Clinton Looking for Dirt to Destroy Obama With

Why is Hillary still in the race? Her hoodlum campaign workers are desperately digging for dirt to use against Barack. Even if it isn't enough to win her the nomination it could destroy his chances at winning in November. This would mean she could run in 2012. The question is whether the Democratic Party will allow her to do that.

Why haven't all the superdelegates come out for Obama? It would seem logical for them to bring this mess to an end--if they want their party to win in the general. Or are these people that naive? It is obvious what Hillary and her people are doing. Before Obama is formally nominated a news story will be leaked to the press that will become a "scandal." How big a scandal? Another Wright controversy? We will have to wait in see. The press will do the work for Hillary. And she will try to pick up the pieces.

It is shameful that the Democratic Party has not denounced these Republican swiftboat tactics coming from a fellow Democrat. This only proves that the party of Jefferson is no different from the party of Lincoln. We need an alternative to this madness.

Is the Government Broke?

The story about state governments not being able to pay for the health benefits and pensions of public employees should be a wakeup call. Given the recession the government will find it hard to pay it's bills. Between the recession, war in Iraq, new medicare prescription program, and retiring baby boomers, we are headed for big trouble. We actually depend on the Chinese government to pay our bills. That is not a good place to be in. The monstrous rulers in that country could decide to bring us to our knees.

The politicians in this country should be blamed. They've brought us to this point. And we can't count on them to get us out. We The People must get us out.

Start now...

Obama, Pay her Bills But Don't Make Hillary VP

There is some talk about Obama paying off Hillary's debt as a way of getting her out of the race. That's ok as long as you don't make her your VP choice. You will regret the decision, Barack.

I realize you would be doing it despite the Clinton's being multi-millionaires. They can afford it. And you would be helping Hillary to payoff loans that went towards destroying you politically. But if you could get this thug out of the race you could get started on running a general election campaign, which Hillary is distracting you from.

Listen to your supporter Senator Edward Kennedy, who thinks making Hillary your VP choice is a bad idea.

- There is an alternative to this crooked political game: The People's Platform.

Transcript: NBC's Brian Williams Interviews Obama

Read the entire interview transcript:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: I asked this at the last democratic debate. Are-- are hedge funds good or bad for America? Is it right for these hedge funds making billions and billions of dollars along with the hedge fund managers?

BARACK OBAMA: Well, I don't think that hedge funds are bad per se. I think they're just one more financial tool. And in that sense, they're useful. But I think that what we've seen are a number of rules that skew in the favor of folks on Wall Street. Private equity funds and hedge fund managers who are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries.

There are some failures in the regulatory regimes that have been set up. For example, I talked today-- that there may be an incestuous relationship between ratings agencies that are determining the quality of investments and the people that they're rating.

So, what we need is stronger market transparency and accountability. That's good for everybody and the marketplace. We have to think about how are we investing to make sure that everybody can compete in this global economy? And that means investing in education and it means investing in things like energy independence. And we've got to rebuild our social safety net, particularly on health care and retirement security, where a lot of ordinary Americans are seeing that security slip away. When that security slips away, they are more likely to turn to things like protectionism that, over time, may constrict economic growth overall.

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Who or what do you think is to blame for this current mortgage and credit crisis? Who do we see about that?

BARACK OBAMA: Well, I think there are a lot of folks who ought to take some responsibility. The original idea was a good one, which was that let's see if we can distribute this more broadly and make it easier to provide loans to people who otherwise might be-- not be able to get a mortgage loan.

Over time, what ended up happening was that the appraisers started loosening their standards. The mortgage brokers started playing around with their standards. Then, the people who were buying these securities weren't really checking very carefully to see whether the underlying mortgage could support the loans that were made.

And so, over time, you had everybody I think conspiring to just do what felt good and what was making a lot of money. The problem was that a lot of homeowners were induced to take out loans that they could afford only if home prices continued to go up.

Hillary "Drops a Racial Bomb"

Ok, what is the excuse now for the entire Democratic Party establishment not to denounce Hillary Clinton and for the superdelegates to come out for the Obama. If a Republican had made the same comments they would've been denounced as a racist:

Hillary Rodham Clinton played the race card yesterday as she dismissed Barack Obama as a candidate who will have a hard time winning support from "white Americans."

It was the most starkly racial comment Clinton has made in the campaign, and drew quick condemnation from some Democrats.

She's been on the defensive ever since Tuesday's big loss in North Carolina and narrow win in the Indiana primary - dismissing calls to drop out.

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she told USA Today in an interview published yesterday.

[...] Clinton's "white Americans" remark drew a swift rebuke from some superdelegates, and private dismay from several Democrats concerned about reuniting the factionalized party.

Muriel Offerman, a North Carolina superdelegate who has not disclosed her choice, said, "That should not have been said. I think it drives a wedge, a racial wedge, and that's not what the Democratic Party's about."

Asked about Clinton's comments, Massachusetts superdelegate Debra Kozikowsi said, "That's distressing. I'm not even sure how to respond to that."

[...]Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said the New York senator could quit if she is behind after the last primaries on June 3 - a departure from his previous insistence that she'd fight to the August convention.

It is obvious at this point that the Clinton mob is out to destroy Obama in order insure that he doesn't win in November. In that way Billary can run in 2012.

Wash. Times: Once Secret Memos Question Clinton's Honesty

Hillary can't run away from her corrupt past:

A decade before Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted fudging the truth during the presidential campaign, federal prosecutors quietly assembled hundreds of pages of evidence suggesting she concealed information and misled a federal grand jury about her work for a failing Arkansas savings and loan at the heart of the Whitewater probe, according to once-secret documents that detail the internal debates over whether she should have faced criminal charges.

Ordinarily, such files containing grand jury evidence and prosecutors' deliberations are never made public. But the estate of Sam Dash, a lifelong Democrat who served as the ethics adviser to Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr, donated his documents from the infamous 1990s investigation to the Library of Congress after his 2004 death, unwittingly injecting into the public domain much of the testimony
and evidence gathered against Mrs. Clinton from former law partners, White House aides and other witnesses.

[...]A June 1998 draft indictment of Mrs. Clinton's Rose firm partner Webster L. Hubbell, who followed the Clintons to Washington in 1993 as associate attorney general, said Mrs. Clinton did legal work for Madison "continuously" from April 1985 to July 1986. It also said she represented the thrift before the Arkansas Securities Department for approval to issue preferred stock, helped Madison obtain a questionable broker-dealer license to sell the stock and was actively involved in a failed Madison project known as Castle Grande.

Sore Loser

There is no justification for Hillary Clinton to stay in the race. Therefore, either she is out to hurt Obama so he loses in November and she run again in 2012 or she wants to get herself put on the ticket as VP. Either way its very typically Clinton to do that which is harmful to the Democratic Party. I hope now people will realize that Bill and Hillary are con artists who are out for themselves.

Since those two have appeared on the national scene the Democratic Party has lost control of Congress and lost the Presidency to a Fascist administration. If Barack Obama does give in to the Clinton threat to fight to the convention and puts her on the ticket, he would be making a terrible mistake. Bill and Hillary are poison and would cost him the general election.

Transcript: Obama NC Victory Speech 5-6-08

This could be considered something of a acceptance speech. Barack Obama won for intents and purposes the nomination of his party tonight. Read the entire transcript:

You know, when this campaign began, Washington didn't give us too much of a chance. But because you came out in the bitter cold, and knocked on doors, and enlisted your friends and neighbors in this cause, because you stood up to the cynics and the doubters and the naysayers, when we were up and when we were down, because you still believe that this is our moment and our time to change America, tonight we stand less than 200 delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

More importantly, because of you, we've seen that it's possible to overcome the politics of division and the politics of distraction, that it's possible to overcome the same, old negative attacks that are always about scoring points and never about solving our problems.

We've seen that the American people aren't looking for more spin. They're looking for honest answers about the challenges we face. That's what you've accomplished in this campaign, and that's how together we intend to change this country.

(APPLAUSE)

This has been one of the longest, most closely fought contests in American history. And that's partly because we have such a formidable opponent in Senator Hillary Clinton.

Tonight, many of the pundits have suggested that this party is inalterably divided, that Senator Clinton's supporters will not support me and that my supporters would not support her. Well, I am here tonight to tell you that I don't believe it.

(APPLAUSE)

Yes, yes, there have been bruised feelings on both sides. Yes, each side desperately wants their candidate to win. But ultimately this race is not about Hillary Clinton; it's not about Barack Obama; it's not about John McCain.

This election is about you, the American people.

(APPLAUSE)

It's about whether we will have a president and a party that can lead us toward a brighter future.

This primary season may not be over, but when it is we will have to remember who we are as Democrats, that we are the party of Jefferson and Jackson, of Roosevelt and Kennedy, and that we are at our best when we lead with principle, when we lead with conviction, when we summon an entire nation to a common purpose and a higher purpose.

(APPLAUSE)

This fall, we intend to march forward as one Democratic Party, united by a common vision for this country, because we all agree that at this defining moment in our history, a moment when we are facing two wars, an economy in turmoil, a planet in peril, a dream that feels like it's slipping away for too many Americans, we can't afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George Bush's third term.

We need change in America. And that's why we will be united in November.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!

OBAMA: The woman I met in Indiana who had just lost her job, lost her pension, lost her health insurance, when the plant where she'd worked her entire life closed down, she can't afford four more years of tax breaks for corporations like the one that shipped her job overseas. She needs us to give tax breaks to companies that create good jobs right here in the United States of America.

Hillary Opposed Cutting Gas Tax During her Senate Campaign

Once again Hillary Clinton gets caught in a flip flop. She opposed or remained silent on cutting the gasoline tax that her husband had put into place, back when she was running for the Senate in 2000:

Republican politicians trained their scopes on spiraling gasoline prices yesterday, with Mayor Giuliani blaming the Clinton administration and state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno calling for an end to the state tax on gasoline and diesel fuel.

Giuliani traveled to a gas station in Bedford, Westchester County, where he backed Bruno's call for eliminating the gas tax and took a slap at Vice President Gore by referring to the federal gas levy as the "Gore tax."

In recent days, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, the mayor's Democratic rival in the Senate race, has linked herself with Gore. Polls project the vice president will handily pull more New York votes in November than GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush.

Bruno, citing a growing state revenue surplus, said in Albany that he will fight to wipe out the state tax on gas effective May 1 in a move that would save New Yorkers $200 million this year and more in future years.

In response, Gov. Pataki said he favors cutting the tax but questioned the practicality of Bruno's plan, "given the spending demands that are out there."

"What it means is we will have less money for the spending programs," Pataki said.

He noted that state legislators are up for reelection this year and said there is a tendency for them to try to "be all things to all people."

Bruno, who made his pitch for eliminating the tax without first running it past the governor, topped a plan touted by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, that would eliminate the gas sales tax in New York for two months.

Under the Bruno plan, drivers would save 8 cents a gallon for gas that costs at least $2 a gallon - and some stations, such as the one found by Giuliani, are already there.

The Clinton administration, including Hillary were accused of being elitists just as she is accusing those who opposed the gas holiday:

"The Clinton-Gore administration's energy policy - I think the nicest thing I can say about it is it's unfocused. I think the word 'feckless' would apply," Giuliani said.

"Obviously, President Clinton, Vice President Gore and Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson are out of touch with what is going on in America," the mayor added. "The price is already above $2 a gallon."

Bruno said the state is so flush with new revenue "from the bonuses on Wall Street" that it can easily afford to kill the gas tax.

She called eliminating the gas tax a "serious error":

In the fourth day of her Senate campaign tour through upstate New York, Mrs. Clinton rejected as ''a serious error'' any move to eliminate the gasoline tax, a proposal advocated by her Republican rival, Representative Rick A. Lazio.

''I reject my opponent's proposal of eliminating the gas tax,'' Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference earlier today in Rochester. ''One of the few sources of revenue that we actually get more of than we send to Washington is gas tax money for our transportation needs. It would be hard to imagine how upstate can finish all the work we need to do without the federal help that comes from transportation dollars.''

On the investigation into gasoline prices, Mrs. Clinton said that it was imperative for the commission to ''go beyond where it has already begun to try to figure out why, while fuel costs have gone up over 50 cents in New York, profits for major oil companies have gone up more than 500 percent.''

No economist supports her proposal. And its not because they are elitists but because its a dumb idea:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Sunday dismissed the "elite opinion" of economists who criticized her gas tax proposal, using a term that has dogged rival Barack Obama in recent weeks.

Obama, meanwhile, accused the New York senator of pandering on gas taxes and saber rattling toward Iran as both candidates gave television interviews before primary contests in North Carolina and Indiana. The two are battling to be their party's nominee to face Republican John McCain in November's election.

[...]"I'm not going to put my lot in with economists," Clinton said when asked to name an economist who backed her proposal.

"We've got to get out of this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans," said Clinton, a former first lady who would be the first woman president.

- [news flash]: Economist Robert Reich, who was the Labor Secretary during the Clinton administration, just called (on the Morning Joe show) the gas tax Holiday proposed by Hillary a "gimmick."

Transcript: Barack Obama on Meet The Press 5-4-08

Read the entire transcript:

MR. RUSSERT: The National Journal says that in 26 of the 29 contests you've been involved in you have lost white voters who do not have college degrees. How do you connect with them? What's wrong?

SEN. OBAMA: Well, you know, first of all, I think we got to give Senator Clinton some credit. I mean, she's a pretty formidable candidate, and she possesses the best brand name in Democratic politics. And her and her husband have been campaigning actively. People have fond memories of some of the work that they did in the '90s. And so the fact that she has won some of those contests in some demographic groups shouldn't be surprising. I mean, I'm the underdog. I, I came into this thing with everybody anticipating that we would be blown away. And if I was worrying about polls and, you know, some of this, some of this analysis, I probably wouldn't have gotten into the race in the first place. What's remarkable is how well we've done.

Now, what I do believe is that it is important for the American people to understand my story and how it connects to theirs. I think it's important for people to understand not only that I was raised by a single mom and, and my grandparents, and the values of hard work and decency and honesty that they've passed on to me, that those are values that are rooted in the heartland of America and small-town America. My, my wife, Michelle, you mentioned earlier, you know, when I think about her father, who worked as a shift worker for the city of Chicago, despite having MS, got up every single day and went to work, was able to raise a family and send his two kids to college and, and support a family of four on a single salary. I think about your father and the fact that, that your dad, Tim, looked nothing like Michelle's dad, but they lived that same American dream and, and they had those same core values. And those are the values of millions of people all across the country. And my job in this campaign is to communicate the fact that not only are those values at the core of what this country's about, not only are those values what make me patriotic, but those are the values that have to be fought for because that American dream is slipping away.

Those same individuals who are like Michelle's dad, who are like my grandparents, who are like your dad, they can't make it now doing the same things that they used to do. No matter how hard they work, they're falling behind. No matter how hard they work, they're at risk of losing their home or losing their pension. That's what this campaign's about, and that's what we've been fighting for, and, and that's why, ultimately, I'm confident not only are we going to win this nomination, but I also believe that we're going to win this general election because that is what the American people understand. Unless we are able to create the kinds of opportunities for ordinary Americans that have been slipping away over the last seven years, with wages and incomes actually going down even during an economic expansion, then, you know, we're not going to pass on the kind of America to our children that we want to.

Hillary's Horse Places 2nd Then Put to Sleep

This is sweet irony:

Tragedy struck the first filly in the Kentucky Derby since 1999, as Eight Belles went down on the track after her second-place finish today, broke two ankles, and was euthanized.

Showing a sisterhood with the female horse, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., during a trip to Louisville this week had said she was going to bet on Eight Belles to win, place, and show.

ABC News' Karen Travers reports that Clinton told supporters in Jeffersonville, Ind., earlier this week, "I hope that everybody will go to the derby on Saturday and place just a little money on the filly for me. I won’t be able to be there this year -- my daughter is going to be there and so she has strict instructions to bet on Eight Belles."

Travers also points out that Eight Belles' trainer, Larry Jones, returned the love. "It looks like it could be the year for the girls," he said. "Eight Belles I’m sure would want to endorse."

The horse Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., picked to show -- Big Brown -- won the Derby.

Maybe after Tuesday's primaries Ms. Clinton's campaign should be put to sleep.

Pentagon Wants to Use Mercenaries to Fight in Iraq

Haven't gone through enough scandals involving contractors in Iraq? Now the military wants to make it worse by using private contractors to train the Iraqi military. Why? Because we don't have enough troops to fight the Iraq quagmire. This is an argument for getting out:

U.S. commanders in Iraq are for the first time seeking private contractors to form part of the small military teams that train and live with Iraqi military units across the country, according to a notice for prospective bidders published last week.

The solicitation, issued by the Joint Contracting Command in Baghdad, says the individuals that a contractor recruits -- who would include former members of the U.S. Special Forces and ex-Iraqi army officers -- will be trained in the United States with military transition teams (MiTTs) and shipped as a single team to Iraq. The recruits will live on Iraqi military bases "under Iraqi living conditions and participate with MiTT special operations and convoy duties," the solicitation says.

Thus far, the MiTTs have consisted of specially trained teams of about 10 to 12 U.S. soldiers led by a field-grade officer that were embedded with Iraqi army units from the division level down to the battalion level. The MiTTs have included officers and noncommissioned officers from different service branches tasked with teaching and mentoring their Iraqi counterparts to make them self-sufficient.

Anthony H. Cordesman, a former Pentagon official and now a scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, described the new effort as an understandable step, given the current stresses facing the U.S. military.

"There is a lot of pressure on the active Army, and during this transition period where the military is converting to noncombat roles, a shift to contractors as trainers for the expanding Iraqi military is a natural step." He added, however, that the outcome "depends on the quality of those the contractors recruit."

Michael O'Hanlon, a military specialist at the Brookings Institution, said the need for contractors to support the Iraq transition teams is linked to the shortage of such officers in the U.S. Army at a time when it is also expanding. "There are insufficient field-grade officers in our own service, and we need the captains and majors as we increase our own ground forces," he said.

This newest proposal to outsource what has been a military activity comes as military contracting in Iraq undergoes increased scrutiny from Congress.

- Stop the charade. Support the only answer to this outrage: The People's Platform

Gap Between Rich and Poor Keeps Widening

The so-called economic boom over the last 2 decades have not benefited the great majority of the American people. Although the widening gap precedes the Bush years, this individual born into privilege and great wealth has only made things worse:

There have always been "haves" and "have-nots" in the United States, but over the past three decades, the gap between them has gotten a lot wider, statistics from congressional numbers crunchers show.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, income for the bottom half of American households rose six percent since 1979 but, through 2005, the income of the top one percent skyrocketed - by 228 percent.

[...]About 70 percent of the economy is based on consumer spending, and that's presenting another problem, Greenhouse say: "What we're seeing now is gas prices soaring and debt levels soaring - a lot of Americans are not going out and buying so-called discretionary items like cars and flat-screen TVs, because people have to concentrate on buying food for their families and paying for health insurance and paying for utilities. So, right now, a lot of retail stores are hurting, and in turn, that's hurting a lot of American manufacturers.

"It's not unique to the United States because right now, worldwide, fuel prices are soaring. So, in Europe, in Japan, and the United States, consumers are feeling the squeeze. I think there's more inequality in the United States between the top and the bottom. It's not nearly as bad as in Europe, but I think the people on the bottom and even in the middle here in the United States are being squeezed worse than in many other countries."

What can be done about it?

Possible remedies, Greenhouse says, include enrolling more low income students in college, increasing pay for lower-wage union workers, and revitalizing the manufacturing base.

"A little-known secret is that, over the past seven years, the United States has lost one in five manufacturing jobs," he said. "Those are usually jobs that pay good wages, middle-class wages, usually provide middle-class benefits on health and pensions, and the United States seems not to be paying attention to this huge problem that has lost 3.5 million manufacturing jobs, and I think the government and industry have to work together to figure out how to preserve jobs."

There is a real solution. And that is the overthrowing of the two-party dictatorship that is driving this country into the ground. But that can only been done through the electoral process and by an alternative political movement. Visit the The People's Platform website and learn what you can do.

One way to support the Tibetan Struggle

At the People's Platform website we've created a page dedicated to supporting the struggle against Chinese repression. Remember: this is a site that you build. So it isn't enough to read you should contribute. Be heard. We also advocate boycotting Chinese products and/or the Chinese Olympics. It isn't about stigmatizing the Chinese people but the government that rules over them.

Transcript: Bill O'Reilly Interviews Hillary Clinton

Read the transcript and see how the "tough" Hillary Clinton stood up to the famous FOX bully Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: OK. Oil prices. Now, you want us to suspend the federal gas tax. So does John McCain. Obama doesn't. But when I hear that, I say, it's the same old politician stuff, because the Democratic Party was opposed, is opposed to ANWR drilling. You voted against nuclear energy seven times. And I'm saying to myself, both parties, both parties have sold the folks out on energy. And now the folks are getting hammered and they should be angry at both parties. Where am I going wrong?

CLINTON: Well, here's what I think. I think there's plenty of blame to go around. We have not done what we should have done...

O'REILLY: Even for you?

CLINTON: ...for more — oh, for all of us, for everybody.

O'REILLY: OK. So you're taking some blame.

CLINTON: But consumers, drivers, political officials, the oil companies, you name it. We're not acting like Americans, Bill. We're not in charge. And I want to put us back in charge, and that's going to...

O'REILLY: OK, so you're going to change your votes on drilling and nukes?

CLINTON: Well, here's what I'm going to do, and I've said this very clearly. In the short term, I do want a gas tax holiday, but to pay for it by putting a windfall profits tax on the oil companies.

O'REILLY: What's that mean though?

CLINTON: Well, here's what...

O'REILLY: What does that mean?

CLINTON: Now look, what it means is that the oil companies have made out like bandits. You know that.

O'REILLY: Right. Record profits.

CLINTON: We all know that, right?

O'REILLY: Yes.

CLINTON: And there is no basis for them to have these huge profits. They're not inventing anything new.

O'REILLY: So, but what do you do? Take 20 percent of their profits away from them?

CLINTON: You set a baseline, and above that baseline you begin to tax their profits.

O'REILLY: So Congress has got to say yes to this.

CLINTON: Congress has got to say yes. Now, I know that's an uphill climb.

O'REILLY: You bet.

CLINTON: But I'm trying to lay the groundwork so that when I'm president we can get in there and say this has been going on way too long. I also want to take on OPEC. You know, OPEC is a cartel, it's a monopoly.

On universal healthcare:

O'REILLY: $5 billion deficit, OK? The biggest expenditure in both California and New York? Medicaid, Medical. Fraud, between 10 and 20 percent. So you're going to tell me President Clinton, Hillary Clinton, is going to, A, run this efficiently and B, not bankrupt the country, when California and New York are already bankrupt? How are you going to do that? Moses going to come down?

CLINTON: Well, he could help. Don't you think?

O'REILLY: Yes, that's who you're going to need.

CLINTON: On those tablets, here's what's going to be written: If we don't get to universal health care, we will continue to bleed money. If we don't have more accountability, like through electronic medical records, we will never catch up to the fraud. If we don't make a decision right now that we're actually going to protect what is best about the American health care system, we won't recognize it in 10 or 20 years.

So here's what I say: Everybody who has health insurance who's happy with it, you keep it. No changes. But what I am going to do is take an already existing plan — it's not government-run, it's not a new bureaucracy. It's the way Congress and federal employees get their health care. And we're going to open it up to every American, because I think it's about time...

O'REILLY: But you're going to subsidize it.

CLINTON: Well, we are. But here's why. You already are subsidizing it. Your family policy has a $900 hidden tax. Why? Because when some poor person who doesn't have health insurance...

O'REILLY: Goes to the emergency room...

CLINTON: That's right.

O'REILLY: ...you've got to pick it up.

CLINTON: You pick it up.

O'REILLY: And I don't mind doing it.

CLINTON: Well, but we're going to get the costs down for everybody, because people should pay something if they can afford to pay it. So under my plan, we're going to tell the insurance companies, no more discrimination, you've got to take care of people with pre-existing conditions. We're going to regulate them differently. And we're going to give them a different business model.

O'REILLY: All right. It's a complicated issue, and I don't think you can do it.

CLINTON: But you know, Bill, it's a moral issue.

O'REILLY: It is and it isn't.

CLINTON: It is a moral issue. Oh, no, it is.

O'REILLY: I mean, there's a self-reliance that has to kick in, you know?

CLINTON: That's right. There is a self-reliance. But...

O'REILLY: I mean, I don't want to be paying for someone who's taking heroin and drinking a bottle of gin a day.

CLINTON: But I assume you want to pay for some hardworking family whose kid has juvenile diabetes.

O'REILLY: I do.

CLINTON: Or some woman...

O'REILLY: I don't mind doing it.

CLINTON: ...that just gets diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

O'REILLY: I think there should be safety nets, but I don't know if you're going to be able to do this.

CLINTON: There — well, but if we don't do it, we'll meet here again in five or 10 years. We'll have more uninsured people. The prices will have continued to go up, because we will not have put into place the safeguards and the accountability that our health care system needs.

O'REILLY: All right.

The Tide is Turning Against Hillary Clinton

The latest Zogby poll in North Carolina has Obama ahead of Hillary by a whopping 16 percent. Overall the Real Clear politics poll average has the Illinois Senator winning by 8 percent.

The biggest blow to Hillary's chances comes from the endorsement by Joe Andrews, the former head of the DNC under Bill Clinton:

While the pundits, never missing an opportunity to be wrong, are enraptured by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the party has already begun a powerful and profound movement of superdelegates to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Today, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrews, who served during the Clinton presidency, is switching from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to Obama. Several major Clinton fundraisers have made the switch and more than a thousand Clinton donors have now donated to Obama.

Andrews has major influence in Indiana.

In an excellent front-page story last Friday in The Hill, it was noted that a large number of leading Edwards supporters, now totaling more than four dozen, plus at least nine members of Congress who supported Edwards, have moved to Barack.

The pundit class doesn't get it, though they will be forced to by events. In the coming primaries Hillary is shamelessly pandering to voters with the gas tax, a true elitist view as it suggests that voters can be fooled. Not to be outdone, the elitist pundits similarly talk about what a "brilliant" tactic this is. Wrong again. Voters are not stupid.

This is kind of laughable. A Clinton endorsement touted by the her campaign blows up in her face:

Last November, the Clinton campaign issued this following release:

The Clinton Campaign today announced the endorsement of former Democratic National Committee Chair Joe Andrew [...]

Andrew became the youngest DNC chair in party history when he took the reins in 1999, after five years as Indiana Democratic Party Chair. Under Andrew, the DNC rose out of debt, implemented new technologies and grassroots mobilization efforts, and raised more than $225 million.

Andrew is the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of The Blue Fund, a mutual fund which invests in companies meeting standards of social responsibility, environmental sustainability, community participation and respect for human rights.

He is currently a partner with the law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP in Washington, DC in the Corporate and Securities, Venture Capital and Public Law & Policy Strategies practice groups.
"Joe was a strong leader who put the Democratic Party on the right path,” Clinton said. "I'm honored to have his support."

Let's see if the Clinton mob try to smear Andrews:

Noting that Clinton surrogate James Carville likened New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to "Judas" after Richardson endorsed Obama, Andrew launched a blistering preemptive strike:

"They are the best practitioners of the old politics, so they will no doubt call me a traitor, an opportunist and a hypocrite. I will be branded as disloyal, power-hungry, but most importantly, they will use the exact words that Republicans used to attack me when I was defending President Clinton."

Andrew, a superdelegate, cited Clinton's push for a gas tax holiday as "the straw that broke the camel's back" in his defection, but Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson said he did not expect a stampede of superdelegates to Obama's side over the issue. "I don't think it's hurting us," Wolfson told reporters.

Hillary will lose despite her, and her supporters', dirty tricks:

North Carolina's attorney general has put a halt to automated phone calls that told blacks to register to vote after the state's registration deadline for Tuesday's primary had passed.

The suspiciously timed calls were eventually linked to the left-leaning Women's Voices Women Vote group, which states as its mission signing up female voters to boost Democratic turnout.

Roy Cooper, the North Carolina AG, said this week he had put a stop to the calls, which spurred allegations that the women's group was trying to confuse black voters, who overwhelmingly support Barack Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The calls urged people to register, even though the deadline for the primary was April 11.

It's Official: George W. Bush Worst President Ever

He is even worse than Nixon. This poll comes 5 years after the infamous "mission accomplished" speech:

It's one of the most unpopular conflicts in U.S. history and the war in Iraq is fuelling a record spike in President Bush's disapproval rating. It now shows him the most unpopular president in modern American history -- even surpassing Richard Nixon at the height of Watergate. The news comes as the White House confronts an awkward war anniversary.

[...]ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, you know, it is no secret that Iraq War fatigue, essentially, has dragged down President Bush's poll numbers for some time. But today marks a new low.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO (voice-over): With the Iraq War now five years old and U.S. deaths rising, President Bush's standing among the American people has fallen sharply. A new CNN/Opinion Research poll puts the president's disapproval rating at 71 percent -- well surpassing those of President Nixon at 66 percent and President Truman at 67 percent.

The number represents a stark shift from when the president spoke in front of the now infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner. GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.

QUIJANO: That White House stagecraft five years ago has come to symbolize the Bush administration's miscalculations in Iraq. War critics today seized on that speech with a protest. And on the campaign trail this...

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You remember when George Bush, five years ago, put up a big sign in front of an aircraft carrier saying "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. I'm sure they thought it was good politics. Except five years later, we're still in this war in Iraq.

Bush has been a gift to the Democrats:

The Pew Research Center did a survey of young people between October of last year March of this year. And what they found was the current generation of younger voters who came of age during the George W. Bush years is giving the Democrats a wide advantage in party identification. Fifty-eight percent -- it's almost two to one -- 58 percent of voters under the age of 30 surveyed during that period of time identified are leaning toward the Democratic Party, compared with just 33 percent who identified or leaned toward the Republican Party.

In fact, the Democratic Party's current lead in party identification among young voters has more than doubled since the 2004 campaign. It was 11 points then, it's 25 points now.

In fact, the Democrats' advantage among young voters is now so broad-based, that young men are now the only age category in the entire electorate where men are significantly more inclined to identify themselves as Democrats rather than Republicans. And if you're John McCain it's a big problem.

And the killing in Iraq just keeps on relentlessly:

Two suicide bombers attacked a wedding caravan Thursday as it drove through a crowded market district past bystanders cheering the bride and groom, killing at least 35 people and wounding 65 in a town northeast of Baghdad, officials said.

In the capital, a bomb-rigged parked car exploded when a U.S. patrol went by in a crowded area earlier in the day, leaving a U.S. soldier and at least nine Iraqis dead. The attack also wounded 26 Iraqis and two American soldiers.

The terror attacks came amid heightened worries that al-Qaida in Iraq is regrouping despite recent security gains by U.S.-led forces, which find themselves facing intensified fighting with Shiite extremists, particularly in Baghdad's militia stronghold of Sadr City.

In the suicide assault, a woman bomber blew herself up as people were dancing and clapping while members of the passing wedding party played music in Balad Ruz, a predominantly Shiite town 45 miles northeast of Baghdad.

A male bomber attacked minutes later as police and ambulances arrived at the scene, said Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, head of the Diyala provincial operations center that oversees Balad Ruz.

The two explosions tore through the stalls and stores that lined the area, and al-Rubaie said at least 35 people were killed and 65 suffered wounds, including the bride and groom.

He's failed in everything including with his education "reforms":

A $1 billion-a-year reading program that has been a pillar of the Bush administration's education plan doesn't have much impact on the reading skills of the young students it's supposed to help, a long-awaited federal study shows.

The results, issued Thursday, could serve as a knockout punch for the 6-year-old Reading First program — Congress has already slashed funding 60%. Reading First last year was the subject of a congressional investigation into whether top advisers improperly benefited from contracts for textbooks and testing materials they designed, and whether the advisers kept some textbook publishers from qualifying for funding.

Advocates of Reading First, an integral part of the 2002 No Child Left Behind law, have long maintained that its emphasis on phonics, scripted instruction by teachers and regular, detailed analyses of children's skills, would raise reading achievement, especially among the low-income kids it targets. But the new study by the U.S. Education Department's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) shows that children in schools receiving Reading First funding had virtually no better reading skills than those in schools that didn't get the funding.

Clinton dishonesty Bigger Liability Than Rev. Wright is to Obama

The press should be splattering this poll result all over the frontpages and on the air waves the same way it has the Wright/Obama controversy:

Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright could hurt his presidential hopes. So could his comment about “bitter” small-town America clinging to guns and religion. And Americans might question Sen. Hillary Clinton’s honesty and trustworthiness.

But according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, the bigger problem appears to be John McCain's ties to President Bush.

In the survey, 43 percent of registered voters say they have major concerns that McCain is too closely aligned with the current administration.

By comparison:

* 36 percent have major concerns that Clinton seems to change her position on some issues (like driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which her husband signed but which she now opposes)
* 34 percent say they’re bothered by Obama’s “bitter” remarks
* 32 percent have a major problem with the Illinois senator’s past associations with Wright and the 1960s radical William Ayers
* 27 percent have serious concerns that Bill Clinton would have too much influence on U.S. policy decisions if his wife is elected

Obama on TV & Video Game Culture

Obama again calls it like it is. Parents have to get involved. Referencing the release of GTA 4, he says video games are raising our kids. (Michelle helpfully points out that he's not saying it's that one game in particular.) [Finally a candidate speaks on the social/moral issues. We need to hear more about the harm done by the media on our youth. It's the reason why kids are shooting up schools.]

read more | digg story

U.S. Troop Deaths Push Monthly Toll to 7-month High in Iraq

Sounds like the surge was only a short term "success" we are going back to the bad old days. Unfortunately the Democrats have dropped the Iraq war as an issue. This means American soldiers will continue to die while politicians fiddle:

The killings of five U.S. soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad pushed the American death toll for April up to 49, making it the deadliest month since September.

One soldier died when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. The second died of wounds sustained when he was attacked by small-arms fire, the military said Wednesday. Both incidents occurred Tuesday in northwestern Baghdad.

A third soldier died after being struck by a bomb while on a foot patrol early Wednesday in a northern section of the capital, while another roadside bomb killed two American soldiers in southern Baghdad, the military said in separate statements.

The spike in U.S. troop deaths comes as intense combat has been raging in Sadr City and other neighborhoods between Shiite militants and U.S.-Iraqi troops for more than a month.

Rather than winding down the fiasco in Iraq, Bush is busy spreading the "war on terror" elsewhere:

Aden Hashi Ayro, al-Shabab's military commander, died when his home in the central town of Dusamareb was bombed.

Ten other people, including a senior militant, are also reported dead.

A US military spokesman told the BBC that it had attacked what he called a known al-Qaeda target in Somalia, but refused to give further details.

Al-Shabab, considered a terrorist group by the US, is the military wing of the Somali Sharia courts movement, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), until Ethiopian troops ousted them in 2006.

The group has since regrouped and is in effect in control of large parts of central and southern Somalia.

[...]"This incident will cause a lot problems to US interests in the region and the governments who support the US, by that I mean its allies who are puppets," he said, referring to Ethiopia which backs Somalia's interim government.

"I am letting the citizens of the US and the allies know they are not going to be safe in this area."

In its annual report on terrorism published on Wednesday, the US said al-Shabab militants in Somalia, along with al-Qaeda militants in east Africa, posed "the most serious threat to American and allied interests in the region".

Al-Shabab has been at the forefront of a guerrilla insurgency against the government and its Ethiopian allies since early 2007.

In recent weeks, they have briefly captured several towns in central and southern Somalia before withdrawing.

The US has launched several air strikes against suspected extremist targets in Somalia in recent months.