Michelle Is Back, I Missed Michelle

Just look at her. She is better than Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain put together. Where has she been? This woman gave us Iowa. You can't really give credit to any one person, but if you had to, you would have to give it to her. If we had lost Iowa, we would have been toast. We needed Iowa. And she gave it to us. Woman, are you something or are you something?

Months before the victory she spoke truth to power, the powerful hired hands who ran Obama 2008. She said if we don't win Iowa, we might as well pack up and go home, and she was right. But suddenly the response was, this non-political wife just threw the bus into the ditch. She does not understand the expectations game. (I Stand With Michelle: Iowa Must And Can Be Won)

When I met her in summer 2007 at a Harlem event, I cut a deal. You give us Iowa, we will give you New York City. I meant it. (Michelle Obama Is Just Fabulous) She delivered, I did not. Where I made my mistake was I did not realize half of New York City can't even vote. (My Third World People Don't Get To Vote In This City) But Barack almost took Brooklyn, and he did take the district I live in. Well, Michelle, at least the next Mayor of New York City is going to be a black dude. Sorry for running two years behind schedule.

Barack is contemplative, Michelle is gutsy. It is not like Barack is not strong, but Michelle plain oozes strength. We need her every step of the way. Barack can't pull this thing alone. All his volunteers minus Michelle can't do it either. Michelle is needed.

Another Speech On Race Will Bring Victory In PA



Solution For Florida And Michigan

1. Wait until either Barack or Hillary get 2024, or one drops out.
   
2. Then divide the FL and MI delegates 50-50 between the two and seat them.
   

I can't imagine their not getting seated at the convention.



In The News

Life on the Edge: Learning from Facebook BusinessWeek Facebook now brings together 66 million online users ..... users 35 years old and older account for more than half of Facebook's daily visitors and are the network's most rapidly growing demographic ..... 150,000 active developers, who are now generating more than 20,000 applications. ...... that holy grail—"virality." ..... Applications take off and spread like a flu epidemic ...... "Many crummy trials beat deep thinking." ..... satisfies profound social needs to connect .... social interaction often precedes economic activity
Google: What Goes Up_ finally discovering gravity. First, the company missed Wall Street revenue forecasts in the fourth quarter for the first time ..... stock price has plunged 38% from its all-time peak, an intraday high of $747.24 last November .... "Everyone's scared." ..... the world's most enchanted corporation ..... some key people are leaving for new, potentially more lucrative opportunities. ....... the top sales vice-president who departed last month to become chief operating officer at Facebook ........ Google's seemingly scattershot attempts to find new avenues of growth in everything from online video ads to office software to wireless communications so far haven't produced much revenue. ...... a unique, just-do-it culture that helped it get this far this fast. ...... The company provides no guidance to financial analysts. ...... Its very success has created a company so big that some veterans are now feeling restless. ...... the enchanted corporation may need to search for new ways to maintain the magic.
There Is No Gas Shortage Gasoline reserves on hand are at the highest levels since the early 1990s ...... In January of this year, the U.S. used 4% less petroleum than we did a year ago. (Oil demand was down 3.2% in February.) Furthermore, demand has been falling slowly since July of last year. Ronald Bailey of Reason Online has pointed out that worldwide production of oil has risen 2.5% in the first quarter, while worldwide demand has grown by only 2%. ........ "The record run in oil prices is related more to speculation and a weakening dollar than supply and demand in the market." He added, "In terms of fundamentals, fear of supply reliability is overblown." ...... The dollar has depreciated 30% against the world's currencies since 2002, while the price of oil has gone up 500%. ..... in 2000 approximately $9 billion was invested in oil futures, while today that number has gone up to $250 billion ..... why protect the personal assets of those who were responsible for the mess ...... a free-for-all marketplace with no regulations at all, which lately these "bubble boys" have sent south for all of us. .... Washington missed the obvious: Protect all U.S. consumers and you're also protecting business expansion.
India's Videocon Wants Motorola Phone Biz Venugopal Dhoot, Videocon's 54-year-old chairman, is among India's most ambitious businessmen. Along with his two brothers and their families, Dhoot controls 71% of Mumbai-based Videocon. The Dhoots shot into the limelight in 2005 as the buyers of the picture-tube business of France's Thomson for $291 million. ..... as a typical Indian family-owned business, Videocon has a complex structure of cross-holdings across a web of private companies, with little transparency. ..... Of the 400 million handsets sold globally last year, 120 million were bought in India. ...... the news has stirred Videocon's stock, which climbed by 5%
Facetime with Barack Obama Barack Obama is arguably the most sought-after person in America—with the possible exceptions of soccer star David Beckham and Kristen, the call girl in the Eliot Spitzer scandal. ...... having added $4 trillion worth of debt .......... we should go back to probably a top marginal rate of 39%—what it was before the Bush tax cuts ..... I believe in the market. I believe in entrepreneurship. I believe in capitalism, and I want to do what works. ........ My basic approach to leadership is to hire very good people, set a clear vision for where I want the organization to go…then give people a lot of power to do their jobs and hold them accountable for doing them. .... I know how to manage a team.

How much trouble is Dell really in? CNet it wants to reduce expenses by as much as $3 billion per year over the next three years. ...... How can a company that sat atop the entire computing industry for so long become a shadow of its former self in just two years? ..... HP's growth was estimated at 30 percent in 2007, while Dell's was just 1.7 percent. ...... and suddenly people are more likely to buy a computer at their local Best Buy than ever before. ..... an environment where margins are extremely low
MySpace unveils new music service free streaming music, unprotected MP3 downloads, ringtones, and e-commerce offerings such as merchandise and ticket sales ...... The partnership with MySpace is another sign that the music industry has decided to embrace the Web and digital technology instead of waging war against it. As CD sales continue to shrink and piracy expands, the labels are moving toward the inevitable: a redefining of how they make money from music. ........ MySpace could help modernize the music industry. ...... enable fans to have a fully immersive experience ...... MySpace can offer a place where all aspects of the music experience can be expressed. ....... MySpace, if they don't mess it up, should take the music industry to Music 2.0 ...... MySpace is already one of the largest music communities on the Internet

Obama raised more than $40 million in March Reuters Clinton has significantly less money available ..... Clinton had some $10.9 million in cash left at the end of February compared with $31.6 million for Obama ..... came from some 442,000 contributors, including 218,000 first-time donors. ........ average contribution level was $96
Chelsea Clinton plans three Mountain State stops to stump for mom Daily Mail - Charleston
Donations to DCCC Spike after Clinton Threat To Pelosi Atlantic Online --- that superdelegates ought strongly consider the expressed will of voters in their states. ....... and Nancy is the best .... Nancy is a great unifying force out here and everyone loves her ..... “I I can tell you she’s been disturbed about some of the Clinton campaign’s comments and tactics the last two months, especially saying John McCain would be a better Commander in Chief” ...... she is a secret supporter of Barack Obama's, although Pelosi aides insist that she's been careful to be - and to appear to be -- neutral.

McCain Says He Has List Of About 20 Possible Running Mates U.S. News & World Report
Superdelegate says Clinton needs 'big win' in Pennsylvania Los Angeles Times
Mugabe's Party Sets Sights on Presidential Runoff Vote Voice of America
Nepal as usual kowtows to China Kantipur Online
Dalai Lama urges world community to pressure China on Tibet Monsters and Critics.com
Sen. Obama gets support from proud grandmother The News Journal
Obama Says He Would Give Gore Key Role Shaping Climate Policy Bloomberg
Clinton: “Yo, Adrian!” MSNBC Bill Clinton thought his wife's April Fool's gag yesterday was a hoot ...... his daughter's comment that she thought her mom would be a better president than her dad ..... "We read he bowled there yesterday and bowled 37; she said, 'Finally I found an athletic event that even the middle-aged lady can beat him at, I wanna play that game,'" he said..... launching into a 50-minute discussion on health care, education, the economy, and energy policy. On the latter issue, he talked about the need to invest in clean coal technology

NATO Allies Oppose Bush on Georgia and Ukraine New York Times
China briefs India again on Tibet issue Hindu
Argentina's Christina: Honeymoon Over TIME
The Second Iran-Iraq War Wall Street Journal
New era in space travel begins -- and the US is on the sidelines MinnPost.com
Obama narrows Clinton's lead in Pennsylvania poll Xinhua Clinton winning nearly 60 percent of white Democrats while Obama drawing 75 percent of black voters.

Obama Catches Clinton in Support From Superdelegate Lawmakers Bloomberg with a surge in support from congressional freshmen and governors from Republican-dominated states. ...... endorsed by 16 U.S. House freshmen to Clinton's 6, and 40 percent of his congressional allies are from ``red states' ........ Obama, an Illinois senator, has the support of 99 Democratic U.S. lawmakers and governors, compared with Clinton's 96 ........ Clinton has the support of 250 of the 794 superdelegates; Obama has 220

The Obama Doctrine Wall Street Journal The strike force Mr. Obama envisioned would be in the region, not in Iraq.

Political Sci-Fi

I think this is going to be a very exciting century.

1. Total spread of democracy.
2. Total, global penetration of wireless broadband.
3. Universal access to education, health and credit.
   

Spread Democracy
A Web 3.0 Manifesto
Education, Health, Credit: Universal And Lifelong

You do these three, and you are in political sci-fi territory. It is like we can no longer imagine life before the polio vaccine, life before antiseptics, life before basic hygiene at least in the rich countries. But we do know there is life after all that. We live it, with all the ongoing anxieties. We remain forever hungry for ever more progress.

These three goals look tall for now, but once they are achieved it will be no different from life after the polio vaccine. Life will go on. New challenges will be found. We will stay hungry.

Life goes on.






In The News

Report: Mideast Nuke Race Possible Time an Iranian nuclear weapon frightens the Saudis "to their core" ..... Turkey also would come under pressure to follow suit ..... demands for nuclear energy and for matching Iran's nuclear progress virtually guarantees that three or four Middle Eastern countries will generate nuclear power by 2025.
Bernanke: Recession Is Possible a trio of crises — housing, credit and financial. ...... "Addressing the housing crisis head-on will do as much to instill confidence in the markets as lowering interest rates or bolstering regulatory oversight of wayward mortgage lenders and financial institutions. We need to do all of it."
Obama Keeps Cash Lead Over Clinton Obama raised more than $30 million in the month of March ...... Obama will be able to afford large TV and radio advertising buys in the remaining primary states ..... the New York Senator's total for the month will come close to $20 million .... continued reports that the Clinton campaign is struggling with a persistent debt that at times has reached nearly $9 million ...... Clinton's debt .... hers remains above the norm in size for a campaign at this stage of a race.
Christina's Argentine Honeymoon Ends a spectacle of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, of rhetoric and bombast ..... she said, adding that she had committed two sins: being democratically elected and "being a woman." ...... the wildfire protests that brought down five presidents in a row after Argentina defaulted on its foreign debt six years ago
How Moqtada al-Sadr Won in Basra Despite the fighting, he never pulled his allies out of the government or withdrew his support from Maliki in Parliament ..... Sadr has proven increasingly adept at politics. .... the Mahdi Army can claim a victory by simply surviving an assault
Zimbabwe Suspense: Is Mugabe Done? "It is increasingly clear that Mugabe has lost the support of the rank and file of the army and the police." ....... Mugabe was once a darling of Africa for his overthrow of white supremacist rule in what was then known as Rhodesia, and was praised in the West for Zimbabwe's excellent education system and relative prosperity. ...... Mugabe regularly rails against homosexuals and a Western conspiracy to recolonize Zimbabwe. ..... elections in 2000, 2002 and 2005 were marred by violence and rigging
The Blue-Collar Battle in Pennsylvania On his first bus tour in the Keystone State, Obama's itinerary is like a gauntlet thrown down before Clinton. Everything about his trip is unconventional, from his choice of towns that he is focusing on — Clinton strongholds like Scranton, Altoona, Wilkes-Barre, mostly working-class and white with lots of Catholics — to his quirky events. ....... at least one Pennsylvania poll shows the race narrowing as Obama outspends Clinton five to one on television and radio ads. And a steady stream of superdelegates breaking for Obama has become a form of Chinese water torture for the Clinton campaign. ...... "I think if he loses by five or six points that will be perceived as a victory."
Zimbabwe Suspense: Is Mugabe Done?
Report: Saudis, Turks May Join Nuke Race
Zimbabwe Ponders Life After Mugabe the prospect of a peaceful exit by the country's longtime leader seems to be growing ...... Mobutu Sese Seko is gone from the Congo; Uganda's Idi Amin went long ago. Autocratic regimes remain in place in Equatorial Guinea and Sudan, but democracy is becoming the norm in much of Africa — and with it, not coincidentally, has come peace. .... the discussions between Mugabe's regime and the opposition, mediated by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki. ..... If the reports prove true that Mugabe is on his way out, Zimbabwe may well be about to experience nothing short of a rebirth.
A Hispanic Hit at the Cineplex Under the Same Moon follows a nine-year-old boy's travels from Mexico to the U.S. to reunite with his mother, an illegal immigrant who cleans houses in Los Angeles. ...... Latinos buy more movie tickets per person than any other segment of the U.S. population. ...... The median age of Hispanics in the U.S. is 27.4 ..... "It speaks honestly about life in this country as an immigrant and that it never gets easy." ..... "They said, 'I've never seen myself on screen before.'" ..... This weekend the movie will expand from 266 screens to 400 before going wider still on April 4.
Dean: Dems Will Seat Fla. Delegates as long as any agreement is supported by the party's two presidential contenders. ...... without them an agreement is not possible .... Dean said discussions were continuing over Michigan and he was "optimistic" that the state's delegates would also be seated. ...... "multiple solutions and formulas that I think are all reasonable."
Starbucks Looks for a Fresh Jolt Schultz, who took over Starbucks in 1987 and transformed it from a six-shop seller of beans into a thread that runs through our social tapestry ...... Starbucks has been so successful, it may seem unassailable, untouchable--unavoidable. It's not. In fact, the company has had a very difficult year. ...... Its stock has slid some 40% in the past 12 months, shaving more than $400 million from Schultz's personal bean pile. ....... McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts and several convenience-store chains that have been making a run at Starbucks' customers ...... the zeal of an empire builder .... $10 billion in yearly sales and 16,000 stores in 44 countries ........ John Moore, who was a marketing manager at Starbucks until 2003 and now runs the blog Brand Autopsy ....... Roberts helped Schultz build Starbucks from 1987 to '96 and heeded the call to return as chief creative officer. ..... In 1981 schultz was working in his native New York City for a housewares company when he first traveled to Seattle and stepped inside Starbucks--a narrow store with a worn wooden counter and bins of coffee beans ...... he returned in 1987 with $3.8 million that he'd raised to buy Starbucks and turn it into the company he envisioned. ...... In 1992 Starbucks went public with 140 stores, and from practically the very beginning, the company expanded at a breakneck pace, growing store count 40% to 60% a year. ........ the average store's $1 million annual sales. ..... Tensions over what Starbucks was becoming--cluttered, corporate, soulless--were rising within the company ..... 4,000-some people who work at Starbucks headquarters ..... It was as if he were reassembling the band ....... in downtown Seattle for three days of 14-hour strategy sessions. The retreat started by listening to Beatles music and talking about how great icons reinvent themselves. ....... reinvigorate the "coffee experience." ....... the return of founder CEOs. ...... a brilliant visionary and a genuinely compassionate human being ..... "Entrepreneurs sometimes don't grow with the business. ...... Too much focus on numbers means less focus on customers
Bush to Bypass Laws to Build Fence 670 miles of fence ..... two types of wild cats — the ocelot and the jaguarundi — in even more danger of extinction. They say the fence would prevent them from swimming across the water to mate.

In Speeches, Clinton Often Veers to Dark Side Washington Post In hushed tones, sometimes with palpable sadness in her voice, Clinton tells dark, difficult anecdotes picked up on the campaign trail. They are often related to health matters, culled from her conversations with voters, and are designed to illustrate a policy point. ....... her ability to listen attentively to voters she meets ...... Clinton, who has only recently grown more comfortable talking about herself
Clinton’s Persistence Could Help Obama New York Times and then took a relatively long stroll across the tarmac to her plane ...... at moments she seems almost carefree ..... She recognizes that she probably will not win the nomination. ..... there are still 10 contests to go, with perhaps 43 millions votes to be counted. ...... post-Pennsylvania states where people are thrilled to be part of a process from which they are normally excluded. ..... “This will be the biggest political event in Montana in generations” ...... Pittsburgh had been retrofitted from steel to biosciences
Maureen Dowd: The Hillary Waltz the best way for Obama to prove he’s ready to stare down Ahmadinejad is by putting away someone even tougher
Elite Colleges Reporting Record Lows in Admission Harvard College, for example, offered admission to only 7.1 percent of the 27,462 high school seniors who applied ..... the ease of online applications, expanded financial aid packages, aggressive recruiting of a broader range of young people, and ambitious students’ applying to ever more colleges ..... More than 2,500 of Harvard’s 27,462 applicants scored a perfect 800 on the SAT critical reading test, and 3,300 had 800 scores on the SAT math exam. More than 3,300 were ranked first in their high school class.... “Where we went to college does not set us up for success or keep us away from it.”
On the Campaign: One Bruising Scenario for Clinton Clinton’s best hope now is that Mr. Obama, as a candidate, suffers a political collapse akin to what has happened to the subprime mortgage market ...... Obama has had trouble in competing for Latino voters ..... the potent images of Mr. Wright at the pulpit.
On the Hill: Nancy Pelosi, Mystery Delegate Ms. Pelosi is in a class by herself when it comes to the nominating whirl since, as speaker of the House, she will preside over the Democratic National Convention as chairwoman. ..... the nation’s highest ranking Democratic elected official ...... China is an intensely personal issue for Ms. Pelosi .... would probably be willing to make a pick if she believed it was necessary. ..... she is not about to let a little thing like a historic White House race threaten her plans for an extended House majority.
On the Record: Separating Gender and Political Identity in Clinton Story any Internet search of images of Mrs. Clinton quickly summons “all sorts of visceral and emotional reactions to women, but attached to her” - such as Mrs. Clinton in full attire as the Wicked Witch of the West. Ms. Dolan also noted that gender stereotypes are among the “most engrained,” and argued that much of the news media coverage - from whether Mrs. Clinton was too tough to whether she was crying on cue - played off of those stereotypes. ....... “A lot of men just don’t like her,” said Mr. Kohut. “And that gets us back to the argument, is it something about her, or is it her gender?” ..... “The notion that she is a Rorschach test for where we are on gender issues was true on day one, when we met her, and it’s absolutely true today,” said Ms. Dolan. “So when people say, it’s just her, I don’t buy it.”