Newzity

Clinton’s campaign tactics have such a right wing tone to it, the swift boat flavor, working under the shadow feel. They have embraced the win-at-all-cost theory and gone to such an extreme place where even John McCain has refused to go. Not to mention the vast right wing support for Hillary.

McCain thinks an ad referring to Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy is too extreme and should not be aired. This is in contrast to the position Hillary camp has taken with ads: the notorious 3 a.m. ad, the new ad featuring Bin Laden. Remember the race card they played from the start. Bill Clinton made reference to the fairy tale candidacy and even in the recent days he was accused of playing the same race card. But every time when confronted, Hillary camp denied it. This is classic bait and switch technique we have seen often form right wing. And then there are those other rumors they wanted everyone to know: Obama is a Muslim, he is not a patriot, and he is not a true American. Haven’t we heard this soft of smear campaign before? Now Hillary says she against Bush’s war, but she is ready to obliterate Iran. And then there is her new love to guns and religion. She even accused Democratic grass roots plotting against her. No wonder Hillary is the darling of the right wing including active support from Rush Limbaugh and Richard Mellon Scaife.

It makes you wonder who the new right wing is.

First of all, if anyone out there is hoping for a conclusion, you better brace yourself. One thing for sure it won’t end with PA primary.

Why? Well, Clinton is going to win with a margin wide enough for her to stick around, but not wide enough for anything else. After the debacle, I mean, debate on Wednesday everyone was wondering about its effect on the poll numbers. The numbers in different polls range from 5 to 10 percent in favor of Clinton. That is better than most polls before the debate where Clinton was leading by 3 to 6 percentage points. That means Clinton will win, but not by a landslide she needs to catch up in delegate counts. Nationally, Obama is losing his lead for a while and Gallup Poll daily tracking on Sunday showed his lead reduced to 2 percent: 47 in favor against Clinton’s 45. This is a change from Saturday, when for the first time Clinton led Obama in the national poll since mid March: 46 in favor of Clinton versus 45 for Obama.

Obama on the other hand leads Clinton when it comes to money. Obama raised about $41 million in March and had $42.5 million available to spend at the start of April. In contrast, Clinton raised about $20 million in March, and had $8 million on hand.

Come Wednesday, Clinton would point to her narrow win and continue to bash Obama. A few Democrats will call her to quit without any success. The only way the Democratic primary would come to an end in PA if she loses big time. Even then she may not quit, but others will have the courage to talk some sense to her. But do not hold your breath.

We all know politics makes strange bed fellow, but who have thought Hillary would become the favorite of the man who fueled “vast right wing conspiracy” against Clintons. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned by billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, has endorsed Clinton on Sunday.

Yes, this is the same Scaife who spent $2.3 million to expose Bill Clinton’s sex life and financial improprieties including Bill’s request to the state troopers to get women, Paula Jones harassment, and Monica Lewinsky case. He also helped all sorts of conservative groups and publications that were interested in finding dirt on Bill Clinton. At that time, Clinton cried foul saying it was a “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Her words not ours. Now comes 2008 election and suddenly Clinton is friendly with the same right wing. Makes you wonder why? When most of the major papers in PA came in to support Obama, Clinton got nod from Scaife’s paper. And don’t forget Rush Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos in support of Hillary.

Show me more » »

You better believe it. Mark Urdahl, the current Mayor of West Lake Hills, Texas, is campaigning hard for one of his opponents Dave Claunch, the chairman of a city committee, for the upcoming Mayoral election in May.

There is no gimmick or trick here. And he is not doing out of some nefarious or malicious reason either. He simply wants Claunch to win. Or to be fair, he wants to lose the election. Why? Eight days after he filled papers for his reelection, Mark decided to withdraw from the race when the police chief accused him of tampering with a city investigation. On March 18, the deadline for withdrawal, he called the city office to notify then of his intention and later that day sent an email with a written request to remove his name from the ballot. Though both his phone conversation and the email met the 5 p.m. deadline, to be official the written request needed to be signed and notarized. His email did not satisfy any of those two requirements. Given the rules, the city officials said they cannot do anything to remove his name before the election and it will be on the ballot.

That left Mark with no option but work hard not to win but to lose. He is campaigning hard but for his opponent. What does his opponent think about the twist of fate? Claunch said Mark would not have any effect on the election. The whole thing “is just another dimension to life in Westlake Hills.”

Of course it is. It has been this way through out history, from the time church was formed, from the day Jesus died, then why not now. The case in point is the Saturday Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict. Of all people, the twice divorced pro-abortion major of NY Rudy Giuliani took communion at the same Mass.

What happened to the no divorce rule? What about the faith in the sanctity of life? Only last year, Pope Benedict himself reaffirmed that divorced Catholics cannot receive Communion unless they never have sexual relations with the new partner. Rudy was there with his third wife — not second, but third. When asked how he felt about breaking the rules to take Communion, Rudy said he saw nothing wrong with it. Not to mention his support for abortion. Though he did not take the Communion from Pope himself, he took it during the same Mass.

But he was not alone. Last Thursday, when Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the Eucharistic liturgy in Washington, pro-choice liberals such as Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry also took communion.

I guess the rules only apply to mere mortals like average church going Catholics. Rich and famous just have to show up when Pope is in town. They have a different set of rules to follow.

That is what Cindy McCain would have you believe. As it turns out some recipes you see on McCain’s Webpage under McCain Family recipes are simply stolen from Food Network, word for word.

Cindy is the wife of republican candidate John McCain, and she got caught with her hand in recipe jar - the proverbial one. On the McCain campaign site you can find a section called Cindy’s Recipes with seven dishes from tuna to mixed fruit. All claimed to be McCain Family recipe, but at least three of the seven are copied verbatim from Food Network site. So this is part of the “Straight Copy Express.”

I guess it would be family recipe if you consider Food Network part of McCain Family.

We all know the thing about the right hand not knowing what the left hand does. But after a while it gets a bit suspicious when Hillary keeps expressing her outrage about the very things her right hand man Bill does.

I am not talking about what Bill did behind her back in the oval office. I am talking about NAFTA. Bill Clinton always supported it and got tons of money talking about it. But then Hillary said she is absolutely against it - no way Jose. Now, it is the next episode of the sad saga. For the past weeks Hillary is shouting on top of her voice against the Chinese oppression in Tibet - and admirable stand. She called White House to boycott the Olympics.

“These events underscore why I believe the Bush administration has been wrong to downplay human rights in its policy towards China. At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government.”

She even went as far as praising British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for boycotting the Olympics opening ceremony, even though Brown did no such thing.

Given her stance, you would imagine that she would not support, let alone take money, from anyone who is helping China to oppress people. No such simple logic exists when it comes to Clintons. Bill Clinton has worked with and took money from the same Chinese company, Alibaba, that posted “most wanted” list on Tibetan activists to help China capture them. How much Bill took from the company? Well, they are not saying. I bet they have real good reasons for keeping that a secret.

I guess there is no such word as hypocrisy in Clintons’ dictionary.

Yes, Carter on his upcoming Middle East trip is going to meet up with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal. Whitehouse, which views Hamas as a terrorist organization, expressed strong objection. Even some Democrats expressed concerns.

Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize and negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel in 1978, is trying to help Israel and Palestinian together. Despite objection from all sides about his meeting with a known terrorist group he plans to meet Hamas. He said:

“I feel quite at ease in doing this. I think there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process…. I think that it’s very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and to cooperate with the Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians, maybe to get them to agree to a cease-fire - things of this kind.”

Show me more » »

Louisiana, Mississippi and the two Dakotas for sure. These four states have passed laws that will automatically ban abortion once Roe v. Wade is overturned.

With decisions like Gonzales vs. Carhart making the overturn of Roe v. Wade a distinct possibility, a recent study looks at what the the abortion rights landscape of the nation would be under that scenario. To assess a state’s risk level, the study uses a bunch of factors that include bans in waiting, existence of bans blocked by court, and vulnerability of new anti-abortion new law getting enacted by the legislature. Based on these, there are a total of 21 states that considered high risk. Though the list is full of the usual suspects there are a couple of notables like Rhode Island and Delaware. 20 other states are considered safe based on explicit protection in state’s constitution or friendly legislature. The standouts in this list include Wyoming, Montana, and Tennessee. And the remaining 9 states are considered to be medium risk ones.

Any volunteers for creating a color coded abortion rights map of the US? As the list shows, one cannot just use the red and blue political map to make the decision.

Absolutely, according to Hillary and McCain. But you can judge for yourself.

It all started with the remarks Obama made in a private San Francisco fundraising meeting on April 6. Here are his words:

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Show me more » »