Links of the Day: Links of the Day 4/23/2008 Oil Hits New High and Don't forget who has the oil, Canadian Prime Minister warns US

Clinton Wins.

Gees I guess you people in Pennsylvania like the same ol same ol. Change must not appeal to you, you like the way you’ve been treated for the last 30 years.

I guess you too want to bomb , bomb, bomb bomb bomb Iran. Lemmie tell you we are not the policemen of the world Israel can take care of herself.

You like dirty political ads that scare you and you like the Karl Rove politics. Oh well.

Even we here in Missouri voted for change and went with Obama.

Here is the Pennsylvania results. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#PA

Clinton the Brawler Beats Obama the Consensus Builder

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted April 23, 2008.

Clinton wins Pennsylvania to fight on, while Obama maintains a firm delegate lead.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) pledged to continue her campaign Tuesday in a victory speech in Pennsylvania, where she said she was best qualified to be the Democratic presidential nominee after beating Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) by 10 points in the Pennsylvania primary.

"Some people counted me out and said to drop out, but the American people don't quit and they want a president who doesn't want to quit either," Clinton told a packed Philadelphia ballroom in her first remarks in many days that contained no criticism of Obama -- after what many observers said was the most mud-filled primary yet.

Still, Clinton left no doubt that she would fiercely compete for the nomination, saying she would campaign in upcoming primaries that continue into early June.

"My answer to any who doubt is, 'Yes we will,'" she said, to cheers.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton led Obama 55 percent to 45 percent. Early analysis suggested Clinton's win would cut into Obama's 144-delegate lead by perhaps 20 delegates, a gain that could be reversed if Obama wins in North Carolina, as polling suggests, in two weeks. Also on May 6 is Indiana's primary, which is expected to be close.

"I am in this race to fight for every one who has been counted out," Clinton said, striking the underdog theme. Early in her remarks, while live on national television, she asked for donations, saying, "The fate of this campaign is in your hands."

Meanwhile, Sen. Obama, speaking at a rally in Evansville, Indiana, congratulated Clinton and thanked supporter, including new voters and people who returned to voting after many years. He then returned to his main theme in the final days of the Pennsylvania race: that he wants to change Washington, for both Republicans and Democrats, so Americans can have a government that is responsive to real public needs.

"We believe that the challenges we face are bigger than the smallness of our politics and we know that this election is our chance to change it," Obama said. "The question is not whether the other party will bring change to Washington, but will we ... because the truth is the challenges we face are not just the fault of one man or one party."

Summing up, Obama implicitly criticized the heavily negative tactics of the just-finished Pennsylvania contest, where most outside observers -- including Wednesday's editorial in The New York Times -- said Clinton was to blame for throwing the most political mud.

"We can be the party that says and does whatever it takes to win the next election," he said. "We can calculate and poll-test our positions, tell everyone exactly what they want to hear. Or we can be the party that doesn't just focus on how to win, but why we should win. We can tell everyone what they need to hear about the challenges we face. We can seek to redeem, not just an office, but the trust of the American people."

What Next?

As the candidates resume campaigning in the next primary states, Indiana and North Carolina, political analysts and Democratic Party leaders -- including approximately 850 super-delegates that have not yet pledged to back either candidate -- will be taking a hard look at the reality of which candidate can win the 2,024 delegates to get the nomination and be best positioned to challenge the Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz).

The difference between the campaigns' views on this point is significant and can be described as largely generational. Clinton's campaign has been arguing that it is best suited to challenge McCain because its candidate has won in major must-win states for the fall, such as New York, California, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It discounts Obama's victories in red states where Republicans have held majorities until now or very recent state elections. On the other hand, the Obama campaign sees itself as redrawing the political map -- much like Ronald Reagan did in 1980 or John F. Kennedy did in 1960, when those candidates brought a new generation of voters into their parties.

Both candidates mobilized crucial bases in the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania. Clinton won in the state's blue-collar regions, where steel mills closed a decade ago and people have struggled to keep a middle-class lifestyle. She also won among seniors in a state that has one of the highest percentages of elderly in the country, Catholics, and according to reports, attracted young voters in the working-class regions.

Obama, in contrast, won among the state's African-Americans, who are concentrated in its cities such as Philadelphia. He also won among middle-class whites in the suburbs in the state's southeast region and among students at mid-state universities.

The party's superdelegates, its elected officials and luminaries, will parse these splits in coming weeks as they decide whom to support. Those political insiders will be looking at issues that will not be in front of voters in the remaining primary states, such as each candidate's fundraising abilities and damage to the party of an increasingly negative contest. Party leaders fear these attacks will continue and would damage the eventual nominee as Sen. McCain escapes scrutiny.

The Spin

Earlier Tuesday, both campaigns issued statements spinning Clinton's expected victory.

The Clinton campaign, for its part, does not acknowledge any scenario that would counter its claim that she can win the needed number of delegates to be the nominee. They asked Tuesday why Obama did not win decisively if he was the best candidate to beat McCain in the fall.

"Sen. Obama's supporters -- and many pundits -- have argued that the delegate 'math' makes him the prohibitive frontrunner," the Clinton campaign's prepared statement said. "So if he's already the frontrunner, if he's had six weeks of unlimited resources to get his message out, shouldn't he be the one expected to win tonight? If not, why not?"

The Obama camp, in contrast, noted that Clinton had advantages that money cannot buy, such as the endorsement of Pennsylvania's popular and influential Democratic Governor, Edward Rendell, and the backing of his organization in a state with a history of loyal party politics. Still, Obama's staff said he would clinch the nomination in coming contests because the "delegate math" was on his side.

"We anticipate having a comfortable lead when voting in the last nine contests wraps up in June," his campaign said. "Sen. Obama will continue to gain strength with Democratic super delegates. He will maintain his position as the best candidate to take on John McCain. And he will be ready to unite the American people and begin a new chapter in our history."

http://www.alternet.org/election08/83233/?page=entire

April 23, 2008

Q: What Happened in Pennsylvania's Primary Election Today?

A: We'll Never Know.

PA Primary Called "All-Important." Democracy? Not So Much.

Once again, Keystone Staters were forced to cast their votes on non-transparent, unreliable and often inaccessible electronic voting machines, machines that produce results that cannot be proven to have any relationship whatsoever to the votes actually cast by voters.

While it's not possible to know how Pennsylvania as a whole voted today, nor whether any individual vote was counted as cast--and it never will be known--it is possible to know that eligible voters were denied the right to cast a ballot, that machines malfunctioned, that election laws were broken.

For details on that, we refer you to Velvet Revolution co-founder Brad Friedman's coverage over at The BRAD BLOG: Pennsylvania Primary: E-Voting, Registration, Polling Place Problem Report Wire and background information in Monday's blog post: The Pennsylvania Primary: Democracy of the Gods: Tuesday's Election Will be 'Unrecountable, Unverifiable, and Unauditable'...

For more analysis, check out Voice of the Voters on Wednesday night, April 23. This weekly election reform radio show hails from Pennsylvania, and host Mary Ann Gould has a great line-up of guests for this week. Listen online! or if you're in the greater Philadelphia area, tune in to 1360 a.m. ( http://www.1360wptt.com/ ) This week's special 90-minute show begins at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.

And, as always, check Daily Voting News by Voters Unite's John Gideon, posted daily at The BRAD BLOG or available by free email subscription from VotersUnite.org

Posted by Editor on April 23, 2008 7:33 AM

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce/

Brad has all the voting machine problems here http://www.bradblog.com/

News from the Votemaster

Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary by about 9.4%. Here is the map of the results by county. More details can be found at the NY Times.

PA map

Obama did well around Philadelphia, including Dauphin, Lancaster, Chester, and Philadelphia counties, winning by 10% in most of them. He won by 20% in Centre county, where Penn State University is located and eked out a narrow victory in neighboring Union county. The rest of the state was Hillaryland, where she rolled up big victories. In Lackawanna county in the northeast, for example, she won by an astounding 48%. She even won Allegheny county (Pittsburgh) by 8%, an area Obama had hoped to win. All in all, the voting pattern was similar to Ohio.

Here is what the exit polls had to show. Among men it was Obama 53% to 46% but among women it was the reverse, Clinton by 56% to 44%. However, breaking that down by race gives a different picture. She won white men 53% to 46% and white women 64% to 36%. Obama won black men 96% to 4% and black women 89% to 11%. We've seen that before only never so starkly. Black women identify enormously by race and hardly at all by gender. By income we again see the usual pattern, with Clinton winning by about 10% in households making under $75,000 a year and Obama winning those making $150,000. Also following the usual pattern: among high school graduates, Clinton won by 28% while Obama won the people who have done postgraduate study by 4%. Clinton won among Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Obama won voters under 44 and Clinton won voters 45 and older.

These demographics have held for pretty much all the big industrial states in the rust belt all year. What is new is the partisanship. 98% of the Clinton voters said they would be satisfied only if Clinton were the nominee and 97% of the Obama voters said it's Obama or nothing. Also, 94% of the Clinton voters thought she will be the nominee, despite most outside experts having serious doubts about that.

In short, the Democratic party is deeply divided and that division is likely to continue until at least June 3. There are very clear demographic groups supporting each candidate and elections seem to turn on which candidate's group is larger in a given state. In North Carolina, Obama is likely to win due to the presence of many black voters, who go overwhelmingly for Obama. Clinton is likely to abandon North Carolina and concentrate entirely on Indiana, which also votes May 6. A clear Obama victory there could knock her out, but the state is a mixture of rural and rust belt, like Ohio and Pennsylvania, so she has a good chance there.

Here is a new poll of North Carolina. We also have new head-to-head polls in New York, showing either Democrat beating McCain there.

State	Pollster	End date	Clinton	Obama
North Carolina	SurveyUSA	Apr. 21	41%	50%

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

Obama camp charging voting problems in PA

Nick Juliano
Published: Tuesday April 22, 2008

Update: Local campaign alleges 'dirty tricks' in voting problems

Barack Obama's campaign has been circulating anecdotal reports of voting machine problems in some Philadelphia precincts, according to news reports.

The site Election Journal has been compiling reports of voting machine malfunctions and other problems throughout the day Tuesday. Brad Friedman also is compiling reports of voting problems on his blog.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, several machines were malfunctioning in the city, leading one local candidates campaign to allege "dirty tricks" were the cause.

Readers and Inquirer reporters attempting to cast ballots this morning found long lines across the region created by broken machines.

One of two machines was down at a busy Delaware County polling site. About 50 people already had voted by 9:15 a.m. at the Temple Israel on Spruce and Bywood Avenue in Upper Darby, which is heavily populated by immigrant and first time voters. Many of those freshly-minted voters had difficulties using the one machine that still functioned. "Hell of a day for one of the machines to be down," said one poll worker.

In South Philadelphia, both voting machines were broken at 4th and Ritner, smack dab in the middle of a John Dougherty strong hold. "The dirty tricks have begun," said Frank Keel, spokesman for the Dougherty campaign, who sees a conspiracy.

A local elections official interviewed on MSNBC acknowledged some problems early Tuesday morning, but he said those had been resolved before midday. He denied reports that only one or two voting machines were functional in some predominantly African American neighborhoods.

"We had a few problems early on. We always do," Fred Voight, a deputy commissioner in Philadelphia told MSNBC.

Video of Voight's interview is available here.

He called reports of machines breaking down "flat out untrue" and said "everything is working throughout the city as we speak." The interview aired around 11:15 a.m. Tuesday.

The Justice Department announced Monday that it would have monitors in Philadelphia to ensure compliance with voting laws.

Obama's campaign apparently passed along anecdotal reports of voting machine problems earlier Tuesday morning, MSNBC reported. Voight told the network that "campaigns are like four steps removed from where things are actually happening."

In two Pittsburgh neighborhoods, Obama's campaign also circulated reports of voting problems, according to the Tribune Review:

Obama's campaign said there were problems with machines in Lincoln Place and the Hill District, but county officials couldn't confirm that.

The Post Gazette also reported some minor problems but said they weren't causing major delays:

Because of the expected large turnout, election judges' difficulty getting machines started at a polling place in North Braddock and another in the city's Banksville section prompted some concern.

At these two sites, election judges, clerks and inspectors, all nominally paid volunteers, initially were unable to print out verification that the voting machines had been set at zero.

Nothing was wrong with the machines in either case, Mr. Wolosik said.

A technician was dispatched to each location and helped to properly set up the machines.

More than 30 people in Banksville and several more in North Braddock used emergency paper ballots to cast their votes.

Post-Gazette readers also reported problems at one or two polling stations this morning, including Graham Field and Beacon Hill in Wilkinsburg.

No details were available about those issues.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified Philadelphia deputy commissioner Fred Voight

DEVELOPING...

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_camp_charging_voting_problems_in_0422.html

BUSH IN DENILE

Bush Says US Not in Recession; Dollar Slumps to New Low; Oil Hits New High

By Scott Stearns
New Orleans
22 April 2008

U.S. President George Bush says he is concerned about rising gasoline prices and the effects of higher energy costs on an already slowing economy. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, Mr. Bush made the comments in New Orleans, where he has been meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

President Bush says the U.S. economy is not in recession, but there is no doubt it is slowing down with higher food and health care costs depressing retail sales and a growing number of Americans struggling to make their house payments.

Record-high oil and gasoline prices are only making things worse. Speaking to reporters at the close of a summit with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, President Bush again called on Congress to approve a controversial plan that would allow drilling for oil in an Alaskan wildlife refuge.

"No question rising gasoline prices are like a tax on our working people," he said. "What is happening is that we have had an energy policy that neglected hydrocarbons in the United States for a long period of time, and now we are paying the price."

The president's comments came as the price of crude oil reached a new record above $119 a barrel and the U.S. dollar hit a record low against the euro. The U.S. housing market also continues to drag down the economy. Home sales and prices fell again last month with banks repossessing more and more homes as owners default on their mortgages.

Mexican President Calderon said the U.S. slowdown is being felt beyond its borders.

"I think that the steps taken so far by the fiscal tax monetary authorities in the United States and the Bush administration and in general have been appropriate. They have been the right measures, and we hope that they will very soon demonstrate effects so that we have a quick recovery among all our economies."

President Bush and opposition Democrats in Congress agreed on a temporary economic stimulus package of business incentives and tax rebates earlier this year. Mr. Bush said tax rebate checks should reach more than 130 million households next month, and that should begin to help the economy by the start of the third economic quarter in July.

He also called on Congress to make his record tax cuts permanent and criticized Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for saying they would repeal some of those cuts for wealthier Americans.

"You got people out there campaigning, 'Well, we are just going to tax the rich.' You can't raise enough money to meet their spending appetites by taxing the so-called rich," he said. "Every one of those so-called tax-the-rich schemes ends up taxing the middle class families. And in a time of economic uncertainty, we need tax certainty. At a time of rising gasoline prices, we need to be sending a message to all Americans: We are not going to raise your taxes."

This was the last North American leaders' summit for President Bush, who will be leaving office before next year's meeting in Mexico.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-22-voa54.cfm

Bush is running around the world trying to salvage his legacy. Fer-git-about-it George.

You sucked, your Administration sucked, your foreign policy sucks, EVERYTHING about your Presidency sucked.

Bush Hosts Middle East Leaders to Discuss Peace Effort

By VOA News
23 April 2008

U.S. President George Bush is hosting Jordan's King Abdullah and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas this week to discuss the Middle East peace process.

Mr. Bush held a private breakfast Wednesday with King Abdullah, who has supported the Bush administration's effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before the president's term ends early next year. King Abdullah later left the White House, making no comments to reporters.

Mr. Abbas is due to meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later Wednesday. He meets Thursday with President Bush.

The Palestinian president recently met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss a proposed peace conference to be hosted by the Kremlin.

Mr. Bush is set to visit the Middle East next month.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-23-voa14.cfm

Lets see if the MSM shows us this News Conference today. I’m betting they won’t. Maybe LeftTV or Democracy Now will air it.

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Walkout Coalition To Hold Press Conference Tomorrow to Support Rutgers Students Prosecuted for Protesting Iraq War

Charges Especially Contentious as Walkout Was Widely Reported as Peaceful with Police Pleased

New Brunswick, NJ – Tuesday April 22, 2008 – Three Rutgers students, Erik Straub, a Rutgers College junior and member of Tent State University/Students for a Democratic Society, Suzan Sanal, a Douglass College junior and member of Rutgers Against the War, and Arwa Ibrahim, a Rutgers College senior, have been issued summons for activities that took place during the March 27, 2008 Rutgers Walk Out Against the War. These three students will be issuing a statement at a press conference immediately preceding their first trial date this coming Wednesday, April 23rd at 11:00AM during the Tent State University event located on the College Avenue campus of Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ. The press conference will take place at the Vietnam War Memorial on Voorhees Mall.

The Walkout brought together about 600 Rutgers students and supporters, who walked out on their daily routine and rallied in protest of the war in Iraq. The Walkout culminated in a march, with an estimated 300 participants, that took a path through the streets of downtown New Brunswick and onto nearby highway Route 18.

Despite the fact that the action involved hundreds of students, police singled out only three for prosecution. Furthermore, while for the second year in a row the protest yielded no injuries, no arrests, and no incidents of vandalism or property damage, the New Brunswick Police Department is charging the three students with 'recklessly creating … a hazardous or physically dangerous condition by an act which serves no legitimate purpose.'

"91 Rutgers students will be shipped to Iraq beginning this month; Rutgers students are significantly more likely to be put into harm's way due to the criminally negligent actions of President Bush than they ever will be attending a protest in New Brunswick," replied Jean Pierre Mestanza, a member of the Walkout Coalition "The only hazardous and dangerous situation that has been created has been the result of the decision by the US government to invade Iraq." Mestanza went on to cite a recent report by the National Institute for Strategic Studies, a respected Defense Department research center, which referred to the Iraq war as "a major debacle."

Reactions among organizers of the Walkout have been mixed.

"I called my parents as soon as I found out," said a participant at the Walkout who wishes to remain anonymous. "I was worried when I heard they were prosecuting students because I was helping to organize during the march that day too. My job was mainly to walk around and make sure nothing got out of hand. One officer even thanked me after the event; I'm not sure if he opposed the war too or if he was just glad for the assistance we were providing by circulating through the crowd and keeping the situation calm and under control."

Other students took a different view.

"This is quite clearly selective political prosecution with the intent to intimidate organizers and prevent future protests from happening," said Adriel Bernal, a Walkout participant and member of Tent State University/Students for a Democratic Society. "They don't want us protesting against the war even if we're being peaceful and nonviolent. If we can't even protest peacefully in our own city, it's clear that our voices will never be strong enough to reach those in power elsewhere."

"While they're busy putting students on trial, they should be arresting the real criminals: the architects of the war," Bernal concluded.

The Walkout Coalition has issued the following demands in regards to the charges against Arwa, Suzan, and Erik, which they hope will be echoed and supported by the residents of New Brunswick, the Rutgers community, and peace and justice advocates across the United States and beyond:

To the New Brunswick Prosecutor's Office: Drop all charges against the Rutgers students being prosecuted in relation to the 2008 Walkout Against the War.

To the City of New Brunswick: Students are being prosecuted for peacefully opposing the war. It is obvious that the voice of students is not being considered in City Hall.

Therefore, we demand student seats on the New Brunswick City Council to represent our student neighborhoods. Student representation for our student wards! (www.empowernb.com)

As for Erik Straub, one of the students being prosecuted, he is trying to take everything in stride. "We all want our sisters and brothers in the military to come home," Straub explained. "While I don't relish the idea of spending any time in a jail cell, countless others have sacrificed even more in this unjust war. I am convinced we will defeat these unjust charges, but whatever happens, I believe I have a moral imperative to do whatever is required from me in the nonviolent pursuit of freedom from occupation for the Iraqi people and an end to the war."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=1002

Don't forget who has the oil, Canadian Prime Minister warns US

US, with less than 5 percent of the World's population, reports nearly 10 percent of its citizens behind bars

Fingerprints Aren’t ‘Personal Data’, Says US Homeland Security Chief

Load Up The Pantry, This Is Not A Drill

This is a must read article it’s written by a libertarian but he makes some sense.

Topic: Energy
It's the End of the World, as We Know it.

World oil production has peaked and is now in free-fall. The world as we know it will never be the same.

by Kipper Mathews
(Libertarian)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

With the latest crude oil price hitting $115 a barrel on Wall Street and more increases predicted to be on the way. I decided to do a little intensive investigating to see if I could find a common denominator between the rise in oil and the sharp incline in gold prices.

It wasn't long before I realized my search needed to be refined to just oil and it looks as though I may have to write about oil and gold together at another time, as there is so much that needs to be reported on with oil alone.

I figured that the big increases probably had something to do with Big Oil, the wars in the Middle East and/or George Bush and his friends pockets. Unfortunately, from a writers point of view, there is no obvious corporate conspiracy to blame it on.

The answer simply was in supply and demand, as production can't keep up with the worlds expanding addiction for not just gasoline, but for all of the many products and services that we take for granted, such as manufacturing, the computer industry and food production and transportation which are so dependent upon oil.

Our whole country and most of the industrialized countries of the world can't survive without oil as we have steadfastly defined our culture around its production.

The world as we know it is abruptly coming to an end and most people aren't even aware of it.

It is not that we are running out of oil so much as it is that we can't produce it fast enough to support the economy.

In the 1960's gas seemed to be an endless commodity and service stations around the country were having what was referred to as "gas wars." Stations were selling gas for as little as 18 cents per gallon trying to steal customers from their competitors.

Continued here http://www.nolanchart.com/article3498.html

Denmark evacuates Algeria, Afghanistan embassies over 'imminent' threat

Brown Faces Growing Revolt Over UK Tax Increase On 5.3 Million Of Poorest Families

Olmert tells Syrian President Assad he agrees to cede whole Golan for peace

Iran, UN nuclear watchdog agree to discuss nuclear allegations

Using Food to Make Fuel Is Criminal, Venezuela Says

Calderon defends Mexican immigrant workers in US

Bush, Harper, Calderon Defend Trade Amid Backlash

Ya think cuz Mexico gave Halliburton the contract to repair oil lines etc? YES I DO!

Mexican oil output falls 7.8 percent in first quarter

Mexico could lose its status as one of the World's largest oil exporters

The OCCUPATION of Iraq must end now!