Buck Naked Politics

Al Sadr to Allow Iraqi Troops in

McClatchy reports:

"Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad's Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki."

Burma's Junta Warned by UN of Likely Consequences of Delay in Allowing Foreign Relief Workers into Country; Junta has Other Priorities

Posted by Damozel | Once again, the UN's Secretary General has addressed the potential consequences of delay in getting aid to the stranded and homeless survivors of Burma's cyclone.  If Burma continues to ban foreign aid workers from relief work, the consequences may be dire. (BBC News)  "Aid agencies already in Burma say they have been doing what they can but are frustrated by the government's reluctance to allow international aid teams into the country and its insistence on distributing aid itself." (BBC News)

But the military junta seems to have other priorities just now.   

Hezbollah Militias Seize Control of Beirut, 'Worst Sectarian Violence Since the Early Nineties'

Posted by Damozel | Hezbollah militias have seized control of West Beirut, unleashing the worst sectarian violence since the end of Lebanon's 15 year-long civil war in the early Nineties. (CNN) 

Walid Jumblatt, a Druze leader and part of the pro-government coalition, described it as a "coup."... 

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called that conflict "a strategic and historic victory" but acknowledged underestimating the cost in lives and destruction. .....

More Tragedy Pending in Burma? The Burmese Gov't Accepts Supplies, but Spurns Other Foreign Assistance

Posted by Damozel | Look at these faces.  While the rest of the world wrings its hands and waits helplessly on the sidelines, Burma's government says it will accept aid, but that it doesn't want the help of foreigners in getting it to the people. (BBC News)  The UN is pretty sure the government's own unaided efforts won't be enough. 

The UN says that up to 1.5 million people may have been affected by Cyclone Nargis, which devastated the Irrawaddy Delta region on Saturday. Burmese state media say 22,980 people were killed, but there are fears the figure could rise to 100,000.

Hundreds of thousands of people have no food, water or shelter. Officials say people could die because no help is getting to them.

Special Counsel Stopped Investigation of Siegelman Prosecution

by D. Cupples |   While former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman was in prison, fifty-two former state attorneys General (including Republicans) asked Congress to investigate the questionable prosecution.  In October, Time Magazine published an in-depth story about it.  In February, CBS aired its 60 Minutes story (embedded below).  Siegelman was released in March, pending his appeal.

It turns out that the federal government had quietly launched an investigation and just as quietly stopped the investigation last year -- while Siegelman was still in jail.   The Associated Press reports:

Michigan Dems Want to do What? They Can do Better, and so Can the DNC

by D. Cupples |   Michigan's Democratic Party is proposing that Michigan's delegates be split 69 to 59 between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.  According to the actual election results, Hillary would get 73 delegates.  Jeralyn at TalkLeft sums up the results of the new proposal as follows:

"It not only gives Obama all of the uncommitted delegates, a number that includes those who voted for Edwards, Dodd, Kucinich and Gravel, it gives him some that voted for Hillary."

The actual results of Michigan's primary are below:

White House Says Emails During Iraq War Lead-up are Lost, Likely Un-recoverable

by Deb Cupples |   Despite the millions of tax dollars in its budget -- despite the legal duty under the Presidential Records Act to preserve records, the White House has had major troubles preserving emails. 

In November, a federal judge ordered the President's Executive Office to preserve emails relevant to two lawsuits.  The plaintiffs estimated that 5 million White House emails were missing.

Now, it turns out that the White House may have destroyed email records during key times that a curious public and Congress would like to see documentation of -- specifically during the weeks leading up to the Iraq war. This seems mighty convenient for the lame duck president who would likely prefer to not be thoroughly vilified in the history books.  Truthout's Matt Renner reports:

On the packaging of candidates we could have had

Posted by Damozel | First, if you're wondering what I think about Hillary's decision to continue running, the answer is I don't know what I think of it as a strategy.  Naturally I would like to believe that she could still somehow prevail.  I am not sanguine.  People are speculating that she is now running for the VP slot.  We'll see. 

But --- and this matters more to me --- I most definitely admire her for her unswerving commitment to see the process through.  Despite the pissing and moaning in the media, and whatever the outcome, I predict that the day will certainly arrive when people will look back with awe and amazement at  Hillary's insistence in going the distance against all odds and wish that they had chosen her.  She is indomitable.  I like that in a Democrat and so should other Democrats.  Alas, many of them are so beguiled by the media myths about Hillary that they just can't see what a force of nature she really is. 

Obama could learn a lot from her and he'd be a better (future) president for it.  Instead, I imagine we'll be stuck with him in his current incarnation --- all rhetoric, all the time.   

Telecom Amnesty: Compromise is Not Always Good

by Deb Cupples |   Fascism is "a merger of state and corporate power."  Who would know this better than the late fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, to whom the quote is often attributed (though scholars debate whether he had actually wrote it)?

A solid example of the "merger of state and corporate power" is the White House's push to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the Bush Administration illegally spy on Americans -- what many have short formed as "Telecom Amnesty."

Back in February, before he unofficially joined Barack Obama's campaign, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann gave a solid explanation as to why Telecom Amnesty is bad policy.

If you simply cannot endure 9-1/2 minutes of Olbermann's dramatically emotional delivery, check out the links at the end of this post.

NC and IN Primary Results: Which Polls Were Wrong?

by Deb Cupples |  Once again, it's time to play Which Polls Were Wrong?  Breakdowns of actual election results and pre-election polling data for Indiana's and North Carolina's primaries are below the jump:

Devastating Cyclone in Burma: Over 22,400 Confirmed Dead, 41,000 Missing, & A Million Homeless

Posted by Damozel | Burma (Myanmar) has already had more than its share of trouble, and now this?  As BBC News says,  'Until Saturday, a common view among Burmese people was that life could not get much worse.' This is the sort of story that makes you sit back and reflect on the grossly unfair way in which trouble seems to get distributed.  Meanwhile, to get the full story you really have to turn, as always, to the British press.

Some 22,464 people are confirmed dead as a result of this killer cyclone. 22,464. (BBC News)  And 41,000 are missing.(BBC News)  Why isn't this being talked about to the exclusion of anything else?

Study Shows Obama is Wrong About Gas-Tax Holiday

by Deb Cupples |    Just words?  Apparently so.  These days, Barack Obama seems willing to say just about anything -- no matter how evidently untrue --  just to disagree with Hillary Clinton. 

Last week, I covered  Obama's misleading claims about not taking money from lobbyists and special interests, when evidence suggests that he has.

Today, Salon points out that Obama has made misleading (or false) claims about recent proposals for a gas-tax holiday.  First, a little background:

State Governors Jumping on Gas Tax Holiday Bandwagon (& Some Further Thoughts on Hillary's Proposal)

Posted by Damozel |  Apparently, a number of state governors are all for a gas tax holiday.  Here in Florida, Governor Charlie Crist is fighting to get us two weeks off in July.  (NYT)  And he is not the only one. 'Lawmakers in Missouri, New York and Texas have also proposed a summer break from state gas taxes, while candidates for governor in Indiana and North Carolina are sparring over relief ideas of their own.' (NYT)  Furthermore, they apparently don't even care whether such a holiday would actually have the intended effect of saving people money.

“It’s about trying to serve the people and trying to understand and have caring, compassionate hearts for what they’re dealing with at the kitchen table,” said Mr. Crist, a Republican.

He added, “I’m supposed to respond to the people and try to make them happy.”  (NYT) 

Really?  Good to know, considering he's my very own governor.

The Edwards Weigh In on the Democratic Candidates

Posted by Damozel | Neither one plans to endorse either candidate --- they plan to use their 'political capital' for poverty (John) and health care (Elizabeth) --- and both have good and bad to say about both of them.  (People.com)  I care what they think because John Edwards was the candidate I really wanted and I'd have preferred Elizabeth even to him. 

Elizabeth Edwards said again that she prefers Hillary's health care plan.  Furthermore, she was offended by Obama's 'misleading' representations of  Hillary's plan. 

In their first joint interview since John, the Democratic former senator and 2004 vice presidential nominee, dropped out of the race in January, the couple named what they liked and disliked about each of the remaining Democrats – and Mrs. Edwards didn't hesitate: "I like Hillary's health care plan.... (People.com)

Obama Ad Inaccurately Quotes Krugman's Words Against Hillary

by Deb Cupples |   Last week, economist Paul Krugman made it very clear that he finds John McCain's gas tax holiday proposal potentially harmful.  Krugman also made very clear that he doesn't like Hillary Clinton's counter-proposal but considers it harmless.

That said, Krugman reportedly heard about (but has not seen) a negative Obama ad that falsely uses Krugman's criticism of McCain as an attack against Hillary.  At his blog, Krugman made it very clear that he would be displeased if Obama's ad did this:

Gas Price Watch: North Central Florida

......May 5, 2008...............May 1, 2008

by D. Cupples |   I've taken a few photos of the same gas station sign in North Central Florida. The May 5th photo (daytime) shows a 7-cent drop in regular unleaded -- compared to the  May 1st photo (night), with no price drop for the other types of gas.   

I don't know why the price went down over the last few days.

Despite the meager drop to $3.72, the price of unleaded at my gas station went up 23 cents since April 1 and went up 56 cents since February 1 (photos are below).

Getting Down to Business: Dozens of Reasons to Vote for Hillary Clinton

by D. Cupples |   With Indiana's and North Carolina's primaries upon us, some polls are showing a significant number of undecided's.  Good!  Choosing the Democratic nominee is an important decision: people should take time making up their mind.

Campaign ads aren't very informative: they're too short to do much beyond generating sound bytes, and some ads are misleading or false.  That and many media have been too busy campaigning to objectively report issues and events in a way that helps voters. 

That said, I figured it wouldn't hurt if I listed some of my reasons for supporting Hillary -- starting with her U.S. Senate voting record (i.e., some of her votes of which I approved).

Indiana & North Carolina Primaries: Which Polls will be Wrong?

Since taking statistics class some 20 years ago, I've been troubled by the media's repeating of pre-election polling data, as though the numbers are reliable.  Fact: sometimes polling numbers turn out to be right, and sometimes they don't (e.g., the pre-primary polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, and California). 

It's like off-track betting -- you  have to wait until the race is over to know whether you've won money.  All media personalities should grasp the uncertainty of pre-election polling data by now, yet they continue to broadcast the numbers with an authoritative tone.

That said, I've created tables (below) of some recent polling data on tomorrow's Indiana and North Carolina Democratic primaries.

Arlen Specter Stands Up for the Senate's Version of a Media Shield Law

Posted by Damozel | Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa) ---the ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee --- has responded to Michael Mukasey's argument in The Washington Post.  An earlier article provides a nutshell summary of the pertinent parts. It seems a very moderate sort of shield to me, so I find the fact that Mukasey and other Administration officials oppose it distinctly worrying. 

The bill would protect a reporter's source unless a federal judge, "by a preponderance of the evidence," ruled that the identity sought is "essential to the resolution of the matter." In a criminal case, the judge must determine that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that a crime has occurred."

When classified information is involved, the judge must conclude that the leaker is "a person with authorized access" to the information and that the disclosure "has caused or will cause significant, clear, and articulable harm to the national security."

Looking for a High-End Real Estate Investment? Try the Green Zone!

Posted by Damozel | One of the Pentagon's current projects is development of a high-end area around the Green Zone---luxury hotels!  high-end shopping! condos! --- where the $1 billion embassy we've built ourselves is located.  Sound improbable?  Never underestimate the determination of developers.  A $5 billion plan, backed by the Pentagon, is already in place.

For the moment...it's mortars and rockets — not investment money — pouring into the Green Zone, which includes the U.S. and British embassies, key Iraqi government offices and other international compounds. Militants have escalated their shelling of the enclave since Iraqi forces began a crackdown on Shiite militias in late March.