Don Singleton

Saturday, April 05, 2008

YouGov poll

Gulf Times reported A YouGov poll commissioned by the Doha Debates has concluded that nearly one-third of all Arabs believe that Saudi Arabia is at greater risk from religious extremism than any other country in the world.

That is because everyone there is a Muslim, and most are Wahhabi Muslims.

The poll adds weight to the vote at a session of the Doha Debates held on March 3 in Doha, where the motion “This house believes that Muslims are failing to combat extremism”, was carried by more than 70% of the audience.

The other 30% were extremists feeling they should have more freedom to expand extremism.

In the YouGov survey, nearly half of all Arabs in the Gulf, Levant and North Africa said they have met someone who holds extreme religious views.

And what did they do to change their minds?

Asked under what conditions violence is permissible, more than 60% cited Western interference in a Muslim country,

And the other 40% favor Muslim interference in a Western Country.

while 55% said offensive words or behavior was a trigger.

They never heard "sticks and stones can break your bones, words can never hurt you."

More than half the respondents also believed that poor religious leadership is to blame for today’s extremism – although seven out of 10 said the size of the problem had been exaggerated.
Eight out of 10 believed it provides an excuse for the West to interfere in Muslim countries.

Then if you don't like the interference, stop the extremism, and remove the excuse.

In the poll, conducted between March 18 and 23, views of 940 people across the Arab world were surveyed.

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Friday, April 04, 2008

Islam's Not For Me

There was a lot of yelling about Fitna, and it appears the cartoon movie that was supposed to follow, will never be made, but I thought this movie at least had a catchy tune.

Hat tip Stable Hand

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Cannibals

Hot Air reported Ted Turner said Not doing it will be catastrophic. We’ll be eight degrees hottest in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow.

Not even in Northern states?

Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals.

I see Ted plans to be one of the cannibals.

Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state — like Somalia or Sudan — and living conditions will be intolerable. The droughts will be so bad there’ll be no more corn grown.

No more corn grown? Oh, my gosh, how will we waste our food making ethanol to make cannibals like Ted happy.

Not doing it is suicide. Just like dropping bombs on each other, nuclear weapons is suicide. We’ve got to stop doing the suicidal two things, which are hanging on to our nuclear weapons and after that we’ve got to stabilize the population. When I was born-

CHARLIE ROSE: So what’s wrong with the population?

TURNER: We’re too many people. That’s why we have global warming. We have global warming because too many people are using too much stuff.

Finally the real cause of global warming. It is not the greenhouse gas, it is too many people are using too much stuff. But why does he oppose wars. They would get rid of people and then they would not use too much stuff.

If there were less people, they’d be using less stuff.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Voluntary Tax System

Jan Helfeld interviews Senator Harry Reid about government coercion. Reid maintains that taxation is voluntary despite all evidence to the contrary.

Hat tip Free Liberal

Communist Party USA endorsing the Democrats

Communist Party USA endorsing the Democrats. See CPUSA

Monday, March 31, 2008

Fitna reaction

Reuters reported About 50 members of a hardline Indonesian Muslim group held a rowdy protest outside the Dutch embassy on Monday, calling for the death of a Dutch lawmaker behind a film accusing the Koran of inciting violence.

Protestors calling for violence? Who exactly is inciting violence, a short movie, or the protestors?

Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Freedom Party in the Netherlands, launched his short video on the Internet last week, drawing condemnation from Muslim nations.... "I call on Muslims around the world, if you run into the maker of the film, kill him," said one of the speakers at the rally, Awit Mashuri.

A representative of the "Religion of Peace".

"Geert Wilders is a Christian terrorist,"

How many people has he killed? How many bombs has he set off? How many planes has he flown into buildings?

declared a placard held up by a protester. "Kill Geert Wilders," read another.

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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Keep talking Obama, you will kill your candidacy eventually

Politico.com reported Opponents of Obama's plan are expected to jump on a quote from his Q and A session in Johnstown, Pa., yesterday. Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown reports that it followed “Obama's earlier comments that he does not favor abstinence-only education but, rather, comprehensive sexual education that includes information on abstinence and birth control.” “Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old," Obama said. "I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.

A baby is not punishment It is a gift from God. Do you and your wife consider your two daughters punishment? I know your wife does not like to spend money sending them to camp or on music lessons, but beside that

I don't want them punished with an STD at age 16,

Abstinence will protect them. Other methods will not.

so it doesn't make sense to not give them information."

Keep talking Obama, you will kill your candidacy eventually

Anti-abortion leaders will be encouraged to make the “punished with a baby” part famous.

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Social Security

Think Progress lies On ABC’s This Week today, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) falsely claimed that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “is not for the private accounts to take the place of social security.” “He’s for what Bill Clinton used to call Social Security plus,” said Lieberman.... As Stephanopoulos noted, McCain has abandoned his initial Social Security plan, which called for “supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts,” in order to embrace President Bush’s failed effort to replace the system with private accounts.

That is not what Bush proposed. Bush wanted
As we fix Social Security, we must make it a better deal for our younger workers by allowing them to put part of their payroll taxes in personal retirement accounts.
Personal accounts would be entirely voluntary.
The money would go into a conservative mix of bond and stock funds that would have the opportunity to earn a higher rate of return than anything the current system could provide.
A young person who earns an average of $35,000 a year over his or her career would have nearly a quarter million dollars saved in his or her own account upon retirement.
That savings would provide a nest egg to supplement that worker’s traditional Social Security check, or to pass on to his or her children.
Best of all, it would replace the empty promises of the current system with real assets of ownership.

“I believe that private savings accounts are a part of” Social Security reform “along the lines that President Bush proposed,” McCain told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.

Dutch fear of riots drops, fear of Islam increases

Islam in Europe reported TV show EenVandaag ran a survey of opinions about Wilders' film and Islam. 44% agree with Wilders that "Islam is out to destroy Western civilization."

The other 56% were seen smoking funny cigarettes.

88% of Wilders' supporters think so.

What are the other 12% smoking

At the beginning of March 52% of the Dutch feared riots in the Netherlands and 62% expected attacks on Dutch embassies and companies abroad. Now just 20% expect riots at home and 30% expect riots abroad.

But are they going to limit further immigration, and are they going make sure that the ones there adapt to Dutch customs.

90% thought the film exceeded their expectations. 82% says that 'a lot of fuss was made about nothing'. 70% think the film is not insulting to Muslims.

It is not. It is only insulting to those that think violence is the answer to everything.

About three quarters of those surveyed who had seen Fitna said their image of Islam did not change. 23% think of it more negatively. Three quarters of Wilders' followed had seen the movie in its entirety and the rest want to see it. 93% of supporters thought the film was good to very good. The study was conducted among 10,000 member of the EenVandaag opinion panel.

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Gore???

Telegraph reported Former Gore aides now believe he could emerge as a compromise candidate acceptable to both camps at the party's convention in Denver during the last week of August. Two former Gore campaign officials have told The Sunday Telegraph that a scenario first mapped out by members of Mr Gore's inner circle last May now has a sporting chance of coming true.

Tose officials probably also believe in Global Warming and the Easter Bunny.

... If neither Mr Obama nor Mrs Clinton has the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination, and if both appear unable to beat Mr McCain, under one scenario a group of about 100 party elders - the "super-delegates" - could sit out the first ballot in Denver, preventing either candidate winning outright,

That should make for some interesting TV coverage.

and then offer Mr Gore the nomination for the good of the party. Tim Mahoney, a Democrat congressman from Florida, said last week: "If it goes into the convention, don't be surprised if someone different is at the top of the ticket." This suggests the party would accept a Gore-Clinton or a Gore-Obama pairing.

Blacks are going to be upset if the super delegates take the nomination away from Obama, and give it to a White Woman, just think what they will say if they give it to a White Man. And Hillary's people are so eager for a woman to win, why are they going to prefer a white man to a black man?

Following a brief flurry of speculation that he might jump into the race last year, Mr Gore claimed he had "fallen out of love" with politics,

That is because he can make more money selling carbon credits t gullible people.

but he has pointedly refused to rule out another tilt at the White House and said that the only job in public life that interests him is the presidency.

Jules Crittenden blogged I think my favorite part … aside from the whole thing, that is … is the idea that replacing the Hero of Tuzla and the change-hoping bigot buddy with an exaggerating doomsayer somehow gets this train back on the rails.

Michael van der Galien blogged “I invented the Internet and I won the Nobel Peace Prize (which I also may have invented); elect me president!” Yeah, that’ll work.

Gaius blogged So, the two candidates would cheerfully surrender to a man who has not lifted a finger during the entire campaign for either of them or for the Democratic party itself. Did Gore withhold his endorsement hoping for the nomination? Quite possibly. If I were a backer of either of the two candidates, I would be furious if a bunch of party insiders threw my choice under the bus for such a cold, calculating and selfish man. Gore has enough baggage - and enough history of America-bashing remarks in the years since he lost the 2000 election to make his candidacy very iffy at best - especially with only a couple of months to do it in.

I can't see either Obama or Clinton agreeing to be the second banana on the ticket, either. So a Gore candidacy would likely be seen as even more of a smoke-filled room deal. I think the Democrats have actually found a scenario that makes it even worse for them than it already is, bless them.

Gateway Pundit blogged It looks like Al Gore has already saved the planet from warming as evidenced by the record snow and low temperatures this past year and scientific data proving the planet is cooling. Halleluiah.

Mark R. Levin blogged what about all the excitement over the possibility of the first woman or first black president? That goes down the tubes with the nomination of Gore. It seems to me that a Gore nomination creates serious problems for the Democrat Party. So, I would encourage the Democrats to do it.

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Saturday, March 29, 2008

What Dean said in 2004

Jake Tapper made an interesting observation on Political Punch on the Dean quotes from 2004 that may come back to haunt him this year.

"The real issue is this," Dean said in March 2004, when endorsing formal rival Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., "Who would you rather have in charge of the defense of the United States of America, a group of people who never served a day overseas in their life, or a guy who served his country honorably and has three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star on the battlefields of Vietnam?"

McCain, by the way, has been awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, two Bronze Star Medals, a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

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Save the World

New York Times reported two men filed a lawsuit in federal court in Hawaii turn out to be right. They think a giant particle accelerator that will begin smashing protons together outside Geneva this summer might produce a black hole or something else that will spell the end of the Earth — and maybe the universe.

And they think a district court in Hawaii can stop that?

Scientists say that is very unlikely — though they have done some checking just to make sure.

Glad they are checking.

The world’s physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion

And these nuts could not have filed their case before the $8 billion was spent?

building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.

But Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter.”

I think that has already happened. There are a lot of things happening nw that are pretty strange.

Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

What is the environmental impact of a black hole swallowing up the earth?

.... Why should CERN, an organization of European nations based in Switzerland, even show up in a Hawaiian courtroom?

Good question, especially after the Supreme Court said Texas did not have to follow a world court decision demanding a new trial for an illegal alien sentenced to die for some terrible crimes, that did not get to call the Mexican Embassy.

Although it is warmer in Hawaii than Switzerland. Maybe they will want to take a tropical vacation.

In an interview, Mr. Wagner said, “I don’t know if they’re going to show up.” CERN would have to voluntarily submit to the court’s jurisdiction, he said, adding that he and Mr. Sancho could have sued in France or Switzerland, but to save expenses they had added CERN to the docket here.... James Gillies, head of communications at CERN, said the laboratory as of yet had no comment on the suit. “It’s hard to see how a district court in Hawaii has jurisdiction over an intergovernmental organization in Europe,” Mr. Gillies said.

My first thought.

... This is not the first time around for Mr. Wagner. He filed similar suits in 1999 and 2000 to prevent the Brookhaven National Laboratory from operating the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. That suit was dismissed in 2001. The collider, which smashes together gold ions in the hopes of creating what is called a “quark-gluon plasma,” has been operating without incident since 2000.... The new worries are about black holes, which, according to some variants of string theory, could appear at the collider. That possibility, though a long shot, has been widely ballyhooed in many papers and popular articles in the last few years, but would they be dangerous?

According to a paper by the cosmologist Stephen Hawking in 1974, they would rapidly evaporate in a poof of radiation and elementary particles, and thus pose no threat. No one, though, has seen a black hole evaporate.

If you want to watch one, be sure to stay outside of it's event horizon.

... Dr. Arkani-Hamed said concerning worries about the death of the Earth or universe, “Neither has any merit.” He pointed out that because of the dice-throwing nature of quantum physics, there was some probability of almost anything happening. There is some minuscule probability, he said, “the Large Hadron Collider might make dragons that might eat us up.”

Better stop it. Black holes and strange matter are one thing, but I did not realize it could create dragons.

APS2

For preceding post on this subject, click here. For the next post, click here.

I am a 65 year old adult with a couple of medical problems that leave me homebound. I am have several good friends that help me with shopping, transportation when I need to go to the doctor, and I have a very good Home Health Care Nurse.

On Wednesday, March 12, my privacy was invaded by Alan Stie, from the OKDHS department of Adult Protective Services, saying someone filed an APS complaint indicating I was in danger. He harassed me for 30 minutes to an hour, with a large number of questions, forcing me to prove that I was oriented times three (a medical term indicating I know who I am, where I am, what time it is, and that I completely understand my situation). I convinced him I was not in danger, and yet he refused to say who filed the complaint. I started calling around, and found that there was a high probability that it was filed by a social worker who was trying to hurt one of my care givers who was doing a very good job, but who the social worker did not like.

Alan's boss Russell Jones was out of town, so I complained to Gerald Davis, who was of no help, so I escalated to Stephen R Scott - Area 6 Director, who was of no help either, so I went to Larry Johnson - Field Operations Division Director. He tried to derail me by saying he was going to have his boss respond, to which I gave this response, and he then waited until after 5pm Friday, when I already started working on capuring the emails of the people to notify next (since I told him that if I had to go to his boss I would be going public with my complaint), and his response was just that he had writtem me a letter. But I am not waiting for the letter.

When I referred it to Larry Johnson I blogged about it, and now, in addition to complaining to Marq Youngblood, I am blogging about it again, and contacting 30 fellow bloggers, to see if they will cover it, and I am contacting 16 people in the media (radio, TV, and print). I am also filing a complaint with a number of local and Federal Agencies and national organiations to help Senior Citizens. None of these complaints is likely to topple OKDHS, but they will be an annoyance to respond to, and failure to respond to them will just have people that much more suspicious about OKDHS, and none of it would have been necessary if Gerald, Stephen, or Larry had been bright enough to realize they were protecting an evil person, and that they cold have refocused my ire toward the really guilty party, and her bosses.

I have already contacted my state senators and representative, as well as all of the members of the senate and house committies with oversight responsibility over OKDHS, and I have a lawyer with the Oklahoma Disability Law Center researching the matter as well. If Marq Youngblood can't help me, I will be contacting my federal senators and representative, as well as all of the members of the senate and house committies that would be in a position to consider federal legislation to help protect vulnerable adults.

Marc is basically the top of the bureaucracy. If he cannot help me, and if I have to go to Howard H Hendrick - Director of Human Services (Cabinet Secretary), Richard L.DeVaughn - Chairman Oklahoma Commission for Human Services, and then Brad Henry - Governor, we will have left the bureaucracy and gone into the political relm, so I will be reaching out to the Democratic and Republican parties. Oklahoma is a Red state, and yet it has a Democratic Governor, so I am sure the Republicans will be interested in something to use in November against the Democrats, and the Democrats will be very concerned to know what they may see in a campaign ad.

I know Marc's first thought will be to fall back on "we must protect the identity of someone that files a complaint" but there are two problems with that. One is I know for a fact that my neighbor reported her cousin, who checked himself out of a nursing home, and who was not taking his medication, and the APS agent that went to see him had no problem telling the cousin that it was my neighbor that triggered his visit. The other is that I looked up the law that DHS said forced them to keep the information confidential, 43A O.S. § 10-110, and section B.5 provides you can tell a family member, and I told each person up the chain of command that they could make me stop by just telling my brother, who is my next-of-kin, and they refused.

Does anyone want to take bets whether Marc will help me, or will he do as those before him, and just shoot OKDHS in the foot?

Hillary for NY Governor?

Jonathan Alter wrote on Newsweek.com Some Democrats terrified that their bloody primary campaign will doom them in November are floating a consolation prize for Hillary Clinton: governor of New York.

Isn't it bad enough having her as a senator, why would you want the witch as a Governor?

The travails of New York Gov. David Paterson

I would be surprised if Paterson resigns. He was not the "Sheriff of Wall Street" prosecuting people for what he was doing, and he is a Democrat, and they get by with many things Republicans could not.

have opened up a new potential career path for Clinton, according to well-informed Democratic Party insiders who refused to allow their names to be used when discussing contingencies. They want her to consider the option if she concludes after the April 22 Pennsylvania primary that she cannot overtake Barack Obama for the party's presidential nomination. Hillary Clinton, while fully committed to continuing her presidential campaign, was said to be open to discussing the idea, while Bill Clinton rejected it out of hand.

Hillary will soon reject it out of hand as well.

With former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani now reported by the New York Post to be weighing a race for governor, voters could see a Clinton-Giuliani matchup after all.

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Obama might have left the church

Ben Smith said on Politico.com In a clip posted by ABC, Obama says: 'Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate

Can Obama provide us with a clip where Wright said that?

and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country -- for all its flaws -- then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying there at the church."

First Obama never heard him saying those things, then he heard them, but can't disown him, then he might have disowned him if he not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate. Is anyone taking bets on how long it will be before Obama goes ahead and resigns from Trintity, especially after the new pastor's sermon on Easter.

In Obama's speech in Philadelphia last week, he said: "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community."

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Fitna

Thanks to LiveLeak, and to hell with the dhimmis at Network Solutions, here is Geert Wilder's Fitna Film. View it quickly, because I don't know how long it will be up.

The cowards at LiveLeak deleted it, but then they found their backbones, and restored it. It is also on Google Video and I will list both, just in case one disappears.

And if it somehow disappears from both I have it on my HD in flv, avi, wmv and mp4 formats, and it will be available somewhere, despite what the nuts do.

If the Muslims don't like Fitna, just think what they will do when this comes out.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Sound bites

Yahoo! News reported The Rev. Marcus Cosby, pastor at Houston's Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, told Houston television station KTRK and the Houston Chronicle that safety concerns had prompted Wright's decision. Cosby told the Chronicle that Wright cited three reasons for canceling: "the safety of the institution to which he has been invited;

Does he think we are like Muslims and likely to burn down his church because we don't like what Wright said?

the safety of his family,

Has anyone threatened Wright's family?

which has been placed in harm's way; and for his own safety."....

But mainly it is for the safety of Obama's campaign.

"I think we have taken Dr. Wright out of context with sound bites," Cosby said. "After all these years, I am not going to kick him to the curb over sound bites."

They kicked Don Imus to the curb over "nappy headed hoes". What is the difference. Wright may have said a lot of good things, ust as Imus did in all of his years o the radio, but Wright said a number of bad things like "God damn America", "God damn America", we were responsible for 9/11, etc.

In a speech last week, Obama sharply condemned Wright's remarks and the preacher's refusal to acknowledge progress in race relations. But the Illinois senator refused to repudiate Wright.

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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Andrew Sullivan is sad

Andrew Sullivan blogged Jeremiah Wright is now the moral equivalent of David Duke?

In some ways he is worse, because Jeremiah Wright spewed his hatred in front of a large Church for many years, rather than just in front of some other white supremacists.

The latest Clintonite ratchets up the Wright issue still further. However dim a view you take of some of Wright's rhetorical excesses, and I'm not defending them,

That is nice you say that, but then you go on to offset it with "good works" his church did.

to compare a man whose church has such a long history of social work, black self-help, outreach to people with HIV, and inclusion of gay people

Now we see why gay Andrew Sullivan is willing to ignore Wright's rhetoric.

to a rank neo-Nazi is another step too far.

Wight is a black racist, Duke is a white racist. I despise both.

Comparing the first potential black president's

I thought Bill Clinton was said to be the first Black President.

pastor to a man who represents some of the worst racism in America

Why is racisism any worse coming out of the mouth of a white man than a black man. Both are bad.

is also bound to impact African-Americans. If the Clintons keep this up, they will not only destroy Obama's chances in the fall, they may also make it very hard for black Democrats to vote for a Clinton again.

Or maybe even a Deocrat again. Why are they in the Democratic Party's back pocket. It was Republican Lincoln that freed the slaves, and it was southern Democrats that oppressed the blacks for so long, and kept them from adcancing with welfare programs, and other things, as Lt. Colonel Frances Rice lists.

Josh comments here. I think Clinton has decided to use race in the way that Republicans have for the past couple of decades,

Urging them to work as hard as they want, and climb as igh as they want, without holding them down???

to play on white resentment of what are regarded as double-standards on race and to fuse the integrative, dignified campaign of Obama in the minds of some white ethnic Americans with demagoguic soundbites from Wright.

The goal is to win a huge margin in Pennsylvania and to use that as an appeal to the super-delegates that Obama cannot be elected in key swing states with white working class voters. If that won't work, Clinton will have done all she can to ensure Obama's defeat by McCain in the fall, which she will then use as vindication for another run in 2012.

Both are hurting each other. 22% of Democrats Want Clinton to Drop Out; 22% Say Obama Should Withdraw and If it is McCain vs. Obama, 28% of Clinton Backers Go for McCain, If McCain vs. Clinton, 19% of Obama backers go for McCain

It's called destroying the party

Go Hillary

(and wounding the country racially) in order to save the Clintons. It doesn't surprise me, but I can't help but feel it is going to enrage many Democrats, especially those who felt that this time, a candidate they loved had a chance to bring the country together.

There is one. It is the Centrist McCain, not either Hillary or Obama, both fighting for the far left.

Not if the Clintons can help it.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

New governing majority

Robin Toner wrote in New York Times At the core of Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is a promise that he can transcend the starkly red-and-blue politics of the last 15 years, end the partisan and ideological wars and build a new governing majority.... But this promise leads, inevitably, to a question: Can such a majority be built and led by Mr. Obama, whose voting record was, by one ranking, the most liberal in the Senate last year?

Of course not. The far left would like to think it can grab power, but if it gets it, the right will resist with even more polarization. The only chance for a a new and less polarized type of politics is to start in the center, which is where McCain is, and Obama and Hillary are not. After the convention they will try to move to the center, but claiming to be in the center is not the same as actually being there. Here is an example. John Amato is beating up on Debbie Wasserman Schultz because she won’t publicly join Democratic Party efforts to unseat the three Cuban-American congressional Republicans from Miami-Dade County. And the reason she has said is that she can’t risk the consequences if she publicly works against U.S. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen — and they end up getting re-elected. Debbie knows she is not going to be able to get rid of all Repoblicans, and even Centrist Democrats like the rabid left wants, and she is going to need to be able to work with them in the future.

Also, and more immediately, if Mr. Obama wins the Democratic nomination, how will his promise of a new and less polarized type of politics fare against the Republican attacks that since the 1980s have portrayed Democrats as far out of step with the country’s values?

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Dream team

Susan Page writes in USAToday What are the odds Democrats will field a "dream team ticket" with Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton combining forces?

The chances are about the same as pigs flying. If Obama accepted the VP under Hillary, he would at best be third in line for power, because Bill would always be there grabbing the spotlight, and if Hillary was stupid enough to join Obama's ticket she would really find the position not worth a bucket of warm spit, because Obama would be so weak that many different power brokrs in the Democratic party would be jockeying for power, and the Clinton wing would be just one of many.

London bookmaker Ladbrokes is taking bets at 8-1, but leading Democratic insiders aren't ready to put down their money — yet. The conundrum: The need for a coalition ticket that could mend the party's divisions becomes more urgent as the primary battle stretches on and takes a harsher tone. Yet as their fight gets fiercer, it becomes harder to imagine the two ever getting together.

Everyone is worried about what will happen if there is a brokered convention. I am hoping there will be one, because regardless of who ends up the candidate, the Democratic Party will be split. But Mark Tomasik is crazy if he thinks a brokered convention will end up as a Gore-led ticket.

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