Economics: World Stock Sell-off: China's investment dynamics precipitate temp crisis

Yesterday, MSNBC carried a report of the previous day's lead story worldwide. "Stocks rebound modestly from huge drop -- Fed’s Bernanke: No single trigger responsible for Tuesday’s slump (Feb28,2k7). The focal story of two days ago being simply that the Shanghai Stock Exchange experienced a massive sell-off of hi+ly overpriced stocks which have resulted from China's corruption-riddled capitalism, and the lottery-minded investment mania of stock purchasters. A lot of little guys were devastated, ruined, by China's lackadaisical financial regulatory non-practices.

As we all know, the Shanghai disease impacted stock exchanges in London, New York, and Toronto. The Chinese correction gave umff to the Western market corrections, overdue as well. Here's some details the day after:

NEW YORK - Wall Street rebounded fitfully Wednesday from the previous session’s 416-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average, as investors took comfort from comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke but still showed signs of unease about the economy.

Bernanke’s remarks to Congress that he still expects moderate economic growth gave some investors confidence to look for bargains. A recovery in some overseas markets following a worldwide sell-off Tuesday also lent some support to U.S. stocks, but the advance lacked some conviction — the major indexes fluctuated through the morning and into the afternoon, with the Dow rising as much as 137 points before pulling back and then advancing again, closing with a modest gain.

I filed the above as a draft but held back from posting the draft blog-entry because I thawt a few details from some other source mite make the effort more worthwhile.

I got more than I bargained for. Tuning in the CanWest networks's Global National last nite at 5:30 PM, I (with a million other Canadians), was subjected to the pravdavations of said network's chief slanter and twister, Kevin Newman. This intrepid anti-America news anchor served up a large hot bowl of bile for the network he manages to manipulate. His lead-off for his half-hour ignored Shanghai and the implications which the longterm financial abuse in China is having on the Canadian economy (where Canadian businesses were led down the garden path by two previous Liberal prime ministers, Chretien and Martin, into dubious contractual relationships). Fact of the matter is, China is buying up Canadian resource corporations hand over fist, and importing extractive commodities from corporations it doesn't yet own, to feed the Communist-directed super-rapid industrialiaztion of China and its conquered territories. Shanghai, the trigger of its stockmarket shake-up and sell-off, and its relation to resource commodity corporations shaken-down on the Toronto Stockmarket were the story.

Instead, Newman (who the previous nite carried a snot-piece on a political party's officials calling their institution the "New Conservatives" ... but thereby found himself forced to acknowledge that the New Democratic Party has been calling itself "New" since the Nineteen Sixties). Thus, the snot. But additionally Newman never mentioned thathis own constantly America-negative broadcasting constitutes him as the gravely oldman of Canadian oldscasting. What a tedious bore! Oldman went off on a tangent (he, of course, is my to-the--point tangent here) about a revision of estimates of US growth stats for the year from 3.2 (or something) down to 2.2 percent growth of the US GDP. I recall him using the word "wrong" with an emphasis evoking moral failure rather than evoking a mere correction of specialist statisticians' estimates. Such palpable anti-America twisting is typical of this mad hater, whose distortion of information flow was directly contradicted in the hour-long newsreport by the Toronto affiliate of the Global TV Network. To wit: the American economy took the hit of China malfeasance, made its own adjustment after a season of its own lesser overheating (which has been quite good also for Canadian investors), and is in the process of recovery as investors slowly buy-up good stocks at much lower prices. Ho hum to all the noisy detractors who manipulate their reports on the basis of their own bile and venom, as in the case of Keven Oldman or whatever he purports his name to be.

Citing only two indeces of greater relevance than the sluggish mind of oldbile can fathom, both Reuters and ABC News give very US-positive accounts. Reuters says today that

Manufacturing grows more than expected (Mar1,2k7)

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Factory activity rose more than expected in February, lifted by grogrowth in new orders, production and employment, according to a survey published Thursday.

The Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity rose to 52.3 from 49.3 in January, above economists' median forecast for a slight rise to 50.0.

A reading above 50 indicates growth in the sector.

The February number continues an alternating pattern for the manufacturing index. The ISM showed contraction in November, then rebounded in December, only to fall back again in January.

The prices paid index, which measures inflationary pressures within the factory sector, jumped to 59.0 in February from 53.0 in January.

New orders, a gauge of future growth, rose to 54.9 from 50.3, while the employment index climbed to 51.1 from 49.5

ABC News, on the other hand, also just today gives us consumer-attitudes stats that "Consumer Confidence Gains in February -- Consumer Confidence Rises to a 5-And-A-Half Year High in February" by the celebrated expert reporter Anne D'Innocenzio, AP Business Writer.

I wonder if the snot-hyping Kevin Newman will make a correction today, after all even the world's great stock markets are capable of doings so. The aging falsifier's "olds" show comes on after my favourite soap-opera, which means if I don't immediately switch channels, Global dumps me into the hands of its most deceitful info-manipulator who, with many of his reporters, seeks to build animosity toward the USA. Even his come-ons are falsifications. He's often absent, yet insists on maintaining the fiction of "Global Nation with Kevin Newman." Actually, it's often Global National with Tara Nelson, but she never gets to lead-in credit (except on weekends when at last she does). She's a much better reporter than he, more honest, less anti-American, and doesn't fall back on the phoney word-emphases with which Oldman likes to punctuate his trash, phoney even in voice.

Juridics: Fed Canada: Libs begin smear attack on judicious proposals of Conservative govt

A rather extreme headline appeared over an article by Helen Burnett in Law Times, "Independent judiciary put in peril" (Feb21,2k7).

The Canadian Judicial Council is openly criticizing Prime Minster Stephen Harper’s changes to federal judicial advisory committees, raising questions about the independence of the committees from the government and whether the most qualified candidates will continue to be appointed to the bench.

The author fails to mention that the Federal Canadian system of judges is a h+ly biased single-party entity built up by the law professions pandering to the Liberal Party over many decades. If you want an appoinment, you take your law degree and join the Liberal Party and start working for it and its candidates. That's the lore of Canadian juridics. Every Canadian acquainted with the realities of judging in Canada knows that the system is riddled with false convictions, on the one hand, combined with ideological biases dictating appointments to the bench, on the other. Plus, the law schools haven't had a fresh idea since they haberdashed the concept of "equality" in such a way as to outlaw the recognition of all differences. "Qualified" in Canada largely means a candidate for judge single-mindedly reads everything but the kitchen sink into the Constitution's Charter of R+ts.

Parker MacCarthy says the new judicial appointments system will permit block voting to install judges whose views adhere to those of the government.

MacCarthy is hysterical in this statement heavy on rhetorical flourish, and weak on particulars. The courts, each and every one of them need desperately a policy of jurisprudential diversity, appointment of basically qualified judges in a pattern that seeks competent judges of different philosophies of law. The teaching of philosopy of law in Canada is extremely weak, in English-speaking only one Left Liberal view prevails. And it translates down into the extreme favouritism toward serious law-breakers in sentencing.

Last November, the government announced changes to the appointment process for federal judicial advisory committees, which are responsible for assessing the qualifications of lawyers who apply for federal judicial appointments and for recommending candidates to the minister.

"Qualifications of lawyers" who asspire to appointment in a system dominated by LeftLiberal lawschools churning out a surplus of one philosophy of law, and obstructing the development of another. This apppointment system, again dominated by one party, the same old party and its same old leftwing, has never led to a dialogue of experts who tend to the articulation of points from different law-philosophies to arrive at the settlement of cases after decent interactive deliberation. Indeed, the Liberals set up their "federal advisory committees" as a smokescreen to give the appearance of non-apppointment (Canada seems incapable of even contemplating the election of judges, yet it has had no checks or balances on the multiple decades-long Liberal appointment process based on patronage. That's why the Liberal evolved not only as the party of graft, but as the party of graft and an absurd patronage that saturated the judiciary appointments. It matters very much as the minority Conservative government tries to rectify an historically obscene one-party judiciary that allows criminals to prosper and victims are ignored. These patterns also obtain when the Liberals dominate the provinical judiciaries too.

The changes increase the number of members on the committee from seven to eight, including a judicial representative, one from the provincial attorney general, one from the provincial law society, and one from the Canadian Bar Association.

A patently more fair arrangement which does not do away with the Liberal smokescreen advisory committees, but makes them more widely constituted, and thus permits other views to occasionally come into the picture on the bench in the various federal courts.

The number of ministerial appointments is also boosted from three to four, including a law enforcement officer.

Bravo! A legally-qualified law enforcement officer increases the value of the adcom approach which the Libs have always stacked in favour of judges who followed the party line on liniency for criminals, and disregard of the victims of crime.

Under the new system, the judicial representative is no longer allowed to vote, except in the event of a tie.

A quite healthy provision. The court judges don't themselves become a self-continuing group with a monopoly on determining advice regarding new appointments.

The distinction between “recommended” and “highly recommended” for potential candidates has also been removed.

Excellent! A potential judge is either qualified or not. "H+ly recommended" smacks of a second standard, nothing short of ideological approval.

What's remarkable is that the body of the article does not bear out either the writer's apparent intent (slant) nor the headline writer's inflammatory prejudice against the intelligent just new proposals of the Conservative minority government which would, by way of non-drastic revisions ameliorate the traditional Lib policy of stacking the Fed judiciary. But this flows counter to the obsolescent mindset of the law professions themselves.

It's time for diversity of law philosophies in the Canadian judiciary.

My headline derives from the fact that Law Times' headline is only the opening salvo of a campaign building steam steadily with former Justice Minister in the last deposed Liberal govt, Irwin Cotler (who himself aspires to a seat on the Supreme Court), heaping contumely on the reasonable minority Conservs' proposal, when he himself was responsible for the smokescreen double appointment of two extremely biased Justices to the Supreme Court who had moved to the top of the heap of Liberal approvees. There was no public examination of these then-nominees by Parliament. As a result the Supreme Court of Canada continues to be a grandiose monologue with only one philosophy of law permitted to participate in its "deliberations". Shame!, Mr Cotler.

Daily Darfur: Juridics: International Criminal Court indicts 2 Sudanese alleged genocidists

Christian Science Monitor's Robert Marquand in a 3-pages article reports "World court's big move on Darfur -- The International Criminal Court indicted a key Sudanese official and a janjaweed leader Tuesday" (Feb28,2k7)

THE HAGUE - After 20 months, more than 100 formal witness statements, and visits to 17 countries, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Tuesday indicted a high-ranking Sudanese interior minister and a janjaweed militia leader on 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the ongoing crisis in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

The naming of Ahmed Haroun, a former deputy interior minister, and a janjaweed leader known as Ali Kushayb, is considered a bold move for the young ICC and its chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Despite Sudan's rejection of the indictments, most experts hailed them as an international censure that could help end the four-year-old crisis that has killed more than 200,000 people, and displaced more than 2 million.

"The ICC did the right job at getting individuals who can be sacrificed by the Sudanese government, but who at the same time have a significant degree of culpability," says Alex de Waal, a Darfur expert and program director at the Social Science Research Council in New York.

Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo intrinsically linked the Sudanese government and the feared janjaweed arguing that after Mr. Haroun took charge of the Darfur security desk in April 2003, he oversaw the "staffing, funding, and arming of the [janjaweed]," which grew by 10,000 soldiers and conducted atrocities in Darfur under Haroun's direct authority.

Darfur is widely regarded as the highest profile case in international justice circles, and a possible turning point in efforts to establish a global criminal tribunal – though ICC investigations into Darfur have proceeded during the conflict, and without cooperation by Sudan.

Politics: Govt: Netherlands swears-in new cabinet, Prime Minister's fourth (Balkenende IV)

Ninety-two days after the most recent national election (Nov23,2k6) in the Netherlands, Prime Minister Peter Balkenende was sworn-in again with what is now his fourth cabinet (Balkenende IV). Balkenende is leader of the Christian Democratic Alliance, which received the largest number of votes in comparison to all the other parties.

The second h+est vote-receiver which has joined in the cabinet-formation is the Labour Party. This is a stunning change from the forced alliance of Christian Democrats in the earlier Balkenende cabinets--where they had to work with anti-immigrants parties and the erratic behaviour with the Liberal Party (old school free-enterprise liberalism) which went thru a series of internal convulsions and shifted to a shrieking anti-immigrant stance. Balkenende's CDA remained stead on course, surviving the cabinent-partners and now linking with Labour as the larger cabinent partner.

Also admitted to the cabinet were representatives of the small ChristenUnie, a Christian political party more intensely social-conservative than the CDA. This was also surprising, since the CU has not been in cabinet (at least for some time ... I'll have to check this out).

The swearing-in of the cabinet members took place on Feb22,2k7 in the presence of Queen Beatrix, the reigning monarch of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. As cabinet members, the newly sworn-in will have much greater independence in their respective ministries than in most parliamentary countries. Their oath is to serve the Queen first, not their parties. But the Queen does not give them orders, as is the case also in the British parliament similarly tied formally to a monarch.

Of 150 members of the Dutch Second Chamber (lower house of parliament), these standings resulted from the Nov2k6 elections:

Christian Democrats .....2,608,573.....41 seats (largest vote-receiver)
Labour Party ..................2,085,077.....33 seats (2nd largest vote-receiver)
ChristenUnie .....................390,969......6 seats (7th largest vote-receiver)

Daily Darfur: Hunger: Darfur region of Sudan remains a hotspot for food relief

A report on the ReliefWeb website of the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations Humanitarian Commision Relief (UNHCR) carries a list and write-up of "Hunger's global hotspots: 22 Feb 2007." The countries singled out for special concern are Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Congo DR, DPRK (North Korea - the two words appear nowhere in the text), Ethiopia, Guinea, Occupied Palestinian Terroritories (notice the politically-loaded designation), Sri Lanka, Somalia, and the country I've single out for attention below, Sudan, especially its Darfur region.

Sudan

In Sudan's Darfur region, February distributions are continuing, despite on-going insecurity. WFP is planning to carry out as many double-distributions as possible in March as part of its preparedness and mitigation strategy.

In January, WFP and cooperating partners provided assistance to 2.4 million beneficiaries including 2.2 million IDPs and vulnerable residents in Darfur.

I'm guessing that "IDP" refers to "Internally Displaced Person/s"

Almost 158,000 people in Darfur did not receive food assistance in January as insecurity affected humanitarian access to locations in West and South Darfur.

Violent robbery

The majority of those not reached (122,000) were in Gereida camp, south Darfur, where WFP cooperating partner Action Contre La Faim (ACF) decided not to return following a violent robbery in December.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has now taken over food distributions in that camp.

I understand from the web that the former Red Cross has changed its name to the Red Chrystal, and dropped the sign of the Cross in favour of a boxed square called absurdly a "chrystal." I find this disgusting and anti-historical, to say the least. One has to fall in line with this semiotic shell-game in order to continue to support the former Red Cross. I must say that it has lessened my enthusiasm. There's a huge amount of internal and interagency politics among the various relief organizations.

FAO-WFP CFSAM recommends significantly reduced food aid and a phase out of general food assistance in Central and Eastern Sudan in favour of targeted interventions, like school or supplementary feeding.

Three-month food packages

In the Three Areas the focus will be on timely three-month food packages to an estimated 350,000 returnees expected to return to Abyei, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile in 2007.

UNHCR and WFP signed a Joint Plan of Action for Blue Nile to cover the reintegration of both organised and spontaneous returnees in 2007. WFP is working with World Vision International, SUDO and UNHCR to finalise agreements on food distribution by the end of February.

An outbreak of meningitis in parts of southern Sudan forced the temporary suspension of humanitarian activities last month.

Africa > Sudan & Chad

Authorities say a ban on people congregating may soon be lifted. If so, WFP will resume distributions in parts of Northern Bahr El Ghazal in early March.

One really needs a map of Sudan to get the full import of these different areas, and the way in which food relief is being redeployed in certain regions. But Darfur on the border with Chad remains a standout as an absolutely necessary continuous recipient for some time, when armed conflict and the endangerment of the relief workers doesn't halt the distribution process. Some say the actual genocide is easing, fewer deaths of the Darfur people; but the Janjaweed govt-backed terrorists and land-grabbers are still active. Unfortunately, the Darfurians themselves are woefully divided into numerous rebel organizations, which spend much time and energy fiting one another and hurting the general population in the process. One imagines that some of these rebels would fit the category of "terrorists" themselves.

The situation in neiboring Chad is also very difficult. In Chad one of three hotspots for food relief involves Darfurian refugees from the Sudan who have fled their own country and crossed the border into Chad, already beset by severe hunger in places.

Chad

The security situation in eastern Chad continues to be unstable and complex. No improvement in either the inter-ethnic problems or the Government/rebel activity can be noted.

It is estimated that there are over 110,000 internally displaced persons ( IDPs) in eastern Chad most of whom are in need of assistance and WFP is increasing planning figures to 110,000 IDPs and host families.

Assessment

A WFP EFSA to assess IDP numbers and requirements for assistance is ongoing in eastern Chad.

To date WFP has provided food assistance to IDPs in Gassire (12,000 people), Am Timan (1,400) and Dogdore (over 18,000 people)

February distributions for the Sudanese refugees have been completed in 10 out of the 12 camps. Distributions in the remaining 2 camps are currently ongoing and should be completed during the week.

Distributions for the Central African Republic (CAR) refugees in the southern camps are still ongoing.

In the case of the Darfur region of Sudan, it's important always to keep in mind that the Sudanese govt is Arab Sunni Muslim and that it has been sponsoring the ongoing terrorism against and spoliation of Sudan's indigenous Black Sufi-influenced Muslim population in Darfur. There are additional dimensions to the conflict, in that population pressures are present, with increase of numbers among the nomadic Janjaweed driving the latter's expansion of territory. In contrast, the Black Darfurians are/were settled farmers scratching livelihoods from soil that is far from the richest in the world. In that setting, an image haunts me, an image that serves as a metaphor: the account encountered on numerous occasions of Janjaweed dumping the dead bodies of Darfurians into the wells, so important for life and farming. Well-ruination was a common tactic of the Janjaweed, as was rape. I'm not uptodate on whether these practices have mitigated, but the sources I try to monitor claim there is no let-up in the attacks or the govt's favouritism to the Janjaweed terrorists.
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Previous in refWrite:
On return trip, supply convoy from Libya to Darfur attacked
rW1 (Feb4,2k7)

Politics: USA: State primaries Jan-Jun 2008 for Nov 2008 Presidential election

Robert Novak of the Evans-Novak Report (Feb21,2k7) which we receive by email newsletter, carries the following compilation of the possible schedule of state primaries for the November 2008 Presidential Election, to which compilation Novak appends a special note on the situation for New Hampshire (not included here or here.

Possible Schedule for 2008 Vote
(New Hampshire: See below)

January 14 -- Iowa Caucus.
January 19 -- Nevada Democratic Caucus.
January 29 -- Florida.
February 2 -- South Carolina Primary.
February 5 -- Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia Convention.UPDATE (Mar6,2k7) Daily Digest: "States with more than half the nation's population are zeroing in on Feb. 5 next year to stage their presidential primaries, creating a single day that could determine the major party nominees at a historically early point in the process."
February 9 -- Louisiana.
February 12 -- Tennessee.
February 19 -- Minnesota, Wisconsin.
March 4 -- Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont.
March 11 -- Florida, Mississippi, Washington.
April 15 -- Alaska, Colorado.
April 26 -- Kansas, Nevada.
May 6 -- Indiana.
May 10 -- Wyoming.
May 13 -- Nebraska.
May 20 -- Kentucky, Oregon.
May 27 -- Idaho.
June 3 -- South Dakota.
June 6 -- Hawaii, Virginia.
June 9 -- Montana.

Novak has a very interesting analytic 2-paragraphs on the indeterminateness of the New Hampshire primary date, even at this late a period in the campaign.

North America > USA

Candidates are regularly visiting New Hampshire already, despite the lack of a firm scheudule in the state.

Please look at the list of candidates of both Democratic and Republican parties to date (originally posted in the blog-entry for Feb15,2k7). refWrite is slowly filling out the data for each candidate so far (and for some who have already signed-out, but are perhaps draftable by one or the other of the upcoming party convetions. We are also updating comments, comparisons and speculations on the candidates from time to time and integrating those into the list in special scrollable text areas.

Politics: Canada: Province of Quebec vote for its National Assembly set for March 26

CBC News carried word of the long-anticipated Quebec provincial election, "Quebec election set for March 26" (Feb21,2k7)

Premier Jean Charest has called a provincial election, sending Quebecers to the polls on March 26.

Charest met with Lt.-Gov. Lise Thibault just after 11 a.m. Wednesday to ask her to dissolve the national assembly and allow elections in the province's 125 ridings.

North America > Canada > Quebec

For the first time since [separatist] René Lévesque was first elected premier in 1976, the election is shaping up as a three-way race, with the Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ) set to challenge the Liberals and Parti Québécois.

Charest has his election team picked, his Liberal party is flush with money, and even Prime Minister Stephen Harper has come to his side with a $350-million boost to the province's environmental projects last week.

In the Federal election that may take place if the Conserv minority govt falls on a Budget vote scheduled for March 19 (should all 3 Fed opposition parties reject the financial plan and/or the politics behind it), only a week prior to the now-scheduled Quebec election, the Conservs must set a new Federal election and could set that date as close behind the Quebec vote, as close as possible.

A bad showing for the Quebec separatist party, the Party Quebecois (PQ), could then affect the vote for the Federal separatist party of the Bloc Quebecois (BQ). It is expected that the PQ will not do so well, since its leader is a dashing, unmarried, chldless, homo who used cocaine while he was a cabinet minister in a previous BQ govt. Why the BQ elected such a nincompoop to be its leader is unfathomable, a real come-down from the days of previous leaders Rene Levesque and the financial whiz but anti-Semite Jacques Parizeau. Andre Boisclair just isn't fit to govern, altho recently he won at least a temporary truce among rival factions pulling his provinical party apart, and now has only a month to make up for its well-deserved misfortunes.

Charest may well be expected to win, tho Boisclair will pound him with an unfriendly frenzy of hyped-up rhetoric. But the real surprises may be expected from Democratic Action of Quebec (ADQ) led by Mario Dumont. A number of ADQers ran federally for the Conservs in the last election and sit with that party in the Federal House of Commons. The ADQ may be expected to increase its number of seats now in the provincial National Assembly. I think both Charest's Libs and Dumont's ADQ will increase their votes; the Libs may increase their seats, but I think the ADQ increase in seats in the National Assembly to a greater extent. A trend in the BQ is out, either to Libs or ADQ.


Canada Press's Jonathan Monpetits "After years on the sidelines, ADQ'S Dumont ready to come in from the cold" (Feb21,2k7):

Recent polls suggest Dumont, 36, is the most popular leader on the provincial scene. However, those same surveys also indicate the ADQ is running a solid third behind the governing Liberals and the Parti Quebecois.

The ADQ is notorious for polling well, only to see its support evaporate come election day. After riding high in the run-up to 2003 campaign, the party ended up with only four seats and was left toiling in the political wilderness for another four years.

"During the last election we made campaign mistakes," Dumont admitted recently. "I think people see that we have learned from our mistakes."

But if there is a sense of optimism in the buildup to the March 26 provincial election, it may be because Dumont has no choice.

"This is the time to break out," said Andre Lecours, a political scientist at Concordia University. "It's now or never for the ADQ."

Lecours says recent debate in Quebec about "reasonable accommodation" for racial, ethnic and religious minorities has given Dumont an issue that allows him to appeal to a "silent minority" of Quebecers.

Dumont's hardline stand - calling for "gestures which reinforce our national identity" - has indeed struck a chord with many. In a province where the political spectrum is tilted heavily towards the left, he has carved a niche for himself as Quebec's only staunchly conservative leader.

"There are people with conservative social opinions in Quebec," Lecours said. "I think for Dumont the job is to get these people to follow him."

A provincial realignment with Charest still at the helm, a real Quebec social conservative party making a definite contribution, and a reduced separatist party will have a great impact outside Quebec.

Politics: Military coup: More on the troubles of the Republic of Fiji in the southwest Pacific

Again today, via Thinknet brother Bruce Wearne sends us news from the troubled island of Fiji. Bruce has an introductory comment, and then he conveys Dr Robert Wolfgramm's editorial in Fiji Daily Post:

When a "failed régime" refuses to reform its modus operandi in the way of public justice it simply makes for more problems. An insightful editorial follows, but I would ask thinknetters [let's add refWrite readers here too - P] to read this prayerfully with Robert Wolfgramm and staff and family in mind because it clearly exposes the arrogance of the RFMF [Royal Fiji Military Force], a "thuggish" aspect of which was reported on in my report yesterday. -- Bruce Wearne

But it’s not that simple

Fiji Daily Post editorial (Feb21,2k7)

ONE thing is obvious: there is only so much an Eminent Persons Group can do. The released summary of their report which is to be tabled at the next Pacific Forum Foreign Ministers get-together contains a predictable wish-list of human rights hopes and democratic dreams.

What the EPG are not offering in their package (so far as we know) is a practical set of steps for arriving at the laudable ends they have in mind for Fiji. We have yet to see from them is a set of strategies that meets with the fact of our military-backed regime and with the reality of having to come to terms with their view of things on a day-to-day basis.

No one in Fiji would dispute the desirability of the aims put forward by the EPG that the military and their commander should return to camp and desist from engagement in the political process, that the constitution should be upheld, that Fiji’s domestic and international obligations to human rights should be respected, and that our citizens should have untrammelled access to legal redress in the courts.

SouthWestPacific > Republic of Fiji

That is all good and well, but the question left un-addressed by the EPG is, how? How can these things be fully undertaken in view of the military’s over-riding vision for Fiji’s future. How can these demands be reconciled peacefully with the Interim rule whose authority ultimately emanates from the barrel of the gun? That is to say, it is one thing to spell out an ideal world, but quite another to find a methodology for effectively reconciling it with the prickly actualities of the real world. Yes, it is great to have a theory for moving the nation forward. But what use is it if it ignores the straight-up fact that those currently in power have neither the interest nor the will to consider the theory, let alone to act on it and make it practical in the terms prescribed by the EPG.

If the EPG report is to be any use at all to Fiji, it must in its fuller version (21 pages we are advised), provide a step-by-step, blow-by-blow account of at least just two issues: (1) how and why the military can disengage from their political involvement without losing face and losing ground against perceived corrupt enemies of the state; and (2) how the and why the commander can step out of his Interim Prime Ministership without history repeating itself so that the train of events that led us to December 5 in the first place is not recapitulated in another nightmarish future (fifth) coup.

While the EPG report is an important symbolic gesture of solidarity for righting Fiji’s present wrongs, that is all it is. Its members do not have to live in Fiji and face the fact of a military insistence to insinuate itself into the political fabric of the nation since 5 December. The EPG can simply parachute in, test the waters, fly out and make their pronouncements from afar. What Fiji needs is a bi-focal international group willing to see and interpret both sides of the present stand-off in all of its difficult ethical, cultural and legal-political complexity. When that is undertaken, we may move closer to a resolution of our democratic knot more speedily. As it stands, we should not be surprised if the EPG report – as morally upright and encouraging as it is for our democracy - simply delays the process.

It's just sinking into my consciousness that for Robert and his friend in Australia, Bruce, a framing factoid of the situation in Fiji was the banning of Fiji Daily Post (correction of an earlier blog-entry > Post, not Press). This ban was for a period beginning in December. The ban meant that FDP could not attend press conferences of the military-coup anti-democratic government which still remains in power, but is doing a bit of nicing-over and backtracking, it seems from this distance.

Economics: Canada: Conservs' Fed budget could bring down govt, implications of budget if passed will have ripple effect

The new national budget for 2007 will be presented by the minority Conservative Govt on March 19. Meagan Fitzpatrick of CanWest News Service via Financial Post, "Federal Budget set for March19" (Feb20,2k7).

The Budget this year is bound to be frawt with political and Canadian national economic significance. Thinking about the Federal budget this year, before I read the Fitzpatrick article, I jotted down some quick notes in anticipation of what mite be relevant. I came up with three points:

1.) Rejection by Parliament's 3 opposition parties should they line up against a govt's Budget would mean the govt falls - Harper's Conservs are ready for this eventuality;

2.) The 2k7 Budget will have news one way or another on the Conservs' own green programme - how much money is directed to a renewed conservation / antipollution program, and in what ways the Mar19 budget presentation will either make it harder or easier for the 3 rejectionist parties to vote for the Budget;

3.) The question of whether Harper will put money into expanding the Alberta tar-oil fields X5 (quintupling their size in consort with corporate investors) should be included; if so, will he thereby as a foreseeable consequence commit to grandiose further pollution by continuing the free pass all govts in the past have given makers of oil-fueled cars? (And don't foget buses, trucks, planes, skidoos, and lawn-mowers.) I suspect that this is the biggest contradiction that will appear in the Budget (or, strategically, it could possibly be ignored ... which would be shame on the Conservs for less than forthr+tness).

Well, I did get to the Fitzpatrick article. First off, there's to be some kind or other of tax cut. Probably on the smallish side. Probably more directed to relief for the middle-class and below (votes!).

The government will present this year’s federal budget on Monday, March 19, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty revealed in question period Tuesday, one day earlier than many had speculated.

Flaherty has repeatedly promised the budget will contain tax cuts, and he again made the statement Tuesday.

“I’m not going to get into the type of tax relief, but we have some commitments with respect to tax relief that we have yet to fulfil and we’re looking at various tax reduction options. But there will be further reduction of tax in budget 2007 in addition to what has been announced,” Flaherty told reporters following question period.

Economy > Canada

Analysts who monitor government finances suggest that it may be difficult for the government to deliver on its promises of tax cuts.

Another matter I should have anticipated is the hot potato of the fiscal imbalance among the 10 provinces in regardd to Federal grants to help each make ends meet. This dividing up the funds the Feds make available to provinces has never been rationalized, never bneen made a matter of "equality" (of course, according to some fucntional definition of equalization ... like dollar per population numbers province by province, or some other transparent principle of equalizing the present imbalance to create balance. Previously, certain provinces received the Fed largesse to buy votes. The rest of Canada tends to think Quebec has been "the most equal pig of all" to cite the phrase from the satirical novel 1984 by Aldous Huxley. But Harper has a Quebec strategy for his next election campaign, and he works closely with Jean Charest's provinical Liberal Party that presently governs Quebec where an election will take place soon. As to fiscal imbalance:

Don Drummond, TD Bank [Toronto Dominion] chief economist and a former associate deputy finance minister, said last week that he suspects the annual cost of fixing the fiscal imbalance alone will eat up most of the projected budget surplus for this and future years. The so-called fiscal-imbalance is a federal-provincial feud in which the provinces argue Ottawa takes more money from them than it gives in services.

Flaherty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have indicated that the upcoming budget will address the fiscal imbalance — Flaherty on Tuesday called it a “long standing thorn” in the side of federal-provincial relations.

Our second Canadian economic matter in this blog-entry, is also from Financial Post, Paul Vierira,"CRTC strikes TV fund task force" (Feb20,2k7).

The pressure applied by ["private" broadcasters] Shaw Communications Inc. and Quebecor Inc. to reform the Canadian Television Fund appears to have paid off as the CRTC [Candian Radion & Televisin Commission] struck a task force yesterday to review how the $250-million agency operates. News of the task force was released just hours after Jim Shaw, Shaw's outspoken chief executive and the CTF's most vocal critic, said his company would resume monthly payments to the fund after securing promises from the federal regulator and the government to examine how the TV production financing arm is managed.

We've written previously regarding the CRTC in other respects, especially in relation to the state-broadcasting corporation which sycophantically has an imbalanced influence on its watchdog's board of directors (all political appointees and stacked by the Liberal Party which has only been out of power for a year, with its appointees dominating the Senate, the judiciary, the CRTC and numerous other so-called "public" institutions. Canada has been mostly a one-party state based on fraud and corruption for a long time.

Further Research:

Conserv govt wants to revamp state & free-enterprise communications across the continent (Feb14,2k7)

New ways of copyr+t needed for digital-info age (Jun27,2k6)

Politics: Coup: Fiji military faces consequences of violating republican institutions of island democracy

Bruce Wearne has commented at length, with quotes, on the developing situation in the SouthWest Pacific wounded-democracy of Fiji. A Forum of Eminent Persons has been organized involving some of Fiji's neibours. In the context of an email subscription list, Thinknet, reformational philosophers and kin, says Bruce, "may be wondering about the current state of play in Fiji." refWrite readers may be wondering also. Dr Wearne continues:

From reading the Suva newspapers [Suva is a Fijian community] on the web I can't help wondering if it is dawning upon the coup's perpetrators that they have failed and whether a new coup may be not far away.

Elizabeth Kennan's latest Time story indicated her view that Fiji may have just experienced the 'coup to end all coups'.

That fanciful analysis has been blown away in the last day or so.

The FDP [Fiji Daily Post] newspaper is keeping its head down but has reported the following:

Lawyer's car smashed (Feb20,2k7)

Crime is down according to the military.

But one group of criminals appear to have gotten away with smashing a car belonging to Tevita and Ana Fa.

Tevita Fa is a prominent lawyer who is representing deposed Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase and the SDL Party [Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua / United Fiji Party, which absorbed the Christian Democratic Alliance and other groups] in legal action against the military regime that seized power last December.

The Fiji Times has reported on the findings of the Pacific Islands Forum Eminent Persons Group.

Return to camp, military advised(Feb20,2k7)

Interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama should resign and order his soldiers to return to barracks, it has been recommended in a report.

The report was prepared by the Pacific Islands Forum Eminent Person's Group comprising Vanuatu's deputy prime minister, Sato Kilman, Samoa's Environment Minister Faumuina Luiga, Papua New Guinea's retired chief justice Sir Arnold Amet and retired Chief of the Australian Defence Force General Peter Cosgrove.

The report, which PacNews got hold of yesterday, said any assistance by the Forum to the interim administration would be based on its acceptance of the Group's nine-point recommendations.

It includes the return to barracks of all soldiers and Commodore Bainimarama's resignation as interim PM.

The report recommends that he should allow a civilian to lead the Interim Government.

"The Republic of Fiji Military Forces should be asked to take immediate steps to withdraw from its involvement in the Interim Government, with a view to restoring civilian rule as soon as possible,"the Group recommends.

A copy of the report is with Commodore Bainimarama who is studying it, according to Interim Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. He said the report would have to be studied thoroughly before a public comment was made on it.

The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat said the report has been released to members of the Forum and would not be made public just yet.

PacNews said the report also called on the Interim Government to take the country to the polls in 18 to 24 months.

The Group also urged the Interim Government to immediately put an end to all human rights abuses.

The Group also recommends that the Interim Government restricts its activities to four measures. These are:

* to uphold the 1997 Constitution;

* to respect and uphold Fiji's domestic and international obligations;

* that the RFMF ceases all interference with the judiciary and accountable institutions;

* to ensure that all citizens are free to seek legal redress in the courts in relation to events on and following December 5,2k7.

The report said that if the Interim Government adhered to the group's recommendations, the Forum would consider a phased package of assistance to Fiji. These include financial and technical support for the electoral process and the anti-corruption commission and assistance to restore the independence of the judiciary.

The 21-page report is expected to be tabled at the region's Foreign Affairs ministers meeting next month.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark at a press conference told journalists that the timeframe given by the group for Fiji to prepare for the polls is more than enough.

She said the report from the group showed a forward path for Fiji back to democracy.

Many thanks to Dr Bruce Wearne and his colleague in Fiji, journalist/editor Dr Robert Wolfgramm, for their reformational- philosophically- informed monitoring and commenting on the Fiji situation where Christians in politics play an important role.

Politics: USA 2008: CNN presents a full rogue's gallery of prez candidates to date

Thanks to CNN, you can survey and dig-deep into specific profiles of all the USA prez wannabes -- as uptodate as I can keep the list. The list comes in three parts. First the Republicans, then a few general notes on the overall shape-up the coming elections, then the list for the Democrats.

Republicans
with Updates: (Feb23,24 thru Mar23,2k7)

1. Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas - Prez Candidate (a formerly a leading Evangelical in political life, more recently a convert to Catholicism)

Sam Brownback, born September 12, 1956 in Kansas, senior Senator from that state. In April 2005, the Associated Press reported that Brownback, who is little known outside his home state, "is using a network of social conservatives and Christian activists to raise his profile" in such battleground states as Iowa and New Hampshire. On December 4, 2006, Brownback announced that he would form an exploratory committee. On January 20, 2007 Brownback officially announced his candidacy.

2. Mr. Jeb Bush - incumebent and outgoing Governor of FloridaJeb Bush, former Governor of Florida; his family connections and history indicate that he may be next in line to continue the Bush family legacy, although his mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, has stated that he will not seek the 2008 Republican nomination, and many analysts state that he would be a natural frontrunner for the Vice President slot on the Republican ticket. -- Wikipedia

3. Mr. Jim Gilmore, former Governor of Virginia (Mar23,2k7) One of the things that’s very big on everyone’s minds is for any presidential candidate to describe how he will appoint judges. If you’re going to have the opportunity to appoint Supreme Court justices, judges to the courts of appeals -- that reflects on everything from border crossing to prisoners of war to abortion to gun rights to everything else. If Jim Gilmore’s President of the United States and he’s given the opportunity to appoint someone to the Supreme Court -- how is he going do it?<br /><br />Gilmore: First of all, I’m steeped in the law. I graduated from the University of Virginia law school in 1977. I was a courtroom lawyer for 10 years myself. I actually went into court to deal with the evidence and judges and court evidence and so on and then was elected chief prosecutor and tried cases on behalf of the Commonwealth -- tried 13 murder cases myself personally -- as the Commonwealth attorney and managed a large number of other prosecutors. I became the attorney general of the state of Virginia and so I understand the law and I was trained in constitutional law. The direct answer is I’m going to appoint judges who will not make law from the bench and who will not carry out societal norms by virtue of twisting up the law and therefore undermining people’s confidence in the law. I will attempt to appoint strict constructionalists. I doubt seriously I’m going to direct them to rule in any particular way in any particular case or philosophy. But I’m going to look for somebody at this point that understands that the law is made by the legislatures, the Congress, based upon the traditions, values and history of the people of the United States… That’s what I expect to do. And finally -- I actually have and while I don’t think it’s of great constitutional significance -- I was the governor of a state and I had the chance to appoint a few judges.<br /><br />And how did you go about doing that?<br /><br />Gilmore: I looked at exactly what type of people I thought would carry out that type of philosophy and that were trained in the law and that were people who would do a good job -- they were bench judges.<br /><br />As governor, you promoted and signed a number of bills restricting abortion but what are your personal views on abortion?<br /><br />Gilmore: First thing I’m going to do is I want to remind people of exactly what a friend of the right to life movement I was as governor of Virginia. My sense was that the right to life movement was being pushed to the margin. They were not having a fair opportunity to participate in the public dialogue and I wanted to enable that and I did every chance that I got. I was always friendly, warm, supportive, and gave them opportunities to push their ideas forward. The result -- not of that -- but of their efforts, which I think I assisted them in -- during my administration [we] passed the 24-hour waiting period, we passed parental notification, we passed informed consent. I signed the partial-birth abortion ban which was later overturned by the courts as a matter of a fact --but I signed it during that time.<br /><br />We had an identical case to the Terri Schiavo case in Virginia, the Hugh Finn case. And while I didn’t know that I was going to be embroiled in such a controversy when I went into that case I simply wanted to do a little timeout to find out what was going on with this guy. It turned out to be an explosive issue and people who were in opposition to the life movement came in and condemned me roundly and I still bear those scars here today. I became concerned about human cloning during my administration -- it emerged as a scientific possibility -- and I passed a law to ban human cloning in Virginia and it’s still on the books today as far as I know. And I want to say this: I don’t know about all the other candidates but I’m not aware of any other candidate in this race that has a better record.<br /><br />That being said, my view is that after about a period of about eight weeks where there is time for a baby to form. After that period of time I think there should be no further abortions -- because I think the child has emerged -- except to save the life of the mother and situations of extremes. Those are my views…<br /><br />The reason I asked the question is because a lot of anti-abortion people have said to me, “He’s good on a lot of things but he doesn’t want to outlaw abortion from the moment of conception”?<br /><br />Gilmore: That has never been my position. My position has been historically the same, and it is never deviated. And I’m not going to shift or change simply because I am now a candidate for the presidency. But I think my track record is second to none…<br /><br />What about the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Is that something you would support?<br /><br />Gilmore: I don’t think I’m going to appoint a judge and tell him he’s got to go do that..<br /><br />But you personally?<br /><br />Gilmore: But my personal view was all the way back in law school we concluded that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided…<br /><br />You’re going to have to address other issues like same-sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research--<br /><br />Gilmore: Which I can do…I’m not interested in sending a message of anger or hatred to anybody in this race -- anyone. But I don’t support gay marriage. I think that the traditional marriage values that we’ve had over generations in America is the appropriate thing. The extent that people can find some way to build some kind of contractual relationship between themselves, fine, but I don’t think it should rise to a civil union which is really a substitute for the concept of marriage and I don’t support that either. But at the same time, I think that if people who are gay want to try to create some kind of relationship between themselves, I should probably be able to do that under American law.<br /><br />As for stem cell research, if I ban human cloning its because I’m nervous about experimenting with people. I don’t like that. I think it’s a dangerous path to go down. I’d like to find some ways that we can do some of that work under federal supervision that doesn’t create people for the purpose of destroying people for experimentation. I think it’s dangerous. --Human Events interview



former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III was the biggest surprise ... when questioned Saturday night after both Mr. Gilmore's and Mr. Gingrich's speeches, more CPAC attendees remembered the former Virginia governor's address and said the Virginian -- a former RNC chairman who headed the Gilmore Commission to assess terrorism threats -- got all the nuances right on foreign policy, while [CPAC attendees] also [were] praising Mr. Gingrich's emphasis on basic Republican themes of individual freedom.

4. Mr. Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives (Mar9,2k7) How will family-values voters receive Gingrich's apology for his hypocrisy in foaming day-in-and-out against Prez Bill?, while then-Speaker Newt himself was actively involved in similar misbehaviour?, wonders Craig Richardson to Deal Hudson (on the latter's blog) "...[Y]ou are right about Newt Gingrich taking a big step toward a possible presidential run by airing his dirty laundry at a place and time of his own choosing. This is a common political strategy of inoculation so that when someone raises these personal issues down the road, the candidate can say, "[I] already dealt with that last year, not going to rehash old news."<br /><br />I had always heard rumors that Gingrich was involved in an extra-marital affair during the time of the Clinton impeachment, and quite frankly I was horrified. How could the Speaker of the House be so reckless and arrogant as to carry on this way while his Party pursued the sitting President of the United States for basically doing the same thing. Here is his explanation as reported by the Associated Press:<br /><br /> Newt: "I drew a line in my mind that said, 'Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say [to the Congress and American people] that you cannot accept ... perjury in your highest officials."<br /><br />Yes, perjury was the legal basis for attempting to impeach Clinton but it was much bigger than that. It also had to do with the type of moral conduct and leadership we expect from the President of the United States, understanding that someone with that high a position has a tremendous influence over the conduct of the people he leads.<br /><br />Beyond the obvious immorality of Gingrich's actions and his other personal indiscretions, one must be very concerned about his lack of judgment. We are not talking about electing someone to the City Council. We are talking about the President of the United States, the leader of the free world. The standards must be high and the people who seek the office, while obviously not perfect since we're all sinners, must possess a minimal level of moral fortitude. <br /><br />We deserve better.

(Mar5,2k7) Ralph Z. Hallow & Stephen Dinan, "CPAC embraces Steele, Gingrich," WaTi: This year's Conservative Political Action Conference was ... a boon for Mr. Gingrich, as the former House speaker acknowledged after his Saturday speech that closed the conference. "I got more bang for my buck than the other [2008 presidential hopefuls]," a smiling Mr. Gingrich told The Washington Times after he marched from the back of the Regency Ballroom at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, amid stirring music nearly drowned out by applause and cheers. Mr. Gingrich was the only top-tier potential contender for the Republican nomination who hadn't formed a presidential exploratory committee or bought any CPAC banquet tables for supporters. Yet in the largest presidential preference straw poll in the conference's history, he placed fourth (14 percent).... Perhaps most importantly, the conference poll conducted by the Fabrizio-McLaughlin firm allowed attendees to indicate their second preferences. Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Giuliani each got 16 percent of the second-choice votes, so that when first- and second-place were combined, Mr. Giuliani was on top (at 33 percent), with Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich tied for second at 30 percent each. [Many praised] Mr. Gingrich's emphasis on basic Republican themes of individual freedom. "Newt showed he is the strongest spokesperson for today's conservatives," said Tom Edmonds, a veteran campaign strategist and chief executive officer of the Edmonds Hackney media-consulting firm.



5. Mr. Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, hero of 9/11 recovery (Mar21,2k7) A Flashback of Rudy Giuliani's Family Affairs <br /><br />By now everyone knows that Rudy Giuliani's kids are unhappy with him for one reason or another — something to do with his marriage to Judi Nathan and his lack of parental attention.<br /><br />But flashback to April 27, 1995, to a story this reporter wrote for New York magazine's late, lamented Intelligencer. If the kids are unhappy now, maybe it's because they know they were used by their dad and his former rumored girlfriend for publicity purposes when they were toddlers.<br /><br />As I wrote a dozen years ago: Caroline Giuliani, then 6, was brought to New York City's morning budget presentation session for bankers. There was no press. Caroline sat beside then Giuliani aide and rumored girlfriend Cristyne Lategano (Lategano and Giuliani denied that they had a romantic relationship).<br /><br />After the mayor finished his introduction, Lategano, according to my sources then and they remember it well now, "whispered in Caroline's ear," and up the little girl went to the podium, where she disrupted the presentation.<br /><br />Giuliani quipped, "You must have learned this from Andrew," a reference to a previous such intrusion by her older brother at a prior press conference. The audience chuckled. The whole thing seemed so cute.<br /><br />That wasn't all: The skit went so well that at a press presentation the same afternoon, Giuliani and Lategano evidently decided to try it again. Caroline returned, this time accompanied by Lategano's secretary, Beth Petrone.<br /><br />Just as the mayor began talking about grim welfare cuts, Caroline broke loose and skipped up to the stage again. The mayor repeated his joke from the morning: "She learned this from Andrew." The audience applauded and chuckled. It seemed so spontaneous.<br /><br />It was only a few days later, in the magazine, that they learned it had all happened twice, and it was orchestrated each time. --Roger Friedman's Fox 411 entertainment newsletter

(Feb1,2k7) Page, USA Today: Although Giuliani in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll had more voter support than other candidates for the Republican nomination, his support of abortion rights and other social issues could cause him to lose the Republican nomination, USA Today reports. According to USA Today, one in five Republicans who participated in the poll said they did not know that Giuliani supports abortion rights and same-sex civil unions. When told about Giuliani's views on such issues, one in five Republican respondents said that would "rule him out as a candidate".

(Mar2,2k7) Linda Feldman, "Clinton, Giuliani most electable, poll" CSM: Two New Yorkers – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) – have the greatest chance of being elected president in 2008, according to a new Gallup Poll.<br /><br />In a nationwide sample of 1,018 adults taken Feb. 22-25, 74 percent of Americans ranked both candidates' chances as either excellent or good.<br /><br />Of all the candidates, Senator Clinton got the highest "excellent" score – 24 percent – and Mr. Giuliani came in second with 20 percent. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois came in second among the Democrats, with 19 percent "excellent" and 52 percent "good." Among Republicans, Sen. John McCain of Arizona ranked second, with 16 percent "excellent" and 54 percent "good."

(Mar5,2k7) Ralph Z. Hallow and Stephen Dinan, "CPAC embraces Steele, Gingrich", WaTi: Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani pulled off CPAC's biggest coup...Mr. Giuliani made his decision to accept CPAC's speaking invitation four days before the conference, yet managed to place second (17 percent) in the straw poll behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (21 percent), who had invested heavily in pre-event organization. ... Perhaps most importantly, the conference poll conducted by the Fabrizio-McLaughlin firm allowed attendees to indicate their second preferences. Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Giuliani each got 16 percent of the second-choice votes, so that when first- and second-place were combined, Mr. Giuliani was on top (at 33 percent), with Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich tied for second at 30 percent each. "I think Giuliani is doing much better among conservative audiences than anybody could have imagined six months ago," said Michael Toner, a Federal Election Commission member appointed by President Bush. Following Mr. Giuliani's Friday speech, several previously skeptical conservatives stopped a reporter to express their admiration for how thoughtful Mr. Giuliani appeared and to say they liked the way he conveyed a sense of leadership.



6. Sen. Chuck Hagel, Iowa (Mar8,2k7) "The president says, 'I don't care.' He's not accountable anymore ... You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don't know. It depends how this goes." --Esquire, via Dail Briefing (Sojourners)

7. Rep. Duncan Hunter, incumbent, House of Representatives, California(Mar15,2k7) Congressman Hunter explains his Core Princciples as a stalwart conservative, in detail regarding several areas: Abortion/Life; Budget/Economy; Constitutional Issues; Property R+ts / Eminent Domain; Judicial Appointments; Value Issues; Education; Families and Taxes; Foreign Policy; Internatioanl Law and Institutions. Official Candidate's website URL [ http://www.gohunter08.com/inner.asp?z=4 ]

(Mar3,2k7) Spartanburg, SC – With John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Duncan Hunter all finishing in a statistical tie for first place at 24% each in the Spartanburg County, South Carolina straw poll, the big story is that of the surprise top finish by Duncan Hunter.<br /><br />Mike Dixon, longtime GOP activist and former South Carolina 4th District Party Chairman, said “However you stack and restack the top three, the results are clear, Duncan Hunter has emerged as the conservative alternative South Carolina Republicans have been looking for.”<br /><br />Commenting on Hunter’s strong showing, Spartanburg Republican Gerald Emory said, “Now we have a true Ronald Reagan conservative that we can support. This is a proud night for the Grand Ole Party.”<br /><br />Duncan Hunter when speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., about his finish in the South Carolina poll said, “You know, I woke up to … one of the commentators saying that the only reason that Hunter beat all those guys in South Carolina is because his Marine son has been there for a week. Well, I looked down at that army of consultants, everybody who was vertical in South Carolina was hired by the other guys, and I said, ‘You know, that is a good match-up: One Marine versus 550 consultants.’ We did have the advantage!”<br /><br />Dead-heat for: McCain: 24 % Giuliani: 24% Hunter: 24%<br /><br />Followed by Brownback: 13% Romney: 12% Huckabee: 3%


(Feb1,2k7) Bio: Since first being elected to Congress in 1980, Duncan Hunter has devoted himself to ensuring that our military is second to none, securing our nation’s borders, and protecting American workers from unfair competition. Hunter works on these issues because he believes that America’s greatest strength is our freedom and its protection requires our effort in all areas.<br /><br />A Vietnam veteran, Duncan Hunter served in the 173rd Airborne and 75th Army Rangers and, after coming home, utilized the G.I. Bill to attend Western State University Law School in San Diego (now Thomas Jefferson School of Law). While completing his degree, Hunter supplemented his income by working in farming and construction, and opened a storefront legal office after graduation where he began serving many in the Hispanic community, often without compensation.<br /><br />In 1980, Hunter was asked to mount a challenge for the Congressional seat held by 18-year incumbent Lionel Van Deerlin. Despite the district having a 2-to-1 Democrat registration, Hunter won the seat in an upset. Coming to Washington, Hunter successfully sought a seat on the House Armed Services Committee where he could work on America’s national security needs. Serving on this committee throughout his career, Hunter became Chairman of the full committee in 2002, overseeing a $532 billion defense budget. During his chairmanship from 2002-2006, and now as Ranking Member of the committee, Hunter focuses his efforts on providing President Bush with the necessary resources to win our nation’s military conflicts, protecting our men and women in uniform, and developing modernization initiatives that will move new and more effective technologies into the field of battle.<br /><br />Living in a border community, Hunter also came to Congress to make securing the California-Mexico border a top priority. Hunter’s goal was to make the region safe for communities on both sides of the border by providing the necessary resources to our border enforcement agencies. September 11th, however, made border security a national security issue and Hunter responded by leading efforts in Congress to seal a porous border susceptible to illegal aliens, drug trafficking and terrorism. Hunter’s efforts have resulted in over 59 miles of fencing and border infrastructure to date in San Diego County. Hunter also wrote the Secure Fence Act, extending the San Diego fence 854 miles across California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. These fence provisions were signed into law by President Bush on October 26, 2006.<br /><br />On the House Armed Services Committee, Hunter has protected U.S. defense jobs in aircraft, ship repair, machine tools, textile, steel and titanium to ensure that what he calls the “Arsenal of Democracy,” the U.S. industrial base, is maintained to provide security in time of war. Hunter’s other legislative priorities include retaining and increasing jobs across this nation, providing tax relief to hard-working families, keeping our promises to America’s veterans, protecting Social Security for present and future generations, and promoting strong family values.<br /><br />Hunter resides in East San Diego County with his wife Lynne where they, like many of their neighbors, just completed re-building their Alpine home after it was lost in the October 2003 wildfires. In 2006, Duncan and Lynne celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary; they have two sons, Duncan Duane, who served two tours in Iraq in the U.S. Marine Corps, and Sam Hunter, a business student at San Diego State University. Duncan D. and his wife, Margaret, have three children, Duncan Lee, Elizabeth Grace and Sarah Louise, and reside in Boise, Idaho. Sam was married on Valentine’s Day 2004 to the former Theresa Heger of Jamul and they had their first child, Marin, in October of 2006.


8. Sen. Mike Huckabee, former Governeor of Arkansa (an outspoken Evangelical) (Mar14,2k7) Huckabee Faces Fiscal Conservatives<br /><br />Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is paying a tax penalty - not the kind you get from the IRS. During his 10 years as Arkansas governor, Huckabee supported numerous tax increases. Now that he's left office and is running for president, the Southern Baptist minister is struggling to convince fiscal conservatives - who wield significant sway in the GOP nomination race - that he can be trusted not to sin again.<br /><br />Huckabee recently signed a no-tax pledge, but anti-tax activists remain wary of his claim to have reformed his ways. The Club for Growth, which advocates limited government and lower taxes, has repeatedly criticized Huckabee since his formation in January of a presidential exploratory committee. It notes that as governor, Huckabee increased taxes on sales, gasoline, cigarettes and nursing homes. "I'm glad to see he signed the pledge, but as a given matter what politicians have done is a better indicator than what they say they're going to do. His record clearly does not indicate a strong commitment to limited government," said Pat Toomey, president of the Club for Growth.<br /><br />Last week, Huckabee delivered a signed copy of the Presidential Taxpayer Protection Pledge to the Americans for Tax Reform, another limited-government, anti-tax advocacy group. In it, he pledged to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates" for individuals and businesses, and to offset "dollar for dollar" any rollback in tax deductions with corresponding decreases in tax rates.<br /><br />It didn't work that way in Arkansas during Huckabee's tenure as governor, but the candidate defended those tax increases as justified. Huckabee said that when people look at his record, they'll realize that he's actually "a strong fiscal conservative." Some of his fiscal decisions were driven by court-ordered spending increases or increase for federal entitlement spending for programs "over which you don't have executive control," Huckabee said.<br /><br />Only the third Republican governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction, Huckabee enjoyed relatively strong support among voters during his time in office. He might not have been as popular if he had promoted himself as an "anti-government conservative," University of Arkansas political scientist Janine Parry said.<br /><br />Huckabee's record on taxes also reflects the fact that he leads an impoverished state that has faced tax increases to pay for needs, including an ongoing school funding battle, Parry said. "He doesn't have the luxury of being from a state that's ever been financially well off," Parry said. "He inherited a legacy of poverty and poor health and low education and low economic development. He's had to balance some concerns and actions that governors in other situations don't have to, at least not on that scale."<br /><br />Among the increases Huckabee advocated while in office was a 1/8-cent increase to pay for conservation programs, a $60 million-a-year fuel tax increase to pay for road construction, and a 1/2-cent sales tax rise. The sales tax increase was tied to a voter-approved constitutional amendment that trimmed property taxes by $180 million.<br /><br />And, he allowed a 7/8-cent sales tax increase go into effect without his signature in 2004 in response state Supreme Court order to improve schools.<br /><br />But Huckabee also signed into law nearly $100 million in income tax breaks and other relief measures targeting poor and middle-income taxpayers _ the largest tax cut in Arkansas history at the time. He later signed into law a 30 percent cut in Arkansas' capital gains tax.<br /><br />Huckabee successfully pushed for a Property Taxpayers' Bill of Rights intended to clarify how property taxes are calculated and how the money is allocated to schools, local governments and other purposes. The law made it easier to challenge tax bills, including provisions for after-hours meetings to accommodate working people.<br /><br />"We improved test scores and accountability and increased teacher pay while maintaining fiscal responsibility," Huckabee wrote in a recent fundraising letter to supporters. "When I left office on Jan. 9 of this year, Arkansas had a surplus of almost $850 million."<br /><br />This year, Huckabee's successor, Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, has signed nearly $200 million worth of tax cuts, including the reduction of the state sales tax on food from 6 percent to 3 percent. The $121 million cut is the largest tax cut ever passed by state government.<br /><br />"I can guarantee that if they didn't have a surplus, they wouldn't be doing it," Huckabee said. -- Andrew DeMillo©2007 The Associated Press



9. Sen. John McCain, Arizona - Prez candidate (Mar7,2k7) Sen. John McCain's campaign is mounting a stealth effort to change Republican presidential nomination rules in California to allow independents to vote in the Feb. 5 primary, party and campaign officials in the state have told The Washington Times. The impact could be huge -- and potentially damaging to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, currently the most acceptable to traditional-values voters among the three top-tier Republican presidential candidates. --Ralph Z. Hallow, "McCain seeks independents' primary votes," WaTi

(Mar5,2k7) "...[I]n the largest presidential preference straw poll in the [Conservative Political Action] conference's history, [Newt Gingrich' placed fourth (14 percent) -- ahead of Arizona Sen. John McCain (12 percent), who rejected an invitation to address the event. ... Pollster Tony Fabrizio took an unusual turn in the spotlight as the conference concluded Saturday evening, eliciting sometimes deafening boos from the packed ballroom every time he mentioned a poll finding associated with Mr. McCain. The Arizona senator snubbed CPAC, and a McCain spokesman called the annual gathering a bunch of Washington insiders even though the poll showed that 85 percent of its 4,800 registered attendees came from 47 states outside of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. -- Ralph Z. Hallow and Stephen Dinan, "CPAC embraces Steele, Gingrich" Washington Times

10. Mr. George Pataki, former Governor of State of New York (Mar10,2k4) Takes credit for New York's economic turnaround by saying his tax-cutting and pro-business policies spurred growth. He says he provided more than $140 million worth of tax relief during his years in office. Claims his economic conservatism as governor resulted in the creation of some 700,000 new private sector jobs in New York State. Also claims to be the primary architect of the intensive effort to rebuild and revitalize Lower Manhattan after 9/11. --Boston Globe (cute & paste > http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/candidates/pataki/ )

11. Rep. Ron Paul, incumbent, House of Representatives from Texas. Formerly a Prez candidate for the Libertarian Party, author of 5 books, "small govt" advocate. (Mar10,2k7) "Ronald Ernest “Ron” Paul (born 20 August 1935) is an American physician and politician from the U.S. state of Texas. A Republican, he has represented Texas's 14th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997, and had previously served as the representative from Texas's 22nd district in 1976 and from 1979 to 1985.<br /><br />In 1984, Paul ran in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by John Tower, but the nomination went to Phil Gramm. Paul also supported term limits for members of Congress at the time and likened himself to the famous Senator Robert A. Taft. Paul was the Libertarian Party nominee for president in the 1988 election. After his failed presidential bid, Paul returned to Congress in 1997. He was again elected as a Republican, but against the wishes of the party leadership, which had backed Paul's primary opponent. His opponent in the primary was the incumbent representative, a former Democrat who had switched his party affiliation to Republican in the aftermath of the 1994 Republican Revolution. On 11 January 2007, Paul announced the formation of an exploratory committee for a 2008 presidential campaign." -- Wikipedia

12. Mdme. Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of State (Mar11,2k7) Harry Belafonte has insulted Condi Rice as a nobody; obviously his advanced age has incapcacitated the singer's judgment. --iFilm audio; Hat Tip to Drudge Report.



13. Mr. Mitt Romney former Governor of Massachusetts(Feb1,2k7) Finnegan, LAT): Romney's "rightward shift in abortion" rights will be a major challenge in his campaign, the Times reports. Although Romney has said that he supports overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that effectively barred state abortion bans, during his Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign in 2002 he pledged to "protect a woman's right to choose," according to the Times. Romney's "ideological swerve" could raise doubts about whether he shares the core values, including opposition to abortion rights, held by many conservative evangelicals, who "dominate" the Republican primary elections, LA Times reports.

(Feb23,2k7) Robert Novak, Evans-Novak Report: House Republican opponents of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for the presidential nomination are coalescing around former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, forgiving and forgetting his liberalism of a dozen years earlier. Romney is the fastest rising of the Republican candidates.<br /><br />However, Romney has not yet connected with rank-and-file conservatives, who seem to prefer former Speaker Gingrich. Nobody thinks Gingrich can be nominated. But if he runs, he could do grave damage to Romney.



14. Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado (leading anti-immigration, border-defense Congressman, called a "paleo-conservative") (Mar11,2k7) Colorado's own superstar, Rep. Tom Tancredo, [is] seeking the GOP nomination for POTUS.<br /><br />While Tancredo is expected to announce his plans -- which includes retirement after five terms in Congress -- to pursue what's considered a quixotic presidential bid in 2008, political observers are already speculating as to who will take Tancredo's congressional seat.<br /><br />Tancredo, highly regarded among conservatives for his uncompromising stances on immigration reform, will be tough to replace but some conservatives are already lining up to take a shot at the prize of representing this overwhelmingly Republican district. Much like the congressional district to the south (C0-5), the 6th District race will almost certainly be decided in the August primary election with only a slim chance of a Democrat ever representing this district. --Jim Kouri, The Conservative Voice (Jan 20,2k7)



15. Fred Thompson cols="50">New on list (Mar21,2k7). Hints of a possible presidential run by former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) have generated a surprisingly strong and wide reaction -- indicating Republican dissatisfaction with the present field. The question is whether Thomson will work hard enough to be a serious candidate. Novak-Evans Report



16. Tommy Thompson, former Governor of Wisconsin (14 yrs), former Secretary of Health and Human Services (4 yrs GWBush Admin)(Mar16,2k7) Let's take new approach: Create three Iraqi states<br /><br />There is no simple or perfect answer on how to achieve stability in Iraq. As we pursue the best answer, however, we need to start looking at the question differently.<br /><br />Instead of trying to force one Iraq upon people who dislike and distrust each other, we should focus our strategies on dividing Iraq into separate states, with each state providing a distinct home to the diverse cultures and religious sects of Iraq. At the same time, we should give the Iraqi people a stake in the success of their country by providing each person with royalties from the country's wealth of oil.<br /><br />The creation of distinct states - one for the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shiites - would form a confederation that allows each group to operate their local affairs in a manner that best suits its people, religious beliefs and culture, and goals for the future. These states would provide representation to a national government that would provide a defense for all of Iraq and an economic infrastructure. -- Tommy Thompson

Some General Notes

See McCain, Giuliani, Romney don't stand out.

See these updates:

Wikipedia entry on Republican candidates seeking the party's nomination for President 2008

Washington Times Prez Campaign2k8, Christina Bellantoni, "Senate vote upsets '08 hopefuls' plans"(Feb16,2k7)The Senate's informal caucus of presidential hopefuls faces its first test in balancing their jobs with their White House ambitions tomorrow: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a key vote on the Iraq war.<br /> <br />The Nevada Democrat yesterday said he did not take members' 2008 aspirations -- or planned weekend visits to Iowa and New Hampshire -- into consideration for his procedural move to debate President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq.<br /> <br />"We hope everyone will be here," Mr. Reid told reporters. "It's an important vote." ...<br /> <br />Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut has skipped previous Saturday votes and political events because he observes the Jewish Sabbath. Aides for the independent, who caucuses with the Democrats, did not respond to inquiries as to whether he would vote tomorrow.<br /> <br />Mr. Lieberman is one of the few members of the Democratic Caucus who supports Mr. Bush's Iraq plan.

See Wikipedia article on Democratic Presidential Candidates 2008

See Ready or not, campaign '08 has arrived It may feel far too early to tune in to an election that's 20 months off, but trends are being set now. (Mar6,2k7) Editorial, Christian Science Monitor.

Democrats:

1. Sen Evan Bayh, Indiana (Nov6,2k6) Presidential candidate and Sen. Evan Bayh (D) tells a USA Today editorial board that people don't know what the Democratic party stands for. "Bayh said Democrats must focus on middle-class concerns, including affordability of health care and college, as well as pension and job security. But they also have to prove Democrats can be trusted with national security and should implement all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. He singled out reducing the nation's dependence on imported oil as an area where Democrats could immediately prove their willingness to work with Republicans." -- First Read, MSNBC



2. Sen. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Delaware - Prez candidate Material coming soon.



3. Mr. Wes Clark, former General

Wesley Clark, born December 23, 1944, in Illinois, a Vietnam war veteran, a retired United States Army four-star general and former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. He graduated first in his class from West Point. Clark is traveling widely through his Federal Leadership PAC WesPAC,[16] and is a commentator on FOX News, while grassroots campaigns for Clark have become active on the internet. Clark was a 2004 Presidential candidate as well, narrowly winning the Oklahoma primary. During a January 17, 2007, speech given to a local UAW group in Alabama and posted on YouTube, Clark stated "when I run, I'll be the national security candidate." -- Wikipedia



4. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York - Prez candidate (Mar2,2k7) Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) raised eyebrows among Democratic insiders when Washington Post columnist Al Kamen reported that Clinton dined last week at the 701 restaurant in downtown Washington with former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, his wife, Valerie Plame, and left-wing journalist Sidney Blumenthal.<br /><br />Leading Democrats have stayed away from Wilson since a Senate Intelligence Committee report in 2004 discredited him. Blumenthal was known as a vicious attack man when he worked as an aide to President Bill Clinton late in his administration. --Evans-Novak Report

(Mar2,2k7) Linda Feldman, "Clinton, Giuliani most electable, poll" CSM: Two New Yorkers – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) – have the greatest chance of being elected president in 2008, according to a new Gallup Poll.<br /><br />In a nationwide sample of 1,018 adults taken Feb. 22-25, 74 percent of Americans ranked both candidates' chances as either excellent or good.<br /><br />Of all the candidates, Senator Clinton got the highest "excellent" score – 24 percent – and Mr. Giuliani came in second with 20 percent. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois came in second among the Democrats, with 19 percent "excellent" and 52 percent "good." Among Republicans, Sen. John McCain of Arizona ranked second, with 16 percent "excellent" and 54 percent "good."


Front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton's decline in the polls stems partly from her attack on Sen. Barack Obama, her chief rival for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, political pollsters said.<br /> <br />The poll numbers changed after the senators traded political blows through their spokesmen when movie mogul David Geffen called Mrs. Clinton a disingenuous, "incredibly polarizing figure" who isn't electable and appeared to allude to her husband's past infidelity. Mr. Geffen, a former Clinton ally, is now backing Mr. Obama.<br /> <br />A Fox News survey of 900 registered voters nationwide conducted Feb. 27-28 found Mrs. Clinton's support had fallen to 34 percent, down from 43 percent the month before. Mr. Obama's support, however, climbed to 23 percent from 15 percent. <br /><br />-- Donald Lambro, "Hillary's snipe at Obama erodes standing in polls" (Mar4,2k7) Washington Times.

Sunday's event [in Selma, Alabama] attracted Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. Speaker after speaker said that neither Clinton or Obama would be running for president if it wasn't for the sacrifices made on Bloody Sunday. Clinton is seeking to become the first woman elected president; Obama is trying to become the first black president.<br /><br />Former President Bill Clinton joined his wife for the march and was inducted into the National Voting Rights Museum Hall of Fame in a ceremony.<br /><br />"If it hadn't been for Selma, there would be no Voting Rights Act. If it hadn't been for the Voting Rights Act, the South would have never recovered and two white southerners - Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton - never could have become president," the former president said.<br /><br />--Bob Johnson, "Jubilant Crowd Recreates Selma March (Mar5,2k7) Washington Times / AP


5. Sen. Christopher Dodd, Connecticut - Prez candidate Catch-up info will be forthcoming.



6. Sen. John Edwards, North Carolina, a trial lawyer and supported royally by that industry - Prez Candidate

(Mar11,2k7) ...John Edwards was the first candidate to officially say no to the Fox News debate in Nevada -- and because of the hard work of so many grassroots and netroots Democrats, news is breaking tonight that Fox is out.<br /> <br />Fox has already started striking backat John for saying no. (There's a surprise - Fox attacking a Democrat.) Last night, Roger Ailes - the life-long Republican operative who is now Chairman of Fox News Channel - said that any candidate "who believes he can blacklist any news organization is making a terrible mistake" and "is impeding freedom of speech and free press."<br /> <br />And John's not their only target. Tonight Fox News Vice President David Rhodes is telling news organizations not to get involved in the Nevada Democratic Caucus because of "radical fringe" groups - meaning grassroots Democrats (that would be you) - who objected to Fox's long history of spreading Republican propaganda at the expense of Democratic leaders.<br /> <br />The whole right-wing is getting in on the attack; the Drudge Report is blaring the headline: "War! Dems Pull Out of Fox News Debate."<br /> <br />Enough is enough. It's time to send a clear message to Fox News and their allies that their right-wing talking points and temper tantrums won't go unchallenged anymore - when it comes to what Democrats should do in the Democratic primary, we'll decide - no matter what they report....<br /> <br />Fox News has already proven they have no intention of providing "fair and balanced" coverage of any Democrat in this election.<br /> <br />In recent weeks they have run blatant lies about Senator Obama's background. And Fox was only too happy to give Ann Coulter a platform to spew more hate a few days after her bigoted attack on Senator Edwards and the gay community. --Edwards Campaign

(Mar2,2k7) WASHINGTON, March 2 (UPI) -- Best-selling right-wing author Ann Coulter, speaking to a conservative audience in Washington Friday, called former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., a "faggot." Coulter was a featured speaker at the 34th annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Following her prepared remarks, televised on C-Span, Coulter was asked to talk about Edwards. "It turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm kind of at an impasse -- I can't really talk about Edwards," she said. "Rehab" may have been a reference to "Grey's Anatomy" star Isaiah Washington's decision to go into rehab during a public relations firestorm after he called one of his co-stars a "faggot." -- "Ann Coulter calls John Edwards 'faggot' "


Bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan came in from the heady environment of the blogosphere to the more staid climate of presidential politics, to work for John Edwards. The political cyberspace where they were known as Pandagon and Shakespeare's Sister is usually described with euphemisms such as "raucous" and "freewheeling." On that terrain, no weasel wordsmiths need apply. You win attention with controversy and get hits with an over-the-top persona and a vivid vocabulary. A campaign, on the other hand, no matter how much it wants netroots, is, well, controversy-averse. Marcotte's blog style was described by Time magazine as "issues-based but not above snark and a healthy dose of profanity." McEwan describes herself as a "firebrand" opponent of theocracy: "I am, however, vulgar. And I am trash-talking." I doubt these descriptions were in their job interviews with the Edwards campaign, but it didn't take long for a conservative watchdog to glean through the 24/7 postings of the two bloggers and come up with the sort of sound bites that leave teeth marks on a campaign. There was McEwan's description of Bush's "wingnut Christofascist base." There was Marcotte's slam on the Catholic prohibition on birth control as a way to force women to "bear more tithing Catholics." Within days, the two women resigned from the campaign and returned to the briar patch of their blogs. This may be the first certifiable staff flameout of the 2008 campaign. But it's also about a clash between two cultures and two languages.



7. Mr. Albert Gore, former Vice President, USA; leading Climate-Warming propagandistMr Gore won an Oscar for narrating the "documentary" scare-show, An Inconvenient Truth. But he's been overshadowed by the UN<br />Climate Cbange Report (IPCC) which was produced by real scientists.



8 Sen. John Kerry (Massachusetts), former Democrat nominee to Presidency (lost the 2000 election). Kerry has since backed out of 2k8 Prez race.(Feb4,2k7) "John Kerry can't shake loser label," Letterman, Edmonton Sun. Pay-for.

9. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, incumbent House of Representatives, Ohio; former Mayor of Cleveland (Mar11,2k7) Kucinich rejects the refusal of Edwards and other Dem prez candidates ducking out of the debates scheduled on Fox TV. "AUSTIN (TX) -- The cancellation in the past two days of two planned nationally televised debates because of candidates’ “scheduling conflicts” and unwillingness to participate smacks of “manipulation by some candidates who would rather run and hide than defend their records and their positions on the war,” Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich said today while campaigning in Texas.<br /><br />Widely publicized Presidential debates in New Hampshire in April and in Nevada in August were cancelled after some candidates either backed out after agreeing to participate or declined invitations to attend.<br /><br />“Whatever their excuses, some candidates are clearly trying to avoid any head-to-head public debate where they will have to answer tough questions -- questions about their votes in favor of the Iraq war, their votes in favor of trade policies that have wiped out millions of American jobs, their votes in favor of abridging Constitutional rights by approving the Patriot Act, and their collaboration with insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations to deny Americans adequate health care protection.”<br /><br />Kucinich said “it’s an insult to the voters, and the height of cynicism, for candidates to refuse to take the public stage and subject themselves to public scrutiny.”<br /><br />The New Hampshire debate was announced on January 12. Only two days ago, Kucinich pointed out, did some candidates back out because of “scheduling conflicts.”<br /><br />“Is it possible that the real conflict was having to take the stage to defend their votes to fund the war?” Kucinich asked. Votes in the House and the Senate on a $100 billion supplemental appropriation are expected soon.<br /><br />Other candidates were trying to sidestep the Nevada debate because they claimed that the sponsoring television network, Fox News Channel, was conservatively biased.<br /><br />“If you want to be the President of the United States, you can’t be afraid to deal with people with whom you disagree politically,” Kucinich said. “No one is further removed from Fox’s political philosophy than I am, but fear should not dictate decisions that affect hundreds of millions of Americans and billions of others around the world who are starving for real leadership.” --Kucinich campaign blog



10. Sen. Barack Obama - Illinois, Prez candidate (Mar1,2k7) Linda Feldman, "Black voters help Obama gain ground on Clinton -- The latest polls show Hillary Clinton's lead is shrinking, and Obama has pulled ahead among African-Americans," CSM: Sen. Barack Obama's dramatic rise in support among African-Americans signals a shift in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination that is larger than just the black vote. Overall, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is still on top, but her lead is shrinking. And polls show Senator Obama of Illinois has more room for growth than she does, because of her high negatives. In short, if Senator Clinton of New York thought the primaries would result in her coronation as the Democratic nominee, she should think again. "We have a real horserace," says John Zogby, an independent pollster whose latest data show that Obama leads Clinton among black Democratic voters 36 percent to 27 percent. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday showed a similar trend: Obama leads Clinton among black Democratic voters 44 to 30. In both December and January, the Post/ABC poll had Clinton beating Obama among African-Americans 60 to 20. Overall, the latest Post/ABC poll shows Clinton beating Obama 36 to 24, down from a 41-17 split in January. The Post attributes the gains of Obama, who is black, to his rise in support among African-Americans.

(Mar4,2k7) Donald Lambro, "Hillary's snipe at Obama erodes standing in polls" WaTi: Mr. Obama's candidacy has hurt Mrs. Clinton's campaign among black voters, who were among her husband's most loyal Democratic supporters during his two terms in office. Mrs. Clinton had led among black voters in January by 60 percent to 20 percent, but the latest ABC/Washington Post poll shows Mr. Obama leading among blacks, 44 percent to 33 percent. "Of course, 44 percent is a far cry from the 85 percent of the black vote he will need to win, but it's quite a turnaround in the past month," former Clinton campaign adviser Dick Morris wrote Friday on the Townhall.com political Web site. Mr. Obama's surge in the polls was especially impressive in Georgia, where increased support from a large black vote has helped to push his approval numbers higher. "Obama has gone from 18 percent support to 25 percent. Hillary has fallen from 35 percent to 28 percent. He's really surged in that state," Mr. Johnson said.



11. Gov. Bill Richardson - incumbent Governor of New Mexico [ http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0306/p08s01-comv.html?s=hns ] When candidates or their PR machines go on the offensive, the distinction has to be made between personal attack (not acceptable), and legitimate questioning of behavior and policy positions. Democratic candidate Bill Richardson got it right when, in the middle of the Clinton-Obama melee, he suggested that Democrats pledge not to attack each other. -- CSM

<p>* Governor of New Mexico: 2003-Present * United States Secretary of Energy: 1998-2001 * United States Ambassador to the United Nations: 1997-1998 * U.S. Representative from the New Mexico's 3rd congressional district: 1983-1997

12. Mr. Tom Vilsack, former Governor of Iowa Breaking NewsTom Vilsack, the first Democrat to officially enter the 2008 presidential race, dropped his bid for the White House [Feb23,2k7], saying he could not raise enough money to compete and underscoring the power of top-tier candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama to crowd out the rest of the field.<br /><br />"We have everything to win the nomination and general election -- everything except money," he told supporters at his campaign headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, as he announced his decision.<br /><br />He will be viewed as a casualty of the new campaign world, in which big states such as California, Florida and New Jersey are considering moving up their primaries and in which $100 million is considered the ante.<br /><br />Even as a former governor of Iowa, who should have had an edge in that state's early primary season caucuses, Mr. Vilsack had struggled to attract money and attention from Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama and former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards.<br /> <br />Mr. Vilsack, 56, said he had expected to win the Iowa caucus and finish near the top in the New Hampshire primary.<br /> <br />But he said that wouldn't be enough to win the race and that mounting debt forced him to call it quits.<br /> <br />"At the end of the day, it is not about good ideas or hard work; it's about money," he said later in a conference call with reporters.

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However, some on the list, like Rice (Republican) and Kerry (Democrat) have ruled themselves out, if my recollections are correct.

North America > USA 2008

I'll try to add info to the list, sculpt toward more uptodate accuracy, etc, as the campaigns proceed. Third parties and their candidates may also get some attention as the months proceed.