Hillary's Thirty Five Years of Lies and Coverups

No family in American politics have told more lies than Clintons, including the Bushs and Kennedys. This article comes from Blogcritics:

More and more evidence is coming to light that not only is Hillary Clinton a chronic liar, but that her lies and ethical breaches are so frequent and often so unnecessary that her urge to lie may be an uncontrollable pathological condition.

The history of Hillary Clinton's lies and unethical conduct has been well documented over the years, from covering for her priapic husband to the Whitewater, Travelgate and Rose law firm scandals. More recently a lot of attention has been paid to her lies about being under fire in Bosnia and even about what Chelsea was doing on 9/11. But the most recent revelation may be the most troubling because it shows that her pattern of unethical conduct and lying to cover it up goes back farther and is a more basic element of her character than anyone had realized.

The story of her time on the staff of the Judiciary Committee during Watergate has not been getting coverage in the mainstream media, but the story has been getting out through the work of columnists like Dan Calabrese who have picked up and looked into comments by former Chief Democratic Counsel for the Judiciary Committee Jerry Zeifman which reveal some very troubling aspects of Hillary Clinton's history.

Zeifman goes into detail on Clinton's history at the Judiciary Committee on his website and in a recently released book, where he relates the story of how she abused her authority, engaged in a coverup and an attempt to violate President Nixon's civil rights under the Constitution, expressly disobeyed the instructions of her superiors and was ultimately fired for cause without receiving a recommendation by Zeifman himself. Clinton may have conveniently forgotten this bit of history, but Zeifman has all the details because he kept detailed notes in a personal diary at the time.

The basic story is that Clinton (then Rodham) was assigned the job at the Judiciary Committee of "establishing the legal procedures to be followed in the course of the inquiry and impeachment." Zeifman ultimately fired her because "a number of the procedures she recommended were ethically flawed" and because "she had violated House and committee rules by disclosing confidential information to unauthorized persons." Beyond that, she also engaged in personally unethical behavior by obscuring her activities by removing files without permission so they would no longer be available to the public.

[...]The picture of Clinton which emerges from Zeifman 's first-hand accounts of why she was ultimately fired after Nixon's resignation show her as a vicious partisan activist, willing to bend and break the law, discard the Constitution, distort the truth, conceal evidence and commit almost any crime to bring down Nixon and claim as much of the credit as possible for herself. This picture of Clinton, coming as it does from a fellow Democratic insider, carries the weight of authenticity and shows the early genesis of the character flaws of which she still displays today. She is vindictive, unethical and a chronic liar, so twisted and egomaniacal that she ought to be automatically disqualified from any serious consideration for the presidency or any other public office.

Greatest Threat to America: An Overstretched Military

This is a transcript of a Lou Dobbs report on how we are facing a serious problem of an overstretched military. We might not be able to stop our enemies. The root of the problem is a war in Iraq that is bleeding America dry:

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the end of the NATO summit in Bucharest, President Bush committed a new round of U.S. troops to the war in Afghanistan. According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Mr. Bush told other heads of state that in 2009, the United States would make a significant, additional contribution of forces to fight the Taliban. U.S. commanders want another 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, so why not send them now to join the 31,000 U.S. troops already there -- the answer, Iraq.

ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: There are force requirements there that we can't currently meet, so having forces in Iraq don't -- at the level they're at don't allow us to fill the need that we have in Afghanistan.

STARR: Finding enough troops for Afghanistan and Iraq is proving to be increasingly difficult. A new classified national intelligence estimate on Iraq, which Congress requested before General David Petraeus testifies next Tuesday is now on Capitol Hill. It reportedly says the surge is working, but analysts say the recent fighting in Basra may have changed everything.

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: I would say that any report done before Basra is already obsolete, at least to an extent. And so in that regard it's not going to be a definitive word anyway.

STARR: The latest fighting in Basra could temper Petraeus' view that the surge has worked. The U.S. now has more than 500 troops in the south helping Iraqi security forces, but U.S. officials note 1,000 Iraqi troops deserted their post during the fighting.

In September the first post surge brigade is due to come home. Petraeus has to decide within the next several weeks if he still wants replacement troops or if he is going to begin a new draw down.

(END VIDEOTAPE) STARR: The need for more troops in Afghanistan is going to put pressure on the administration to begin a further troop draw down in Iraq because after all, Kitty, there really are only so many boots you can put on the ground in either country.

PILGRIM: Well that's exactly right, Barbara, so where in the world is the Pentagon going to find all these extra troops to fight in Afghanistan next year?

STARR: That's going to be a fairly significant problem for a couple of reasons. First, when troops come home from Iraq, the Pentagon has made an absolute pledge to give them at least 12 months with their families to rest and recuperate before they go off to a war zone again. So that's going to put some pressure on it.

Iraq is not exactly getting better anytime soon as we've seen with the fighting in Basra. And finally what Admiral Mullen said was absolutely vital. Look at it this way. They need the troops in Afghanistan now; they're not sending them until next year because they don't have them to send.

PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Barbara Starr. Thanks Barbara.

A B-1 bomber supporting U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan today caught fire today in Qatar. The bomber caught fire after it landed at a U.S. air base. Now all the airmen onboard escaped without injury. Meanwhile, an airman has been killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad. The airman is the first U.S. fatality in Iraq this month. Thirty-eight of our troops were killed in Iraq last month; 4,013 of our troops have been killed since this war began; 29,628 troops wounded; 13,264 seriously.

Voters are very pessimistic about the direction this country is taking. A "New York Times"/CBS poll says 81 percent of voters believe this nation is on the wrong track. One major reason is the economic downturn. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll says 42 percent of voters believe the economy is the number one issue. That's double the number of voters who think the war in Iraq is the top issue.

New evidence today of the magnitude of the economic crisis facing this nation, employers slashed 80,000 jobs last month. That's the most in five years. The unemployment rate jumped to 5.1 percent. That's the highest level in nearly three years.

Chinese Repression of Tibetan Monks Worsens

The questions is will the butchers of China get away with it as they always have. It really is up to you:

New violence has broken out in a volatile Tibetan region of western China, leaving eight people dead, an overseas Tibet activist group said Friday. China's official Xinhua News Agency said a government official was seriously injured.

The London-based Free Tibet Campaign said police opened fire on hundreds of Buddhist monks and lay people who had marched on local government offices to demand the release of two monks detained for possessing photographs of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader.

[...]The report indicates continuing unrest in Tibetan areas despite a massive security presence imposed after sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations broke out last month in Tibet's capital Lhasa and neighboring provinces.

There are some showing leadership by not participating in China's Olympic propaganda:

India's soccer captain has refused to carry the Olympic torch during its passage through India to protest the recent Chinese crackdown on anti-government protests by Buddhist monks in Tibet. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, Tibetan activists have welcomed the decision.

[...]President of the New Delhi-based Tibetan Youth Congress, Tsewang Rigzin, welcomed the Indian soccer captain's decision.

"It sends out a strong signal to the rest of the world that when it comes to principle[s], people should abide by their principles, and that they should stand up for what they truly believe in," he said.

Bhutia is the second person to refuse to take part in the Olympic torch relay. Last month, a Thai environmentalist, Narisa Chakrabongse, also withdrew from the relay to protest human-rights violations in Tibet.

...Including the President of France:

French President Nicholas Sarkozy stepped up the pressure on China Saturday over its handling of the Tibet crisis by warning he may boycott the Olympic opening, following fresh violence.

If Sarkozy can do it, why not you Mr.President:

Hundreds of protesters and members of the Tibetan-American diaspora gathered Monday in rain-soaked Lafayette Park in front of the White House to appeal to President Bush to speak out on behalf of Tibet and to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in August. Leaders of Tibetan advocacy groups and a congressman also joined the rally.

[...]Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) attended the rally and told the crowd that he has begun to work with House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to press for an American boycott of the Olympics opening ceremony. Abercrombie told Cybercast News Service that he hopes to create a subcommittee, possibly under the Human Rights Caucus, to explore the idea.

Passport Official Quits Amid Probes

More from that passport scandal involving Obama, Clinton, and McCain:

The State Department official in charge of U.S. passport services stepped down yesterday amid investigations into security breaches in the document records and overcharges for blank passports.

In the latest blow against the agency, court documents show a State Department employee provided personal information from passport applications for use in a credit-card fraud scheme.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Passport Services Ann Barrett left her post yesterday, a move that State Department Spokesman Tom Casey attributed to management changes.

The personnel move comes after The Washington Times first reported last month that three State Department contract employees were being investigated for improperly accessing the passport data of three presidential candidates. The Times also has reported on overcharges for blank passports produced by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Asked whether the move of Ms. Barrett is linked to the improper file searches and other reports, Mr. Casey said: "I wouldn't ascribe it to any individual incident."

"There are management changes that go on in this bureau and consular affairs and others all the time," he said but declined to elaborate.

Meanwhile, a State Department employee who was not identified in documents filed in U.S. District Court, was implicated in a credit-card fraud scheme after 24-year-old Lieutenant Quarles Harris Jr. told federal authorities he obtained "passport information from a co-conspirator who works for the U.S. Department of State."

The investigation began after Metropolitan Police on March 25 pulled over Mr. Harris in Southeast on suspicion that the windows of his vehicle were tinted too darkly.

Our government does not exist to serve the people but to facilitate profits for big business:

The annals of incompetent federal empire-building have a new entry: the Government Printing Office's e-Passport program. As a three-part series by Bill Gertz of The Washington Times shows, this little-known near-monopoly of U.S. government printing earned tidy "profits" by charging the State Department 85 percent over production costs of U.S. passports. In the meantime, it made a fine mess of passport security with the help of its friends at Foggy Bottom. (See today's front page for the last installment of "Outsourcing Passports.")

The pricing shell game is contrary to the spirit and possibly the letter of the laws that govern GPO operations. "Profit" is prohibited: This is taxpayer money, whether it is coming or going. Price-gaming distorts incentives and fuels empire-building. This, of course, is just what the GPO did under a guise of purported "private sector" management techniques. It enabled bonuses for budding agency entrepreneurs, funded a new production facility and yielded a $100 million bonanza over 16 months for which the GPO has not fully accounted.

Does Hillary Have Any Shame?

This article from Beth Arnold (Huffington Post) says it well:

I'm asking. Does Hillary Clinton feel any shame at all? She was just on the Leno show to publicly announce--again--that she had a "lapse" and that was the reason she repeatedly lied in stump speeches about running from sniper fire in Tuzla, Bosnia. Obviously, the point of her appearance was to offset the political nightmare that ensued after the print media (including Frank Rich's great column)/TV/Internet pandemonium--the almost 2,000,000 views of this video--that forced her hand.

So the way she and her staff cleverly addressed this fabrication and others--like her non-support of NAFTA--was by lying again? Hillary walked on Leno's set and sat down in his chair. She was laughing while she dismissed herself from responsibility. She looked down instead of facing the audience, which she seemed unable to do (not a good sign in the truth department, if you ask me, but might show a smidgeon of shame), while she repeated her dog-ate-my-homework excuse. Hillary: "It's such a mismatch of words and actions...I wrote about this in my book, and I obviously just had a lapse...."

Uh-huh. Well, she's having another one now. We might say that Hillary is "prevaricating," since this word's meaning is all about trying to dodge the bullet or confuse the issue. Certainly, she has "rationalized" through her whole campaign--including about having 35 years of experience. We have gotten enough confirmation to ascertain that she didn't bring peace to Northern Ireland as she had claimed. And she did this pointedly without shame?

We can solidly say Hillary was "misleading" the American public about her Bosnia escapade, although the videotape and other first person accounts of Sinbad and some journalists who were with Hillary in Tuzla definitely support the notion that she told a "bold-faced lie" about it. In Wikipedia:

A bold-faced (or barefaced) lie is a lie told when it is obvious to all concerned that it is a lie. For example, the child with chocolate all over her face who denies having eaten the cake is a bold-faced liar. The adjective "bold-faced" indicates that no attempt has been made to hide the fact that it is a lie.


"Why Did It Take Sinbad to Expose Hillary Clintons' Misstatement?," as Eric Deggans wrote in this blog. The answer appears to be because the American media--even the journalists who had been with Hillary--didn't bother to either research/write/talk/blog it. And so what is with the big whine from Hillary and Bill that the press is so unfair to her? Seems like they've given her an almost free ride in plenty of important areas. Not surprisingly, after being accused of this unfairness the traditional press then worked up enough shame to condemn themselves and turn on Obama. But as George W. proved, it is easy enough to lead them around like they have rings in their noses.

Read more...

States may Free Inmates to Save Millions

A sign of the times. It is also spells a return to the rise in the crime rate. The government is endangering families because they determine priorities. Public safety is a priority. You have to wonder how much of this can be attributed by a wasteful war in Iraq. It is no coincidence that the crime rate exploded during the Vietnam War:

Lawmakers from California to Kentucky are trying to save money with a drastic and potentially dangerous budget-cutting proposal: releasing tens of thousands of convicts from prison, including drug addicts, thieves and even violent criminals.

Officials acknowledge that the idea carries risks, but they say they have no choice because of huge budget gaps brought on by the slumping economy.

"If we don't find a way to better manage the population at the state prison, we will be forced to spend money to expand the state's prison system — money we don't have," said Jeff Neal, a spokesman for Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri.

At least eight states are considering freeing inmates or sending some convicts to rehabilitation programs instead of prison, according to an Associated Press analysis of legislative proposals. If adopted, the early release programs could save an estimated $450 million in California and Kentucky alone.

A Rhode Island proposal would allow inmates to deduct up to 12 days from their sentence for every month they follow rules and work in prison. Even some violent offenders would be eligible but not those serving life sentences.

A plan in Mississippi would offer early parole for people convicted of selling marijuana or prescription drugs. New Jersey, South Carolina and Vermont are considering funneling drug-addicted offenders into treatment, which is cheaper than prison.

The prospect of financial savings offers little comfort to Tori-Lynn Heaton, a police officer in a suburb of Providence whose ex-husband went to prison for beating her. He has already finished his prison term, but would have been eligible for early release under the current proposal.

"You're talking about victim safety. You're talking about community member safety," she said. "You can't balance the budget on the backs of victims of crimes."

But prisons "are one of the most expensive parts of the criminal-justice system," said Alison Lawrence, who studies corrections policy for the National Conference of State Legislatures. "That's where they look to first to cut down some of those costs."

[...]"To open the prison door and release prisoners back into communities is merely placing a state burden onto local governments and will ultimately jeopardize safety in communities," said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer, who could see 1,800 inmates released in his area.

In Kentucky, which faces a $1.3 billion deficit, lawmakers approved legislation Wednesday to grant early release to some prisoners. Initial estimates were that the plan could affect as many as 2,000 inmates and save nearly $50 million.

Chinese Spying on the U.S. on the Rise

Eventually we will figure out that Communist China is a greater threat to America than al Qaeda:

Prosecutors called Chi Mak the "perfect sleeper agent," though he hardly looked the part. For two decades, the bespectacled Chinese-born engineer lived quietly with his wife in a Los Angeles suburb, buying a house and holding a steady job with a U.S. defense contractor, which rewarded him with promotions and a security clearance. Colleagues remembered him as a hard worker who often took paperwork home at night.

Eventually, Mak's job gave him access to sensitive plans for Navy ships, submarines and weapons. These he secretly copied and sent via courier to China -- fulfilling a mission that U.S. officials say he had been planning since the 1970s.

[...]The Chinese government, in an enterprise that one senior official likened to an "intellectual vacuum cleaner," has deployed a diverse network of professional spies, students, scientists and others to systematically collect U.S. know-how, the officials said. Some are trained in modern electronic techniques for snooping on wireless computer transactions. Others, such as Mak, are technical experts who have been in place for years and have blended into their communities.

[...]Recent prosecutions indicate that Chinese agents have infiltrated sensitive military programs pertaining to nuclear missiles, submarine propulsion technology, night-vision capabilities and fighter pilot training -- all of which could help China modernize its programs while developing countermeasures against advanced weapons systems used by the United States and its allies.

"The intelligence services of the People's Republic of China pose a significant threat both to the national security and to the compromise of U.S. critical national assets," said William Carter, an FBI spokesman. "The PRC will remain a significant threat for a long time as they attempt to develop their military capabilities and to develop their economy in order to compete in today's world economy."

[...]While military technology appears to be the top prize, the Chinese effort is also aimed at commercial and industrial technologies, which often are poorly protected, several officials said. "Espionage used to be a problem for the FBI, CIA and military, but now it's a problem for corporations," Brenner said. "It's no longer a cloak-and-dagger thing. It's about computer architecture and the soundness of electronic systems."

[...]In another recent case, former Northrop Grumman scientist Noshir Gowadia, who helped build the B-2 bomber, was indicted last fall for allegedly sharing cruise missile data with the Chinese government during a half-dozen trips to China. He is scheduled to go on trial in October.

Hillary Clinton Plagiarizes Ronald Reagan

Hillary made a big deal about Barack Obama's plagiarizing a speech. Here she is doing the same. In this case it's a joke told by President Ronald Reagan.

Jesse Ventura on Larry King: We Must Overthrow the Two-Party System

This is the message that I've been arguing for decades. Jesse Ventura, who is a leader in the struggle against the corrupt two-party system, appeared on Larry King yesterday making his case. For those who don't remember, Jesse "The Body" Ventura, former wrestler became Governor of Minnesota by way of the Reform Party. He argues as I do that the time has come for our nation to throw off the chains of the tyranny of the duopoly. Read the entire transcript of the show. Here are some excerpts below:

VENTURA: I wrote the book because I was down there and I met the writer Dick Russell a few years ago. And he lives down there part- time, too. And we would get together every Wednesday. And we wrote the book together. And I wrote the book, hopefully, to awaken America, the United States, to what I believe we need a revolution here.

KING: What kind of revolution?

VENTURA: Well, when I say revolution, I don't say a violent one, because I'm not for violence. But we need a revolution to get rid of the Democratic and Republican two-party dictatorship that goes on in this country. Larry, they've got us $9 trillion in debt now, these two parties. Trillion.

I can't fathom what a trillion is. Can you?

[...]VENTURA: -- I believe there shouldn't be parties. I believe that --

KING: No parties?

VENTURA: No parties, that you should run on ideas and who you are and not be part of these two...

KING: But who does the backing? Who forms the groups? Who -- how do you get elected?

VENTURA: That's the problem.

KING: Yes.

VENTURA: That's the problem. The problem is these groups. You know, as I would get in trouble with before, I used to call them the Democrips and the Rebloodlicans. They're the same as the street gangs, only these guys wear Brooks Brothers suits.

KING: All right, what do you think of what we -- what do you think of Hillary Clinton? You met her.

VENTURA: I met her. She's a very intelligent woman. I don't take anything away from her. But, let's look at -- are we a dual monarchy now, Larry?

I mean we've had only Bushes and Clintons for the majority of my voting life have been running this country. So the two elitist parties -- that's all they give us are Bushes and Clintons, because you technically could go back to 1980, when Bush was with Ronald Reagan. So from 1980 to 2008, 28 years it's been Bushes and Clintons...

KING: We had --

VENTURA: ... and if Hillary wins, it will be another eight.

KING: All right.

So does Barack Obama bring you a degree of hope?

VENTURA: Barack Obama, to me, is the best of what they're offering us because he's new. He's got fresh ideas. But he's still going to get his strings pulled by the Democratic Party. He's talking about all this change. There won't be change happening.

Look it, OK, 2006 -- the voters clearly sent a mandate to the spineless Democrats. They sent a mandate to them saying get us out of Iraq.

Have they done it? No. Are they even close to doing it? No. All we're getting is cheap talk from them.

There is an alternative. The revolution that Mr.Ventura is talking about will come in the form of The People's Platform. Start today.

Hillary's Lies Guranteeing Her Defeat

The whole truth is finally coming out. And Hillary Clinton can't blame some vast right wing conspiracy. She and her famous lying husband, Bill Clinton, have a long history of telling fibs. Americans have been lied to for so long we are beginning to learn to spot a phony. It is that phoniness that is bringing down Hillary Clinton:

The now-retired general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Hillary when she worked on the Watergate investigation, says Hillary’s history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther – and goes much deeper – than anyone realizes.

Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee. Hillary got a job working on the investigation at the behest of her former law professor, Burke Marshall, who was also Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel in the Chappaquiddick affair. When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career.

Why?

“Because she was a liar,” Zeifman said in an interview last week. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.”

Typical of her shameless pandering:

Clinton added, "When it comes to finishing the fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit, I never give up and I know that were going to make it together, not just up those stairs, but were going to climb that mountain for a better day for America."

She's lying about her opposition to NAFTA. And she is lying about paying her bills:

Gerry McEntee, Clinton's loyal surrogate and AFSCME president, defended Clinton's hesitency about NAFTA when she served as first Lady. McEntee said she called him when it was passed and she said, "We lost," while the candidate, in her speech, said she "raised a big yellow caution flag" about the trade bill.

On a separate subject, when asked in a press availability about the financial state of her campaign, Clinton replied, "We are raising the money we need and we are paying our bills."

That might explain why potential voters in Pennsylvania are turning for Obama. And if she loses that State it is definitely over:

Barack Obama has cut deeply into Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead in Pennsylvania, coming to within 5 percentage points in a new poll as the two rivals fought toe-to-toe over the same turf yesterday.

Sen. Clinton leads Sen. Obama by 47-42 percent in a new Rasmussen Reports survey. Just a week ago, Clinton was up 10 percentage points, and in early March she was ahead by 15.

"If Obama is able to pull off an upset in the Keystone State, it would effectively end the race for the Democratic nomination," wrote Scott Rasmussen in an analysis of the poll.

Clinton has been slipping over the past 10 days since her story that she came under sniper fire during a visit to Bosnia in 1996 was debunked.

Even Clinton's supporters think she will lose:

A key Hillary Clinton supporter appeared to be a bit off message during a recent interview with a Canadian radio station.

"If I had to make a prediction right now, I'd say Barack Obama is going to be the next president," Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said in a Canadian public radio interview this weekend. "I will be stunned if he's not the next president of the United States."

Clinton Strategy: If I Can't Win Neither Will You, Barack

It's an obvious point the press keeps missing. Hillary wants to beat up Obama so that if she doesn't win Obama will be too weak to beat McCain in November. Then she'll be able to run in 4 years. Therefore, the arguments calling for Ms.Clinton to step down are missing the point. Hillary doesn't give a damn that her staying in the race is hurting the Democratic Party. Remember: the Clintons destroyed the Dems when Bill was President:

The analysis was conducted by Matt Seyfang, an attorney and a former delegate counter for past Democratic presidential candidates including Bill Clinton in 1992 to Bill Bradley in 2000. According to his projections and a calculation of the number of committee seats that each candidate is entitled to based on their proportion to the statewide vote or the relevant caucus rules, Obama holds roughly 65 seats and Clinton 56. There are slightly more than 23 seats still to be decided in the remaining contests.

Seyfang’s findings reveal that Clinton faces an uphill battle if, as she signaled on Saturday, her campaign decides to take her fight to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations to the Credentials Committee.

“I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan,” she told the Washington Post. “And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention — that's what credentials committees are for.”

She can't even pay her bills:

Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose health-care plan would require every American to get insurance, owes health-insurance companies nearly $300,000 in payments to cover her own campaign staff, records reveal.

Clinton's campaign owes $229,000 to health-insurance giant Aetna and another $63,000 to CareFirst, which provides insurance coverage for her staff.

The debts, first reported by Politico.com, are part of a $9 million debt her campaign disclosed in documents filed with the feds.

[...] The potentially damaging revelation came as Barack Obama delivered yet another blow to her campaign - by scoring the endorsement of Minnesota's first-term senator, Amy Klobuchar.

Klobuchar, a superdelegate who gets to cast a vote at the party's national convention this summer, is the second female senator to endorse Obama.

She said the candidate speaks in a "different voice" and noted his impressive victory over Clinton in the Minnesota caucuses.

"Between Barack and a hard place, I chose Barack," she said, adding that she also likes Clinton.

"I believe that Sen. Clinton has every right to continue her campaign," she said, days after Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont urged Clinton to get out of the race.

Obama has now equaled Clinton in the number of endorsements received from fellow senators - 13 each.

And the arguments for her continued candidacy don't wash:

Myth: Very well, then, Mr. Smarty-Math. But if we counted Michigan and Florida, then Hillary would be winning!

Nooo, she wouldn't. The margin would depend on how you allocate the delegates, but Obama would still be ahead. And he'd still be about 100,000 ahead in the popular vote, too, despite not even being on the ballot in Michigan. However, it would enhance Hillary's chances of catching up in the remaining races.

Andrew Sullivan: Hillary C. Flings the Dirt but it’s Sticking to Her

This scorching critique comes from blogger Andrew Sullivan:

Hillary Clinton started throwing some stink bombs at Obama months ago; then, after New Hampshire, she threw the kitchen sink; and in the past week, as cable news threw the boiler, she gave it an extra push.

“I wouldn’t have Jeremiah Wright [Obama’s preacher friend who made embarrassing/incendiary comments] as a pastor,” she told Richard Scaife in an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, which just happens to be in Pennsylvania, which just happens to be the next primary state.

Clinton wins even more chutzpah points when you recall who Scaife is. He is the far-right media magnate who made a fortune in the 1990s running the most irresponsible antiClinton stories in The American Spectator, who broke Troopergate, who promoted the notion that Clinton had her best friend Vince Foster murdered and fanned the idea that Bill Clinton was a drug dealer. Still, Clinton managed to sit down with him and discuss the real enemy: Obama. Machiavelli would understand, although one has to think he would be a teensy bit more subtle about it.

[...]This is now Clinton’s best hope of beating Obama. The woman who has a great and admirable record on racial issues, whose husband was described as the country’s “first black president”, the candidate with the strongest Hispanic support . . . now needs the votes of older conservative whites, who are uncomfortable with the idea of a black president and suspicious of Latino immigration.

This might explain why Obama's lead continues to grow:

Barack Obama now has a 10-percentage point lead over Hillary Clinton in a national tracking poll conducted by Gallup, the largest lead he has posted in the poll this year.

Gallup reported Obama now leads among Democrats 52 percent against 42 percent for Hillary Clinton, the third day in a row he has held a statistically significant lead against Clinton in the poll.

The movement in the national poll follows a week in which Clinton was widely lampooned for exaggerated accounts she gave of a visit to Bosnia in which she claimed she ran for cover under sniper fire. After the pilot of her plane and reporters who were on the trip with her disputed the account, she conceded she her account was a "mistake" and chalked the incident up to campaign-trail fatigure. But the exaggeration rapidly became fodder for late-night comics and video spoofs on the Internet.

Food Stamp Use Is at Record Pace

While the establishment quibble over whether we are in a recession, Main St. certainly feels like things are going badly. And it's only going to get worse:

Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s.

The number of recipients, who must have near-poverty incomes to qualify for benefits averaging $100 a month per family member, has fluctuated over the years along with economic conditions, eligibility rules, enlistment drives and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, which led to a spike in the South.

But recent rises in many states appear to be resulting mainly from the economic slowdown, officials and experts say, as well as inflation in prices of basic goods that leave more families feeling pinched. Citing expected growth in unemployment, the Congressional Budget Office this month projected a continued increase in the monthly number of recipients in the next fiscal year, starting Oct. 1 — to 28 million, up from 27.8 million in 2008, and 26.5 million in 2007.

The percentage of Americans receiving food stamps was higher after a recession in the 1990s, but actual numbers are expected to be higher this year.

Federal benefit costs are projected to rise to $36 billion in the 2009 fiscal year from $34 billion this year.

“People sign up for food stamps when they lose their jobs, or their wages go down because their hours are cut,” said Stacy Dean, director of food stamp policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, who noted that 14 states saw their rolls reach record numbers by last December.

One example is Michigan, where one in eight residents now receives food stamps. “Our caseload has more than doubled since 2000, and we’re at an all-time record level,” said Maureen Sorbet, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Human Services.

The climb in food stamp recipients there has been relentless, through economic upturns and downturns, reflecting a steady loss of industrial jobs that has pushed recipient levels to new highs in Ohio and Illinois as well.

Victim of Horrific U.S. Government Torture on 60 Minutes

This story is the most shocking example of the American governments abuse of human rights I've ever heard. It is absolutely disgusting. All Americans should feel shame at what happened to this man. Do we really live in a free society? How could we allow this to go on? We must vow not to allow this to happen again:

The reason Kurnaz was singled out may always be a mystery. But at the time, the U.S. was paying bounties for suspicious foreigners. Kurnaz, who'd been rambling across Pakistan with Islamic pilgrims, seemed to fit the bill. Kurnaz says that he was told that U.S. intelligence paid $3,000 for him. He ended up bound and shackled on an American military plane.

"I was sure soon as they would find out I'm not a terrorist, they will apologize for it and let me go back home," he says.

But the plane flew him out of Pakistan and to a U.S. base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he was mixed with prisoners fresh off the battlefield. His new identity was "number 53." He was kept in an outdoor pen, in sub-freezing weather and interrogated daily.

[...]Docke says the police report was sent to the Americans. And Kurnaz claims his interrogations at Kandahar turned to torture. He told 60 Minutes that American troops held his head underwater.

"They used to beat me when my head is underwater. They beat me into my stomach and everything," he says.

"They were hitting you in the stomach while you're head was underwater so that you'd have to take a breath?" Pelley asks,

"Right. I had to drink. I had to…how you say it?" Kurnaz replies.

"Inhale. Inhale the water," Pelley says.

"I had to inhale the water. Right," Kurnaz says.

Kurnaz says the Americans used a device to shock him with electricity that made his body go numb. And he says he was hoisted up on chains suspended by his arms from the ceiling of an aircraft hangar for five days.

"Every five or six hours they came and pulled me back down. And the doctor came to watch if I can still survive to not. He looked into my eyes. He checked my heart. And when he said okay, then they pulled me back up," Kurnaz says.

"The point of the doctor's visit was not to treat you. It was to see if you could take another six hours hanging from the ceiling?" Pelley asks.

"Right," Kurnaz says.

[...]He says it went on year after year, always the same questions about al Qaeda, and the endless effort to break his will. He heard nothing from the outside and wondered whether anyone knew that he was there.

Then, in 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo prisoners did have the right to lawyers. And to his complete surprise, one day Kurnaz was told he had a visitor. It was Baher Azmy, an American lawyer.

"He was chained to a bolt in the floor around his ankle," Azmy says, recalling his first meeting with Kurnaz. "And had an absolutely enormous beard that had marked the years that he was in detention. He looked like someone who had been shipwrecked, which, of course, in a sense, he really was."

Azmy is a professor at the Seton Hall Law School. He dug into the case and found that the military seemed to have invented some of the charges. Military prosecutors said one of Kurnaz’s friends was a suicide bomber, but the friend turned up alive and well in Germany.

Read the entire article/transcript

CIA Director Hayden on Meet The Press: Transcript

Read the entire transcript of CIA Director, Gen.Michael Hayden, appearance this week on Meet The Press. Here are some excerpts:

MR. RUSSERT: I want to go back to '07 when Bob Woodward wrote a piece in The Washington Post about comments you made to the Iraqi Study Group, and have a chance to talk about that regarding Iraq.

"On the morning of November 13, 2006, members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group gathered ... in the ... Roosevelt Room of the White House. CIA Director Michael Hayden ... said, `the inability of the [Iraqi] government to govern seems irreversible,' adding that he could not `point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around,' according to written records of his briefing and the recollections of six participants.

"`The government is unable to govern,' Hayden concluded. `We have spent a lot of energy and treasure creating a government that is balance, and it cannot function.'"

Is that an accurate assessment of what you said?

GEN. HAYDEN: It's an incomplete assessment of, of what I said. What, what I said was inability to govern or turn this around in the short term is, is what I precisely said. And then I, I tried to use a sports metaphor. I talked about running a marathon, and what I, what I said to the, to the group there is I'd run a marathon in Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh's pretty hilly, as you know, and at about mile 21 there's a two-mile downhill stretch. And as you get down to the bottom of that hill, it's only three miles to the finish and you run three miles before church on Sunday. So I knew if I got to mile 22, there was a natural break that would begin to turn things into my favor. What I was saying to the commission was, there were no longer any natural breaks lying ahead of us that would turn things in our favor. It had to be done with just slogging through hard work. There were no upcoming elections, for example, no upcoming changes in the political structure that would be natural breaks. That's what I was trying to say to the committee.

Doublespeak on waterboarding:

[Russert]Do you believe that waterboarding's torture?

GEN. HAYDEN: What's more important is what the Department of Justice believes, and, frankly, the question of waterboarding, I've, I tried to point this out in as many ways as I can publicly, is an uninteresting question for the Central Intelligence Agency. We have not--and I, I made this public last month--we have not waterboarded anyone in now over five years, and only three people have been waterboarded in in the life of the CIA's interrogation program.

The issue with the Army Field Manual is not the false dichotomy that, that some people want to create, that on the one hand you've got the Army field manual and on the other hand you've got the licensing of torture. That, that's not the choice at all. The Army has listed--and by the way, the real debate, the real impact for us isn't on the list of things you've forbidden. That's fairly uninteresting to us. What's critical for the Army Field Manual, were it to be applied to CIA, is what's authorized and limiting the CIA only to what's authorized. No one claims that that list of authorized techniques in the Army Field Manual exhausts the universe of lawful interrogation techniques that the republic can draw on to defend itself. And so the issue for us is, is, is not torture or licensing torture or licensing waterboarding. And to the best of my ability I've made it very clear that we don't do that. But to limit us to what America's Army thinks they can train young soldiers to do under minimal supervision against lawful combatants in a transient battlefield situation, when our circumstances are completely different, means we're undercutting our ability to defend the nation.

Tibetan Protestors Attack Chinese Embassy

Alive and kicking:

A group of 200 Tibetan exiles and Buddhist monks tried to storm the Chinese Embassy visa office in Nepal's capital on Sunday but police beat them back with bamboo batons.

At least 130 protesters were arrested and some of the demonstrators and policemen were injured in the scuffle.

The protesters reached the metal gate of the fortified compound and were kicking and trying to push it open when police armed with bamboo batons rushed to the scene and began beating them.

"Stop the killing, stop the killing," the protesters chanted as they charged toward the office gate.

Tibetans have protested in front of the Chinese Embassy visa office in the heart of Katmandu in the past, but it was the first time they had reached the gate and tried to push through.

Sunday's protest was the latest by Tibetan monks and refugees in Katmandu against Chinese authorities' crackdown on recent demonstrations in Tibet.

Police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing policy, said those arrested were being held in several detention centers and would likely be freed later within hours without facing any charges.

Nepal has said it would not allow protests against any "friendly nation," including China.

International rights groups, like New York-based Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations have repeatedly criticized Nepal's handling of the Tibetan protests and beating of the protesters.

Nepal has not issued any statement on China's crackdown in Tibet.

Chinese state media accused the Dalai Lama on Sunday of closing the door to talks over Tibet's future, an apparent response to rising international calls for Beijing to negotiate with Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader.

In a lengthy article, Xinhua News Agency cited past actions and statements attributed to the 72-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner that it said contradicted or undermined his calls for negotiations.

"It was the Dalai Lama clique that closed the door of dialogue," Xinhua said, using China's standard term for the Tibetan government-in-exile.

The statement came a day before the arrival in Beijing of the Olympic torch, which has become a magnet for Tibetan activists and other groups seeking to use the August Games to draw attention to their cause.

China has accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating protests in Tibet's regional capital Lhasa and other heavily Tibetan areas that started peacefully among Buddhist monks, but turned deadly on March 14. Beijing says 22 people were killed in Lhasa, while Tibetan exiles put the overall death toll at 140.

Obama Wants to Return to Foreign Policy of the Past

I'm not sure that's such a great idea. JFK has his Bay of Pigs. Reagan sold weapons to Iran, broke the law in fighting the Sandanistas, and allowed Jihadists to murder Americans in the Middle East. Bush Sr. invaded Panama to overthrow a thug who had been the CIA payroll. Obama has craft a new foreign policy that would make America strong not compromise us morally:

Sen. Barack Obama said Friday he would return the country to the more "traditional" foreign policy efforts of past presidents, such as George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

At a town hall event at a local high school gymnasium, Obama praised George H.W. Bush - father of the president - for the way he handled the Persian Gulf War: with a large coalition and carefully defined objectives.

Obama began a six-day bus tour through Pennsylvania, the largest remaining primary prize in the contest with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Sen. John McCain is the Republican nominee-in-waiting.

"The truth is that my foreign policy is actually a return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush's father, of John F. Kennedy, of, in some ways, Ronald Reagan, and it is George Bush that's been naive and it's people like John McCain and, unfortunately, some Democrats that have facilitated him acting in these naive ways that have caused us so much damage in our reputation around the world," he said.

Obama faced criticism in January from Clinton and then-challenger John Edwards for saying Reagan had changed the trajectory of American politics - and that Republicans had been the party of ideas for the last decade or more.

In one of the more heated moments of the Democratic debates, Clinton challenged him directly on the topic, saying those GOP ideas were "bad for America, and I was fighting against those ideas."

In his speech Friday night, the Illinois senator charged that Clinton, for all her criticism of the current President Bush, has too often gone along with his decisions.

"I do think that Sen. Clinton would understand that George Bush's policies have failed, but in many ways she has been captive to the same politics that led her to vote for authorizing the war in Iraq," he said. "Since 9/11 the conventional wisdom has been that you've got to look tough on foreign policy by voting and acting like the Republicans, and I disagree with that."

His views on other issues can also be considered typical politician-speak. Obama is an honorable man but being part of a corrupt two-party system forces even the best of the best to compromise their principles:

No sooner had we issued Elizabeth Green's dispatch under the headline "Obama Open to Private School Vouchers" than his campaign was scrambling to undo the potential damage with the Democratic primary electorate. On February 20, his campaign issued a statement headlined, "Response to Misleading Reports Concerning Senator Obama's Position on Vouchers" that said, "Senator Obama has always been a critic of vouchers." The statement went on, "Throughout his career, he has voted against voucher proposals and voiced concern for siphoning off resources from our public schools." It noted that Mr. Obama's education agenda "does not include vouchers, in any shape or form."

Clarifying statement aside, there is no taking away what Mr. Obama actually said in the interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentininal that was the subject of Ms. Green's dispatch. "If there was any argument for vouchers, it was 'Alright, let's see if this experiment works,' and if it does, then whatever my preconceptions, my attitude is you do what works for the kids," the senator said. "I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn. We're losing several generations of kids and something has to be done."

Parents of schoolchildren, in sharp contradistinction to teachers' unions, will prefer Senator Obama's initial statement to the clarification issued by his campaign. The initial statement was change you can believe in. The follow-up message was the same old interest-group Democratic Party politics as usual. It was plainly designed to assuage the teachers' unions, who are the enemies of change. If Mr. Obama really gets into the education issue, he is going to realize that no position that includes accountability for schools or teachers is going to satisfy that interest group.

British Filmmakers Expose Terrible Oppression in Tibet

The truth is coming out. Will the world listen:

British filmmakers have emerged from three months undercover in Tibet to release a terrifying portrayal of Chinese repression, including shootings, torture and the brutal sterilisation of women left maimed by crude operations.

Their film, to be shown tomorrow night as part of Channel 4's Dispatches series, was made before the recent outbreak of anti-Chinese rioting in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

But with hundreds of jailed Tibetan protesters now in fear for their lives, the harrowing footage will add to the storm of condemnation gathering ahead of the Beijing Olympics this year.

The documentary's investigation began with the notorious 2006 shootings on the Nangpa La pass, when unarmed Tibetans trying to leave the country were gunned down by Chinese border guards.

Two Tibetans were killed and 32 detained, interrogated and then sent to a labour camp 150 miles from Lhasa.

The experiences of one of those held, Jamyang Samten, now 16, gives a clue to the fate of Tibetan protesters now in the hands of the Chinese police.

He told the programme makers he was given electric shocks with a cattle prod, chained to a wall and hit in the stomach by a guard wearing a metal glove.

If he made a minor mistake in his interrogation, he would be beaten with a chain.

"The way the Chinese tortured was terrifying," he said.

"They beat us using their full strength. Sometimes they forced us to take off our clothes. We were locked up in a room with our arms and legs handcuffed and they beat us. The chain injured the surface but not the inside of the body.

"If they hit us with the electric baton, our entire body trembled and gradually we were unable to speak."

At least one major Western politician has shown the decency and courage to take a stand against the brutal oppression of the Tibetans by China:

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, yesterday became the first world leader to decide not to attend the Olympics in Beijing.

As pressure built for concerted western protests to China over the crackdown in Tibet, EU leaders prepared to discuss the crisis for the first time today, amid a rift over whether to boycott the Olympics.

The disclosure that Germany is to stay away from the games' opening ceremonies in August could encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to join in a gesture of defiance and complicate Gordon Brown's determination to attend the Olympics.

Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, became the first EU head of government to announce a boycott on Thursday and he was promptly joined by President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic, who had previously promised to travel to Beijing.

"The presence of politicians at the inauguration of the Olympics seems inappropriate," Tusk said. "I do not intend to take part."

Gov. Rendell Remarks: More Clinton Surrogate Race-Baiting

Once again a Clinton supporter and surrogate makes a racially insensitive remark. This has become standard operating procedure for the Clinton mafia. This is a CNN 360 show transcript:

BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ED RENDELL, (D) PA: It wasn't intended to be racial. Anybody who knows my record as governor knows I've been probably the most inclusive governor we've ever had.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell explaining some of the controversial remarks he made about Barack Obama. Critics have since been calling his words everything from politically motivated to racist, some people have said. The governor isn't quite backing down.

360's Randi Kaye met with him in Philadelphia.

Tonight she's up close with Governor Ed Rendell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's blunt, brutally honest.

RENDELL: People know I don't B.S. them.

KAYE: And hardly bashful regarding his recent comments about Barack Obama.

RENDELL: The next president of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

KAYE: In a meeting with the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's" editorial board last month, Pennsylvania's Governor Ed Rendell, who has endorsed Hillary Clinton said, "You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate." Yes, he went there.

RENDELL: I wasn't trying to influence the campaign, I was in a room with six guys -- I don't think it even had any windows and they asked me to handicap the race.

KAYE (on camera): The governor's remarks sent a chill through Pennsylvania's African-American community. Here in Philadelphia, the head of the NAACP called it callous and insensitive. Others have suggested it was politically motivated, even racist.

RENDELL: It wasn't intended to be racial.

KAYE: You don't regret your comments at all about Barack Obama and white voters.

RENDELL: Do I think there was anything wrong with it? Absolutely not. I told the truth, and we've got to be able to speak the truth about race without someone pointing their finger and saying, you're racist.

KAYE: Rendell calls Obama a formidable candidate who has done a great job of putting the race issue behind him. He blames the media for, his words here, "obsessing about this stuff."

Just five days after the "Post Gazette" published Rendell's comments, it printed a follow up article that seems to defend Rendell.

"Mr. Rendell didn't dump or strategically plant his opinion about race in our paper on behalf of the Clinton campaign. He appeared passive but not indifferent to or malicious about our state's backwardness."

Barack Obama agreed with the governor saying, "I think there will be people who don't vote for me because of race. There will be people who don't vote for me because I got big ears." But Obama didn't let Rendell off the hook. He also said, "Governor Rendell is a savvy politician, and I think he wants to project strength for Senator Clinton."

This is not the first time Governor Rendell injected race into a race. When he ran for governor in 2006, his opponent was former TV host Lynn Swann, an African-American. After his victory, Rendell said he believed the margin would have been closer, had Swann been white. Swann told us he thought Rendell's most recent comments about Obama were a subtle form of racism. If Clinton doesn't win the nomination, Rendell says he will support Obama. He's given him his word.

Iraqi Shiite Militias Kill off The "Surge"

The surge was always dependent upon the self-imposed ceasefire by the Shiite militias. Now they are fighting again and U.S. forces won't be able to stop it. Not only that but the so-called safe haven, Green Zone, is under repeated fire. It is reminiscent of Saigon before the fall to the Communists:

The death toll rose above 130 after days of fighting in Baghdad where U.S. forces have been drawn deeper into an Iraqi government crackdown on militants loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

U.S. forces said they had killed 48 militants in air strikes and gun battles across the capital on Friday.

A top Sadr aide said Sadr's representatives had met Iraq's highest Shi'ite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in an effort to end the violence. The Sadr aide, Salah al-Ubaidi, said Sistani called for a peaceful solution.

At least 133 bodies and 647 wounded have been brought to five hospitals in the eastern half of Baghdad over the past five days of clashes, the head of the health directorate for eastern Baghdad, Ali Bustan, said on Saturday.

Health workers say hospitals are overflowing and understaffed in the Sadr City slum, a vast stronghold of Sadr's followers, and a ring of Iraqi and U.S. forces around the area makes it impossible to evacuate the wounded.

More than 300 people have been reported killed and many hundreds wounded in the five days of fighting across southern Iraq and Baghdad since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched a crackdown on Sadr's followers in the southern city of Basra.

In Basra, Mehdi Army fighters controlled the streets, manning checkpoints and openly brandishing rifles, machine guns and rocket launchers.

Of course Bush views the dramatic increase in violence as a good thing. Up is down, in is out. Could he possibly be that deluded:

Washington says the crackdown is a sign the Iraqi government is serious about imposing its will and capable of acting on its own. But government forces have failed to drive Sadr's fighters from the streets.

U.S. forces described a number of gun battles in Baghdad including one in which they said they killed 10 gunmen who attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi security station. The Americans have used helicopter gunships and artillery.

Mortar bombs and rockets have caused havoc in the capital all week. Strikes on the fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic compound forced the U.S. embassy to order staff to wear helmets and body armor.

A curfew is in place in Baghdad, closing shops, businesses and schools. Residents are confined to their homes in areas where there has been fighting.