David Drake

The town of Unity, New Hampshire, could hardly have done more to make itself the ideal backdrop for this great symbolic act of reconciliation.

America's Democrats came together to bury their differences in a gently shelving meadow cut from the rolling woodland of rural New England.

[...]

And of course, the two senators, slick and seasoned performers, were bang on message.

Mrs Clinton praised Mr Obama and spoke of him as a friend - she directly urged those of her supporters who are considering not voting at all, or even voting for Mr McCain, to reconsider.

[...]

Mr Obama needs Mrs Clinton's supporters, and Mrs Clinton needs Mr Obama's support.

In other words, he needs the votes of the older women and blue-collar men who tended to support her in the Democratic primaries and she needs help to start paying off her colossal campaign debts, thought to be well over $20 million.

It is fair to say that both processes are now under way.

Mrs Clinton has been far more gracious and constructive in defeat than her critics would have thought possible, however deep her private disappointment.

And Mr Obama has not only urged some of his own wealthy backers to help Mrs Clinton - he set the ball rolling by writing her a cheque himself.

[...]

But there were plenty of Hillary supporters in the crowd too whose mood was, for want of a better word, un-unified..

Back in the 1960s, Castonguay chaired a Canadian government committee studying health reform and recommended that his home province of Quebec — then the largest and most affluent in the country — adopt government-administered health care, covering all citizens through tax levies.

The government followed his advice, leading to his modern-day moniker: "the father of Quebec medicare." Even this title seems modest; Castonguay's work triggered a domino effect across the country, until eventually his ideas were implemented from coast to coast.

Four decades later, as the chairman of a government committee reviewing Quebec health care this year, Castonguay concluded that the system is in "crisis."

"We thought we could resolve the system's problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it," says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: "We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice."

Castonguay advocates contracting out services to the private sector, going so far as suggesting that public hospitals rent space during off-hours to entrepreneurial doctors. He supports co-pays for patients who want to see physicians. Castonguay, the man who championed public health insurance in Canada, now urges for the legalization of private health insurance.

[...]

What would drive a man like Castonguay to reconsider his long-held beliefs? Try a health care system so overburdened that hundreds of thousands in need of medical attention wait for care, any care; a system where people in towns like Norwalk, Ontario, participate in lotteries to win appointments with the local family doctor.

Years ago, Canadians touted their health care system as the best in the world; today, Canadian health care stands in ruinous shape.

Sick with ovarian cancer, Sylvia de Vires, an Ontario woman afflicted with a 13-inch, fluid-filled tumor weighing 40 pounds, was unable to get timely care in Canada. She crossed the American border to Pontiac, Mich., where a surgeon removed the tumor, estimating she could not have lived longer than a few weeks more.

[...]

Canada isn't the only country facing a government health care crisis. Britain's system, once the postwar inspiration for many Western countries, is similarly plagued. Both countries trail the U.S. in five-year cancer survival rates, transplantation outcomes and other measures.

The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday that individual Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms, ending a ban on owning handguns in the capital in its first ruling on gun rights in 70 years.

The court's 5-4 landmark decision -- on whether the right to keep and bear arms is an individual or collective right -- said the city's law violated the second amendment of the US constitution which the justices said guaranteed citizens the right to keep guns at home for self-defense.

"There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the second amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms," wrote Justice Antonin Scalia in the court's decision.

He added the court took seriously the problem of handgun violence in cities like Washington and said there were "a variety of tools for combating that problem, including some measures regulating handguns."

"The enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table. These include the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home," the court ruled.

[...]

The ruling was a victory for gun rights advocates, but gun control proponents said it would help their cause by endorsing the regulation of firearms.

The high court had never before issued a precise ruling on the interpretation of the second amendment, which states: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Washington, home to the White House and the US administration, has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country.

Private possession of handguns is strictly banned here, and any rifles or shotguns must be kept unloaded in homes or under a trigger lock.

City officials argued the ban, instituted in 1976, was necessary to stem rising gun violence, and that the second amendment protected gun rights for people associated with militias, not individuals.

The case, District of Columbia vs. Heller, was originally brought in 2003 by a federal building guard who carries a handgun on duty and wanted to keep it in his home for self-defense.

Gun-control advocates across the country reacted with shock and outrage at the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns today, saying the ruling would threaten gun-control measures in other states.

[...]

In Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley, a staunch supporter of gun control, called the decision “frightening”[.]

[...]

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a former mayor of San Francisco, which also restricts the owning of guns, reacted strongly to the ruling, saying she was “viscerally affected” by it and worried for the nation’s safety.

[...]

“Unlike the elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness, today’s ruling recognizes that gun ownership is a fundamental right — sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly,” [Republican Senator and Presidential Candidate John McCain] said.

[...]

[Barack Hussein Obama said], "I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms[.]" [ He is lying! - Drake ]

Obama was being misleading when he denied that his handwriting had been on a document endorsing a state ban on the sale and possession of handguns in Illinois. Obama responded, "No, my writing wasn't on that particular questionnaire. As I said, I have never favored an all-out ban on handguns." [ Oh yes he has! - Drake ]

Actually, Obama's writing was on the 1996 document, which was filed when Obama was running for the Illinois state Senate. A Chicago nonprofit, Independent Voters of Illinois, had this question, and Obama took hard line:

35. Do you support state legislation to:
a. ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns? Yes.

[...]

[In Year] 2000: [Obama] cosponsored [a] bill to limit purchases to 1 gun per month:

Obama sought moderate gun control measures, such as a 2000 bill he cosponsored to limit handgun purchases to one per month (it did not pass). He voted against letting people violate local weapons bans in cases of self-defense[.]

[...]

Principles that Obama supports on gun issues:

* Ban the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.
* Increase state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.

Barack Obama released his first general election ad on Friday, which seems aimed above all to answer some early concerns about his biography and experience. It’s a well made ad, but it also offers an example of the kind of brazen padding of the resume that Obama will inevitably need to engage in, and which will carry serious risks for him.

About 46 seconds into the ad, we are told that Obama “passed laws” that “extended healthcare for wounded troops who’d been neglected,” and in the usual manner of these political commercials we are given a little citation at the bottom. The citation reads “Public Law 110-181 1/28/08”. That law is the only federal legislation cited in the ad — the other two items mentioned were from the Illinois legislature and referred to other issues raised in the ad.

Public Law 110-181 was the 2008 defense authorization bill. It passed the Senate by 91 to 3 in January, with six Senators not voting. Among those six absentees was Barack Obama. So he cites a bill he didn’t even vote for. Did he contribute to it in some way that might be reasonably referred to as extending healthcare for wounded troops who’d been neglected? It certainly doesn’t seem that way, as even Obama supporters at the Daily Kos discovered when they tried to answer some of the bloggers who pointed to Obama’s citation of the bill. They found that Obama had tried to insert an amendment that had to do with screenings for service members returning from deployments, and one that would ease the discharge of service members found to have personality disorders, but neither amendment passed. Another part of the bill, calling for inspector general reports about hospital facilities, had come from a different bill Obama had sponsored.

Even under the most generous reading imaginable could any of that count as passing legislation that extended health care for wounded troops? The Chicago Tribune noted the problem on its blog last week but defended Obama by pointing out that John McCain didn’t vote for the bill either. That would be an interesting piece of information if John McCain had cited this bill as among his chief legislative accomplishments.

The Obama team’s desire to pad the resume is understandable — it’s awfully slim after all. But this kind of dishonesty will catch up with them…or at least it should.

Turns out the most senior retired general to back Sen. Barack Obama crossed paths with Sen. John McCain during their active-duty years.

[...]

Mr. McCain, a fighter pilot just like Gen. McPeak, was seeking to restart a military career after nearly six years of harsh treatment in North Vietnam.

"He was fresh out of jail, you know," Gen. McPeak said. "Skinny kid. All beat up of course, physically. But quite thin. They weren't feeding him very well in Hanoi. He's done very well at the dinner table in Washington."

[...]

"Surely a four-star general can come up with something better than that," said Orson Swindle, a former Marine Corps pilot who, like Mr. McCain, was shot down over enemy territory. "It reeks of pettiness and sarcasm, and I can't imagine why he can make that kind of comment to imply that John McCain feasts at the Washington establishment."

"It's just disappointing to see someone who rose to four-start rank be so petty," said Mr. Swindle, who is campaigning for the Republican senator.

By: Kimo

I know Tony McPeak. In the late 90s he tried to get appointed as a precinct captain in Clackamas county Oregon and was denied because he was a fake Republican. Round business circles in Oregon he is known as "Mr. Window Dressing"...in that he is willing to be appointed to any board for money. Though he seldom shows up. The man is all about doing whatever he can to monetize his military service. He has his feet firmly planted in mid-air.
June 26, 2008 at 5:05 p.m.

He is best remembered by Air Force personnel for the sweeping changes which he made in the blue service uniform. Worn by more personnel during most duties, the new version (derisively known as "Admiral McPeak's Blue Suit", "The Doorman's Uniform", or "Merrill Apparel") was a radical departure from the earlier version, which was essentially the same as the US Army service uniform (the US Air Force was originally the US Army Air Corps). The McPeak uniform was never popular, and was obsoleted rapidly after McPeak retired.

McPeak was harshly criticized by American Spectator journalist Robert Goldberg for comments and writings he has made regarding Israel.[7]

Goldberg begins the piece saying that "McPeak has a long history of criticizing Israel for not going back to the 1967 borders as part of any peace agreement with Arab states. In 1976 McPeak wrote an article for Foreign Affairs magazine questioning Israel's insistence on holding on to the Golan Heights and parts of the West Bank."[7]

Goldberg writes that "[in] recent years McPeak has echoed the Mearsheimer-Walt view that American Middle East policy is being controlled by Jews at the expense of America's interests in the region."

Hello, my international readers. There is time for everything in life and the time for me of quitting off blogging (at least for a long time) has come. The situation is worsening day by day and I don't think that blogging is going to make us arrive to any solution at all.

[...]

It's possible that I will write something for international blogs when I think it's important enough to do it. But it would never be a regular blogging scheme as I was doing here, it would only be when I consider the news are sooo important I have to blog about them.

So I'm writing this post to thank the readers, the commenters, the linkers and the people who had given me any awards they have deemed I merited.

Spain's parliament voiced its support on Wednesday for the rights of great apes to life and freedom in what will apparently be the first time any national legislature has called for such rights for non-humans.

Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spain to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans.

"This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defense of our evolutionary comrades, which will doubtless go down in the history of humanity," said Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of the Great Apes Project.

Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama has built a yawning 12-point national lead over Republican John McCain, according to a new poll published by the Los Angeles Times Tuesday.

The LA Times/Bloomberg survey conducted over the weekend said that in a head-to-head contest, Obama had 49 percent support against 37 percent for McCain.

In a memo, [McCain pollsters point out] that 39 percent of respondents in the poll identified themselves as Democrats, 27 percent as independents, and 22 percent as Republicans, leaving 12 percent unaccounted.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows Barack Obama attracting 46% of the vote while John McCain earns 40%. When "leaners" are included, Obama leads 49% to 45%.

[...]

The race has remained very stable in recent weeks. Without leaners, Obama’s support has stayed between 45% and 47% for fourteen straight days. With leaners, he has stayed between 48% and 50% for twenty straight days.

As for McCain, his support has been at 40% or 41% on eighteen of the last twenty-one days. Twice, he inched up a point above that range and once he slipped a point below. With leaners, McCain’s support has stayed between 42% and 45% every day since Obama clinched the Democratic Presidential Nomination.

[...]

Both Obama and McCain are viewed favorably by 55% and unfavorably by 43%. However, in findings that mirror an “enthusiasm gap” found in other polls, 32% have a Very Favorable opinion of Obama while just 16% are that upbeat about McCain. Opposition to Obama is also stronger--26% hold a Very Unfavorable opinion of the presumptive Democratic nominee while just 19% say the same about his Republican counterpart.

This may be the most damning evidence to date. Obama may be over the barrel now, once and for all.

Janice Okubo, Director of Communications of the State of Hawaii Department of Health confirms all earlier suspicions of a forgery.

The image, purporting to come from the Hawaii Department of Health, has been the subject of intense skepticism in the blogosphere in the past two weeks. But now the senior spokesman of that Department has confirmed to Israel Insider what are the required features of a certified birth document — features that Obama’s purported “birth certificate” clearly lack.

If you go to Obama’s website, fightthesmears.com, you will notice that he claims to have released his birth certificate and even provides a link with a copy of it for proof.

However, if you look closely, you will notice that the font is problematic in that the only typewriter available at that time which Mrs. Bulldog and I could think of that would be able to duplicate such a font is the IBM Selectric which was introduced on… Drum roll please…. July 23, 1961 - Obama was born August 4th, 1961 and the birth certificate featured on Obama’s website was filed on August 6th, 1961…

It seems odd to us that a Hospital in Hawaii would have had access to such a typewriter just a couple of weeks after its introduction…

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader accused Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic Party nominee, of downplaying poverty issues, trying to "talk white" and appealing to "white guilt" during his run for the White House.

Nader, a thorn in the Democratic Party's side since the 2000 presidential election, has taken various shots at Obama in recent days while ramping up his latest independent run for president.

[...]

"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American," Nader said. "Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson?

[...]

The Obama campaign had only a brief response, calling the remarks disappointing.

Asked to clarify whether he thought Obama does try to "talk white," Nader said: "Of course".

[...]

"He wants to show that he is not a threatening . . . another politically threatening African-American politician," Nader said. "He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as black is beautiful, black is powerful. Basically he's coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it's corporate or whether it's simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up."

The speaker of the House made it clear to me and more than forty of my colleagues yesterday that a bill by Rep. Mike Pence (R.-Ind.) to outlaw the “Fairness Doctrine” (which a liberal administration could use to silence Rush Limbaugh, other radio talk show hosts and much of the new alternative media) would not see the light of day in Congress during ’08. In ruling out a vote on Pence’s proposed Broadcaster's Freedom Act, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-CA.) also signaled her strong support for revival of the “Fairness Doctrine” -- which would require radio station owners to provide equal time to radio commentary when it is requested.

Experts say that the “Fairness Doctrine,” which was ended under the Reagan Administration, would put a major burden on small radio stations in providing equal time to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative broadcasters, who are a potent political force. Rather than engage in the costly practice of providing that time, the experts conclude, many stations would simply not carry Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and other talk show hosts who are likely to generate demands for equal time.

[...]

“Do you personally support revival of the ‘Fairness Doctrine?’” I asked.

“Yes,” [Pelosi] replied, without hesitation.

About one hundred million years before dinosaurs began to roam the Earth, Ventastega was to be found in the shallow waters and tidal estuaries of modern day Latvia.

According to lead author, Professor Per Ahlberg, from Uppsala University, Sweden, this creature had the head of a tetrapod, an animal adapted to live on land. The body, though, was fish-like but with four primitive flippers.

"From a distance, it would have looked like an alligator. But closer up, you would have noticed a real tail fin at the back end, a gill flap at the side of the head; also lines of pores snaking across head and body.

As Sen. Barack Obama courted voters in Iowa in December, Rep. Keith Ellison, America's first Muslim congressman, stepped forward eagerly to help.

Ellison said he believed that Obama's message of unity resonated deeply with American Muslims. He volunteered to speak on Obama's behalf at a mosque in Cedar Rapids, one of the nation's oldest Muslim enclaves. But before the rally could take place, aides to Obama asked Ellison to cancel the trip because it might stir controversy. Another aide appeared at Ellison's Washington office to explain.

"I will never forget the quote," Ellison said, leaning forward in his chair as he recalled the aide's words. "He said, 'We have a very tightly wrapped message.'"

When Obama began his presidential campaign, Muslim Americans from California to Virginia responded with enthusiasm, seeing him as a long-awaited champion of civil liberties, religious tolerance and diplomacy in foreign affairs. But more than a year later, many say, he has not returned their embrace.

While the senator has visited churches and synagogues, he has yet to appear at a single mosque. Muslim and Arab-American organizations have tried repeatedly to arrange meetings with Obama, but officials with those groups say their invitations -- unlike those of their Jewish and Christian counterparts -- have been ignored. Last week, two Muslim women wearing head scarves were barred by campaign volunteers from appearing behind Obama at a rally in Detroit.

In interviews, Muslim political and civic leaders said they understood that their support for Obama could be a problem for him at a time when some Americans are deeply suspicious of Muslims. Yet those leaders nonetheless expressed disappointment and even anger at the distance that Obama has kept from them.

Muslims frustrated

"This is the 'hope campaign,' this is the 'change campaign,'" said Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat. Muslims are frustrated, he added, that "they have not been fully engaged in it."

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan on Tuesday called for 'climate justice', saying that it was polluters who should pay for the effects of climate change, and not the poorest and most vulnerable.

He said funding should be made available to help disadvantaged communities adapt to the effects of global warming as he urged for the international community to focus on adaptation measures.

"We must have climate justice. As an international community, we must recognise that the polluter must pay and not the poor and vulnerable," said Annan at the first high-level meeting of his new humanitarian forum.

[...]

"We cannot allow the extra cost of adapting to climate change to be siphoned off from the ongoing poverty challenge. We should act immediately to provide them with additional funding and appropriate technical assistance," he said.

Radio shock jock Don Imus sought to clarify a racial remark he made about Adam "Pacman" Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, an African-American.

While discussing Jones's desire to ditch his nickname Monday, Imus was told Jones has "been arrested six times since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005."

Imus asked one of his on-air sidekicks, "What color is he?"

"He's African-American," the co-star said.

"Well, there you go," Politico quoted Imus as saying. "Now we know."

Asked in an e-mail message what he had intended by his remark, Imus wrote that he meant Jones "was being picked on because he's black," The New York Times reported.

"It has been reported to me that statements were made by Mr. Imus this morning and National Action Network has monitored his show since his return. I find the inference of his remark disturbing because it plays into stereotypes. Any use of stereotypes is always counterproductive. We will determine in the next day or so whether or not his remark warrants direct action on our part as we did in April of last year."

Former prosecutor Steven Pagones said Monday that his victory over the Rev. Al Sharpton and two other advisers to Tawana Brawley in his racially charged, $395 million lawsuit was bittersweet.

Speaking outside the Dutchess County Courthouse after the jury's decision, Pagones said Sharpton, Alton Maddox Jr. and C. Vernon Mason had "hurt a lot of people."

The jury found Sharpton liable for making seven defamatory statements about Pagones, Maddox for two and Mason for one. Pagones, a former assistant county prosecutor, is white; the defendants are black.

"They hurt race relations," Pagones said. "We have enough problems in society. We don't need people like Mason and Maddox and Sharpton screaming out false allegations and creating further hatred."

A jury of four whites and two blacks ruled that Sharpton, Maddox and Mason defamed Pagones in accusing him of raping black teen-ager Tawana Brawley in 1987.

Radio shock jock Don Imus sought to clarify a racial remark he made about Adam "Pacman" Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, an African-American.

While discussing Jones's desire to ditch his nickname Monday, Imus was told Jones has "been arrested six times since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005."

Imus asked one of his on-air sidekicks, "What color is he?"

"He's African-American," the co-star said.

"Well, there you go," Politico quoted Imus as saying. "Now we know."

Asked in an e-mail message what he had intended by his remark, Imus wrote that he meant Jones "was being picked on because he's black," The New York Times reported.

U.S. gasoline demand fell 2.7 percent last week, a sign motorists are cutting back on vacation plans as pump prices touch records, a MasterCard Inc. report today showed.

Consumers purchased an average 9.45 million barrels of gasoline a day in the week ended June 20, down from 9.71 million a year earlier, MasterCard, the second-biggest credit-card company, said in its weekly SpendingPulse report. It was the ninth consecutive week of declines from the year-earlier period.

[...]

The national average pump price for regular gasoline rose 3 cents to $4.07 a gallon, up 36 percent from a year earlier and the highest in data going back to October 2006, the report showed. Prices on the West Coast rose 7 cents to an average $4.45 a gallon.

The report from Purchase, New York-based MasterCard was assembled by MasterCard Advisors, the company's consulting arm, and is based on credit card swipes and cash and check payments at about 140,000 U.S. gasoline stations.

The Energy Department estimated demand of 9.25 million barrels a day for the week ended June 13. MasterCard said demand was 9.1 million barrels a day for the same period. The government's next petroleum report is set for release tomorrow.

"We know what kind of campaign they're going to run," the Illinois senator said at a fundraising event in Jacksonville, Florida.

"They're going to try to make you afraid of me - 'He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?'"

[...]

"They're going to try to make me into a scary guy. They're even trying to make Michelle into a scary person. Right? And so that drumbeat - 'We're not sure if he's patriotic or not; we're not sure if he is too black.'

"I don't know, before I wasn't black enough. 'Now he might be too black'. We don't know whether he's going to socialise, well, who knows what."