Oh Oh Oprah

In The News

Giuliani Loses Ground to Huckabee The Associated Press
Illegal immigration now at heart of GOP race Los Angeles Times
Maoists invade north Bihar The Statesman In what is being considered a move by Maoists to get a foothold in north Bihar after they established their “domain” in large parts of south, central and western Bihar, armed extremists raided the house of a panchayat head at Sukki village in Vaishali last night, killing three villagers. The extremists set ablaze two luxury vehicles of the panchayat head who escaped death. The mukhia, Indra Mohan Singh alias Gugul Singh, who has more than 12 cases of kidnapping, extortion and loot lodged against him with various police stations, is alleged to have established a reign of terror and had been challenging the extremists' might. According to reports, about 80 Maoists, dressed in Army and police fatigues, swooped down on the village. Police said about 150 rounds of ammunition were fired. All the three who died were the mukhiya’s kin. Some others sustained injuries. Reports said the Maoists bade the villagers to stay indoors. According to reports, many women took part in the operation that lasted for about an hour. Police said the common people were terrorised by the mukhiya. They have, however, launched a combing operation against the Maoists. On Saturday, the extremists blasted an abandoned three-storeyed police outpost at Mahindbara in Sitamarhi. Maoists have gone on the rampage after a Banka court awarded death sentence to five extremists on 6 December, for killing three policemen two years ago.
US provides $2.3 mn to protect human rights in Nepal Economic Times
Despite Arms Data, New Push for Sanctions on Iran New York Times
Al-Qaeda Group Says It Carried Out Algeria Bombings (Update1) Bloomberg
Hollywood writers strike takes on bitter tone Reuters
Bhutto says free, fair elections needed to thwart extremism International Herald Tribune
Obama in Seattle fundraising stop Seattle Post Intelligencer
Poll: Bill Clinton Far More Influential Among Voters than Oprah ... FOX News
Clinton accuses Obama of being too far left Newsday Using a curious tactic in a Democratic primary season dominated by liberals, Hillary Rodham Clinton Tuesday accused Barack Obama of being too far left to be elected president -- citing a decade-old questionnaire indicating Obama once opposed the death penalty and backed socialized medicine. ...... a surprising new ABC News-Washington Post poll showed her national lead over Obama widening to 30 points ..... "Obama never saw or approved" the document, and the health care, capital punishment and gun control answers weren't consistent with his stances, then or now. ....... Obama leading Clinton 28 percent to 22 percent
Obama and Clinton spar over electability Baltimore Sun
With Reporters Grounded, Obama and Clinton Hold Competing ... Washington Post the two campaigns holding dueling press conferences at precisely the same time. ..... Her endorsement means that Obama now has the backing of both the state's House members. ..... He said that his numbers nationally do not reflect what is happening in early voting states, either in terms of his electability or his popularity overall. "When you ask voters in those early states that are now familiar with my record, her record, other candidates' records, you see a very different result," Obama said. ...... The Clinton call ended a few minutes later. But not before the Clinton campaign issued a statement declaring that he was "forced to defend electability."
Obama narrows gap on Clinton, amid Republican sea change AFP Clinton wins backing from 26 percent for her ties to her husband, former president Bill Clinton ..... with 59 percent saying they had not yet made up their minds, the polls could yet change and be influenced by the first votes to be cast early in January.
If Clinton Loses Iowa, Her "Plan B" The Associated Press two words: New Hampshire. ..... preparing television ads here criticizing Barack Obama's health care plan and working to build what campaigns call a firewall. ..... Possible TV ads to run against him also have been previewed in the state. ...... Advisers to the New York senator acknowledge there's been uneasiness as Obama has risen in national and several early state polls, including Iowa and New Hampshire. But they insist their master blueprint — emphasizing Clinton's experience, toughness and ability to withstand Republican attacks — remains sound. ......... Clinton advisers believe she can survive a loss there to Edwards ...... Edwards' campaign, meanwhile, hopes for a repeat of the Howard Dean-Dick Gephardt scuffle in Iowa that resulted in John Kerry's nomination four years ago. The former North Carolina senator is hanging back and hoping Clinton and Obama destroy each other. ....... Placing second in Iowa to the well-funded, well-organized Obama, the Clinton people acknowledge, could be a much more severe blow. ........ Hinting at Clinton divisiveness, Obama said of overhauling health care, "The issue really is how are we going to get it done because there are all kinds of 10-point plans out there that are gathering dust on the shelf because no one was able to actually pull the country together to deliver." ...... Clinton strategists reject the notion that such an effort is negative. ...... Indeed, Clinton has toned down her sharp criticism of Obama, just days after raising questions about his character and accusing him of peddling "false hope." Her advisers say she had needed to set the record straight after absorbing months of criticism from her rivals, but they have since concluded her barrage didn't work.
Feeling Heat, Clinton Tries Iowa Up Close New York Times Ten months ago, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton went to East High School here on her first trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate ....... Clinton returned to East High School late last week. But the crowd was much smaller and more sedate. ..... she had largely cleared her schedule this week to prepare for the Democratic debate on Thursday ...... The Clinton campaign has doubled its weekly television advertising spending from $400,000 last week to $800,000 this week. ..... the face of the Clinton war room, is planning to drive out here from Washington. (Mr. Wolfson does not like to fly.) Patti Solis Doyle, the national campaign manager, has moved to Des Moines. ....... her aides described former President Bill Clinton as increasingly frustrated that his wife’s campaign has not fought back even more forcefully against efforts by Mr. Obama and former Senator John Edwards to raise questions about Mrs. Clinton’s character. They said that Mr. Clinton had warned for weeks that they were taking a toll on his wife’s candidacy. ........ Mr. Clinton, they said, is still confident that his wife can regain momentum if her campaign presents her message — and particularly criticism of Mr. Obama — more sharply. He took matters into his own hands Monday, campaigning at four events across Iowa to deliver that message: that Mrs. Clinton was a “change agent.” ........ In a sign of internal strains, some of Mrs. Clinton’s associates said they thought Mr. Clinton was struggling to make the adjustment from principal candidate to supportive spouse. ....... Mrs. Clinton’s advisers ... their assessment that Mrs. Clinton was having trouble mastering the political intricacies of this state ......... On her first trip here last January, one adviser said, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly expressed frustration, confiding to one associate that she “had no feel for the place.” .......... Some of her attacks on Mr. Obama, including one in which she questioned his character and another where her staff mocked him for writing a kindergarten essay saying he wanted to be president, were described even by some of her supporters as clumsy. ......... Mrs. Clinton’s advisers said they would continue at least some form of attack on Mr. Obama, even at the risk of allowing Mr. Edwards to gain ground by presenting himself as above the fray. Mrs. Clinton’s aides said they were far more worried about Mr. Obama marching out of Iowa with a victory than they were about Mr. Edwards
Presidential candidate checklist: Heavy coat and boots Boston Globe two states where wind chill competes with politics as December topics for discussion. ...... The storm coated much of Iowa in ice up to an inch thick ...... Huckabee, whose plane managed to land in Omaha, acknowledged that such winter storms were a challenge, especially for a "southern boy" like himself. ...... "When we see weather like this we close everything. We just shut down, go get milk and bread, even if we don't normally have milk and bread, and that's the routine," said Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor. "Then we hole up in our homes for a day and then it melts and we're back to business." ....... Last March, Republican John McCain refused to cancel a weekend bus tour in New Hampshire. Instead, his campaign hired a snow plow to clear the way for the bus. ...... Obama staffers and reporters made the most of the snow last month in New Hampshire, throwing snowballs while the Illinois senator held a private meeting inside a New Hampshire school. Obama, seeing the cameras and their operators, bypassed the skirmish. Last week in Des Moines, a snowman featuring an "O" for Obama was crafted in front of the campaign's headquarters.
Frantic candidates jostle for pole position as Iowa caucus looms Guardian Unlimited The US media had not taken Huckabee, who has the best one-liners but is short on foreign policy detail, seriously. The latest poll has him on 32% to Romney's 20% in Iowa, in spite of Romney having outspent him by 20-to-1. ....... most voters in the early key states have yet to make up their minds and are unlikely to do so until the final week, or even day. ...... Clinton and Obama each have $100m (£49m) to spend, much of it for the caucuses and primaries, with some of it held in reserve for the presidential contest itself. It will be the first billion dollar election. ....... Clinton has faced a surge by Obama since her poor performance in an October 30 debate. He has taken a small lead in Iowa and closed the gap in New Hampshire and South Carolina. ........ The most recent New York Times poll in Iowa had Obama on 30%, Clinton on 26% and Edwards third with 22%. ...... opted for a risky strategy - virtually ignore the small states such as Iowa and New Hampshire and focus on the big states on Super-Duper Tuesday. But he is now worried he could be buried by the media attention the winner of the small states will attract and is putting in time in both Iowa and New Hampshire. ....... John Kerry took Iowa and New Hampshire in 2004 to take the Democratic nomination from favourite Howard Dean.
China Says Dalai Lama Wants to Restore `Serfdom Rule' in Tibet Bloomberg
China Says Dalai Wants Feudal Tibet The Associated Press
Peru’s Ex-President Gets 6 Years for Illicit Search New York Times
China dismisses accusation of religious repression in Tibet Times of India
Nokia Ready To Engage Google And Apple CRN
Mobile wimax Set To Take Off InformationWeek
Mobile wimax subscribers to exceed 80 million by 2013, predicts ... Telecommunications Magazine
Mobile wimax must grab youtube generation Silicon.com
Credit Crisis Prompts Fed to Roll Back Rates Again New York Times
Recent Arrival at Citi Now Runs It New York Times
Clinton Basks in Buffett Glow Wall Street Journal

Women For Obama

In The News

On Iran, US policy implosion causes grief for Europe International Herald Tribune
Human Evolution Speeding Up, Study Says National Geographic The pace of change accelerated about 40,000 years ago and then picked up even more with the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago ...... while humans are evolving quickly around the world, local cultural and environmental factors are shaping evolution differently on different continents. ...... in Europe natural selection has favored genes for pigmentation like light skin, blue eyes, and blond hair. .......... "Europeans and Asians are both bleached Africans, but the way they got bleached is different in the two areas"
Israeli military rolls into Gaza Strip Los Angeles Times
Obama 'had a great weekend' with Oprah Chicago Sun-Times
Hillary Clinton, according to Bill Los Angeles Times
Hillary Clinton ties with Barack Obama in polls Telegraph.co.uk Three weeks before voting begins, Hillary Clinton's lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination has shrunk to a statistical tie with Barack Obama in the states that go to the polls first. ...... What was strongly forecast to be a procession to the finishing line has turned into a frantic scramble, with the former First Lady glancing anxiously over her shoulder towards the Illinois senator. ...... the candidates are effectively equal in all three states for the first time. ........ Though Mrs Clinton retains the lead in national polls, it has been cut by more than half in a couple of months to 10 points. ......... Yesterday a second Clinton volunteer in Iowa was forced to resign after forwarding a hoax email saying Mr Obama, a practising Christian, was a Muslim possibly intent on destroying the United States. ........... Mrs Clinton's support at its lowest yet in all three early states, which often set the tone for later results. ...... dated the start of her troubles to Oct 30, when at a televised debate ........ Her support had also dropped markedly among black Americans in South Carolina, who constitute 47 per cent of likely primary election voters, even before Mr Obama appeared with Oprah Winfrey before 50,000 people in the state on Sunday.
Saint Barack of Iowa Yahoo! News
Inside The New CBS/NYT Poll: Does Obama Have An Oprah Problem? CBS News (Hillary Clinton's lead over Barack Obama has shrunk from 28 points to 17). ...... Iowa .... Fifty six percent of Democrats in the poll who are said they are supporting Clinton said they could change their minds. ....... Oprah Winfrey may not be having much of an impact on moving voters ...... Voters are paying more attention to the campaign at this point in the cycle than at any time since CBS News began asking the question in 1987. Among all registered voters, said they are paying a lot or some attention to the campaign, compared to just 76 percent61 percent at this point in the 2004 presidential campaign. ............ And among all registered voters, 48 percent said they would probably vote for the Democratic candidate while 31 said they would vote for the Republican presidential candidate.
Last duel for White House hopefuls before voting starts AFP a sunny former Arkansas governor ..... a come-from-nowhere surge ..... Huckabee is bracing for a ferocious grilling, amid unflattering scrutiny of his past life in the bear-pit politics of Arkansas. ..... While Obama is closing the gap on Clinton in some key polls, he has rarely shined in debates, sometimes coming across as long-winded and professorial in contrast to his fiery rhetoric in formal speeches. ........ John Edwards, the defeated vice-presidential nominee in 2004, banking on a strong performance in Iowa to stay alive in the race.
Giuliani has advice for SF on dealing with the homeless San Francisco Chronicle
Maoists attack Bihar village, kill four Hindustan Times Hundreds of armed Maoists attacked a village in Bihar's Vaishali district on Monday night and killed four people in apparent retaliation for attacks on the rebels. ...... The rebels also attacked the house of the village body head and tried to set it ablaze. ..... Official sources said Sukki village was targeted as it is dominated by landed upper caste-Bhumihars, who have been countering Maoist rebels in the area. .... Armed Maoists surrounded the village from all sides and stood guard while their comrades carried out the attack.
Laureate Gore puts heat on US, China The Australian
Central US Reeling From Deadly Ice Storms New York Times
Nokia Prepares for Fisticuffs with Google PC World
Amitabh Bachchan gets clean chit in land scam Hindustan Times The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday gave a clean chit to Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan in the Barabanki farmland scam. ...... Bachchan had challenged the order of the Faizabad additional commissioner who had dismissed his petition relating to purchase of government farmland at Daulatpur village in Uttar Pradesh`s Barabanki district
Kroger profit jumps 18%; grocer upbeat on full year MarketWatch
Dell Unveils Its First Tablet PC InformationWeek
Large Study Links Red, Processed Meat to Certain Cancers FOX News
Culture Speeds Up Human Evolution Scientific American increased vastly in numbers over the past 50,000 years or so—from an estimated five million in 9000 B.C. to roughly 6.5 billion today. ....... in the past 10,000 years a host of changes to everything from digestion to bones has been taking place. ..... the rate of human evolution over the past few thousand years is far greater than it has been over the past few million years ...... Roughly 10,000 years ago, humanity made the transition from living off the land to actively raising crops ...... the new agriculturally based diet offered its own challenges—including iron deficiency from lack of meat, cavities and, ultimately, shorter stature due to poor nutrition ....... "Ten thousand years ago, no one on planet Earth had blue eyes," Hawks notes, because that gene—OCA2—had not yet developed. "We are different from people who lived only 400 generations ago in ways that are very obvious; that you can see with your eyes." .......... the pace of change has accelerated to 10 to 100 times the average long-term rate ...... Africans show a slightly lower mutation rate. "Africans haven't had to adapt to a fundamentally new climate ...... "Europeans and East Asians, living in environments very different from those of their African ancestors and early adopters of agriculture, were more maladapted, less fitted to their environments."
Do Film Critics Know Anything? TIME we're essentially passing notes to one another, admiring our connoisseurship at the risk of ignoring the vast audience that sees movies and the smaller one that reads us. ...... You will be forgiven if, like my friends at Time, you are scratching your head and feigning interest ....... the art-industrial complex. ..... Moviegoers who are TV viewers don't want horse races; they want coronations — validations that somebody in Hollywood is ready to honor the movies they love. ...... But the Golden Globes and the Oscars, if they follow the critics' lead, will have V.D.D. — viewer deficit disorder. ...... The Oscars are largely an affirmative action program, where the industry scratches its niche. The show is a conscience soother, but not a crowd pleaser. And it all starts here, with critics fighting over which hardly seen movie they want to call the best of the year.
Summing Up Oprah & Obama Almost all of the 8,500 people packing the Center were white — and they were there to see two black people. Neither of whom would sing or throw a ball. ...... The wave was just one of the ways the audience tried to work off its nervous energy. They danced, they chanted. ...... her patented mix of girlfriend-style dish ("When Gayle and I talk... mmmm-mmm... we also talk about real things...") and campaign-style sermonizing ("Experience... means nothing unless that person is accountable for the judgments they made during the time they had.") ......... Oprah's role as a cultural arbiter ...... The slave Jane Pittman, Oprah said, looks for the one who might free her for years ....... The frenzy that then greeted Obama .... awe and hysteria ..... A lot people get excited to shake a politician's hand; not so many greet one as though he were about to heal them by laying his on them. ......... Secret Service agents stood every ten feet at the edges of the in-the-round stage, their impassivity glaring ..... the four rallies Opr-ama did over the weekend were not intended to change people's minds. They were about creating the kind of audacious political theater that makes supporters believe they're going to win, and casual observers into interested ones ....... less as an outreach program than as a reward system, distributing tickets to volunteers and those who had pledged to volunteer with higher priority than the general public
Attack in Algiers: A Warning to Europe a pair of powerful car bombs exploded, and claimed what early estimates placed as 62 lives ..... the work of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a group that formed an alliance with Osama bin Laden's global jihad in 2006. ...... AQIM is ramping up its violent struggle to bring down the Algerian government. And as the fourth big hit by AQIM in less than a year, the incident highlights the group's increasing organizational skills and establishes it as the greatest potential terror threat to continental Europe as well. ........ The point of impact was located outside two highly symbolic institutions of the Algerian state: the nation's supreme court, and neighboring constitutional court. ...... badly damaging the offices of two United Nations organizations: the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), and the U.N. Development Program (UNDP). ....... The ability and determination of the AQIM to strike in stunning fashion was made even clearer two days earlier, when a suicide bomber charged the cortege of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during a visit to the city of Batna, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100. ......... the effective recruitment among disenfranchised youths ....... The 15-year old terror group took on that name after affiliating with bin Laden on September 11, 2006. Since that time, AQIM has adopted the structured, stylized recruitment and attack methods of the original al-Qaeda. ........ The message is clear: We're now battling enemies wherever we can find them. ........ The threat of that kind of imported strike has grown since the AQIM promised to extend its Algerian jihad to Europe. Bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has repeatedly threatened Europe — and France in particular — as enemies of jihadist forces.
The Top 10 Everything of 2007
The Early Word: Storming Iowa New York Times the last debate in this state before the Jan. 3 caucuses. ..... Not one of the Republican candidates is viewed favorably by even half the Republican electorate ..... Democrats are happier with their field and more settled in their decisions. For all the problems Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be having holding off her rivals in Iowa and New Hampshire, she remains strong nationally ..... what her aides acknowledge have been two of the roughest months of her candidacy ........ As governor of Arkansas, he implored President Bush to end the trade embargo with the communist nation ....... As governor, Huckabee supported in-state college tuition for children of illegal immigrants and stood up for illegal workers caught in a raid of a meatpacking plant. Now he wants all illegal immigrants to return to their native countries within 120 days. ....... he wrote a letter to Bush in 2002 describing how the Cuba trade embargo was hurting Arkansas rice growers. ...... Romney is broadcasting the first — well, sort of the first, negative ad of the campaign ..... the Arkansas Republican firing off yet another one of his memorable one-liners ...... You can expect immigration to continue to boil over at tomorrow’s debate. ...... “The correct, loving, caring social policy is to engage, not ignore … to discourage, not encourage” ..... “We would tell them, you can’t live on the street; you’re not allowed to.” ...... “If you need help finding something, we’re here to help … the one thing we’re not going to allow is just to live on the street,” he said. “That isn’t a good right. It’s not good for them. It’s not good for the city … it means they are crying out for help, and it should not be ignored.” ....... a grassroots Ron Paul home office in Manchester, N.H., and came out with frat house-like tales of cheese pizza, chips — even Coronas served in mugs ....... At first glance, the abundance of T-shirted youths with laptops gives this outpost the air of a fraternity or an Internet startup. Instead it represents a new type of political fundraising and may be a sneak peek at campaigns to come. … ...... He spends his days online ...... When filled, each of these houses — soon to number 20 across the state—will have different people and missions. But all will share certain tools of success: new technology, little hierarchy, microdonations and a democratic delegation of work. You could call it wiki-paigning. ......... “Innovation often comes from outsiders. It’s the people who have to throw the long bomb” ....... The country has not elected a bachelor president since 1884 ..... The last unwed candidate chosen by a major party was Adlai Stevenson, the divorced Democrat ...... his star-studded past love life ..... Ms. Shea-Porter earlier said she would remain neutral in the race, but now she’ll join the state’s other representative, Paul Hodes, in supporting Mr. Obama. ........ Michelle Obama campaigns in Iowa City, Sigourney, Fairfield, Mount Pleasant and Burlington, Iowa. ...... Hillary Rodham Clinton attends a “Conversation with Warren Buffett” in San Francisco.
Starting Gate: The Fog Of Primaries CBS News an opportunity for his primary opponents to try and define him on their own terms, and those efforts are well underway. ....... "I'm convinced as people take a good hard look at Mike Huckabee's record, they'll see this is a guy who is soft on criminals, soft on illegal aliens, but hard on taxpayers. ....... 96 percent of GOP primary voters in the CBS poll say illegal immigration is a "very serious or somewhat serious" problem and the issue tops the list of concerns for activists in Iowa in most surveys. ...... While Huckabee has blown up in the polls, he faces money and organizational problems. ..... Giuliani has pegged Florida for his big breakthrough but Romney, Thompson and now Huckabee are making noise there as well. ....... a Baptist minister from a town called Hope. And the forecast is for fog with a chance of severe surprises. ....... Noting the failed health care reform push the former First Lady led in the 1990s, Clinton insisted, "when she got beat she did what she’s always done when we got beat, she didn’t fold her tent. She started working for the Children’s Health Insurance program, which today insures 6 million kids in America, the biggest expansion since Medicare. We got better health care for cervical cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer and diabetes. We immunized 90 percent of our kids against serious illness for the first time in the history of the country and guess what? For the first time in a dozen years, the number of people with health insurance went down, not up like it is today.” .......... Clinton claimed yesterday that "over half of all the bankruptcies in this decade can be tied to personal health emergencies." ..... A day after Oprah-palooza, Obama goes Hollywood. ..... From The Road .... Renowned poet Maya Angelou voices a new radio ad for Clinton in South Carolina in which she refers to the candidate as, "my girl." ...... In yet another sign that the nation's media is desperate for a Bloomberg independent candidacy, the AP reports that the New York City Mayor is – a bachelor.
He received loud applause when he promised to end the Iraq war and end the genocide in Darfur. Obama also joked that he will be releasing his kindergarten papers in the morning – a reference to a jab from Hillary Clinton who said recently that Obama has wanted to run for president since he was in kindergarten. ..... “There is some scandalous stuff,” Obama said, “I experimented with coloring outside the lines when I was in kindergarten. Pulled on a girl’s pony tail once…and liked it.”

Colorado killer 'hated Christians,' police official says Houston Chronicle
New poll shows big shake-up in GOP race CNN Rudy Giuliani leads Mike Huckabee 24 percent to 22 percent in new poll ...... Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama 40 percent to 30 percent ..... December 6-9 ...... Huckabee doubled his support in October and doubled it again in November, going from 5 percent in October ...... who has spent the least time criticizing his opponents ...... The race is also tightening on the Democratic side. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York is still the front-runner, with 40 percent of Democratic voters backing her in the new CNN poll, down from 44 percent last month. ....... at 30 percent, up from 25 percent last month ..... "a similar thing is happening in both parties. Candidates are emerging who are likeable and who appeal to the party's base ....... "Obama's support has not hit 30 percent in any national poll since July; the fact that he has cracked that barrier this close to the start of the primary season indicates that he may finally be chipping away at Clinton's core constituency" ....... Forty percent in a late-December poll is a position most candidates in past years would envy.
Minister, 3 mps resign in Nepal Hindu Nepal’s Minister of Science and Technology, Mahantha Thakur, and three other lawmakers resigned from the government and interim Parliament on Monday to lead a separate political front in Terai. ..... would form a separate political front in Terai and launch an agitation to secure the rights of the Madhesi people. ..... “The government has failed to maintain even basic law and order in the Terai,” said Mr. Thakur. ..... The Madhesi lawmakers are uniting to give a “democratic” outlet to the Madhes crisis, Mr. Tripathi said. ..... He claimed that other Madhesi lawmakers would also soon resign from the interim Parliament and join them. ..... this will create a new political polarisation in Terai. ..... Various small political outfits, including Madhesi People’s Right Forum and splinter group of Nepal Sadbhabana Party, have already formed two separate political fronts in Terai. ........ More than a dozen armed outfits are currently engaged in armed rebellion along the Terai stretch, bordering India.
Nepal minister, mps resign over Terai problems Times of India vowing to launch an agitation to build a "peaceful and prosperous" Madhesh ... Thakur, who resigned from both the ministerial and party posts is one of the two powerful general secretaries of the ruling Nepali Congress party led by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala..... due to the "confusing attitude of the government" and the "vision-less moves" of the Seven Party Alliance, the southern Nepal plains is moving towards further conflict and violence..... "We want to see the formation of a peaceful, prosperous and autonomous Terai region and it is our common responsibility to achieve that goal through peaceful agitation," the statement said.
Nepal cabinet member, mps resign over unrest: officials AFP over the government's failure to tackle ethnic and communal violence in the south of the country ...... At least a dozen armed groups have sprung up in the last 12 months claiming to be fighting for increased autonomy for the region, home to around half on Nepal's 27 million people.
Putin Names A Successor Forbes Dmitry Medvedev, first deputy prime minister ..... Medvedev, at 42, is relatively young and modern, a lawyer by training who worked few of his adult years under the Soviet regime. ...... the siloviki, a powerful clique of former and current intelligence officials who hold jobs in government. ...... In choosing a less politically powerful ally, Putin may be trying to reverse a long-time Russian tradition: The successor undoing the authority of his predecessor. The pattern held throughout Soviet times, and has continued today. Yeltsin largely undid the legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev, and Putin then gave Yeltsin the same treatment. The chances that Medvedev could try to lessen Putin's power are lower, since Putin seems to plan to remain active from the sidelines. ....... His chairmanship of Gazprom, the publicly traded gas monopoly, is widely seen as evidence of the opacity--if not corruption--among Russian officialdom. If Medvedev is elected president, he would have to step down from the Gazprom chairmanship, a post which might then be filled by Putin himself.
On Iran, US stumbles and Europe grumbles International Herald Tribune Jalili's version of diplomatic outreach was to say: "Everything in the past is past, and with me, you start over. None of your proposals has any standing." ...... Another laugh-line for a world audience singled out from the NIE: "We assess with moderate confidence that convincing the Iranian leadership to forgo the eventual development of nuclear weapons will be difficult." ...... the report's finding that it was international pressure that led to Iran stopping its weapons program in 2003. ...... Jacques Chirac suggested as recently as this January that the world could well live with Iran producing a few nukes ..... an unhappy new reality: In this dispute, only the Iranians retain unpredictability as a credible weapon.
Letter from Washington: The faltering Clinton campaign 11 Democrats from Philadelphia who gathered last week to discuss the U.S. presidential race ..... were about equally balanced between the front-runners ..... Obama, they say, would be inspirational, motivating, charismatic and compassionate. ...... "Obama fits the year in terms of aspirations and hopes" ....... When these voters talk about America today, they want a picture that almost cries out for Obama. ..... she hasn't allowed voters to see who she is and her personal dimension ..... The Clinton camp has similar research. Things are tense in Hillaryland these days. ..... Her once-commanding advantage over Obama in Iowa and New Hampshire - the two critical initial contests - is evaporating. She has gotten the worst of recent exchanges over Iran and health care. There are political strains with her greatest asset and surrogate, Bill Clinton. The former president was quoted last month as saying he had really opposed the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. He later claimed he was misquoted. .... Top Clinton campaign officials were privately furious at the former president, saying he had revived the complaint that the Clintons lack credibility, unfairly tarnishing his wife in the process. For his part, the former president, one close associate says, is bouncing off the walls at the campaign's ineptitude in the past few weeks. (It is not known whether the Clintons shared any of these sentiments with each other.) ...... Hillary's campaign is off-balance. ....... Except her attacks were neither focused nor effective. This strategy raised more questions about her than about Obama. ..... her campaign has a near-obsession with what it perceives as a hostile press. ...... a good bet that Clinton, encouraged by her husband, is weighing a shake-up, like bringing in John Podesta, the former White House chief of staff, to direct the overall campaign .... she may well finish third in the Iowa caucuses and lose to Obama in New Hampshire. In the past 30 years, no candidate has lost both these tests and won the nomination.
Police Find Secret Passage Through a Wardrobe to Darwin's Hideout ABC News
Why Oprah Gives Obama Political Leeway FOX News Oprah-palooza is a big test for her famous power to bring in women, particularly white women. White women are, of course, the basis of her great success. ....... So she is telling her female audience don't buy that solidarity thing and vote for a woman — Hillary — but telling black people do buy the solidarity thing and vote for the black man. ....... It's odd listening to her appearance before church people. She slipped easily into a slower and more sing-songy Southern cadence, and we know when Hillary tried the same thing she got slammed for it. Oprah won't be criticized. She can affect a "Color Purple" voice and get away with it. .... the messianic tone of her introduction to Barack Obama ..... when she's around, nobody notices anything else but Oprah.
Oprah leads the way for Obama Financial Times
The Daily Five: Shea-Porter Endorsing Obama? Atlantic Online Obama has events out west; he'll start a 5-day bus tour on Friday ...... The New Hampshire Union Leader's breaking news alert has Rep. Carol Shea-Porter endorsing Sen. Barack Obama tomorrow
Clinton, Obama ads reveal the candidates Boston Globe
GOP Voters Are Uninspired by Candidates New York Times
Hillary Clinton as LBJ? Washington Post his wife on a detour through California ..... He compared her favorably to former President Lyndon Johnson ..... he did challenge Obama's ability to bring about change. "It's one thing to have good intentions; it's another thing altogether to change the reality of people's lives," Clinton said. "It's important, communication is. But it's also important to know how to get from a good intention to a specific result." ..... Both Clinton and Obama are on the West Coast, their schedules locked in by a previous commitment to attend a Democratic debate that was eventually cancelled due to the writers' strike.
Showing signs of vulnerability, Hillary Clinton shifts her focus ... International Herald Tribune The sense of inevitability that her campaign once stoked had dissipated. And rather than discussing her candidacy, Clinton explained the caucus process and showed a video entitled, "Caucusing is easy." ....... giving her Democratic opponents a chance to show that she can be beaten. ..... the Clinton campaign, which to some Iowans had appeared ignorant of the political subtleties here if not arrogant about them ....... "Here's the bottom line: they had not worked this state" ...... Her aides said she has largely cleared her schedule this week to prepare for the Democratic debate here Thursday sponsored by the Des Moines Register, the final encounter here among all the candidates before the caucuses. ..... a private dinner Friday evening with David Yepsen, the influential Des Moines Register columnist, who has repeatedly question whether Clinton appreciates the nuances of the state. ....... Most of her senior staff have moved from the campaign's national headquarters in Virginia to a windowless cluster of desks in Mrs. Clinton's headquarters in an office complex on the east side of Des Moines. Over the next few days, Howard Wolfson, the face of the Clinton war room, is driving out here from Washington. .......... Clinton has begun displaying a level of personal interest in the details of the campaign here that is unusual for even a presidential candidate named Clinton. ..... her aides acknowledged that, tactical problems aside, Iowans might well have taken a long and informed look at Clinton and decided not to vote for her. ...... Clinton was having trouble mastering the political intricacies of this significant if idiosyncratic state was echoed by Democrats in other campaigns, and reflected by the evidence of the sometimes tin-ear quality of the Clinton campaign in this state. ....... On her first trip here last January, one adviser said, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly expressed frustration, confiding to one associate that she "had no feel for the place." In one example of that, she responded with bewilderment when informed that she should not assume that she now had the support of an Iowa Democratic leader even after spending 40 minutes over coffee with him. ..... Clinton spent much of the early part of the year working huge rallies in big media market in the belief that the coverage from those rallies would reverberate into the more sparsely populated rural areas. But that is not the way things work in Iowa. ..... methodically worked rural areas, appreciating the importance of personal appeals to small groups of voters - but also, the peculiarity of caucus vote allocation that gives outsized influence to rural areas.
Clinton Shies From Full Iowa Schedule New York Times Mrs. Clinton stayed off the campaign trail Sunday and has no public events today; on Tuesday, her only event is in San Francisco (a good deal west of Iowa), where she will appear at a lunchtime “conversation” with Warren Buffett. To be sure, she is returning to Iowa Wednesday to campaign, and then taking part in the big Democratic debate in Des Moines on Thursday, before returning to New York for a gala fundraiser on Friday. ...... two days out of six in Iowa – less than four weeks before the caucuses – is pretty unusual ..... and New York lieutenant governor David Paterson are campaigning here as well. ...... One other detail: There are more than 400 people here for Mr. Clinton’s event at the Fisher Theater here on the Iowa State campus. Still, there are about 25 empty seats in the audience; at a university with 26,000 students, is it unusual that the theater isn’t standing-room-only? ....... And as it happens, not everyone here is a Clinton supporter; the woman who just sat next to me happens to be an Obama supporter, and is talking to reporters around us about how important Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement of Mr. Obama is.
Giuliani, Huckabee Tied; Clinton Up The Associated Press
Clinton Says Hillary Was Always the One The Associated Press Campaigning for his wife, former President Clinton says that when they were starting out he was and ability so struck by her intellecthe once suggested she should just dump him and jump into her own political career. ...... "She laughed and said, 'First I love you and, second, I'm not going to run for anything, I'm too hardheaded.'" ....... "I thought she was the most gifted person of our generation," said Clinton, who said he told her, "You know, you really should dump me and go back home to Chicago or go to New York and take one of those offers you've got and run for office." ........ she has "the best combination of mind and heart." ...... "When she came down there and we got married, I was a defeated candidate for Congress with a $26,000 salary and a $42,000 campaign debt," said Clinton. "If she were half as calculating as someone said, that's a really great way to run for president." ......... "She's the best non-incumbent I have ever had a chance to vote for. In my whole life I've never met anyone like her." ...... "He did an excellent job as president and we need some changes," said 82-year-old Morris Mericle, who attended Monday's event and said he wanted to see a former president he had voted for. ...... "I'm out of politics now except every two years the Democrats kind of haul me out of the barn like an old horse to see if I can make it around the track one more time," he said. ....... "They always send me to rural areas," said Clinton. "I've got boots that have been worn and I know one end of a horse from the other."
Gordon Brown asks Google to help the poor Telegraph.co.uk The Prime Minister is in talks to involve leading international companies, including internet giant Google and investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, to tackle a “development emergency” in the world’s poorest countries. ..... telecoms company Vodafone, and American supermarket firm Wal-Mart. ..... “There are 72 million children not going to primary school, in some countries one woman in six dies in childbirth, over a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. ...... "The key to achieving the development goals is to concentrate on helping the very poor.” .... the prospect of initiatives in financial services, mobile telephones and agriculture
Office Live Workspace narrows Google App gap while playing to MS ... ZDNet the Redmond-based company is not about to get caught with its pants down the way it did in the mid-1990s when it was forced to regroup after being blind-sided by the Web. ....... OLW is primarily designed to use the Web as a shared workspace through which people collaborate on Microsoft Office-based documents. Much the same way the standard edition of Google Apps is free, OLW, which includes 500MB of free storage, will be available to users for free. Though they may not get to take full advantage of all that OLW has to offer, users need not have a copy of Microsoft Office to initiate and use an Office Live Workspace. Microsoft plans to support the service with advertising ..... it’s clear that Microsoft is really only a few lines of code away (code that’s probably already finished, but not activated yet) from offering a fully Web-based suite of its own ...... a matter of choice more than it is any inability to produce such an offering ...... “an extension” to Microsoft Office. ..... from within Microsoft Office, users can check-out documents (Word, Excel, etc.) from the shared workspace for editing at which point others must wait until that copy is checked back-in before they can edit it ...... Whereas Google’s approach to this sort of collaboration drives like a platform-independent Ferrari, Microsoft’s is still the same old Edsel.
Auction will alter wireless world Chicago Tribune the potential to make talking on cell phones, surfing the Web on a mobile device and watching TV on your handset easier and less expensive. ...... lead to the creation of the long-desired "third pipe" of high-speed Internet access to compete with phone and cable service. ........ a new era of wireless communications where networks are open to whatever devices or applications people want to use, and scanning Web sites and watching streaming video are as common as making phone calls and sending text messages. ....... The spectrum promises to help the U.S. catch up to Asia and Europe in the availability and speeds of wireless Internet and other mobile services. ....... Google, which wants to extend its Internet empire to the wireless world. ....... more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet ...... Mobile advertising, which is expected to grow dramatically, is one of Google's biggest potential new markets. ...... "Their basic strategic objective is to make sure that the wireless Internet resembles the wired Internet" ........ The airwaves are considered the beachfront of the wireless landscape.
Why Sprint should promote wimax to Wall Street until they get it ZDNet
Reliance leading the wimax Charge in India Words that Work
Amitabh Bachchan in DON sequel ! India Target
Harvard overhauls financial aid to cut tuition costs Reuters
Harvard Steps Up Aid for Middle-Class Students New York Times
Why Dell needs a handheld CNET News.com
Motorola to Be Taken Over by RIM, HP or Dell: CNBC SYS-CON Media
linkedin Makes Its Move BusinessWeek (Facebook is mostly for socializing with people you already know, while LinkedIn is for meeting people you don’t know, for professional purposes, through people you do know). ...... LinkedIn News starts by delivering news about key daily topics: a user's company, products, industry, and competitors, drawn from more than 10,000 publishers and blogs. Then, LinkedIn News uses the wisdom of each user's "crowd" of colleagues to determine the handful of articles that are the most important to their business -- the articles they need to read that day. ..... 17 million LinkedIn users ...... (LinkedIn is projecting it will have $75 million to $100 million in revenues next year.)

Them Civil Rights Folks

Andrew Young says Obama too young for White House Baltimore Sun, United States Civil rights leader and former Carter Administration U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young says 46-year-old Barack Obama is too young to be president and lacks the network of political allies that can provide important support for a national leader. ..... “I want Barack Obama to be president,” Young said, pausing for effect, “in 2016.” ..... “It’s not a matter of being inexperienced. It’s a matter of being young,” said Young, who is 75. “There’s a certain level of maturity ... you’ve got to learn to take a certain amount of (expletive).” ...... Young added that Obama needs a political network to bolster him in office. He noted Hillary Clinton had a well-established network of allies, including her husband, to provide political protection. ...... “There are more black people that Bill and Hillary lean on,” Young said. “You cannot be president alone. ... To put a brother in there by himself is to set him up for crucifixion. His time will come and the world will be ready for a visionary leadership.” ..... Young also quipped that “Bill is every bit as black as Barack.” ....... “He’s probably gone with more black women than Barack,” Young said of former President Clinton, drawing laughs from a live television audience. Young quickly followed the comment with the disclaimer, “I’m clowning.”
Civil Rights Icon Calls Obama Too Young The Associated Press
Barack Obama is too young to be President, says Andrew Young New York Daily News
Civil Rights Icon Andrew Young Hints at Clinton Endorsement MyFox Atlanta, GA
Young Hits Obama Washington Continent Former Atlanta Mayor and Ambassador ..... You have to have a protective network around you... Leadership requires suffering. And I would like to see Barack's children get a little older, see, because they're going to pick on them." ..... He reflected on his days serving as one of many lieutenants to Martin Luther King Jr. ...... while Obama's rival Sen. Hillary Clinton is surrounded by quite a few black advisors Obama has very few. .... Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had endorsed Obama, has been critical of the presidential candidate in recent weeks. .... Rev. Al Sharpton has said that he has not decided if he will support Obama.

When you learn Newtonian physics too well, that actually makes you less capable of getting a hint of Einsteinian physics. These civil rights era lions are acting like electromagnetism folks who will perhaps never get quantum physics. They deserve respect for the work they did half a century ago, but they don't deserve attention today in 2008. Don't listen to them.

People like Andrew Young find the idea of an occasional phone call from Bill Clinton intoxicating. Oh, access. Oh, mother power. What they don't realize is it is a leap from getting a phone call from Bill Clinton, and being Bill Clinton. Barack is about to become Bill Clinton.

"People don't change their ideas. They die with them."
- Max Planck

Andrew Young is not worth courting for me. Did Andrew Young witness the I Have A Dream speech in person? I doubt it. How did he skip the central message of that grand day? When MLK said "some day," he was thinking of Barack Obama.

There are people who will tell you, Barack should wait. He should wait his turn. Maybe eight years, maybe more. He should wait. Forget eight years, if it were about Barack Obama, I would say, bud, skip this circus, just never run. It's not worth it. You will spend too much time away from your kids. They will make you eat hotel food. They will make you sleep in motels, inns, hotels, and other sanitary but impersonal sleeping facilities invented by capitalism. You won't get to read as much as you would like to. They will put you out in the cold in your jacket because your overcoat might not look cool for the TV cameras. And you will have to deliver your stump speech over and over again. You will have to walk to the same U2 song, did they tell you? You will have to deal with creatures called volunteers. You will have to work to get them excited, and most of them you will never even meet. Some of them probably live unhygienic lives. You are already in history, you are already on TV, you are already in the top 1% income bracket. Just kick back and relax and take it all in.

But, don't you get it? This is not about Barack Obama. Barack can wait. He can afford to not even run, not now, not later. But the world can't wait. America can't wait. This is about America. This is about the world.

But this is also about race. Oprah gets it. Her billion dollars did not save her from the indignity in Paris. She was just another suspicious black person. Andrew Young does not get it. He might have marched in the 1960s, but he is going to have to work harder to convince me he was not blanked out half the time he was marching.

Barack can not wait four or eight or 12 years. If he is thinking about America, if he is thinking about the world. The time is now. It is now or never. Iraq will not wait four or eight or 12 years. America needs universal health care now. Actually it needed it yesterday. There has been enough waiting. This country has waited too long. Global warming will not wait while Barack bides his time.

I am going to admit something. When I got excited about Barack back in November 2006 when he hinted he might run, no kidding, I was not thinking the politics of hope, new kind of politics, what have you. I was itching for fights. Things were looking so good, the country was so sour on Iraq, I felt like I was on a roll. And I am still 101. I am having to learn this thing called new kind of politics, and politics of hope, and bringing people together, and all that. I have been warming to the idea. Some day I might even get it. But then that's the point. Barack is unique in what he bring to the table. He is a leader who will fill up the chasms that divide. That will make it possible for him to do big, bold things.

The civil rights movement was a task incomplete. Barack is the dream that MLK talked about. Them civil rights era folks are going to have to wake up, or they are going to have to disown their involvement in the civil rights movement. It really does boil down to that.

Barack "lacks the network of political allies?" Are you kidding me? This is the largest grassroots movement in human history. What planet are you on? Noone built a more impressive network before.

It is almost like some of these older black folks need the chronic poverty in the inner cities to continue because if that disappears then so does their relevance. That is pathetic.

It is pathetic that the most well known blacks in America need whites to like Barack before they will decide they like Barack also. It is weird. How about maybe not supporting Barack regardless of how white America feels about him? Or supporting him? Or not let Bill Clinton tell you how to think? Have some dignity and make up your own mind? Judge Barack on the merits.

If he is the best qualified, support him. If not, go support someone else who you think is best qualified. This is not about race. This is a job application. Just don't act more racist than the racist white folks you complain about.

MLK dreamt the dream. Barack will realize the dream. And you just might get the historical significance of Barack in about four, or eight or 12 years. Barack and America do not have to wait, but you take your time, be my guest.

And then Young totally loses me on all merits when he goes on this racist tangent about Barack's mother having married a "Chinese" and Barack having gone to Islamic schools (not true), and I am like, they never found out who was behind the anti-Mormon push calls in Iowa recently, but we now have the guilty party for the racist mud on Obama. Shame on you, Andrew Young.

"I can talk to white folks because I grew up around them when I was two," he says. Apparently he does not know his math. Barack also was around white kids when he was two. Young is confused. He is past his prime. He should lolly up and get off TV. He is being a disservice to the cause that gave him his entire identity.

The lowest part of Young's diatribe is when he feigns concern for Barack's kids as the reason why Barack should not even have run. Remember JFK and his two young kids? Barack reminds people of JFK. Where have you been? Boating?

Barack: Black Enough For Me







On The Web

Andrew Young - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Georgia Encyclopedia: Andrew Young (b. 1932)
Bio of Ambassador Andrew Young
AYSPS People - Andrew Young
YOUNG, Andrew Jackson, Jr. - Biographical Information
In Defense of Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. - SourceWatch
Lesson Plan - Andrew Young
Andrew Young resigns from Wal-Mart group - U.S. business- msnbc.com
Andrew J. Young, Jr., Oral History: LBJ Library
Michelle Malkin » Video: Andrew Young disses Obama, extols the ...