Money magnet

The Billary Road to Republican Victory – New York Times — Frank Rich, as an essayist, uses some of the more powerful writing structures one can imagine and this column is a beauty.

As anyone who has listened to me on more generalized podcasts knows that for the past number of years I have been promoting the idea that McCain is the next President. I thought the whole thing was probably predetermined around 2001 to keep him quiet. Anyway, somehow the Times had to endorse this notion despite the fact that they will endorse the Democrat when the time comes. This column is key as the Clinton Library will be the undoing of Hillary becoming President. Obama is unelectable in 2008 but I will predict he will be the candidate in 2012 and win then (you’ll see why in a couple of years).

Meanwhile, consider this. Who actually wanted to push the timetable ahead for the 2008 elections? Who benefits the most? What it does is set the slate early so the media has more time to dig. This column clearly cites the target and challenges the media. (AND NOTE THE GRAPHIC OF A TARGET).

Remember Eagleton? He was the orginal VP candidate on the Democratic ticket in 1972. He had to give up his candicacy when it was discoverd he had electro-convulsive therapy. He resigned just before the election. The Democrats have been bunglers ever since. Now this.

Asked by Tim Russert at a September debate whether the Clinton presidential library and foundation would disclose the identities of its donors during the campaign, Mrs. Clinton said it wasn’t up to her. “What’s your recommendation?” Mr. Russert countered. Mrs. Clinton replied: “Well, I don’t talk about my private conversations with my husband, but I’m sure he’d be happy to consider that.”

Not so happy, as it turns out. The names still have not been made public.

Just before the holidays, investigative reporters at both The Washington Post and The New York Times tried to find out why, with no help from the Clintons. The Post uncovered a plethora of foreign contributors, led by Saudi Arabia. The Times found an overlap between library benefactors and Hillary Clinton campaign donors, some of whom might have an agenda with a new Clinton administration. (Much as one early library supporter, Marc Rich’s ex-wife, Denise, had an agenda with the last one.) “The vast scale of these secret fund-raising operations presents enormous opportunities for abuse,” said Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat whose legislation to force disclosure passed overwhelmingly in the House but remains stalled in the Senate.

Cisco Systems plans to introduce a network switch today for corporations grappling with rapidly growing Internet data transfers and the increased use of applications that draw on remote data storage, known as cloud computing.

The switch, the Nexus 7000, will provide a sharp increase in traffic capacity compared with the company’s current products, to 15 trillion bits of data per second.

Cisco…offered a range of examples to try to capture the significance of the increase in speed. It said the switch could transfer all 90,000 Netflix movies in 38.4 seconds or send a two megapixel digital image to every human being on Earth in 28 minutes.

Reports of the Web collapsing from overload may be premature?

Somehow I have an odd feeling that Bush’s view of how things are is just a tad different than what his subjects, er, um, fellow Americans think it is. After all, if your job has gone overseas, your investments are wiped out as the stock market tanks, your house payments are in default, your three year old can’t get on a plane because his name is the same as a suspected terrorist, and you can’t afford to fill your tank with gas that was half the price when you wisely voted for Bush The Decider last time, you should be happy because the Surge is working!

Economy, War To Dominate State of Union

For years, President Bush and his advisers expressed frustration that the White House received little credit for the nation’s strong economic performance because of public discontent about the Iraq war. Today, the president is getting little credit for improved security in Iraq, as the public increasingly focuses on a struggling U.S. economy.

That is the problem Bush faces as he prepares to deliver his seventh and probably final State of the Union address tonight.
[…]
“Very large segments of the American people have written him off already and have moved on to the next chapter,” said Jeremy Rosner.

The top two U.S. intelligence officials traveled secretly to Pakistan this month to press President Pervez Musharraf to allow the CIA greater latitude to operate in the tribal territories where Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups are all active.

But in the unannounced meetings on Jan. 9 with the two U.S. officials – Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, and General Michael Hayden, the CIA director – Musharraf rebuffed proposals to expand any U.S. combat presence in Pakistan, either through unilateral covert CIA missions or by joint operations with Pakistani security forces…

In the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA, frustrations remain high, and there is concern that Musharraf’s political problems will distract him from what the administration regards as its last chance to take aggressive action…

Despite the insistence of administration officials that the United States and Pakistan have a common goal in fighting Al Qaeda, Musharraf has made clear in public proclamations that it is far from his first priority. At the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland last week, Musharraf said several times that the 100,000 Pakistani troops that he said were now along the border were hunting for Taliban extremists and “miscreants,” but he also said there was no particular effort being put into the search for Qaeda fighters.

I hope I don’t sound more cynical than usual, but – Musharraf is an opportunist dictator who plays everyone he gets near.

Wouldn’t you think our “leaders” – might just have figured that out a while back? Instead of founding their Freedom Crusade on Musharrafistan?

OK… I took the top 5 Homepages submitted and gave them each a page for users to choose as their favorite. I have my favorite already and I just need confirmation. I received 15 entries and some were just not different enough from the original and others just missed the mark for other reasons. The total code size is an issue. Tell me what you think in the comments.

CLICK ON PIC FOR LINK TO ACTUAL WORKING PAGE

Original

Joe Radman Entry

Jeff Hirichs Entry

Paul Stewart Entry

Wan Khairil Reza Entry

Jared Cordasco Entry

Probably planned to post a video afterwards?

A woman was arrested this week after she allegedly tried to hire a hitman to murder her married lover’s wife by posting an ad on the popular website craigslist.

Anne Marie, 48, from Grand Rapids, Michigan offered www.craigslist.org users the chance to kill Carol, a 56-year-old woman in California, in a vaguely worded free ad under the category of “Freelance,” according to court documents.

“Marie informed (one of the people who responded) that she was looking for ‘silent assassins’ and she asked him to eradicate a targeted victim,” offered 5,000 dollars for the job and provided the address, name, age and occupation of the man’s wife.

“Asked what she meant by ‘eradicate,’ Anne Marie said ‘Duh. Well to have her killed,” the court documents said.

Did she comprehend just how public the Internet really is?

The true scale of a suicide epidemic among young people in a small town was revealed yesterday. As well as the seven deaths linked to social networking websites, a coroner revealed that a further six had also died within a year. The astonishing rate of hangings in Bridgend, South Wales, has terrified parents in the area and one secondary school has been placed on ‘suicide watch’ after pupils appealed for help. Of the seven “internet” suicides which culminated in the death last week of 17-year-old Natasha Randall, each victim was known by at least one of the others. Although the six other deaths revealed by coroner Philip Walters are believed to be isolated incidents, he said they show that the problem is even more widespread than originally feared. “There are 12 young men and one young woman involved and all were found hanged in the area in the last year.” One of the other victims, James Knight, 26, hanged himself from a belt during a heavy drinking session after a painful break-up with his girlfriend.

Leah Phillips was moments away from death when her stepfather found her hanging by a rope from the banister of their home near Bridgend the day after her 17-year-old friend Natasha died. Now senior staff at her school have announced the creation of an “anti-suicide taskforce” after 12 of her fellow students made a plea for help. Tina Phillips, 40, said: “I am shocked that 12 children have come forward – it’s astonishing. You don’t realise how depressed these children are. “It is definitely a good idea for the school to be on suicide watch.

I am curious to know what part “social networking’ played in this. Also I found it strange that this is in the entertainment section.

Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Bleill lost both his legs above the knees when a bomb exploded under his Humvee while on patrol in Iraq on October 15, 2006. He has 32 pins in his hip and a 6-inch screw holding his pelvis together.

Now, he’s starting to walk again with the help of prosthetic legs outfitted with Bluetooth technology more commonly associated with hands-free cell phones.

“They’re the latest and greatest,” Bleill said, referring to his groundbreaking artificial legs.

Bleill, 30, is one of two Iraq war veterans, both double leg amputees, to use the Bluetooth prosthetics. Computer chips in each leg send signals to motors in the artificial joints so the knees and ankles move in a coordinated fashion.

There’s a video here [and a commercial, first] interviewing Joshua Bleill at Walter Reed. Inspirational.

The South Carolina Democratic Party broke its own turnout record in Saturday’s presidential primary and eclipsed the number of ballots cast by residents in the Republican primary the week before.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, more than 532,000 votes had been tabulated in Barack Obama’s commanding victory here. The returns easily eclipsed the 280,000 people who voted in the Democratic primary in 2004.

Last week, about 446,000 voters took part in the Republican primary, which was nearly 120,000 off the record set by the GOP in 2000.

Uh-huh.

After decades of inattention to the possible psychiatric side effects of experimental medicines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is requiring drug makers to study closely whether patients become suicidal during clinical trials…

The drug industry is keenly aware of the change. For the first time, the agency is asking makers of drugs dealing with obesity, urinary incontinence, epilepsy, smoking cessation, depression and many other conditions to put comprehensive suicide assessments into their clinical trials…

The seeds for the new U.S. effort were planted four years ago with the discovery that antidepressants might cause some children and teenagers to become suicidal. Top agency officials at first discounted the finding but commissioned researchers to reanalyze the drugs’ clinical trials. This work led the drug agency and its experts to view the risk as real.

Suddenly, agency officials realized that multiple classes of medicines might cause dangerous psychiatric problems.

These are civil servants charged with keeping us from being killed by the latest nostrums cobbled together by the legal drug trade.

Yes, they’re not often doctors; but, wouldn’t you think something about medicine and possible side-effects might have rubbed off over time? Eh?

A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and propulsion and could hit the Earth in late February or March.

The satellite, which no longer can be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret.

“Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation,” said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. “Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly. We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause.”

Ring up Homeland Security. They’re in charge of making the whole world safe – aren’t they?