to the Reagan days. Time to abolish this agency:

Two Democratic senators said Friday that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, buffeted by allegations of cronyism and favoritism, should resign.

Sens. Patty Murray of Washington state and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut said that Jackson's problems represented a "worsening distraction" at HUD at a time when the nation needs a credible housing secretary who is beyond suspicion.

"It is time for Secretary Jackson to go," Murray said.

Murray chairs a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on housing, while Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. The pair sent a letter to President Bush urging him to request Jackson's resignation.

Jackson has refused to answer questions about his role in a Philadelphia redevelopment deal. The city's housing authority has filed a lawsuit charging that Jackson tried to punish the agency for nixing a deal involving music-producer-turned-developer Kenny Gamble, a friend of Jackson.

Barack Obama Larry King Interview Transcript 3-20-08

Read the entire Larry King transcript of Obama's interview yesterday:

KING: All right, let's get first to the news of the day. Michigan apparently is not going to recount its already-held primary. Florida apparently is not going to do it. What's your solution to this?

OBAMA: Well, you know, we're going to abide by whatever rules the Democratic National Committee puts forward, as we've done from the start. You know, we were told it wasn't going to count and so we didn't campaign there. In fact, my name wasn't on the ballot in Michigan.

But I think it's important to make sure that the people of Michigan, the people of Florida, that their delegates are seated. And so, you know, we're committed to making sure that that happens in a fair and equitable way. And I'm confident that they will be participating fully in the Democratic convention. And I'm looking forward to hopefully campaigning there as the nominee.

On the Iraq War:

KING: All right. He's saying that al Qaeda will run rampant under your plan and plans to withdraw.

How do you respond?

OBAMA: Look, the -- you heard, I think, the other day, Senator McCain confuse al Qaeda with Shia radical militias inside of Iraq. The president makes the same error. He keeps on conflating al Qaeda with all that's going on inside of Iraq. In fact, Iraq is a majority Shia country that is violently opposed to al Qaeda. The Sunnis inside of Iraq are now opposed to al Qaeda.

There's no doubt that al Qaeda would try to get another foothold in there. But to the extent that we've brought Sunnis in and got them to buy into the central government, we can start making some progress.

In fact, that's part of the reason that violence is down. Not only have our troops performed magnificently and done everything we've asked them to do, but you've also got Sunni tribal leaders who have rejected al Qaeda and, in fact, are trying to cooperate. So the notion that al Qaeda would run roughshod over Iraq is just not correct. In contrast, you do have safe havens for al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That we know. We know for certain. The Taliban has strengthened itself. They're using the funds from the heroin trade in that region to help finance much of what they're doing. And we're seeing more suicide bombs, more violent attacks. It's starting to creep into the rest of Pakistan.

We know that's where the people who killed 3,000 Americans are located. And we have not been focused on that because of our obsession with Iraq.

So my argument about withdrawing out of Iraq is not because I don't think that we can sustain this current burden indefinitely -- although, the fact is that will break the bank eventually. We can't keep on spending $200 billion a year or $150 billion a year in Iraq.

It's not just because it is straining our military and military families in extraordinary ways. It's also because it's not the best strategy to deal with terrorism, which should have been our focus from the start and has unfortunately been diverted into an effort in Iraq that has been counterproductive to that effort.

Governor Bill Richardson Endorses Barack Obama

Big endorsement and a slap at Hillary. Richardson was part of President Clinton's administration. In theory the New Mexico Governor should help Obama with Hispanic voters:

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who sought to become the nation’s first Hispanic president this year, plans to endorse Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination on Friday at a campaign event in Oregon, according to an Obama adviser.

Mr. Richardson, a former congressman and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, dropped out of the Democratic race in January after finishing behind Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the first nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Since then, both Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton have aggressively courted Mr. Richardson for his endorsement. Mrs. Clinton had also deployed her husband, and Mr. Richardson’s former boss, to seek the governor’s political support; former President Bill Clinton watched the Super Bowl in February with Mr. Richardson, and both Clintons had spent time on the phone trying to persuade him to back her candidacy.

CNN: Bribes Not Surge Reduced Violence in Iraq?

This report makes a credible argument that cash did more to dramatically reduce violence in Iraq than the surge. We bought-off many in the insurgency. But for how long.

First Lady Records Show Clinton Promoted NAFTA

So now we know for a fact that Hillary Clinton lied when she says she opposed NAFTA:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton now argues that the North American Free Trade Agreement needs to be renegotiated, but newly released records showed on Wednesday she promoted its passage.

The press keeps forgetting to mention those documents were released because she was forced to do so because of a lawsuit:

The National Archives and the Clinton presidential library jointly released more than 11,000 pages of Clinton's daily schedule as first lady from 1993 to 2001.

The release came in response to charges that she is overly secretive, and also allowed her campaign to promote her argument that she gained valuable White House experience during her years as first lady.

[...]The documents clearly indicated that Clinton had a powerful role at the White House, frequently meeting foreign leaders and presiding over meetings.

The NAFTA agreement, linking trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico, was considered a major accomplishment by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

But now many Americans blame the agreement for the loss of thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs.

NAFTA has become such an issue on the Democratic presidential campaign trail that both Clinton and rival Barack Obama have vowed to renegotiate it.

The former first lady's records showed first lady Clinton worked on behalf of the accord.

Among the thousands of details of daily life for Clinton, there was a November 10, 1993, entry -- a "NAFTA Briefing drop-by," in Room 450 of the executive office building next door to the White House, closed to the news media.

Approximately 120 people were expected to attend the briefing, and Clinton was to be introduced by White House aide Alexis Herman for brief remarks concluding the program.

Dick Cheney: I Don't Care What the People Think About the War

It was a shocking display of contempt for the American people. Then again what would you expect from George Bush's VP? Both have been totally indifferent to the will of the American people since they set foot in the White House in 2001. Nonetheless it is shocking to hear it from the mouth of the Vice President:

Five years after the start of the war in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney offered a positive assessment of the war today and called last year's troop surge a "major success."

"On the security front, I think there's a general consensus that we've made major progress, that the surge has worked. That's been a major success," Cheney told ABC News' Martha Raddatz.

When asked about how that jibes with recent polls that show about two-thirds of Americans say the fight in Iraq is not worth it, Cheney replied, "So?"

"You don't care what the American people think?" Raddatz asked the vice president.

"You can't be blown off course by polls," said Cheney, who is currently on a tour of the Middle East. "This president is very courageous and determined to go the course. There has been a huge fundamental change and transformation for the better. That's a huge accomplishment."

Hillary Clinton Forced to Release First Lady Records

We've forgotten about Hillary's stonewalling with all the press coverage over the Obama-Wright scandal. I guess the press fell for the Clinton propaganda that they were soft on Obama. Now they've decided to go overboard. What happened to the Ferraro scandal? It disappeared a day later. What a gift for Hillary. And what about McCain's hate-preacher? Is it any less scandalous? We need to get back to why the Clinton's continue to stonewall on the releasing of information. Unfortunately because of the Obama scandalmania we won't hear too much today about why it took a lawsuit to get Hillary to release her records from her White House days:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's activities while U.S. first lady will be made public on Wednesday, the National Archives said on Tuesday, in response to legal pressure by a watchdog group.

The records, some 11,000 pages in all, document nearly all of the meetings, trips, speaking engagements and social activities Clinton engaged in while her husband, Bill Clinton, served as president between 1993 and 2001, the National Archives said.

The records are being released in response to a lawsuit by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group.

Poll: 64% Say Iraq War "Not Worth It"

At this point it is clear the American people will never support the Iraq War. Surge or no surge. In fact, as things continue to worsen with the war, again, those polls will worsen. What makes it worse is that the hundreds of billions spent on the Iraq War has accomplished nothing. Just ask the Iraqi people:

Today 29 percent of Americans say the results of the war were worth it; 64 percent say they were not.

In August 2003, less than six months after the beginning of the war, Americans were divided as the whether or not the results of the war were worth it. Opinion reached a low point in March 2006 - when only one in four Americans said the war was worth the costs.

Support today breaks heavily along partisan lines. Sixty-two percent of Republicans say the results of the war with Iraq were worth the costs, while only 10 percent of Democrats and 25 percent of Independents agree. In fact, belief among Republicans that the war was worth it has risen 11 points since March 2006, while support among Democrats and Independents has remained largely the same.

Not only is the war not worth it but it's hurting the economy:

More than 7 out of 10 Americans think government spending on the war in Iraq is partly responsible for the economic troubles in the United States, according to results of a recent poll.

In the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted last weekend, 71 percent said they think U.S. spending in Iraq is a reason for the nation's poor economy. Twenty-eight percent said they didn't think so.

The weekend poll, timed to coincide with the Iraq war's fifth anniversary, also showed little U.S. support for the conflict. Fewer than one in three respondents -- 32 percent -- said they support the war, while 66 percent said they oppose it.

Sixty-one percent of those polled said the next president should remove most U.S. troops from Iraq "within a few months of taking office."

Only 36 percent of those polled said the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over -- down from 68 percent in March 2003, when the war began.

Obama Philadelphia Speech Transcript 3-18-08

Read the full transcript . Here are some excerpts:

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

[...]Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

[...]I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

Obama Camp: Hillary Clinton Will "Do Anything to Win"

There should be no doubt at this point that the Clintons are total scoundrels, capable of anything. They've succeeded for so long stealing they want to try and steal this election:

Is it possible to win the Democratic nomination in such a way as to make winning not worth it?

The Barack Obama campaign thinks so. It thinks Hillary Clinton’s campaign is willing to take any road to the White House, including the low road.

“They would do anything to win, and that means anything,” David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, told me Monday. “There is a frenetic energy around them to commandeer this election in any way they can.”

[...]Another Obama senior aide told me he believed Clinton was willing to “destroy the party” just as long as she ends up with the nomination.

This is what a prominent pro-Democratic blog had to say on the Clinton question:

Hillary won't win the nomination without some machination - Markos calls it a coup, and he's right - that will result in a Democratic Party civil war. And, that seems fine by her as Markos explains:

It is Clinton, with no reasonable chance of victory, who is fomenting civil war in order to overturn the will of the Democratic electorate. As such, as far as I'm concerned, she doesn't deserve "fairness" on this site. All sexist attacks will be dealt with -- those will never be acceptable. But otherwise, Clinton has set an inevitably divisive course and must be dealt with appropriately.

To reiterate, she cannot win without overturning the will of the national Democratic electorate and fomenting civil war, and she doesn't care.

Subprime Mortgage Pioneer, Profiteer Dies

This man is why we are in the financial mess we're in. But Arnall's practices point to a government that was bought off by the sup-prime charlatans. Individuals are commonly appointed ambassadors because they are major contributors to the President at the time. Arnall made his fortune by preying upon the poor and poorly educated whom sought the American dream of owning their own home. What is more criminal is that the government allowed these predators to operate at all:

Roland Arnall, founder of subprime pioneer Ameriquest Mortgage Co, died of cancer on Monday morning in Los Angeles, his family said in a statement.

[...]A major political donor with a net worth estimated by Forbes magazine at $1.5 billion, Arnall faced opposition from Senate Democrats to his 2005 confirmation as ambassador to the Hague after accusations that his company had preyed on mortgage seekers with subprime credit.

In January 2006, Ameriquest agreed to pay $325 million to settle predatory lending investigations by state attorneys general throughout the United States.

The company admitted no wrongdoing and agreed to several reforms, and Arnall was confirmed later that year.

The allegations against Ameriquest were not the first to surface in connection with an Arnall-owned business.