Does Hillary Have A Gender Card?

Muscular Gender Agenda

If Hillary wants to bring gender as an issue in this presidential campaign, she should be talking about perhaps waging a war on domestic violence, she should be talking about equal pay, she should perhaps pledge that half her cabinet will be female, she should be talking about day care, about health and education.

The Spectrum On Gender

There is little point in wanting to become the first woman president if you are not going to openly and explicitly talk about gender issues.

Draw Distinctions, Work The Fundamentals
Coke Gatorade, Not Coke Pepsi

The policy differences between Barack and Clinton are too stark. Barack's and Clinton's leadership styles are too different. Drawing out those differences is not being sexist on Barack's part. That is the job and responsibility of someone running for president.

Hillary's Socialized Medicine
Bush Is Anarchy, Hillary Is Monarchy
Eisenhower, Kennedy, Cuba, Bush, Clinton, Somalia, Bush, Obama, Iran
Why Hillary's Iran Vote Is Dangerous
Taking Hillary To Task On Foreign Policy
Hillary's Iran Vote, Not That Different From The Iraq Vote

JFK Killed The Hat, Barack Will Kill The Tie

I can't remember a time when I did not absolutely totally hated the tie.





In The News

Report from the front: Tonight's launch of Open Social Marc Andreessen The total aggregate user base of the Open Social partners is now in excess of 200 million people. ........ But Facebook is part of the web. Think of the web, of the Internet itself, as water. Proprietary platforms based on the web are ice cubes. They can, for a time, suspend themselves above the web at large. But over time, they only ever melt into the water. And maybe they make it better when they do. ........ freedom and openness let people all over the world be fully creative and innovative in every way they want. ..... freedom and openness enable will always swamp anyone's attempt to wall off a proprietary world with tight controls and sharp limitations. ........ In the mid-1990's, people told me all the time, "AOL has all the users; why would you think this web thing is ever going to amount to anything?" And it was true -- AOL did have all the users. In the beginning, AOL had tens of millions of users when the Internet had low single digit millions at best. Everyone was scrambling to do deals with AOL to get access to that huge user base, and every media company we met with (there were no Internet companies yet) laughed at the idea of regular people ever using the web. .......... decentralized, open, free web. ....... It's quite easy to develop for both Open Social and Facebook, and in practice that's what I'll bet most serious app developers will be doing for the next few years, at least. ....... Everyone can just smell the opportunity



Clinton, Obama Spar over Social Security in Ads NPR
Obama's guide to leading a "post-post-9/11" America International Herald Tribune, France "If I am the face of American foreign policy and American power," Barack Obama mused not long ago aboard his campaign plane, "as long as we are also making prudent strategic decisions, handling emergencies, crises and opportunities in the world in an intelligent and sober way. . . ." He stopped. He wanted to make sure he got this just right, and he had got a little caught up in rebutting the claim, which Hillary Clinton has artfully advanced, that he is not prepared to handle emergencies. Obama stopped picking at his grilled salmon in order to stare out at the sky for a few moments. "I think," he said, in that deep and measured voice of his, "that if you can tell people, 'We have a president in the White House who still has a grandmother living in a hut on the shores of Lake Victoria and has a sister who's half-Indonesian, married to a Chinese-Canadian,' then they're going to think that he may have a better sense of what's going on in our lives and in our country. And they'd be right." ........... his life story and the angle of vision it affords him ........ our indifference to the views of others and through the insularity of a president who seems so incurious about the world ..... A President Obama, says Joseph Nye, the Harvard professor who popularized the term "soft power" to describe the capacity to gain support through attraction rather than force, "would do more for America's soft power around the world than anything else we could do." ........ Democratic voters seem to be torn between the hope of reshaping a frightening world and the fear of being terribly vulnerable to that world. ........ must, like "a Swiss Army knife," offer different tools for different situations, rather than only the sharp edge of a blade; must pay close attention to "how others may perceive us differently than we perceive ourselves, no matter how good our intentions"; must recognize that other nations may legitimately care more about their neighbors or their access to resources than about terrorism; and must be "grounded in hope, not fear." ........ A post-post-9/11 strategy must harness the forces of globalization while honestly addressing the growing "perception of unfairness" around the world; must actively promote, not just democracy, but "a world of liberty under law"; and must renew multilateral instruments like the United Nations. ........ In mainstream foreign-policy circles, Barack Obama is seen as the true bearer of this vision. "There are maybe 200 people on the Democratic side who think about foreign policy for a living" ........ "The vast majority have thrown in their lot with Obama." ......... And they are ardent.
Romney, Obama Air New TV Ads in NH The Associated Press

South Carolina rejects Colbert candidacy Los Angeles Times
Obama Says US Must Try Talking to Iran The Associated Press
What's new: Obama's 'new Iran approach;' PACs aren't so giving USA Today
Obama for 'creative diplomacy' to bring Iran on board Hindu
The Early Word: Obama’s Iran Resolution New York Times
The Clinton gospel Boston Globe the way Clinton's campaign acts, you could be forgiven for thinking she was an absolute monarch, and not merely the Democratic front-runner. ...... Tsongas, who liked Clinton, thought he and the Arkansan had an informal agreement not to go after each other. But as the campaign moved south, Clinton's camp launched a sharp attack. Why after one candidates' forum, Clinton himself appeared in the press room and deftly sliced and diced the policy plans of his absent rival. ...... So far, that's really all Obama and Edwards have done: draw distinctions. ..... Clinton's spinmeisters are trying to make her rivals look disreputable for doing something that's absolutely in-bounds. .... "It gets tiresome after a while," says Paul Pezzella, a Massachusetts political operative who is a veteran of four presidential campaigns - and a Clinton supporter. "Campaigns are all about drawing distinctions. That's completely legitimate." ...... that stratagem contradicts a central part of Clinton's own message: The notion that she is a battle-tested veteran ready for anything the Republicans can throw at her. If so, she should prove it by engaging with her rivals and defending her positions - not by having her campaign protest each and every time another Democrat says something critical about her.
Clinton Climate Initiative Names UTC Power as a Supplier Partner CNNMoney.com
Clinton, Wal-Mart Push 'Green' Cities The Associated Press
Clinton group, Wal-Mart aim to lower 'green' costs Los Angeles Times
Thousands gather for 2007 World Toilet Summit in India Melbourne Herald Sun
India's untouchable waste collectors BBC News
Peeing in public in booming India Radio Netherlands
Political Leader of Tamil Tigers Reported Killed New York Times a 6 a.m. aerial strike on their headquarters in the north ..... The senior rebel leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, is rarely seen. Mr. Tamilselvan was the official who met with peace envoys and talked to journalists, and his death leaves the group with no obvious public face.
China to build new series of rocket launchers Reuters
Militants in Pakistan Display 'Captured Soldiers' Voice of America
Google's Mobile Plans To Be Revealed Monday InformationWeek Whether Google will move along an evolutionary or revolutionary path is completely unknown, but the result will probably shake up the industry either way.
Google’s OpenSocial: Strategy, money and the art of war, err APIs ZDNet Google rolled out its OpenSocial initiative–along with nearly every big social networking player not named Facebook–and the response was fairly overwhelming. .... The big plus: Developers only have to learn one API. ...... I’m more of a business strategy, art of war, follow the money type of guy. ..... where things go from here is going to be worth watching. ...... so the web as a whole can become more social ...... AOL-Facebook analogies as Marc Andreessen notes are off the mark. ....... Google is using the surround tactic to rattle Facebook. The big question is where Facebook goes from here. ...... these APIs somehow sprinkling Google ads around.... A decade ago, the approach to thwart an upstart was to bundle, give product away for free and use your girth to squash a smaller rival. Think Microsoft meets Netscape. Today, it’s a different game. Open protocols rule. ...... Under the guise of being open you can line up every competitor of a rival and still potentially squash the upstart. You think MySpace is really doing OpenSocial for the greater good? Of course not, MySpace is scared to death of Facebook’s growth rates. ....... Users are still on Facebook. .... Just wait til profiles and identities are portable (it’ll happen). ...... Will OpenSocial herald an era of open APIs in enterprise applications? ...... it’s impossible to control information. ..... Google assumes its partners will use AdSense. This sets up an interesting battle of the social ad networks in the future. Facebook/Microsoft vs. Google/everyone not Facebook.
Sprint Nextel Weighs Changes to WiMax Plan Wall Street Journal WiMax will allow customers to get wireless Internet connections through laptops and cellphones at speeds on par with landline speeds. ....... a rollout that would reach 100 million U.S. consumers by the end of next year. But the two parties never signed a definitive agreement. ....... Sprint is on track for "soft launches" of the high-speed WiMax service in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore in coming months. ...... Sprint posted poor third-quarter results yesterday, including a net loss of 60,000 customers and a 77% drop in net income from the year-ago period. ...... Google's goal of opening up phones to more third-party application development "is very consistent with the way Sprint has always operated."
Can Sprint be saved? ZDNet The company reported third quarter net income of $64 million, or 2 cents a share, compared to $279 million, or 9 cents a share a year ago. ....... There’s no guarantee that the new CEO will see WiMax as a wireless utopia. ....... Given the networks at AT&T and Verizon aren’t going to crumble, Sprint needs to at least attempt a leapfrog. WiMax could be that leapfrog move. ...... Sprint better move heaven and earth to partner with Google on its mobile plans. ....... Sprint’s acquisition of Nextel seemed like an OK deal at the time. But the company got more complicated with two networks and two customer bases. And probably two IT infrastructures that may only be halfway integrated. ..... Take Sprint back to basics. The problem with this obvious fix is that it will take years to remedy. ..... What’s Sprint’s calling card? Is it data, voice, cool phones or some other niche. Sprint doesn’t seem to know. It better find out. If not the new CEOs job description will be to stop the bleeding and dress the pig up for a sale.
Sprint considers shift in Wimax strategy CNet News.com Blog For the third quarter of 2007, the company said it lost 337,000 subscribers to its postpaid monthly service. ..... The new network, which is set for a soft launch in Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., within the next few months, will cost the company $5 billion.
Best Buy follows Wal-Mart with $100 HD DVD player TG Daily
Letterman sides with Hollywood writers as strike looms Times Online
Jerry Seinfeld to Hollywood:'You can't buy me off' Reuters the annual income of the stand-up comedian and creator of the 1990s smash hit television show "Seinfeld" at $60 million, among the highest on TV. ...... This was nine years after his show left the air and was based largely on payments for reruns and other products from the program. ..... The "they" that Seinfeld referred to are Hollywood executives who would salivate at any hint ....... Spielberg called his friend Jeffrey Katzenberg -- now the head of the DreamWorks Animation movie studio -- and faster than one can say "punch line," a movie deal was born. ...... and discovers people are stealing honey for their own consumption. ..... Seinfeld has made his living telling funny stories about ironies and inconsistencies in people's everyday lives, and similarly "Bee Movie" pokes fun at human foibles. ........ one key lesson was not to question his instinct about a good joke. .... But about not rehashing his old TV show, Seinfeld is dead serious. And that you can take to the bank.
Brilliant Washington powers 'Gangster CNN International an entrepreneurial self-starter in the black economy ...... , he studies status and power at the elbow of Bumpy Johnson (Clarence Williams III), an old-school inner-city crime lord who hands out turkeys on Thanksgiving. ...... watchful, attentive henchman ..... When he needs to underline the new order, he does so promptly and with the minimum of fuss: He shoots his loudest rival in the head right out in the middle of the street. Then he goes back and finishes his lunch. ....... it's not the ruthlessness that distinguishes Lucas from every other Scarface on the block. It's his business smarts. Boys are coming back from Vietnam high on the local smack. ....... By eliminating the middleman, he's able to undercut the competition by 200 percent, and with a superior product. In any other field, he'd be gracing the cover of Forbes. ....... he marries a beauty queen and brings his momma (Ruby Dee) and his brothers over to share his suburban mansion - ....... the black-and-white mirror images of the dedicated cop and the consummate operator drawing ever nearer. .... in a gangster movie, it's the bad guy you come to see -- and here Denzel kills. ..... Whether it's fastidiously demonstrating the correct way to remove bloodstains from an alpaca rug ("Don't rub. Blot") or patiently explaining the concept of trademark infringement to a rival dealer (Cuba Gooding Jr. as flamboyant Nicky Barnes), every move he makes speaks to an essentially African-American pride and passion, the contained fury of an invisible man striving to get out from under.
'American Gangster': A Direct Hit Washington Post In "American Gangster," time doesn't fly, it explodes. ..... a beneath-the-radar Harlem heroin impresario who puts together an astonishing organization before anyone notices ........ an almost subliminal feel for myth. ..... "Either you're somebody or you ain't nobody" ....... the criminal Yoda of the rough terrain above 125th Street ...... he listened hard and well. ..... When his turn came, he insisted that his organization's minions be low-key, steely-eyed, well-dressed, un-flamboyant. ........ confident that his sedate coat and tie would shield him from the attention of police investigators ....... His junk is better and cheaper than anything on the streets and soon enough, by the physics of the market, he controls the streets. ...... Richie is famously honest, and in Newark he marks himself off from all cops for all time by the simple act of turning in a million bucks he recovered from the back of a mob Cadillac. Big mistake, Richie: No cop in the Newark of the early '60s would work with a guy they knew was tainted by the disease of honesty. So when Richie calls for backup, guess who shows up: nobody. Like Serpico, he goes through the doors alone. ..... But first he has to get a serious enemy out of the way: the New York City Police Department. ....... parallel cutting and equal screen time as well as the charisma of the stars, aren't even aware of each other until the movie's second half, and never eyeball each other until the last 20 minutes. ........ Washington seems to have a secret mechanism by which he turns his face off; it goes from a vibrant, expressive projection of humanity and empathy to a stone-killer executioner's mask so fast it's scary. ...... the charisma of the man who triumphs over the system. ..... When the inside is so corrupt, you must turn to outsiders. ....... lived high while they bottomed out in the gutter and were found in the thousands with needle tracks, scabs and hepatitis B in cold Harlem alleyways?

Michelle Obama, Indebted to Clinton, Campaigns as an Everywoman Bloomberg Michelle Obama's juggling of professional life, motherhood and the duties of political spouse make her something of a modern-day everywoman. ....... When her husband was elected to the Senate in 2004, she kept her job in Chicago as an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center. ...... By contrast, Obama has mostly stayed under the radar, only rarely generating headlines, with the exception of a reference she made to her husband's ``stinky'' morning breath and an interview on CBS News's ``60 Minutes'' in which she said that as a black man, ``Barack can get shot going to the gas station.'' ......... She and her husband discuss the issues, then ``I go to my job and I make decisions on my job and those are my decisions, and he goes to his job and he makes the decisions,'' she said. ``Now, I would like to think that he has the good sense to understand that I am usually correct.''