Dean is first!

Chairman Dean says not to expect a clear frontrunner even after Feb. 5th.    This was in Denver when he was painting a school there.  Great community service there.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1755

""I don't believe it will be over by Feb. 5 by any stretch of the imagination," Dean said. He also said he hoped it would be decided by mid-March "because we have a lot of work to do." He called the possibility of a brokered convention "a nightmare."

Hi Susan, Floridagal and Judy.  I was posting away on the old thread. 

Oy!

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Whether or not Bush manages to plunge the world into a new dark age may depend upon which version of the recent US/Iran confrontation is believed. So far, Bush's utter lack of credibility may be working to our advantage. One dares not think of the consequences to world peace if Bush had embarked upon this tour of the middle east with a shred of credibility, a modicum of political capital among every Middle Eastern capital but Jerusalem. Israeli radio reports that Bush promised Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States will join Israel to nuke Iran. CNS reports the Bush administration had seriously considered the nuke option but put it on a back burner. Lydia Georgi, writing in Pakistan's Daily Times, thinks Bush is unlikely to win support outside Israel for any US military action against Iran.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_len_hart_080112_bush_promised_israel.htm 

Just went by the old thread to announce this one as there are still some over there, I believe.

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Just in case anyone is is bad need of a humor fix, I encourage you to check out the DUzy awards, put together by JeffR and several DUers to commend what they generally find to be some of the wittiest exchanges.

Getting Dems to come to a consensus on anything is indeed like herding cats, but we are unquestionably wittier than Republics. It is true that Republics can be pretty laughable when they are actually trying to be serious.

It is the fact that they ARE serious that is tragic.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/dis...

Compare this to putz's "have and have mores."  And then he laughed.  They know exactly what they're doing.

Haves and Have Nots By Jerry West  (1 comments) Given the trend in economic development the past thirty years it is no wonder that people are starting to question the power of corporations. A wide ...

Corporate elite fear candidate Edwards Ask corporate lobbyists which presidential contender is most feared by their clients and the answer is almost always the same -- Democrat John Edwards. Asked which candidate their clients most support, corporate lobbyists were unsure. Clinton has cautious backing within the corporate jet set, as do Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Here's a chilling take on what's happening to our soldiers.

Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.” The Pentagon does not keep track of such killings, most of which are prosecuted not by the military justice system but by civilian courts.

Hey, sea, glad that you made it over. I've been out and about a bit this am; ran down to my former bakery/pastry/chocolate shop. It used to be right next to me and now is about 3 km away so I don't go there as much as before. There are others close by, but this one is special and I am practically a member of the family.

We're having lunch with friends and I promised to bring dessert from there. If God wanted me to cook, She wouldn't have created pastry shops that do the job a heckuva lot better.

I'm happy some country is helping the poor as our own is not.  Good again for Joe and Chavez.

CITGO, Venezuela Distribute Oil To U.S. Services For scores of low-income families it will be like the equivalent of winning a small lottery jackpot. A program run by former Congressman Joe Kennedy will deliver free heating oil – donated by Citgo and the Chavez regime in Venezuela – to some 200,000 households in the USA.

Judy, does your shoppe (LOL) have chocolate croissants?

::::::::

I am outraged that your Network NBC has refused to let Kucinich in the Las Vegas presidential debate. It concerns me when networks decide our democracy for us by airing or refusing to air candidates for political office. As an American who has taken the oath 6 times to protect the constitution with my very life, I have decided to continue the fight against corporate anti Americanism who chose to silence those political candidates they disapprove of.

I will refuse to buy any GE products, post this on all of my blogs and send this out to my entire email book and ask everyone else to do the same until we are insured that NBC will give ALL political candidates equal coverage.

Background on boycott.

Background:
http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/4306

OK, off to contact GE and then to scrounge up some snack.  Judy's vignette made me hungry.

7. There are so many victims of putzCp's illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, and they are mostly the innocent.

They include all the Iraqi civilians, whether Kurd or Arab or other ethnic origin, whether Muslim, Christian or other religion, who are haplessly caught in the middle; all the families who have not been able to live normally while their loved one(s) have had irreplaceable parts of their lives stolen from them or have been forever maimed or have given those lives altogether in the pursuit of putzCo's folly; all the families who lived from paycheck to paycheck previously and who now receive less because benefits have been reduced (who's REALLY supporting the troops here?); all the soldiers who have no respite and who return to the ME, in spite of their personal beliefs, because their comrades in arms are still there and they don't want to abandon them; all the returnees who immediately vanish from putzCo's consciousness as they attempt to put their shattered lives back together; and most of all, the children who are victims all round so that this tragic folly will haunt us all for generations to come even in the best of outcomes.

May every last one of the criminals who precipitated this tragedy meet their just desserts.

Yes, sea, they have chocolate croissants (pains au chocolat) and one of my personal breakfast favorites: croissant jambon-fromage which is a light and flaky cheese croissant sandwich, with ham, cheese, tomato and a slice of hard-boiled egg. It's the only one that has that particular one and they go fast. If one gets there later than 8:30 on Sundays (8 on weekdays), they're gone altogether.

The pastry shop has been in the family since 1858 and when the parents ran it, it was a combination bakery and tea shop. The two sons began running the business several years back. Just about two years ago, they split into two distinct businesses with one brother taking over the bakery and developing a related catering business, while the other took over the teashop and developed it into a full restaurant service. The prices are the restaurant are reasonably for this area (which means that while they would still be considered expensive by US standards generally, they are much less expensive than most here) and the food is of excellent quality.

The brother who runs the bakery is also known as one of the up and coming *chocolatiers* ... his hand-dipped chocolates are to die for. Several years back, there was a book published here that discussed the Swiss chocolate industry: its origins and development through today. He was one of the chocolatiers featured there. His chocolates are only sold locally; none are exported.

s/b *the prices in the restaurant are* instead of what I wrote ... sorry for typos and misplaced words. Argh!

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VERY poignant column in today's NYT. We cannot afford any more of the *just say no* sex education.

Bottom line: that is assuredly what we will get with any Republic candidate.

============
January 13, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
Sex and the Teenage Girl
By CAITLIN FLANAGAN
Los Angeles

THE movie “Juno” is a fairy tale about a pregnant teenager who decides to have her baby, place it for adoption and then get on with her life. For the most part, the tone of the movie is comedic and jolly, but there is a moment when Juno tells her father about her condition, and he shakes his head in disappointment and says, “I thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to say when.”

Female viewers flinch when he says it, because his words lay bare the bitterly unfair truth of sexuality: female desire can bring with it a form of punishment no man can begin to imagine, and so it is one appetite women and girls must always regard with caution. Because Juno let her guard down and had a single sexual experience with a sweet, well-intentioned boy, she alone is left with this ordeal of sorrow and public shame.

In the movie, the moment passes. Juno finds a yuppie couple eager for a baby, and when the woman tries to entice her with the promise of an open adoption, the girl shakes her head adamantly: “Can’t we just kick it old school? I could just put the baby in a basket and send it your way. You know, like Moses in the reeds.”

It’s a hilarious moment, and the sentiment turns out to be genuine. The final scene of the movie shows Juno and her boyfriend returned to their carefree adolescence, the baby — safely in the hands of his rapturous and responsible new mother — all but forgotten. Because I’m old enough now that teenage movie characters evoke a primarily maternal response in me (my question during the film wasn’t “What would I do in that situation?” but “What would I do if my daughter were in that situation?”), the last scene brought tears to my eyes. To see a young daughter, faced with the terrible fact of a pregnancy, unscathed by it and completely her old self again was magical.

And that’s why “Juno” is a fairy tale.

[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/opinio...

De-Baathification was probably the single worst decision of putzCo's illegal occupation of Iraq (another real baddie was the bungled siege and related murders of Fallujah, all for the sake of BW).

Putting things right LONG after the fact may just not be enough. Unsurprisingly.

But it is a much-too-long-delayed first steop in the right direction.

=================
Iraq opens door to Saddam's followers
A bill to restore rights of former Baathists ends a bitter and divisive legacy of American bungling
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday January 13, 2008
Observer

It is now seen as the most disastrous decision of the US-led occupation of Iraq - the firing of hundreds of thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party from their government jobs in April 2003.

Enacted by the Coalition Provisional Authority's head, Paul Bremer, it created a powerful impetus that pushed former Baathists towards rebellion and many took up arms with the insurgents. In a single swoop former officials and members of the Saddam-era security forces, many of them concentrated in the Sunni Triangle, were rendered unemployed. It caused the impoverishment of whole communities, stoking up resentment to the presence of coalition troops.

Now with the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq around the corner, the country's parliament has finally reversed the last vestiges of that ill-considered policy, passing new legislation yesterday that reinstates tens of thousands of former supporters of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to the possibility of government employment. The new bill, approved by a unanimous show of hands on each of its 30 clauses, was requested by the US as part of efforts to reduce sectarian tension between Sunni and Shia. In the process it became the first piece of major legislation approved by the 275-seat parliament.

'This law preserves the rights of the Iraqi people after the crimes committed by the Baath Party while also benefiting the innocent members of the party. This law provides a balance,' said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. It was also welcomed by US President George W Bush, visiting Kuwait, who said Iraq had taken 'an important step toward reconciliation'. The new act - approved yesterday, and entitled the Accountability and Justice law - is designed to lift restrictions on the rights of members of the now-dissolved Baath party to fill government posts.

It is also designed to reinstate thousands of Baathists dismissed from government jobs after the 2003 US invasion - a decision that deepened sectarian tensions between Iraq's majority Shia and the once-dominant Sunni Arabs, who believed the firings targeted their community. Strict implementation of so-called de-Baathification rules also meant that many senior bureaucrats who knew how to run ministries, university departments and state companies ended up unemployed.

[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...

*steop* s/b *step* of course ... perhaps a bit of Afrikans sneaking in ... LOL

************
Here's an interesting comment. But this race is not yet down to just two candidates. I, for one, hope that the rest will stay in for some time yet, although I am glad that the field has been whittled down so that those previously running, who are our employees, can get back to our business.

==============
I'm a black woman. This is my dream
The two Democrat candidates have gone through fire to get this far; now they deserve to go further
Patricia Williams
Sunday January 13, 2008
Observer

The political history of the United States has been crafted by its greatest orators. From Thomas Jefferson to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton, the most influential Presidents have anchored their appeal in the democracy of the eloquently spoken word. As the election of November 2008 draws closer, we usher out George W Bush, the most spectacularly dismal exception to that rule. Of course, there are many attributes other than oratory I'll be looking for in candidates running for highest office: he or she must not think war is a 'cakewalk', must be alarmed about global warming, must not think torture is a handy little tool. Nevertheless, I will be listening hard for any future President's ability to string words into unmuddied, coherent thought. I'll be listening for ideas that have been worked through sufficiently to have a beginning, a middle and an end. I'm looking for intelligence. Someone who has real ideas, something more than missiles wrapped in folksy homilies.

Too many people see Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's appeal as rooted in 'identity politics'. It is the cheap political equation of the moment. He's supposed to walk away with the black vote, she's supposed to have women all sewn up. But the diversity of their constituencies and the complexity of their platforms have defied simplistic expectations.

[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...

I can only speak from my experience here ... which is not the Northeast ... but recent analyses show the warming trend over the past couple of years. We had a sprinkling of snow in November and none since. We've had lots of moisture, but it's been in the form of rain.

In the mountains at higher elevations, they have had a good ski season so far. But here, it's almost like spring now.

================
Study: Northeast Winters Warming Fast
Sunday January 13, 2008 8:46 AM
By MICHAEL HILL
Associated Press Writer

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Earlier blooms. Less snow to shovel. Unseasonable warm spells. Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years and now researchers have nailed down numbers to show just how big the changes have been.

A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December-March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees. Snowfall totals dropped by an average of 8.8 inches across the region over the same period, and the number of days with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground decreased by nine days on average.

``Winter is warming greater than any other season,'' said Elizabeth Burakowski, who analyzed data from dozens of stations for her master's thesis in collaboration with Cameron Wake, a professor at the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/st...

The icy Battle for the Whales

====================
Green ships in deadly duel with whalers
A perilous three-way hunt is under way in the icy Southern Ocean as rival eco-warriors pursue a Japanese fleet

A deadly game of marine chess began in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica yesterday after environmentalists closed in on a Japanese fleet that has been sent to kill 1,000 whales.

After a 10-day search, contact with the Japanese fleet was made at 2.30am yesterday when the Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza, picked up the Japanese ships' distinctive echoes on its radar.

'We are now chasing the fleet's mother ship, the Nisshin Maru, at about 15 knots,' Greenpeace's Sara Holden told The Observer from the Esperanza. 'In turn, we are being followed by one of the fleet's catcher vessels. The weather is clear at present, but we have run into banks of fog, and of course there are icebergs in these waters.'

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/20...

It's too bad that Sarko's story isn't being being broadcast live on US TV. It would provide some reality TV that is the equivalent of any soap as only the French can do it.

Remember ... Sarko was the candidate of the right. In France, that's more like the US middle. The far-right (more akin to our current day Republics) was headed up by Jean-Marie Le Pen.

===================
France begins to grow weary with the Sarkozy soap opera
Even Nicolas Sarkozy's supporters are starting to tire of his all-too-public romance with model-turned-singer Carla Bruni
Alex Duval Smith in Paris
Sunday January 13, 2008
Observer

Smooching their way through a five-course lunch yesterday at an exclusive Paris restaurant, President Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni made it clear that they care nothing for what anyone thinks, including their gooseberry guest of honour, Tony Blair. The former PM was invited to the five-star Hotel Bristol after addressing a rally of Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement party. But all eyes were on the 40-year-old Bruni, who every now and again lifted her sunglasses to lean in and nuzzle the presidential cheek. Sarkozy reciprocated with kisses and cuddles, oblivious of any uncomfortable fidgeting from those around them.

Yesterday's social gathering, which included Justice Minister Rachida Dati and former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, was the latest display of a love that began just two months ago but is already prompting talk of weddings and babies.

It was last November when, alone beneath the chandeliers in the quiet elegance of his official residence, the newly divorced President was bored. 'He called me,' says Jacques Séguéla. 'He said: "Invite me to dinner with your gang. I can't face any more evenings alone at the Elysée Palace." Nicolas was very low.'

Now he gives every appearance of being very high - in cabinet meetings the President has giggling fits - after advertising executive Séguéla introduced Sarkozy, 52, to Bruni. A nation that had never so much as seen one of its Presidents wearing a T-shirt has been confronted with a whirlwind romance and the shock of seeing the photographers of even their more serious publications with lenses firmly trained on his ring finger and her tummy.

[...]
Since then the spectre of Cécilia - now again involved with advertising mogul Richard Attias - has never gone away. On 23 December, Sarkozy threw a 40th birthday party for Bruni and gave her a €20,000 (£15,000) Dior heart-shaped ring, designed by Cécilia's best friend, Victoire de Castellane. On Christmas Day the couple flew to Sharm el-Sheikh to meet up with the Blairs. Sarkozy gave Bruni a second ring while she gave him a €45,000 Patek Philippe watch. Last weekend they were photographed in Jordan - at the spot where Cécilia and Attias, in November 2005, first showed off their love affair.

If the relationship turns out to be short-lived, French public opinion will no doubt turn on Bruni. Her respected transition from modelling to singing - including a first album, Quelqu'un m'a dit (Someone Told Me), which sold more than two million copies - will be obliterated by her inglorious track record.

Bruni is better known for her colourful boyfriends - Eric Clapton, Kevin Costner, former Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, and a few more. Jerry Hall had a stand-up row with her over an alleged fax she sent Mick Jagger saying 'let's spend the night together'.

[...]
But in the past week Cécilia has spectacularly broken her silence. On Thursday three books went on sale telling of the Sarkozys' marriage. On Friday, she failed in court to have one of them banned. Even though Le Point journalist Anna Bitton's book, Cécilia, is based on five years of authorised interviews, the former first lady believes it goes too far. The book paints Sarkozy as an unreconstructed adolescent who enjoys all-night karaoke parties, does not love his children and is a womaniser.

The French media are now divided between supporters of Nicolas and Cécilia. Glossing over the nine-point collapse in Sarkozy's confidence rating since June, Friday's Le Figaro produced a poll showing 60 per cent of respondents welcomed Sarkozy's openness over Bruni. But a survey in Le Parisien, for which Cécilia is 'a heroine', had only 39 per cent feeling confident in Sarkozy.

[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...

It's not just what they say, but what they do. Although much of this may have gotten started under Wolfie's tenure at the World Bank, it appears to be continuing apace under Zoellick.

For shame.

==================
World Bank pledges to save trees... then helps cut down Amazon forest
A month ago it vowed to fight deforestation. Now research reveals it funds the rainforest's biggest threat. By Daniel Howden
Published: 13 January 2008

The World Bank has emerged as one of the key backers behind an explosion of cattle ranching in the Amazon, which new research has identified as the greatest threat to the survival of the rainforest.

Ranching has grown by half in the last three years, driven by new industrial slaughterhouses which are being constructed in the Amazon basin with the help of the World Bank. The revelation flies in the face of claims from the bank that it is funding efforts to halt deforestation and reduce the massive greenhouse gas emissions it causes.

Roberto Smeraldi, head of Friends of the Earth Brazil and lead author of the new report, obtained exclusively by The Independent on Sunday, said the bank's contradictory policy on forests was now clear: "On the one hand you try and save the forest, on the other you give incentives for its conversion."

[...]
http://environment.independent.co.uk/cli...

The buying and selling of the Presidency ... we can do better than this ... or can we?

================
US president: The great $2bn vote race
Before a new US president is sworn in, the candidates will have made the advertising industry rich. By Stephen Foley in New York
Published: 13 January 2008

The Independent on Sunday is delighted to be the first media outlet in the world to announce the victors in the race to become Democrat and Republican presidential nominees. And the winners are ... the advertising industry.

The 2008 presidential race was long ago shaping up to be the most lucrative on record for the ad agencies and marketing firms advising the candidates, and for the media companies – from television networks and cable broadcasters, to radio, newspaper and internet publishers – where their ad dollars are being spent like water.

But now that the early results from Iowa and New Hampshire have failed to push a candidate into a commanding lead, and with passions inflamed on both sides of the political divide after the drama of the past fortnight, spending on advertising is being jacked up ahead of many forecasters' expectations. The primaries season, normally just an amuse bouche for the ad industry, looks set to be quite a feast.

The two states that have so far voted are small enough, and campaigning there started early enough, that candidates could concentrate on personal appearances. In the tightly bunched and bigger states to come, they cannot spread themselves that thin, so the marketing men and women must be paid to go in on their behalf. Advertising and marketing spending by this field of wannabe presidents, which could have come in at $150m (£77m) at the low end of original forecasts, is now certain to top $200m before a coronation, and could reach $250m if the free-for-all is not settled on 5 February – the so-called "tsunami Tuesday" when more than 20 states are polled.

[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/arti...

Here's DU's wonderful Nance Greggs, who nails it right on the head yet again.

And that's my segue into leaving ... have good ones.

=================
You've Been Served

An Open Letter to: All Politicians, All Corporations, All Media

Our government has become non-responsive to the needs and wants of American citizens, and has followed its own agenda to benefit wealthy individuals and even wealthier corporations. We see what is wrong, and we mean to have it made right.

The corporations that are handing out pink slips to middle-class workers are the same corporations that are handing out multi-million dollar bonuses to their CEOs. We see what is wrong, and we mean to have it made right.

The news media no longer even pretends to serve the public interest, but serves only its corporate masters in delivering ‘the news’ as it wants it to be perceived, and not as it actually is. We see what is wrong, and we mean to have it made right.

Under BushCo, our country has gone from surplus to debt, from world-revered to world-reviled, from a nation that represents freedom to a nation that represents war, torture, and death. We see what is wrong, and we mean to have it made right.

Our beloved Constitution has been ignored in order to suit an administration determined to put its own insane goals above the sanctity of our democracy. We see what is wrong, and we mean to have it made right.

Our government has plunged the country into unfathomable debt in order to pursue an illegal and immoral war, whose only ‘success’ has been filling the coffers of the war-profiteers, their family members, their cronies and themselves. We see what is wrong, and we mean to have it made right.

[...]
http://www.democraticunderground.com/dis...

Good morning, everybody

Thoughts of the morning:

Hillbillies--Lou Dobbs said Hillary was showing "class" ?  Low class maybe.  And Bill's tirade about Obama's free ride in the press about his stance on Iraq is right up there with "that woman."  The problem with Bill''s claim about "that woman" wasn't that he was lying, but that he revealed his true feelings of disdain for someone who's "served at the  pleasure of the President."

Southerners have a problem.  Their hypocritical historical condition has produced a peculiar sense of "humor" which relies on saying the opposite of what they actually mean.  They're not lying exactly; they're deceiving people who don't mean them well.  It's a way of hiding their true feelings and protecting themselves from attack.  The problem this creates is that people in other parts of the country don't get that they don't mean what they say and, if they're willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, just conclude that southerners are a tad peculiar and some of them are downright funny.

Bush Two is definitely a boy of the south.  When he was lookin' for those weapons of mass distruction in the Oval Office, he was just funnin' 'cause everyone knew they were more likely to be there, or anywhere else, since they never were in Iraq.

Deception for self-protection.  The Iraqis are practicing it right now.  When you practice it long enough, it's likely to become a habit. 

I do hope somebody puts up a clip of Bill ranting before the "fairy tale" phrase.

BTW, the convention can select someone who's not currently collecting delegates.  And not just people who have announced an interest.

There's a good reason the presidential candidates are being sold like soap flakes to a brain-washed nation......................

Willard's has been to the dry cleaners. 

Good morning, Monica.

Good nite, Bloggie.

Anyone watch "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?" 

Anyone watch "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?" 

~~~~~~~~

Demetrius is a fan. maybe Monica can give us a link to Hannah so Pat can have a look at the Howardly which he masterfully designed.

Printable version

This is about a quarter of the figure given in a disputed Lancet article, but nearly three times higher than that of the Iraq Body Count campaigning group.

The result is based on interviews with over 9,000 families across Iraq carried out by the health ministry for the WHO.

The survey says more than half of all violent deaths were in Baghdad.

The World Health Organization study looks only at the period from March 2003 until June 2006

~~~~~~~~~~

note that the end of this study preceded the most violent phase

I really do understand the impulse to support the only candidate left in the race who voted against the war, and Kucinich is on the Michigan ballot I believe.

fyi - new Front thread