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sabra's Journal
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenumbers/2008/0... Counting the VoteIn an interview with Charlie Gibson this week, Hillary Clinton contended that she's ahead in the popular vote – a critical claim in her last-ditch attempt to win over super delegates. The problem: It's arguably not so. "Arguably" because there are myriad complications in trying to count votes in this nominating contest – and not just because of the disputed Michigan and Florida primaries. The other problem is that in a handful of Democratic caucuses votes simply weren't toted up. The "vote" totals being reported there aren’t votes at all, but initial delegate counts. Switch to an estimate of actual, human-being voters, and the story changes. ... And that conclusion? Using these estimates of actual voters in the Iowa, Nevada, Maine, Washington and Texas caucuses, rather than the initial delegate counts, we get a net total Democratic vote to date of 17,607,152 for Obama and 17,504,742 for Clinton, an Obama lead of 102,410 votes – even with Michigan and Florida included. The national vote count, of course, has nothing to do with winning the Democratic nomination under party rules - that's done by delegate counts. Clinton nonetheless has found her claim of an advantage in total vote a useful talking point. The problem: It doesn't quite add up.
Source: APMARIETTA, Ga.—The publisher of the popular children's book series "Curious George" is considering legal action against a Georgia bar owner for selling T-shirts that show the inquisitive monkey peeling a banana with "Obama in '08" printed beneath the image. more stories like this "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt did not nor would we ever authorize or approve this use of the Curious George character, which we find offensive and utterly out of keeping with the values Curious George represents," said Richard Blake, the company's spokesman. Bar owner Mike Norman, who began selling the shirts in late April, has said they are not meant to be racist. He said he thinks the Illinois senator and the character "look so much alike." Bill Nigut, southeast regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, said Norman is being disingenuous. Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles... /
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/msnbc/... <snip> Olbermann's preview on Daily Kos may have contributed to the strong ratings last night for Countdown. The program tied The O'Reilly Factor for first place at 8pmET in the A25-54 demo. SVP of NBC News Phil Griffin tells TVNewser, "The trend is up. Olbermann's ratings are getting bigger and bigger and getting closer and closer to O'Reilly."
Source: CNN(CNN)–CNN has confirmed that Barack Obama will respond directly to President Bush’s apparent criticism of his foreign policy vision, which includes a willingness to consider dialogue with Iran and other nations hostile to the United States. The Illinois senator’s response will come at a campaign event later Friday in South Dakota. The news was first revealed by senior Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice on NBC Friday morning. In an address before the Israeli Knesset Thursday, President Bush compared leaders who advocated dialogue with nations like Iran to politicians who appeased Nazi aggression in the years leading up to the Second World War. Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/... /
Source: CBS NewsAs Many As 350,000 Households Aren't Going To Get Their Stimulus Rebates On Time, IRS Says(CBS) Up to 350,000 households aren't getting the $300 per child owed them as part of their economic stimulus rebate payments, the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday. The tax agency says taxpayer human error and computer glitches were responsible for the problem affecting a tiny percentage of the 130 million taxpayers expected to benefit from the refunds the government began sending out last month. IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said the agency was confident it had identified all the people affected by the mistake. He said the IRS will send letters to those who missed out on the refund and that checks for the child credit will be mailed out in July. People need not contact the IRS or file additional paperwork, he said. The rebates, the centerpiece of the government's $168 billion plan to revive the faltering economy, provide up to $600 for an individual and $1,200 for married couples, based on income levels. In addition, people are entitled to $300 for eligible children younger than 17. Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/15/...
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/analysis-... Analysis: Bush rallies Democrats behind Obama President Bush achieved from abroad Thursday what Democratic leaders at home have failed to do: bring the Democratic Party together at the tail end of a bruising primary. With his perceived criticism of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D) push for diplomacy from the floor of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Bush managed to unite Democrats behind the man who is the party’s likely next standard-bearer. Prominent uncommitted Democrats, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (Del.), strongly criticized the president for what is viewed as an attack on Obama. ... However, with his comments, Bush might have succeeded where Dean has failed. The president’s remarks seem to suggest that he believes Obama will be the Democratic candidate. ... Combined with the math speaking increasingly in favor of Obama, a steady trickle of superdelegates flowing toward the Illinois senator and the endorsement of former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), Bush might have helped close the book on Clinton’s ambition.
http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2008/05/buc... Pat Buchanan says Hillary Clinton is "one of us"Keith BoykinI was standing in the green room of MSNBC last night talking with conservative commentator Pat Buchanan about the West Virginia primary, when he made a startling revelation. "I'm for Hllary," he said. I assumed it was a joke, but after hearing what he said on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" a few minutes later, I'm not so sure. When defending the racial sentiments expressed by whites in West Virginia, Buchanan indicated there was nothing wrong with white voters deciding to support Clinton because she is "one of us."
Source: CNN(CNN) — The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joe Biden, D-Delaware, called President Bush’s comments accusing Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats of wanting to appease terrorists "bulls–t” and said if the president disagrees so strongly with the idea of talking to Iran then he needs to fire his secretaries of State and Defense, both of whom Biden said have pushed to sit down with the Iranians. “This is bullsh**t. This is malarkey. This is outrageous. Outrageous for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, sit in the Knesset…and make this kind of ridiculous statement,” Biden said angrily in a brief interview just off the Senate floor. “He’s the guy who’s weakened us. He’s the guy that’s increased the number of terrorists in the world. His policies have produced this vulnerability the United States has. His intelligence community pointed that out not me. The NIE has pointed that out and what are you talking about, is he going to fire Condi Rice? Condi Rice has talked about the need to sit down. So his first two appeasers are Rice and Gates. I hope he comes home and does something.” He quoted Gates saying Wednesday that we “need to figure out a way to develop some leverage and then sit down and talk with them.” Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/... /
edit: CNN changed it to 'bullshit'
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/14/... <snip> Clinton: I've received nearly 17 million, Sen. Obama's received nearly 17 million; I'm slightly ahead. Those 34 million people, they will end up voting for the Democrat because there is no reason why they should want to continue the failed policies of George Bush. Couric: When you give those numbers you're including Florida and Michigan? Clinton: Of course. Because those were legitimate certified elections that were legal and valid, and people actually exercised their right to vote. The only dispute is how do they get the delegates out of those votes? Couric: And I've raised this with you before, Sen. Clinton, but Barack Obama's name wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan. Clinton: Well, that was his choice. He didn't have to take his name off. There was no rule requiring that he took his name off. But he did run, along with his supporters, a very vigorous campaign to get people to vote uncommitted. So he had a presence there, even though his name wasn't on the ballot.
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/05... And I Gave Up Coke During Apartheid!Bush, to Politico: "I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal," he said in an interview for Yahoo! News and Politico magazine.
"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf," he said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them."
Hey, you know what sends the "wrong signal"? Invading a sovereign country based on cooked intelligence! Also, telling terrorists to "bring it on." Oh, wait, wait, you want totally crossed wires? A banner reading "mission accomplished." Maybe he should stick to golf and give up wars. 
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N... WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush stirred up the campaign to replace him by suggesting on Thursday that Democratic front-runner Barack Obama's pledge to talk to Iran's leader amounted to "the false comfort of appeasement." ... A prominent McCain backer, Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, said Bush "got it exactly right today" by rejecting the idea that "if only we were to sit down and negotiate with these killers they would cease to threaten us." He did not mention Obama in a statement.
Source: APWASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says the comment wasn't directed at him, but Barack Obama is taking exception to it just the same. In a speech to Israel's parliament today, President Bush said, "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong." In a statement, the Democratic presidential candidate called the remarks a "false political attack"and an "extraordinary politicization of foreign policy." But White House press secretary Dana Perino tells reporters in Israel that Bush's comments were not a reference to Obama. She added that "there are many who suggested these types of negotiations." Perino says it's understandable to think "the world revolves around you" when running for office, but that's "not always true." Read more: http://www.kget.com/political/story.aspx?c...
Source: APWASHINGTON - A poorly run Pentagon program for providing civilian employees in Iraq and Afghanistan with workman's compensation has allowed defense contractors and insurance companies to gouge American taxpayers, a House oversight committee said Thursday. Insurance companies alone have pocketed $600 million in excessive profits over the past five years, says a staff report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but the Defense Department refuses to adjust its approach for managing the program. According to the committee, the Pentagon allows its contractors to negotiate their own insurance contracts. By contrast, the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and the Army Corps of Engineers have all selected a single insurance carrier to provide the insurance at fixed rates. "What makes the situation even worse is the people this program is supposed to benefit - the injured employees working for contractors - have to fight the insurance companies to get their benefits," committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said at a hearing Thursday. "Delays and denials in paying claims are the rule." KBR (nyse: KBR - news - people ) Inc., one of the largest defense contractors in Iraq, paid the insurance giant AIG $284 million for medical and disability coverage under the Defense Base Act, a reference to the federal law mandating the insurance. Due to the way KBR's contract is structured, this premium, along with an $8 million markup for KBR, gets billed to the taxpayer. "Out of this amount, just $73 million actually goes to injured contractors, and AIG and KBR pocket over $100 million as profit," Waxman said. Read more: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/05/15/...
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