To anyone who lived through the media feeding frenzy of the 1990s, during which the nation's leading news organizations spent the better part of a decade destroying their own credibility by relentlessly hyping a series of non-scandals, the past few days, in which the media have tried to shoehorn Barack Obama into the Rod Blagojevich scandal, have been sickeningly familiar. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer announced yesterday that “some are calling this Obama's first presidential scandal.” It isn’t. There is no evidence he has done anything wrong. This is not Obama’s first presidential scandal – but it shows signs of becoming the first media scandal of the Obama presidency.

washington -- James Byrne, second in command at the embattled Office of Special Counsel, resigned his post effective today after leaving his boss, Scott J. Bloch, a stinging letter suggesting that Bloch's "political agendas and personal vendettas" were preventing the agency from fulfilling its mission.

The two-paragraph letter, obtained by The Times, was sent to Bloch last week at a time when the Bush appointee faces a Justice Department inquiry that includes allegations of illegally erasing information on his government computer. James Mitchell, a spokesman for the independent agency, declined to comment on the matter.

Right now, Hillary is in Godzilla mode, refusing to accept Barack Obama's looming nomination and threatening to tie the Democratic party in legal knots until the August convention and beyond.

Those who think she will withdraw gracefully in a few weeks are living in cloud cuckoo land. The Clintons are ruthless scrappers who will lock their bulldog teeth in any bloody towel.

In her raw ambition and stubborn, grinding energy, Hillary will certainly cast a long shadow on young women aspiring to high office. She is both inspiring role model and cringe-making bad example — an overtly feminist careerist who never found a way to succeed without her husband's connections, advice, and intervention.

Bill Clinton may have masterminded Hillary's runs for the Senate and for the Democratic nomination, but he has been a gross liability in recent months, as he has co-opted the hustings to maunder on about himself or to inject divisive racial overtones into the debate.

The next major female presidential candidate will be well advised to stuff any errant husband into a rucksack and chuck him down a laundry chute. If they are to be truly equal, women must fight their own fights and not rely on a borrowed spotlight

NEW YORK -- As Chinese authorities have clamped down on unrest in Tibet and jailed dissidents in advance of the 2008 Olympics, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has taken a strong public stance, calling for restraint in Tibet and urging President Bush to boycott the Olympics opening ceremonies in Beijing.

But her recent stern comments on China's internal crackdown collide with former President Bill Clinton's fundraising relationship with a Chinese Internet company accused of collaborating with the mainland government's censorship of the Web. Last month, the firm, Alibaba Inc., carried a government-issued "most wanted" posting on its Yahoo China homepage, urging viewers to provide information on Tibetan activists suspected of stirring recent riots.

BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Paul Rockwell


In her autobiography, Living History, Senator Hillary Clinton portrays herself as an advocate for children, a defender of women and human rights. In fact, the Clintons have a long history of sacrificing the rights, even the lives of children, for political expediency. It is time to set the record straight.

On September 6, 2006, a Senate bill -- a simple amendment to ban the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas -- presented Senator Clinton with a timely opportunity to protect the lives of children throughout the world. The cluster bomb is one of the most hated and heinous weapons in modern war, and its primary victims are children.

Senator Obama voted for the amendment to ban cluster bombs. Senator Clinton, however, voted with the Republicans to kill the humanitarian bill, an amendment in accord with the Geneva Conventions, which already prohibit the use of indiscriminate weapons in populated areas.

"We stand at the precipice of Armageddon and we battle for the Lord"
Theodore Roosevelt - 1912

That statement of Roosevelt's first of all deserves some explanation: First, Roosevelt was using a Christian allegory to speak to his audience. Armageddon is the place where Jewish,Christian and Islamic peoples believe the final battle between good and evil, God and Satan, righteousness and injustice, will occur. In much theology, the outcome is uncertain, and mankind is left to decide the fate of the universe.

Second, Roosevelt was speaking at the 1912 Republican Party convention, where he had won the popular vote, but where the forces of the Party bosses and crony capitalism were attempting to cheat him of the Republican Party nomination and hand it to Taft. Roosevelt battled vigorously, but the party bosses controlled all the committees, and locked it up for Taft. Roosevelt then walked out of the Republican Party and started the Bull Moose Party. The Southern segragationist anti feminist Dixiecrat, Woodrow Wilson was elected. America was thrust into a Century of darkness.

What was it exactly that Roosevelt was battling for that summer ninety six years ago?

Universal Health Care

A living wage (His term) a family could live on to be paid to all workers

The end of Monopoly

Equal rights for women

Enforcement of the 14th Amendment in the South

Trade and international policies that protected the American worker

An end to the Alien and Sedition Acts

Universal Education

The Building of America's infrastructure

Appointing Supreme Court Justices who know that Law is the servant of society as a whole, not just the wealthy

You know weird irresponsible whackadoodle stuff like that....

They labeled him a madman, and worse, for thus fighting for the Lord and the American People.

His loss at that convention split the Republican Party, who were now controlled not by the traditional members, liberationists who had freed slaves and believed in freeing all Citizens, but the money power, Wall Street, and the fledgling military/prison/ industrial complex. The Progressives had no place to go but the Democratic Party where they were outnumbered by the Southern former slave holding forces, who while not liberationists, at least has Wall Street as a traditional enemy. The nation first had Woodrow Wilson, then a series of Republican Presidents who were in the hands of Wall Street. These Republicans inflated the currency, depressed wages, and raided the wealth of the nation in ways all too familiar to those of us who have lived through the last eight years.

Roosevelt was indeed fighting for the Lord, and the American People. It took the Great depression to bring Roosevelt's cousin, still progressive, but less so than he, to power. It took thirty years and disaster. The Progressive Promise was still never fulfilled and derailed immediately after WW2 by McCarthy and the salesmen of fear and slavery. There never yet has been Universal Health Care, a Real Living Wage, the end of monopoly or the end of the prying eyes of the State.

This year, ninety six years later, again we stand on the precipice. The nations wealth has been devoured by the wolves of Wall Street. Prices are astoundingly high, wages stagnant, Citizens worry about illness and the financial ruin it can cause. The American Educational System is in the toilet, our bridges and roads crumble due to lack of minimal maintenance. We live in a country where just reading aloud, or typing onto a computer, Thomas Jefferson or Tom Paine without careful attribution is a dangerous act.

Today we stand at the precipice of Armageddon. Today, as ninety six years ago, the forces of darkness, of Mammon, of the money power of the few organized against the majority of citizens once again seeks the destruction of the Progressive movement and the progressive candidate. Once again we hear boasts that the Party bosses are all locked up behind the candidate of the money power, that somehow Mrs. Clinton, popular vote, rules and reason be dammed, will be the candidate of the Democratic Party.

We stand on the Precipice of Armageddon, both figuratively in terms of national politics and literally in terms of our unreasoned involvement in the Middle East. We need a new President. One with a new kind of mind. One who has raised the bulk of his campaign money from the American People, not from the Corporations. We need a new President, one who walks through the streets of Chicago, and Detroit,Newark and Los Angeles and sees not the gleaming towers, but is moved to tears by the people America has left behind. We need a new President, one who cares more about The sick and aged citizen than the stock performance of an insurance company. We need a new President, one who can talk with, not down to people. That President is not Senator John McCain. That President is not Senator Hillary Clinton.

We stand again at the precipice of Armageddon and look for the leader who will raise the standard of righteousness through the long battle, as did the Prophets of old. There is only one candidate running who will even know that Biblical reference. There is only one candidate who knows that the Presidency is a almost incomprehensible responsibility to the American People and to Almighty God. We stand on this Precipice today, and again the priests of the powers of Mammon seek the destruction of the Prophets of God.

There is only one candidate who is not so controlled and owned by the corporatacracy that he even has the potential to do right and good. That candidate is Barak Obama.

This summer there will be a party convention. Either Obama will be nominated or Clinton. Obama has already won the popular vote and he has won the majority of delegates. The money power seeks to force him to step aside, to beg to be Hillary Clinton's Vice Presidential candidate. This is insanely perverse.

Should the Democratic Party bosses and machine steal the nomination from the Peoples candidate Barak Obama, Progressives should again follow the trail blazed by Theodore Roosevelt. We should, if the nomination is stolen, form a third party, a second Bull Moose Party. This time either from within the Democratic Party, or without it, we progressives stand on the precipice of Armageddon. The nation can not afford our defeat. If the Democratic Party must serve Mammon, let it die as all things must, and from the ashes form a progressive party, and this time take the White House and TAKE BACK AMERICA.

All Power to the People-

Steve Lamb

TT - Sources inside the New York Times have confided knowledge of a scandal involving Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama, a woman named Trixie Sluppick, and an illegal transaction on the streets of Obama's hometown of Chicago. The Barack Obama campaign is reportedly in damage control mode, scrambling desperately to salvage the Illinois Senator's once-daunting delegate lead.