BarackObama.com: The Dashboard Is Too Slow

Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down

BarackObama.com: The Dashboard Is Too Slow

I am beginning to think the engineers behind BarackObama.com and the top staffers in Chicago are not avid users of BarackObama.com, or maybe they are, but just of the front pages and not the Dashboard. Even if they do go log onto the Dashboard once in a while, perhaps they don't have that many points, few friends, few blog entries, and so the problem is not being experienced, and so is going unaddressed.

But for the top volunteers across the country, the Dashboard at MyBO is the only office you have, there is no offline office for the most part. There is your Dashboard at MyBO and there is offline action. And so the Dashboard is critical. It has to load up in two seconds. It should feel like a Google search. Google market research has shown that they are already so fast, your search results here in 0.04 seconds, but they do 20% worse, they lose 20% of their customers. We are talking milliseconds here, not minutes. Right now the MyBO Dashboard takes minutes to load up. And you lost me. I have not logged on for most of the pat week or more. This is not a good sign.

I have over 2,000 friends and over 4,000 pending friend requests all over the country. I have many blog entries. I have more than 50 unread messages and I am going to not try to read them now because a message takes forever to show when you click on it.

In Google's case they realized the 20% extra time was because they were showing 20 results per page. And so they cut down, they went to 10 results per page.

I am beginning to think my Dashboard takes minutes to load because I have over 2,000 friends at MyBO and most of their profiles come with pictures. And that is what is slowing things down. But that is no excuse. This still has to be fixed like now, definitely before January 4.

My guess is the top 1,000 volunteers at MyBO are all experiencing the same problem: a really, really slow Dashboard. Right now my ranking is 24. I am fairly dedicated. But you lost even me for more than a week. This is not a good thing.

The only way out might be to reduce the clutter on the Dashboard. How about not displaying photos of friends either on the Dashboard or on one's public profile page and instead giving a link to another page that has all that stuff. Got to turn the Dashboard into something light like the front page is. The front page is looking real good. I just noticed BarackObama.com has been redone. It has a more sophisticated look now. It is jazzy.

This is not a bandwidth issue. It is not in Obama 2oo8's control as how fast or slow someone's connection is. If my download speed were 1GB per second, I would not be complaining.

But do the Google thing, take a tip from them: Unclutter The Dashboard. Make it super light.

Facebook has the same problem. If you have too many applications on Facebook, your profile page can take longer to show up fully. Clutter is what is bogging the MyBO Dashboard.

List how many friends someone has, but get rid of that box of profile pictures of those friends. Instead provide a link to a page with that box and more. That should take care of the speed problem.

I will admit, I went on a major rampage. I was sending friend requests left and right. I sent one to everyone in the "near you" category, for example. I sent one to all who had "updated" in October, November and the first half of December. Nothing wrong with that. That is the cyber version of working the rope line, shaking hands. It is legit. I have said I am not going anywhere outside the city boundaries. But that does not apply online.

This cheetah video at the top, that is my personal theme video for Obama 2008. I want that also to become my theme video for the MyBO Dashboard. Chicago, make it happen.

Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down

If Hillary Has So Much Foreign Policy Experience, Why Did She So Mess Up On Iraq?

I can't believe Hillary is casting foreign policy as her strength in these final days. She just so happens to be part of the biggest foreign policy disaster in a generation.

Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down

Benazir: What If It Was Not The Al Qaeda

What Pakistan needs is a new constitution born out of a popularly elected constituent assembly. That is the only way to bring the army under the thumb of civilian leaders.

An independent international investigation has to be conducted. That should have been done after the first attempt on her life the day of her arrival.

She was killed a few miles from where her father was killed. Perhaps her enemies in the army and the intelligence services saw poetic justice in that statement.

The president of Pakistan has to be popularly, directly elected.

And the killers have to be taken to international court.

It all starts with an independent, international investigation.

Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down

Increasing Spending

It might be worth it to spend a little more the final few days. Run again that ad that starts with Barack's mother that was run months back, the one on health care. That woman was ahead of her time. She was working on microfinance for women in the Global South decades before Yunus bagged a Nobel for the same.

Looks like a lot of 527s are coming out of the woodworks. We can't afford to be outspent these final few days. The people are king of making up their minds right about now.

Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down

Bill Clinton's Bar Hopping

That guy has started campaigning like he were barhopping.

Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down

Iraq

Got to hit Hillary on Iraq. Got to hit back.

Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down

Jewish

Nobody is more Jewish than my Hasidic neighbors.

An Amazing White Media

For all of this year they kept saying how Hillary was invincible, inevitable, and all that. And now they are saying, if Barack wins Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, the race is going to turn competitive. Unbelievable.




In The News

Presidential Candidates Gear Up for Iowa Caucuses Voice of America the campaigning has become intense. ...... Senator Clinton downplayed the notion that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would take a leading role in policy matters. Her comments produced laughter from John Edwards during an interview on the CBS program, Face the Nation. ...... "Well, I think it is a complete fantasy," said Edwards. ..... latest pre-caucus poll of Iowa voters. It shows Hillary Clinton with a narrow lead
Candidates Digging for a Deeper Pool of Iowa Voters New York Times Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama are trying to expand the tiny universe of caucusgoers, a fundamental shift in the way candidates have approached the Iowa caucuses. Mr. Edwards is focusing mainly on voters who have reliably voted in the past. ...... this contest could be determined by a swing of as few as 1,000 voters. ...... “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Gov. Chet Culver ...... Mrs. Clinton’s office here is filled with hundreds of new green snow shovels that were being strategically distributed on Saturday to precinct captains to clear the walks of older women who might be particularly wary of going out to the caucuses in bad weather. The campaign has printed doorknob hangers with caucus locations printed in extra-large type, also to accommodate these older first-time caucusers. ......... Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has contracted with a local supermarket chain to deliver platters of sandwiches for pre-caucus parties at caucus sites late Thursday afternoon. The idea is to entice people to arrive early and thus give Clinton aides time to see who has not shown up and get them to the caucus before the doors close at 7 p.m. ....... are betting that they can use computer-driven research to expand the relatively small pool of caucusgoers ........ The Clinton campaign has mailed refrigerator magnets marked with the caucus date to the women they have identified as first-time caucusgoers who might determine her fate. Mr. Obama has promised baby-sitting to any parent who needs it caucus night. ...... “It is definitely the most highly organized caucus of all time,” said Michael Whouley ........ sophisticated voter identification models, using detailed demographic and consumer data ........ make multiple personal visits to the homes of those people ...... After his speech, he holds a brief meeting and photograph session with his young supporters who belong to a program called Barack Stars. ........ a yellow slip of paper — a “Ticket to Change” — with directions to their caucus site and a telephone hot line (one for each of Iowa’s five area codes) to answer questions............ finding voters through microtargeting
Edwards, Obama Boost Efforts to Avoid 3rd Place NPR
Was Obama Comparing Edwards Unfavorably to John Kerry? ABC News Edwards, for all his strengths, does have a list of major issues he's changed his position on
Obama: Mo Money, Mo Problems Yahoo! News "unprecedented" spending by Democratic groups could "impact the outcome" in next week's Iowa Caucuses. ........ some of the advertising by unions and liberal organizations is "underhanded," "negative," and "misleading."
Obama Derides Outside Spending Washington Post two pro-John Edwards groups -- the beneficently named Working 4 Working Americans and the Alliance for a New America -- have spent nearly $2.1 million on direct mail, radio and television ads. Three groups promoting Hillary Rodham Clinton's candidacy -- the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the American Federation of Teachers and EMILY's List -- have dropped $2.6 million, including, according to the memo, $309,000 against Obama. ....... average voters simply do not follow elections that closely and much of the back and forth is lost on them ......... Poll after poll shows voters are following this election more closely than any one in modern history
Edwards Fights to the Finish Washington Post Edwards is on the move. Independent analysts see his support firming up ....... he cannot afford to lose here on Thursday night. ..... His "America Rising" theme is not a variation of "Morning in America." ...... It is a call to arms that is raw and angry, populist and pugnacious. It is a message that is as exhausting and is it confrontational. .... has turned street-fighter for the final stretch run. His message can be boiled down to a single word -- "Fight!" ...... He was, as he now explains, a brawler as a kid, taking on bullies the way he later took on corporations and insurance companies as a trail lawyer. ....... if you're not willing to stand up for yourself and if you're not willing to fight, no one will stand up for you ...... The rich have an "iron-fisted grip" on democracy and won't let go through negotiations...... the beneficiary of an independent expenditure campaign run by his former campaign manager. ........ He promises not to fix the system but to blow it up.
Clinton victory could hang on the weather forecast Times Online There is no state whose collective decision I would trust more. Iowa is largely a farming state, with few large cities and a first-class university, Iowa State. Iowans have the core values of the American Middle West, practical, serious, good-natured, religious and thrifty. .......... Six weeks ago none of the political commentators gave Huckabee any chance. ......... in Iowa, the race is much closer — Clinton 29 per cent, Obama 27 per cent and Edwards also 27. ...... Foreign policy has played only a small part in the Iowa debate, even after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. ....... The weather forecast for the coming week is bright and sunny. ....... Barring catastrophe, Hillary Clinton should be ahead or level in Iowa, ahead in New Hampshire and should virtually win the nomination on Super Tuesday. ...... a presidential race in November between Mike Huckabee and Hillary Clinton
Poll: Clinton leads in Iowa; Huckabee, Romney even Reuters 31 percent to 27 percent, with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards a close third at 24 ....... 6 percent of likely caucus-goers in each party are uncertain ...... narrowly leading Obama among women voters and ahead among older voters, who are the most likely to participate. ........ a big lead among younger voters ..... Clinton's supporters were the most dedicated, with 76 percent saying their support was "very" strong, compared to 65 percent for Edwards and 56 percent for Obama. ...... Edwards was the most popular second choice with 30 percent, while Obama had 25 percent and Clinton only 12 percent.
Staying out front hasn't been easy for Clinton Newsday It took Obama the better part of a year to tear down Clinton's facade of certainty - even his supporters jokingly called him "Obambi" because he seemed awed by Clinton at times. But he pounced on Clinton's disastrous showing at a late October debate in Philadelphia, shedding his passivity and tapping into pent-up hostility toward the front-runner. ....... Shorn of her air of inevitability, she has spent weeks groping for a coherent message, and only recently hit on a hybrid theme her campaign believes is a winner. Some backers jokingly call it the "Mama Bear" approach, emphasizing Clinton's toughness and experience, while using friends and family to melt her Ice Queen image and demonstrate her commitment to change. ........ By the third quarter, she had reasserted her fundraising dominance, beating Obama $28 million to $20 million. ...... But at the Philadelphia debate it all seemed to fall apart for Team Clinton when a series of gaffes cascaded into a full-scale collapse of the inevitability argument. ........ But earlier this month, Team Clinton rolled out the kinder, gentler approach that many in the campaign credit for stemming Clinton's slide ....... "Within the last couple of weeks they've settled on a single message that's just a lot more comfortable for them and it shows. They're doing a lot better," said a top Clinton donor.
Clintons' dual jab at Obama on experience AFP Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton are raising new questions over her White House rival Barack Obama's experience, warning perilous national security decisions loom for the next US leader. ....... the latest bid to paint Obama as too green to serve as US commander-in-chief. ..... Clinton said she had unsuccessfully urged her husband to intervene militarily to halt Rwanda's genocide in 1994, and then traveled to Uganda to say sorry to the victims of the atrocity. ........ "I personally apologized to women whose arms had been hacked off, who had seen their husbands and their children murdered before their very eyes and were at the bottom of piles of bodies," she told ABC. .......... the next president had to be ready for sudden, national security challenges. ...... "You have to have a leader who is strong and commanding and convincing enough ... to deal with the unexpected," he was quoted as saying ....... "There is a better than 50 percent chance that sometime in the first year or 18 months of the next presidency, something will happen that is not being discussed in this campaign. ....... Clinton's comments were reminiscent of the Bush administration's successful gambit of framing the 2004 campaign against John Kerry as a question of who was most fit to lead a global war on terror. ........ The former first lady also said that the ex-president would not have a formal role in her White House ..... argued Sunday he had more experience in global affairs than Bill Clinton did when elected in 1992. ...... Clinton's comments on Rwanda appeared to be a new jab at Obama, who last week said his multi-ethnic background and childhood years abroad meant he was more in touch with the world than someone who had taken tea with US diplomats. ..... Madeleine Albright recalled how Clinton had traveled to scores of remote villages and refugee camps.
Clinton: My Foreign Policy Experience More Than Just Drinking Tea CBS News While discussing a visit to Bosnia during the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords as First Lady, Clinton took a swipe at Obama saying, "We landed in one of those corkscrew landings and ran out because they said there might be snipers. I don't remember anybody offering me tea on the tarmac when that was happening." ........ "Senator Clinton has been in refugee camps, clinics, orphanages, and villages all around the world, including places where tea is not the usual drink. In addition to these experiences she has met with world leaders and has known many of them for years. I have been with her on many of these occasions, and it is this combination of experience and understanding that sets her apart from the field, and why I am supporting her for President." ....... We used to say in the White House that if a place was too dangerous, too small or too poor send the First Lady. I had the time of my life
Warning of Threats, Clinton Sells Clinton Washington Post who could best manage unforeseen catastrophes. ...... the experience argument was bolstered by the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the threat of wider unrest in that country ..... "I'm not asking you to take me on faith. I'm not asking you to take a leap of faith." ...... "Who better to explain what it takes to be president than the last two-term president the Democrats have had since FDR?" said Mark Penn, chief strategist for the Clinton campaign. ....... He did not elaborate on what he meant by the prospect of the audience members' grandchildren not being there in 50 years....... In past weeks, he has argued that there are three reasons to nominate his wife: her vision, her plans and her record. In Nashua, he said there was a fourth reason: her ability to deal with unseen threats. ......... "If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again ...... those Hillary Clinton aides who had come to worry about his occasional freelancing ........ Clinton is able, some supporters believe, to help neutralize the concerns among women about the authenticity of the Clinton marriage. ......... Clinton spent much of the 45-minute speech talking about the achievements of his own administration ...... Clinton, who took no questions
Bill Clinton Stumps for Wife NH The Associated Press Bill Clinton praised the Democratic field of presidential contenders Saturday, noting that as president he had close ties to almost all of them. ....... her high-wattage husband ...... He noted he had campaigned for John Edwards' 1998 Senate campaign and Obama's in 2004 and that Bill Richardson served as his United Nations ambassador and energy secretary. He said he counts Joe Biden and Chris Dodd as "two close friends of mine and our friendship has remained since I left the White House and it's even endured this campaign." ........ He draws crowds as large as she does and has helped her campaign build its list of volunteers and supporters ...... Part of Clinton's plan is to derail any momentum Obama might build.
Bill Clinton Warns of "Unexpected" Washington Post

Making Nevada's Caucus Count the state's Young Democrats organization. ....... Clinton leads Obama by 8 points in a recent poll ...... nothing will be settled after Iowa and New Hampshire ..... 10 straight days of attention ....... One third of Nevada's 2.5 million people are Hispanics, Asian-Americans and blacks ....... Unions — particularly Culinary 226, which includes Strip hospitality workers ........ when Hillary Clinton campaigned in Pahrump, a small town outside of Vegas known for its anti-government leanings and several well-known brothels, more than 2,500 people showed up ........... the first time [in the campaign] a presidential candidate has to stand before a crowd that looks like America. ........ western, Hispanic and labor issues. ........ issues that are transcendent in the west — water, public resources, public land-83 percent of Nevada land is public ...... Steelman explains caucusing by having the group decide what their favorite movie is. ..... ("The Godfather" wins this mock caucus.)
Bhutto's Warm Smile The most striking characteristic of Benazir Bhutto, back when she was a student in the 1970s, was the contrast between the intensity of her eyes and the warmth of her very large smile. ...... She tended to wear blue jeans and baggy sweatshirts, fitting in with the dress code of the day, but she told me she dressed that way (never shorts, skirts, or t-shirts) also because it honored the Muslim custom of covering her body as a woman. Another contrast was between her nickname Pinky — she even typed some of her essays on pink paper — and her serious personality. ........ at Harvard ..... she stood out as a powerful figure in the dining hall of Elliot House, where she lived, and she displayed a passion for international politics that went beyond the antiwar rhetoric that passed for political discourse in those days ....... the Oxford Union, the venerable debating society, and she viewed it as her mission to become the first Asian woman in that post. She lost her first campaign for the post, but when her father was deposed and arrested the following year, we used that crisis as a reason to urge people to vote for her, and she won. ........ Benazir Bhutto navigated through personal as well as political turmoils that were far more intense than most of us can imagine. Over the years, on those rare occasions when we’d meet and reminisce, I’d notice how the features of her face had hardened a bit, as had the intensity of her stare when she talked to you. But she never lost the warmth in that very big smile.
Bhutto's Jihadist Enemies Benazir Bhutto had long been an outspoken critic of Pakistani militants and this made her the mortal enemy of a galaxy of extremist forces inside Pakistan. "Bhutto was the only Pakistani politician willing to stand up and say, 'I don't like violent terrorists,'" says Stephen Cohen, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Many of these groups have intertwining histories and common loyalties — as well as shadowy links with Pakistani intelligence. As the probe into her assassination begins, investigators will have to sort through a morass of violent groups that were gunning for Bhutto. And while all have some historic link to al-Qaeda, they have just as much ideological impetus to act on their own — or at the behest of rogue elements of the Pakistani government sympathetic to Islamic radicals. ...... In a briefing Friday, the Pakistani government emphasized that al-Qaeda had Bhutto in its sights. ....... "She was on the hit list of al-Qaeda." ....... the suicide bomber who killed Benazir Bhutto belonged to a domestic terrorist organization with links to al-Qaeda called Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. The group is responsible for dozens of attacks inside Pakistan over the past decade including sectarian killings of Shi'ites and Christians, a failed 1999 assassination attempt against then-Prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and involvement in the kidnapping and beheading of the Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl. .......... Lashkar-i-Jhangvi had claimed responsibility for Bhutto's assassination ........ another suspect: Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban leader and an influential tribal chief in Waziristan ....... Pakistani intelligence services intercepted a supposed conversation in which Mehsud congratulated those who carried out the assassination. "Fantastic job," reads the transcript released by the Pakistan Ministry of Interior, "[They were] very brave boys who killed her." But a spokesman for Mehsud told the Associated Press on Saturday that the militant was not involved in the attack, calling the allegation "government propaganda." ......... Mehsud is a very convenient [person to blame]. ....... the Taliban and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi emerged from the two decades of fighting in Afghanistan, where eventually a Taliban regime would give refuge to al-Qaeda ........ Lashkar-i-Tayyba or the "Army of the Pure," which Pakistani intelligence agents, after the end of the Afghan war, would redirect toward Kashmir and the Indian troops stationed in that disputed region. ........ The group has close ties to al-Qaeda. The leadership of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi fought alongside many high-ranking al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001. ......... many in its ranks trained in al-Qaeda-run camps in Afghanistan during the late 1990s. When al-Qaeda retreated from Afghanistan in 2002, many of its fighters are believed to have joined forces with Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Lashkar-i-Tayyba ....... In March 2002, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi retaliated against the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the resulting fall of the Taliban by launching a grenade attack on the International Protestant Church in Islamabad ...... "It is probable there are links between Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and al-Qaeda," says Grare, "but it is certain they do have links to the government." He adds, "If the government itself says Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is involved, it is suicidal because it opens the door to speculation about their own role." ...... Pakistani authorities have had a hand in encouraging groups like Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Lashkar-i-Tayyba, Islamabad has done little to systematically dismantle these jihadist "armies" now that their original purposes — fighting the Soviets and supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan or fighting the Indians in Kashmir — are over. .... "It's like a cancer you've started elsewhere that comes back to eat you up."

Was It Al Qaeda? Newsweek Mehsud is described by the officials as one of the Taliban's most senior leaders inside Pakistan. He supposedly operates from loosely governed tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and is believed to be in contact with elements of the Al Qaeda central command, whose leaders, including Zawahiri and bin Laden, are believed to be hiding out in the same rugged region.
Bhutto Conspiracy Theories Fill the Air TIME On jihadi websites, al-Qaeda claimed the assassination was their work .... the sentiments provide a powerful insight into how angry Pakistanis are at their President and how mistrustful they are of the U.S.
Al-Qaeda's New Terror Tactic? one of Bhutto's assailants was a known member of the extremist organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group it said was allied with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. If so, it could mean further evidence of a dramatic and disturbing diversification in Al-Qaeda's terrorism playbook. ....... Up until now, the violent methods employed by al-Qaeda and its operatives around the globe have largely eschewed single assassinations or the targeting of political leaders. .......... creating chaos and panic through large terror strikes that claim large numbers of random victims — carnage that creates pressure and fear in the societies and governments that the jihadists view as enemies ......... "There is so much scheming and double-dealing in Pakistan that the country is the analyst's worst nightmare. ...... it has helped create the uproar and turmoil al-Qaeda has always seen as its best method of destabilizing enemy regimes it wants to replace. ........ They're willing to do anything, and with anyone's help.

An Asteroid Hurtles Toward Mars
Kenya Opposition Poised to Sweep New York Times
Clinton and Obama exploit Pakistan crisis Telegraph.co.uk
Obama: US needs to come down hard on Musharraf Chicago Sun-Times“As long as we are supporting somebody who the Pakistani people themselves believe has subverted democracy, that strengthens the hand of the Islamic militants,” Obama told the crowd. ...... Obama started four campaign stops Thursday apologizing for being late because of phone calls he said he had to make to ambassadors early Thursday to get a reading on Bhutto’s assassination. He continued using that opening up to and including his 8 p.m. appearance about eight hours after he made the calls.
Clinton, Obama Seize on Killing Washington Post
Clinton demands Bhutto probe, slams Musharraf AFP Clinton Friday called for an independent, international probe into Benazir Bhutto's murder, as the turmoil wracking US anti-terror ally Pakistan reshaped debate in the White House race. ..... Clinton paid a personal tribute to the former Pakistani prime minister, and also turned on Musharraf, saying he had failed both to usher Pakistan towards democracy, and to crush Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. ...... the US invasion of Iraq was a distraction from the "war on terror." ...... "We've got to reverse policies, but we've got to see this in a bigger context which is that our invasion of Iraq resulted in us taking our eye off the ball," Obama said. ....... "We should have been focused in Afghanistan, finishing off Al-Qaeda."
Obama catches Clinton in NH; Iowa remains a 3-way contest Los Angeles Times Obama drew backing from 32% of New Hampshire Democrats who intend to vote in the primary, compared with Clinton's 30%
Google gets even more ambitious CNET News.com
Google gains in US search in November BusinessWeek
Google’s Market Share Grows and Grows and Grows New York Times Blogs

Benazir, One Whose Looks Have No Parallel

All those men were there inside,
when she came in totally naked.
They had been drinking: they began to spit.
Newly come from the river, she knew nothing.
She was a mermaid who had lost her way.
The insults flowed down her gleaming flesh.
Obscenities drowned her golden breasts.
Not knowing tears, she did not weep tears.
Not knowing clothes, she did not have clothes.
They blackened her with burnt corks and cigarette stubs,
and rolled around laughing on the tavern floor.
She did not speak because she had no speech.
Her eyes were the colour of distant love,
her twin arms were made of white topaz.
Her lips moved, silent, in a coral light,
and suddenly she went out by that door.
Entering the river she was cleaned,
shining like a white stone in the rain,
and without looking back she swam again
swam towards emptiness, swam towards death.

That is what her name means, Benazir. One whose looks have no parallel.

Gagan, Michelle, Benazir

Gagan




Gagan was the top student leader during Nepal's April Revolution. I got to meet him in NYC months before the revolution.

An Open Letter To Gagan Thapa
Gagan Thapa's Right To Free Speech
Gagan's Talk In New York
A Day In The Life Of Gagan Thapa
The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Gagan Thapa
Gagan Thapa October 22 Saturday 2 PM Columbia University

About a week before Benazir's cold murder, I woke up after having had a very bad dream. Gagan had been assassinated and noone really knew who did it. He was there, and then he was not there anymore. In my dream I had to live through the knowledge of the aftermath.

A day or two later Dipta showed up on my Gmail chat. Dipta was a few years junior to me at high school. I talked to him more than to any other Nepali in the US during my two intense years for Nepal's democracy and social justice movements. Dipta lives and works in DC. But he was in Kathmandu when he showed up in a chat window. I told him about the dream. I said tell Gagan to be extra careful on personal safety issues.

But something kept tugging at me still.

Michelle


I Stand With Michelle: Iowa Must And Can Be Won
Michelle Obama Is Just Fabulous
Wife Won't Do, Got To Court Women With Policy And Outreach

I remembered reading a line in some news item online from one of Michelle's recent Iowa appearances. She seemed to be bragging about how she was still a normal woman with a normal life. "I still go to Target. I still pump my own gas." A cold shiver ran down my spine.

Long months back, on national TV, a reporter had asked her if she worried about her husband's safety, now that he was running for president. The tigress got agitated, her cub husband sitting next to her. "As a black man, Barack could get shot walking down to the gas station!"

Memories of when a motorbike hit her vehicle in Iowa months back flashed.

And so I blogged about it, hoping to get picked up by the people in Chicago. Obama 2008 must make sure Michelle is not an everyday woman no more. Her everyday woman persona has to end by January 3. She does not get to pump her own gas anymore. She must only move around in a motorcade of three, one in the front, another in the back. Obama 2008 must hire bodyguards. That is a legitimate campaign expense. If she gets into another car crash, Obama 2008 pays a political price. You end up looking like you can't even take care of the candidate's wife.

But something kept tugging at me still. And I thought maybe because I did not get picked up. Maybe Michelle would still be pumping her own gas on January 5.

I logged onto BarackObama.com where I am now the 25th volunteer in ranking. And the dashboard took minutes to load. Obviously they did not pick up my urgent suggestion from days back. (Warning Sign: BarackObama.com Is Melting Down) At this rate, BarackObama.com is going to crash on January 4.

But something kept tugging at me still.

Benazir


Benazir Bhutto: No American Stooge
Benazir Should Address Many Mass Rallies, Hold No Street Events, Keep Tight Security Around Her House, Office
Benazir And Islamofascism

I was not thinking of Benazir. After the attempt on her life immediately after arrival in Pakistan after a decade in exile, I had this naive feeling that she was now immunized. Sure, those wanting to kill her are still out there, but now it is very well known that she is a target, and so those whose job it is to protect her will now work extra hard. You can't keep her from holding rallies, that is her lifeblood, but you can make sure you whisk her safely to and from the stage. I tuned her out. It might have been denial on my part. I tuned her out. I was going to tune back in after she is elected and is ready to be sworn in as Prime Minister. Then I was going to follow her in news.

Usually I wake up, hit the button to turn the computer on, and head to the restroom. By the time I am back, the computer has booted up. Usually I like to glance at the headlines at NepalNews.com first thing. Then I like to glance at my customized page for Google News. I like to follow Barack and Google.

But this day two things were unusual. I just had had a few weird days when my hours of sleeping and staying awake had been totally thrown out of whack. I would be up until five in the morning, and then go to sleep. I was not liking it. Then I even fell kind of sick. I blamed it on the cold outside, the walks I had taken, the beer at that party. A few times I felt like throwing up.

So I wake up and it is afternoon. As if I were trying to avoid the news. It was three in the afternoon. I hit the button. But instead of heading to the restroom, I proceeded to NepalNews.com. I had broken the routine.

The first news item on top of the page was about Benazir.

Pakistan's oppn leader Bhutto killed in suicide attack NepalNews

I immediately went into denial. Perhaps I was not fully awake. Maybe I should take the restroom trip first like I usually do. When was the last time foreign news was top of the page at NepalNews.com? Never. Maybe I was seeing things. Perhaps I should go wash my face first. It was not an active thinking process of denial. It was a feeling of daze, disbelief, and denial.

So I slumbered into the restroom, as if wanting to tell myself, see, you are practically asleep, you can't walk straight. I sat for a long time on the commode, unfeeling, unthinking. I pulled on the flush, washed my hands, washed my face. Okay, now I am awake, let's see what NepalNews.com has on Nepal today.

The headline was still there.

Pakistan's oppn leader Bhutto killed in suicide attack NepalNews

It was there, loud and clear. I became unfeeling. I was alone in my three bedroom apartment. Usually my two Estonina roomies would be out working at this hour, but this time they were not even in town, they were out for Christmas. I was alone, I could afford to not feel. Usually when something big shows up in the news, like bomb explosions in India, I immediately open up 20 different news sources online, tabs, to get a clear picture of what really happened. With Benazir, it was a long time before I even clicked on this one link. I just looked at it.

Then a small part of my mind got a little clinical. Who did it? The headline itself showed there was Al Qaeda's signature all over it. But Pakistan's ground realities are different. Pakistans' intelligence agency gave birth to the Taliban's rise in Afghanistan. If your loyalty is to God, would you swap that for a loyalty to Musharraf, let alone Bush? Indira's Sikh guards made a choice, their loyalty was to God, and they fried her up with their machine guns. Musharraf could claim the Al Qaeda has not penetrated the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency known as a state within a state, and he might not even be lying, he might just be in denial.

A few months back there was a newspaper ad by a unit of the Pakistani army about some stolen nuclear material. Please help us track it if you can. To them it was probably funny. But it is not funny. The ad came and went like a mirage, it was taken down. That gives rise to a technical question. Could some people guarding Pakistani nuclear material claim some of it got stolen but instead have had it passed on to some of their Islamist allies? What if they did that out of Islamist pride? What if they did that for God? For money? Out of hubris? Because they are stupid? All of the above?

Stepping into Bin Laden's shoes, a dirty bomb in a major American city would be his idea of outdoing 9/11. It could be Dallas. You could move the material from Pakistan to Africa on over to Mexico, cross the border, and explode it in Dallas. The fear generated in the national population would be crippling in ways 9/11 was not.

I proceeded to read the news item. Then I had to blog the pain before I did my usual thing of opening up 20 tabs. I wanted a clear picture of those four seconds.

Since I have gone for two very long walks across Brooklyn. I went for a very long one today. This time I cried. I was walking, noone saw me cry, but I cried. I wanted the numbness and the disbelief to go away. I cried and then I started feeling. Tender sadness. Loss.

Since her death, her image has become even more vivid in my mind. More so than ever before. This smiling, brave, eloquent woman who insists she has not gone anywhere. She is still here.

Her eloquence I have wished were mine. Her eloquence I have wished upon world leaders on all continents. Her eloquence whose echo I hear in Barack when he speaks.

Benazir, Last Month
Benazir, Benazir

Thursday, January 3

7:30 pm

DL21C's Iowa Caucus Night Party!!

Live Returns on the Big Screen, Interviews from Iowa, Special Guests and much more!

Coverage begins at 8:00pm
O'Lunney's Pub (upstairs bar/lounge)
145 W 45th St (between 6th and 7th Avenues)
New York, NY
1/2/3/N/R/S to Times Square
B/D/F/V to 42nd Street

A Bhutto Successor? Time the slain former prime minister's 19-year-old son, Bilawal, will likely be named as her political heir and the new party leader on Sunday. PPP members are due to meet to discuss the party's future and to give Bilawal, a student at Oxford, a chance to read his mother's last will and testament. ....... accorded with Benazir Bhutto's wishes. If confirmed, the teenager will become the third leader of the 40-year-old center-left party ......... Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who founded the PPP in 1967 ...... The quick anointment of a Bhutto to head the PPP will help rally party members ....... The party hopes to ride a wave of sympathy in parliamentary elections that are set for Jan. 8 ...... PPP officials say their party intends to participate. ....... Bilawal was born in September 1988, nearly three months before his mother was elected Prime Minister for the first time. ....... Dubai, where Bilawal attended the Rashid School for Boys, serving as vice president of the school's student council. In Fall 2007 he enrolled at Oxford ........ A 2004 profile of Bilawal in the respected Pakistani daily newspaper Dawn said the teenager liked target-shooting, swimming, horseback riding and squash, and regretted being away from Pakistan in part because it meant he played less cricket. His grandfather, he said, "was a very courageous man and I consider myself very lucky because I have three powerful role models that will obviously influence my career choices when I am older." ........... a consensus has emerged that the person needs to be a Bhutto, a name that retains incredible power and vote-winning influence ......... "This was also the situation when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was murdered," says Babar Awan, a PPP Senator and close ally of Benazir. "Benazir was a teenager, she was a student at Harvard in 1979 [when Zulfikar Ali was hanged]. It is basically the hard core of the PPP that rallies around their great hope and that they attach to the House of Bhutto." .......... All those who don't accept the military role in politics are controversial. The charges are 100% unfounded and fake. ...... Bilawal will head the party, and that the party's deputy leader and longtime Benazir loyalist, Mukhdoom Amin Fahim, is likely to become the prime minister .......... Bilawal would take over as the parliamentary leader once he finishes his studies and once he has more experience ....... Bilawal was a natural future leader...... Last year Benazir told a reporter that she hoped her three children would choose a different career. "My children have told me they are very worried about my safety," she said. "I understand those fears. But they are Bhuttos and we have to face the future with courage, whatever it brings."

Barack's Politics Of Hope, Hillary's Politics Of Fear

If we needed another shred of evidence that Hillary is a Bush Republican. The Bushies cashed fear in 2002 and 2004. They tried hard again to cash it in 2006. It did not work. They are trying equally hard to cash it for 2008. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Don't get me wrong. I am hard nosed on this security stuff. The threat to America is continued and very real. But that is precisely the reason to kick Bush out and not pick Hillary. America is less safe today. There has not been another attack on US soil since 9/11, and that sure is good news, and the branches of the US government at the forefront of that have to be commended. But why will you not hold people in leadership responsible for the fact that the Al Qaeda is stronger today than ever before? If Al Qaeda can strike with eery abandon in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, is it not only a matter of time before it strikes America again? How much sense did it make for the US to take its eyes off the Al Qaeda and jump into a misadventure in Iraq?

If the Al Qaeda was in Afghanistan, that is where the action was. If the Al Qaeda moved to Pakistan, that is where the action shifted. It did not shift to Iraq. W's mistake has been to go after the wrong target. Wait until he goes into Iran, and then he will have taken both eyes off the Al Qaeda.

Hillary does not get this. I don't really know why. She is smart, she is tough. Maybe it is because it is a paradigm shift. It asks for out of the box thinking.

Benazir was the world's best hope to drain the swamp in Pakistan. But look how easily the Al Qaeda got her. The Al Qaeda is inside the Pakistani state and spreading like cancer. The Al Qaeda was a new virus in 2001. Saddam was the old virus. But W went after the Al Qaeda with the antibiotics he had. He was a medicine looking for a disease, and that is why he felt so gungho about going after Saddam. His disdain for basic scientific thinking is nowhere more dangerous than in how he has approached the Al Qaeda. No, it is not on stem cell stuff.

And our very own Hillary likes to play by the W book. She is with Bush on Iraq, and then she is with Bush on Iran. And now her closing argument is should something unpredictable, unfortunate happen, who do you want in the Oval Office? Nothing unpredictable will happen. If there is another 9/11 style attack on America, it will not be unpredictable. And the world will know who did it. And the world knows where these people are.

Hillary's experience argument makes me want to give W a third term. The guy was Governor of Texas, he has been president two terms. He is older than Hillary.

Fighting the Al Qaeda will not be easy, but it is not exactly rocket science either. You start with the disease, not with the medicine. The medicine you design in response. And all the time you objectively measure the reality out there, on what works and what does not.

Hint, hint. Al Qaeda is not a state, it is not a standing army. It took one semi defunct cell of one lone operative, one motorbike, one gun, two gun shots, one bomb, to destabilize a country the size of Pakistan. They are not trying to take over Pakistan like the Soviets tried to take over Afghanistan. They are just trying to destabilize it. That is all they want, that is all they need. They don't care about the ordinary Pakistanis who are rioting in all Pakistani cities in protest.

Hint, hint. They are only a few thousand in number.

Hillary took America onto the wrong battlefield. Barack will scale back and take America to the right battlefield. And the idea is not a military invasion of Pakistan, something unthinkable. That would be like punishing the rioting Pakistanis for what the Al Qaeda did to Benazir. Those rioting Pakistanis are also mad at the Al Qaeda.

The first order of business was to protect Benazir. She was democracy embodied. Democracy is what will drain the swamp. As for mosquitoes, you need the right weapons. You need super human intelligence. If you can't locate and penetrate the Al Qaeda, what good are you in this day and age?

The Dream

MLK talked of a dream. Barack is that dream.

The Bridge

Bill Clinton talked of the bridge to the 21st century. Barack is that bridge.

Benazir, Last Month

I have long claimed that the rise of extremism and militancy in Pakistan could not happen without support from elements within the current administration. My return to my country poses a threat to the forces of extremism that have thrived under a dictatorship. They want to stop the restoration of democracy at any price. They have exploited a poor, desperate, and powerless people and allowed extremists the right environment in which to flourish.

The ruling party is an artificial, political party created in the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan's equivalent of the CIA) during the General Elections of 2002. Its core support comes from the political partners of the military dictator of the '80s, General Zia al-Haq, who empowered the most radical elements within the Afghan Mujahedeen who went on to morph into al-Qaeda, Taliban and the Pakistani militants of today.

This party has called for a banning of outdoor rallies, demonstrations and caravans. They would thus suspend all activity that demonstrates to the people of Pakistan and to the people of the world which parties enjoy mass support amongst the people.

On my return to Pakistan last month, throngs of people turned out to welcome me back home. The demand to ban grassroots political activity is a suspicious prelude to what could be an overt attempt to rig the upcoming elections. All people who believe in the process of democracy should reject this attempt to undermine public participation in the campaign and set the table for what I believe would simply be a fraudulent election.

It has now been more than two weeks since the horrific assassination attempt against me and the police have still not filed my complaint. They filed their own report without taking statements from eyewitnesses on the truck targeted for the terrorist attack which resulted in the death of more than 158 of my supporters and security guards.

Soon thereafter, I was asked by authorities not to travel in cars with tinted windows -- which protected me from identification by terrorists -- or travel with privately armed guards.

I began to feel the net was being tightened around me when police security outside my home in Karachi was reduced, even as I was told that other assassination plots were in the offing.

While the authorities speculated on whether a suicide bomber had been involved or two suicide bombers or perhaps a hand grenade or perhaps a car bomb, I reflected on my plight.

I decided not to be holed up in my home, a virtual prisoner. I went to my ancestral village of Larkana to pray at my father's grave. Everywhere, the people rallied around me in a frenzy of joy. I feel humbled by their love and trust.

Although it remains difficult to know for certain, I doubt that a suicide bomber was involved in the attack on me. I suspect, after talking to some of the injured, that the terrorists used a small child as a ploy to get to me. They were trying to hoist the child -- dressed in the colors of my party's flag -- onto my truck.

Failing to do so, they dropped the child near my vehicle. Some witnesses said the child had been rigged as a human bomb. I can't be sure. What followed was a massive explosion, killing scores immediately, tearing many bodies in half and sending blood, gore and flames up into the vehicle.

In less than a minute a second bomb -- reports later suggested a car bomb -- went off.

As I have reflected on the past two weeks, there are some things I wonder about:

• What was the car doing there?

• Why had the street lights been turned off?

• Was that intended to prevent my security from clearly seeing any approaching dangers?

• Is there any truth to the report that a high government official ordered the lights turned off "to prevent her getting so much television coverage"?

• Why would the leadership of the ruling party of Pakistan make a claim that my own party had committed the attack to gain sympathy?

• Why would the investigation be initially given to a police officer who was present when my husband was nearly tortured to death in 1999?

And, then, there is to me the most worrying: the adamant rejection by Islamabad of any assistance from the state-of-the art forensic teams of the FBI and Scotland Yard. There are precedents in Pakistan for such international assistance. Such teams were called in to investigate the mysterious and sudden death of Army Chief General Asif Nawaz and the Egyptian Embassy bombing in the '90s.

I had called in international experts when my brother Murtaza was killed in what I believed was a conspiracy to destabilize my government in 1996.

We can only wonder -- if there is nothing to hide -- why international investigators from the FBI and Scotland Yard are being prevented from assisting a Pakistan-led investigation?

The sham investigation of the October 19 massacre and the attempt by the ruling party to politically capitalize on this catastrophe are discomforting, but do not suggest any direct involvement by General Pervez Musharraf.

Until recently, he had made both public and private commitments to confidence building gestures that would move Pakistan forward in the transition to democracy. But at a time when he should be demonstrating to our country and the world his seriousness in allowing free, fair and transparent elections, he has declared martial law. This can only be seen as a step to entrench his dictatorship.

We must have elections under an independent caretaker government, and neutral administrative officials who have the confidence of all major political parties in the country. And these elections should be under the supervision of an autonomous and competent Election Commission.

It is time that Islamabad facilitates the operation of a rigorous election monitoring mechanism -- both domestic and international -- that can guarantee the sanctity of the ballot and allows election experts to conduct exit polls to insure that the counting reflects the voting.

It is time, in other words, for reconciliation to truly begin that will allow for the mobilization of the moderate majority of my nation and the marginalization of militants, fanatics and extremists.

But for that to happen, General Musharraf will need to revive the constitution by lifting martial law.

This Year Putin, Next Year Barack

Barack is going to be Time's Person Of The Year next year.

Diego Maradona And Barack

You can't be American and still appreciate Diego. When I was at high school, there were two gods, one was Pele, another Maradona.

Maradona is in news saying he has met Fidel and Chavez, now he would like to meet Ahmedinejad. I see a Barack fan there.

Good things happen to you when you support Barack. Suddenly I find myself in the same leagues as Diego. Lucky star.

Come to think of it, I was thinking of Diego recently. If Barack were to win all four January states, as looks likely, that will be like this score by Diego. He took the ball from the midfield all the way to scoring.

In The News

Bhutto photographer: 'She was clearly in her element' CNN International John Moore took last known images of Benazir Bhutto before death ..... Moore "surprised" to see Bhutto rise through sunroof to wave to crowd .... Moore was also at Karachi rally where Bhutto motorcade attacked in October ...... "And then suddenly, there were a few gun shots that rang out, and she went down, she went down through the sunroof. And just at that moment I raised my camera up and the blast happened. ... And then, of course, there was chaos." ........ However, the Rawalpindi rally was announced beforehand, he observed. ...... "Whoever planned this attack -- they had time on their hands to plan everything properly, and you saw the results today" ...... Moore said he himself expected there could be another attack following the Karachi massacre. He said he stayed away from gates at the Rawalpindi parkground, where police were searching people, because he suspected that's where a bomb would go off. Moore said it was obvious that Bhutto enjoyed being with her supporters. "She was clearly in her element," he said. "She just wanted to get close to the people, and obviously whoever was after her -- they saw that coming."
Bhutto's death rocks Pakistan Christian Science Monitor the starkest evidence yet that the forces aligned against law and order, once contained to the remote border region with Afghanistan, are now spilling into the heart of Pakistan, disrupting the country's ability to function. ......... "What is evident is a complete lack of command and control." ..... Riots erupted in Rawalpindi soon after the news of her death was confirmed. The city has been the site of several suicide bombings in past months, though most have targeted security forces. Private television channels also reported riots in major towns across the country, especially in Sindh, Bhutto's home province. ....... Baitullah Mesud, a Taliban commander in Waziristan, had several times openly threatened her life. ....... "fewer people will challenge extremism openly." ...... Bhutto died just a few miles from where her father was hanged. One brother died from poisoning, and another was killed in a police shootout.
A Christian-Hindu Clash in India TIME On Christmas Eve and Christmas day, Hindu nationalists in the Kandhamal area attacked churches and convents and set fire to houses belonging to Christians, killing one person and injuring at least two dozen more. Since then, more than forty Christian houses have been set ablaze despite curfews and increased police patrols. ......... a tangled intersection of political power, communal prejudice and the injustices of Hinduism's archaic caste system. ....... thousands of Hindus have converted to Christianity. Many converts, and the churches they join, say conversion is a way to escape their place in the complex social hierarchy of Hindu caste. ........ the Dalits, or "untouchables" .... it is this group that accounts for the most converts to Christianity. By becoming Christian, converts say, they move outside the caste system and can hopefully become more socially mobile. ......... Other low-caste groups and so-called "tribals" ...... "If you can identify a common enemy it is easier to unify all these Hindu groups"
Benazir Bhutto (1953–2007) In a male-dominated, Islamic society, she rose ...... exiled twice. In the end, Bhutto was better at rallying people to the idea of her power than at keeping them inspired by her use of it. ...... a child of privilege ... Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the fiery and magnetic founder of the Pakistan People's Party ..... her mother Nusrat Ispahan, from a distinguished Kurdish family from Iran. ..... "Pinky." ..... great populist spectacles and little governmental achievement ..... an almost tawdry cycle of exile, house arrest, ascent into power and dismissal, much sound and fury and signifying little ...... a daylong demonstration that was the largest display in memory of discontent with Zia's government. "Zia is a dog," chanted the demonstrators again and again. "We love Benazir."
Where Bhutto's Death Leaves the U.S. Hussain Haqqani, a former top aide to Bhutto and now a professor at Boston University .... "People like me have been making specific requests to American officials to intervene and ask for particular security arrangements be made for her, and they have been constantly just trusting the Musharraf Administration." ....... He blames Musharraf himself, above all, for Bhutto's death. ...... "Since 1954 almost $21 billion had been given to Pakistan in aid," he told the House Armed Services Committee. "Of this, $17.7 billion were given under military rule, and only $3.4 billion was given to Pakistan and the civilian government." ........ U.S. policy in Pakistan has favored personalities over principles. ...... Some will say Bhutto had a death wish ..... She returned to Pakistan and faced a range of powerful anti-democratic enemies, including both religious extremists like al-Qaeda and corrupt branches of the Pakistani military and intelligence services ....... "In a sense Benazir knew she was on a martyrdom mission. She was willing to give up her life for democracy." ....... didn't provide Bhutto with adequate security. In fact, he twice urged the Pakistani President to bolster Bhutto's protection. ...... "The failure to protect Ms. Bhutto raises a lot of hard questions for the government and security services that must be answered," said Biden, who is also chairman of the foreign relations committee. "The U.S. should offer any assistance necessary, including investigative teams, to get to the bottom of this horror." ......... al-Qaeda — making marginal progress in Afghanistan, backsliding in Iraq, and rebuffed in Somalia — is looking for a new battlefield. "I really think they're trying to ignite Pakistan into the kind of chaos they need to survive," Zinni says, "and create a fundamentalist, even radical, Islamic government." ......... "The losing of Pakistan — to whatever degree we've lost it, and I wouldn't write it off yet — goes back to after the first Afghan war," Zinni says, when Washington neglected the Afghan-Pakistan border roiling with insurgents.
In Final Iowa Push, Obama Stresses Importance of Change Washington Post "In seven days, what was improbable has the chance to beat what Washington said was inevitable" ..... "It was our message when we were down, and our message when we were up. And it must be catching on, because in these last few weeks, everyone is talking about change." ....... We don't need more heat. We need more light.
Black Candidates Continue Steep Climb in Politics In 2000, President Clinton's former chief adviser on race, Christopher Edley Jr., was asked to speculate about the prospects of a black president by 2020. "I'm pessimistic about that," said Edley, who by then had returned to his Harvard Law School professorship. "I think we will see a woman or Latino before we see an African American." ....... Obama is a former student of Edley's at Harvard Law ..... But I'm almost afraid to believe. ...... I think there is something really magical about this brother. ...... Breakthroughs in the popular culture, where many Americans form their impressions of each other, have been among the hardest to achieve. ..... 1967 hit movie "In the Heat of the Night ....... "I think [the film] woke up a lot of people in the Deep South," Jewison says. "I don't think they'd ever seen a black character on the screen as smart and talented as Sidney." ......... Less than 4 percent of the nation's elected officials are black, and 90 percent of them represent predominantly black or predominantly black-and-Hispanic constituencies. ....... Only three black U.S. senators and two black governors have been elected since Reconstruction. ........ the heavy hanging cloud has been that a black can't win ...... Republican Party, Sen. Edward Brooke of Massachusetts ..... As the first African American to be popularly elected to the Senate, in 1966, he had quickly become a national star, called on to give speeches and appear at fundraisers across the country. ....... a pivotal meeting in 1983 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. ...... others were worried about their groups' nonprofit status. ..... "Jesse said, 'Well, if no one else is willing to run, I'll run.' ...... he had this network, these relationships with black preachers all over the country. ..... On his second attempt, Jackson won 13 primaries and caucuses, doubled his total votes to 7 million and took 29 percent of the total primary vote. He finished a strong runner-up to Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis ....... Obama was a recent graduate of Columbia University when Jackson launched his first campaign, and once told Jackson that he was inspired watching him on television debating Walter Mondale and Gary Hart. ...... September 2004 ... an 84-year-old white woman approached Jones. "I hope I live long enough," she said, according to Jones, who is black. "This man is going to be president, and I want to vote for him." ...... Jones's first glimpse of Obama's broad appeal ....... "What happens is folks try to pigeonhole you, and he would never let folks pigeonhole him."
Obama's plea to voters as Clinton gains ground Times Online signs that Hillary Clinton has stabilised her presidential campaign and is gaining ground. ....... a new poll claiming to show that after months of deadlock in the state Mrs Clinton has suddenly opened up a wide lead. ......... The American Research Group poll put Mrs Clinton 15 points ahead of Mr Obama, just a week after it had the two in a statistical tie. ....... increased fears in the Obama camp that Mrs Clinton's relentless message of experience versus Mr Obama's theme of change might be having more resonance in the final, frantic stretch of campaigning. ....... played on voters' fears. ........ In his final pitch to voters, he will attack the Clintons for their secrecy and try and focus minds on "how close we are to making change". On Wednesday, he implied that a vote for Mrs Clinton was "madness". .... There is a growing belief inside Mr Edwards's camp that the former senator, and John Kerry's 2004 running mate, can win Iowa. Anything less than victory for him would deal a severe blow to his campaign, as he has been campaigning in the Hawkeye State for nearly four years. The Democratic race is still extremely volatile. Any of the three leading candidates could win in Iowa — and any of them could come third.
Urgent and personal: Clinton's final case to voters AFP Clinton is debuting an urgent warning that only she can rescue America from a perfect storm of political peril. ...... she launched an eight-day blitz ..... Clinton is developing the theme that help her coast through much of the year with a gaping lead in key opinion polls, hoping to quell a serious of setbacks and missteps that plagued her earlier in December. ....... Clinton painted a dire picture of an America under siege at home and abroad. ...... The unspoken but clear implication of her words was that Americans should think carefully before entrusting the White House to a first-term senator, like 46-year-old Obama. ...... "If they've been secretive in the past, they'll be secretive as president," Obama said ....... "If haven't been all that strong on lobbyists in the past, it doesn't matter what they say in the campaign, theythey won't be that strong about it when they are president." ...... a dueling bus tour of the state against Clinton. ..... she was spooked by tightening opinion polls.
Hillary Clinton the woman most admired by Americans: poll AFP
McCain Campaigns in Iowa, Energized by New Hampshire New York Times
Vote-Counting Under Way in Kenyan Elections Voice of America
Kibaki leads Kenya election: early exit poll Reuters
Bhutto's Last Words FOX News "Some of my friends think I’m mad to be going back," Bhutto said. "Even my relatives, because they don’t want to lose me. They’ve seen what happened to my brothers and my father. They keep telling me, ‘Think again!’ But it’s my country." ..... Bhutto seemed isolated. "I feel, as I’m leaving, that perhaps Bhutto’s life — for all the staff and assistants — is a little lonely. She asks if I can stay for dinner but I have a plane to catch. ....... "Her father is dead, her mother is ill, her brothers are dead, her husband is a liability and two of her children are in college." ........ "I miss the scent of the rain when it falls on the dusty roads," she told Wilentz. "And the wheat crops in flower. I miss the people; I miss all of our rituals — visiting the graves of our forefathers."
Candidates go into overdrive, one week before Iowa caucuses CNN Obama launches "Stand for Change" tour across Iowa ...... "If Clinton wins Iowa, she could be unstoppable. If she loses Iowa, she may also lose New Hampshire and South Carolina. Then we've got a real race on our hands." ....... Clinton said on Wednesday. "Who, if something happened that none of us can predict now, would be there able to respond and act on behalf of our country immediately?" ...... "A nation at war... Troubles at home...America at a crossroads...Demands a leader...With a Steady Hand." ......"If Huckabee wins, we're likely to see economic and foreign policy conservatives coalesce around an alternative," CNN's Schneider said. "But who? That could be decided five days later in New Hampshire." ....... The Sunshine State could be critical to Giuliani since he is trailing in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina. ....... The assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minster Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on Thursday could add uncertainty to the already uncertain political situation in the Iowa
Bhutto death severe blow to U.S.
Amitabh performs last rites for his mother Rediff The Bachchans were taken to the banks of the Ganga in a chartered bus from the airport, where a huge crowd was waiting to catch a glimpse of the superstar. ..... There was tight police security at the river's banks as a sombre Bachchan, in a white kurta-pyjama, carrying his mother's ashes, proceeded towards a motorboat booked to take them to the sangam, the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers. ..... The Bachchans and their friends were brought to the sangam by the motorboat and an hour-long ritual was conducted by Prayagwal mahasabha, a famous group of Allahabad priests. .... The prayagwals had refused to perform the last rites of Bachchan's poet father Harivansh Rai Bachchan in 2003 to protest the fact that priests from Varanasi having been flown in for the occasion. However, this time, the prayagwals were persuaded to take charge of the rituals by Gupta.
Bachchans reach Allahabad to immerse Teji's Sahara Samay Abhishek was seen holding on to his father's shoulders at regular intervals in an attempt to console him. ...... Shweta was seen crying inconsolably. Both Aishwarya and Abhishek took turns to console her. ..... Amitabh, Ajitabh, Abhishek, Anil Ambani and Amar Singh carried the body on their shoulders.
Citigroup, Merrill Face More Writedowns, Goldman Says (Update1) Bloomberg
Argentine Jewish Community Upset with Maradona VivirLatino "I've already met (Hugo) Chávez and Fidel (Castro). Now the only one I've still got to meet is their [the Iranian] president. I want to meet Ahmadineyad." ..... "Diego is the most well-known Argentine in the world and our soccer embassador. It would be good to tell him the true story about how much pain [Iran] brought us 13 years ago," said the Agencia Judía de Noticias.
IRS: Tax Fix Delays Refunds The Associated Press
Apple at $200 Is Just the Beginning Motley Fool
Reports: Apple, Fox planning movie rental service CNET News.com Apple's stock is at an all-time high, and it went up further Thursday on reports of the movie rental deal.
Google stands firm on Reader sharing as users' ire grows Computerworld
Google Thinks It Knows Your Friends New York Times Google is desperately trying to become a force in social networking
Google change triggers uproar San Jose Mercury News
Google must stand trial on Autolink patents Boston Globe
Hilton to donate bulk of fortune to foundation USA Today
Amazon adds Warner Music downloads BusinessWeek
AT&T and Cisco: A Bandwidth Bonanza In a world in which more and more computing occurs out on the Internet as opposed to inside PCs and corporate networks, the companies that handle all the communications needs—carriers and cable companies—become increasingly crucial.

Authorities unsure how tiger got loose Los Angeles Times
Why Tigers Attack Newsweek
Democrats Enter Stretch in Iowa Washington Post just eight days left to break a three-way deadlock ..... the three remain tightly bunched in surveys. ..... a tour themed "It's Time to Pick a President," injected a note of menace into her case, arguing that "the job itself is unpredictable" ...... a team of "Hill's Angels" that includes fundraiser Terence R. McAuliffe and women's outreach organizer Ann Lewis ....... attention from news outlets worldwide. ...... have the courage to vote their hopes and not their fears ...... an atmosphere of heightening hostility in the final days ....... "we're getting down to the jury deliberation here" and it is essential for all the candidates to sharpen their closing arguments. ........ Edwards spent the day campaigning in New Hampshire, which one adviser called a sign of the candidate's growing confidence that he is in a strong position in Iowa and determined not to repeat his mistake of four years ago, when he put too little effort into the Granite State and finished poorly after a strong second-place showing in Iowa.
Obama backs Israel as Jewish state Ha'aretz
Clinton, Obama trade 'switches' USA Today "Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign today announced that United States Army veteran Kent Sovern, who was announced just last week as the statewide Co-Chair of Senator Clinton's Veterans Committee, has now decided to caucus for Senator Obama and is encouraging other Iowa veterans to caucus for Obama on Thursday, January 3rd"
Obama Embraces Tearful Veteran The Associated Press He said he felt bad about the impression he might leave calling on Hampton because he was wearing an Obama T-shirt, so he urged him to "make it a tough question." The crowd chuckled but soon grew quiet as it became obvious that Hampton was having a hard time speaking without breaking down. ........ "You made the essential point, which is you earned your benefits," Obama said. He said if elected president, he would take care of veterans as a way of encouraging future generations to enter the military, as well as provide mental health screening and adopt a "zero tolerance" policy for homeless veterans.
Candidates get serious after holiday rest NEWS.com.au top contenders could afford no more than a two-day holiday before resuming their fervent courtship of voters.
Play of the Day: Obama's Grocery Trip The Associated Press He said he bought a necklace for his wife, Michelle, for Christmas. ..... "We agreed that we weren't going to give each other gifts, but I never believe she really means it," Obama said. "The point is no matter what she says, you don't want to show up empty-handed."
Michelle Obama: Choir director's death 'sad' Chicago Sun-Times
Choir Director at Barack Obama's Church Found Slain FOX News
Clinton, Obama clashing on health Baltimore Sun mandatory automobile insurance and motorcycle helmet use, never result in universal compliance. ...... they want a presidential candidate who supports universal health care, far fewer say they want a Medicare-style government program that replaces private markets. ....... stressing individual choice and the central role of employers ..... young people who make enough money to get insurance where they work but don't think they need it ....... The Illinois senator wants a rule change so that those up to age 25 can stay on their parents' policies, even if they're not in school. ....... Depending on the state, anywhere from 4 percent to 34 percent of drivers do not buy auto insurance ...... reducing the costs of insurance, which would almost certainly require huge government subsidies for the poor. Obama says it makes most sense to focus there first. ...... an important lesson from her failed 1993 health reform effort was the folly of the White House writing a complex proposal and trying to persuade lawmakers to accept it.
In Iowa President Bill Clinton says: "It Is In Your Hands" CBS News
Clinton launches final push MSNBC
Clinton Ad Serves As Campaign Closer The Associated Press
Thompson teases Clinton, says no woman ought to be president next year KGAN
Bush, Sen. Clinton top 'most admired' list USA Today

Person of the Year: Vladimir Putin Time that power might be achieved by the suppression of ordinary needs, like blinking ....... so little visible security at Putin's dacha ...... spacious but spartan office ...... Russia's most powerful men: Putin's chief of staff, his ideologist, the speaker of parliament ....... contained power: he is compact and moves stiffly but efficiently ...... He is fit .... early-morning swims of an hour or more ...... he makes no effort to be ingratiating ..... He relaxes, he says, by listening to classical composers like Brahms, Mozart, Tchaikovsky. ...... His favorite Beatles song is Yesterday. He has never sent an e-mail in his life. ....... impatient to the point of rudeness with small talk ...... He is passionate in his belief that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a tragedy, particularly since overnight it stranded 25 million ethnic Russians in "foreign" lands. ........ a pragmatist, and has cobbled together a system—not unlike China's—that embraces the free market (albeit with a heavy dose of corruption) but relies on a strong state hand to keep order. ......... everybody is made to believe...[Russians] are a little bit savage still or they just climbed down from the trees, you know, and probably need to have...the dirt washed out of their beards and hair. ............ will assume the nominally lesser role of Prime Minister. ..... Putin will surely remain the supreme leader, master of Russia's destiny ....... Russia's economy has grown an average of 7% a year for the past five years ....... On global issues, it offers alternatives to America's waning influence, helping broker deals in North Korea, the Middle East, Iran. Russia just made its first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran ...... Putin's popularity ratings are routinely around 70%. "He is emerging as an elected emperor, whom many people compare to Peter the Great ........ Leonid Brezhnev was always the dolt, Gorbachev the bumbling reformer, Yeltsin the drunk. Putin, in current punch lines, is the despot. ........ Stalin's ghost appears to Putin in a dream, and Putin asks for his help running the country. Stalin says, "Round up and shoot all the democrats, and then paint the inside of the Kremlin blue." "Why blue?" Putin asks. "Ha!" says Stalin. "I knew you wouldn't ask me about the first part." ....... "He does not rely on personal charm. It is a combination of aloofness, considerable intelligence, strategic grasp and Russian nationalism" ....... He was born into humble circumstances in St. Petersburg in 1952. ...... his paternal grandfather, who had served as a cook for both Lenin and Stalin ........ So Putin headed to Moscow. ...... he had no connections when he arrived in the capital in mid-1996 ...... in August 1999, Putin was named Prime Minister ..... "It never occurred to me," he says. "It still surprises me." ....... Putin goes to a restaurant with Medvedev and orders a steak. The waiter asks, "And what about the vegetable?" Putin answers, "The vegetable will have steak too." ......... Grozny, Chechnya's capital, was all but obliterated ...... Putin tells us how, at an APEC dinner at which he was feeling somewhat lost, Clinton crossed the room past other world leaders and leaned down to talk to him. "Volodya," Clinton said, using the familiar form of the name Vladimir, "I suggest we walk out together from this room." Putin rose to his feet, and the two men strolled out together. "Everyone applauded," Putin recalls. "I will remember that forever." ......... Putin strongly opposed America's invasion of Iraq ........ Putin and Bush are fishing on the Volga River. After half an hour Bush complains, "Vladimir, I'm getting bitten like crazy by mosquitoes, but I haven't seen a single one bothering you." Putin: "They know better than that." ......... routinely suggests that Kasparov is a stooge of the West because he spoke to the foreign press in English after his arrest ........... Nashi (Ours, in Russian), the cultish pro-Putin youth movement ........ children's division of Nashi ..... "Tomorrow there will be war in Iran. The day after tomorrow Russia will be governed externally!" ....... Russia will become a political competitor to the U.S. and to rising nations like China and India. ....... Putin has been irritable throughout, a grudging host.
TIME's Interview with Vladimir Putin
Hu Jintao China, the most populous, economically dynamic and politically intriguing nation in the world ....... industrial park to the world ...... infinitely complex nation ....... has never granted a free-ranging interview ..... Hu has had to lead by consensus ...... Tall trees attract wind ....... peaceful rise, a phrase designed to soothe foreigners worried about the double threat of China's fireball economy and rapidly modernizing military. ....... the datong, the great harmony
Al Gore examples of civilizations changing course ..... a whole new economic boom, one that is low-carbon and high-productivity ....... the fight against extreme poverty in the developing world and the struggle against climate change can reinforce each other. ...... the eco-warrior with whom I share a bed ..... he is an America the world needs to meet.
J.K. Rowling Rowling calls her time with Harry "one of the longest relationships of my adult life," her rock through bereavement, a turbulent marriage and divorce, single motherhood, changes of country, fear of failure — and transcendent joy, on the day a wise man at Bloomsbury offered her $2,250 and agreed to print 1,000 books. ........ Forbes magazine put Rowling second only to Oprah as the richest woman in entertainment, ahead of Martha Stewart and Madonna — and as the first person to become a billionaire by writing books. ........ I don't think anyone has mourned more than I have. It's left the most enormous gaping hole in my life." ...... funny and self-mocking and earnest by turns but always unguarded and unrehearsed ...... her fans know where to find her: her website ........ One day when Rowling was shopping for toys in New York City ........ After six books with no mention of God or Scripture ...... "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." ........ inviting people to explore and struggle with the hard questions. ...... 4,100-page treatise on tolerance ....... "The weapon we have is love." ....... the frenzy that surrounded Uncle Tom's Cabin before the Civil War ........ "Rowling may do more for libertarianism than anyone since John Stuart Mill." ..... a generation of obsessive readers unafraid of fat books and complex plots.