McCain Wins Florida!

McCain has just won Florida! A few more steps to the nomination!

Senator John McCain won a closely contested Florida primary on Tuesday night, capturing the biggest delegate prize of the primary season so far and adding a crucial jolt of momentum to his campaign as the nominating fight expands into a national race next Tuesday.

The Arizona senator, who was outspent by his competitors in the state, drew on the support of moderate and socially liberal voters to beat out Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and his chief rival for the nomination.

Video from Victory Speech:

Things can only get brighter for McCain.

Where I found this video/photo:
RealClearPolitics/TIME

Lost this Thursday

Lost starts again this Thursday. Click here for a recap (spoilers for seasons 1-3 in recap).

Here is the trailer:

I can't wait.

Kenya in Chaos

To find out more on the Kenya situation, read this article.
Excerpt below:

It is some of the worst fighting since a disputed election in December ignited long-simmering tensions that have so far claimed at least 750 lives. The fighting appeared to be spreading Sunday across the Rift Valley region, a particularly picturesque part of Kenya known more for its game parks and fancy lodges.

The Kenyan government is now threatening to arrest top opposition leaders on suspicion of orchestrating the bloodshed, but opposition leaders are in turn accusing the government of backing criminal gangs.

According to police officials in the Rift Valley town of Naivasha, fighting erupted Sunday morning between gangs of Kikuyus and Luos, two of Kenya’s biggest ethnic groups, who have clashed across the country since the election. Witnesses said mobs threw flaming tires and mountains of rocks into the streets to block police officers from entering some neighborhoods. The mobs then went house to house, looking for certain people.

Hopefully this ends soon.

Guide to 2008 Presidential Election

Track the candidate (what bills they voted on, what committees they belong to):
VoteSmart
Washington Post Database

Quiz/Matching:
Washington Post Match Quiz
Politichoice

Candidates/Issues:
On The Issues
NY Times Candidate Issues
Washington Post Candidate Issues
CNN Candidate Issues
Fox You Decide
Congress.org

Polls:
Republican Party
Democratic Party

Choose wisely.

Behind the Mask of Chavez

Here is a article about the real situation in Venezuela.

After an extensive visit to the slums of this capital, I am convinced that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lost the recent referendum that would have extended the time he could remain in office not because his countrymen value democracy so much, but because his social programs are crumbling. In the barrios of Petare, Catia, Baruta and other places, the nationalist/populist model is collapsing.

Through a network of "missions," the government has been using oil revenue to provide food, housing, cars, education and health care for millions of Venezuelans. In theory, Venezuelans are enjoying the "social justice" denied to them during decades of rule by the country's elites. In real life, the missions are plagued with corruption and inefficiency, and are severely hampered by the insecurity and the shortages that have become the hallmark of Venezuelan society.

No surprise at all. Chavez likes the appearance of a care-giver, yet in reality, he is nothing but a wannabe Fidel who is warped into thinking he is Venezuela's savior.

Chavez apologists beware.

Where I found this article:
The New Republic

McCain vs. Deranged

The Weekly Standard has an article about the people attacking John McCain.

Although many others have been as critical of McCain, perhaps no one has been as hypocritical. In 2006, when Santorum was running for reelection, he asked McCain to come to Pennsylvania to campaign on his behalf. When McCain obliged, Santorum put the video on his campaign website, listing it first among "key events" of the year. That's gratitude, Santorum-style.

Other conservative politicians--or former politicians--have taken their anti-McCain arguments to absurd lengths. Take Tom DeLay, for instance, whose K Street pandering led to numerous indictments and contributed greatly to the Republican losses in 2006. The former House majority leader said, without a trace of irony in his voice, that John McCain "has done more to hurt the Republican party than any elected official I know of."

Unjustified attacks.

Where I found this article:
The Weekly Standard

Never Mention Congo

Here is a Newsweek article about the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In a new report released Tuesday, the International Rescue Committee updated its running total on Congo's dead since the outbreak of war in 1998. Their number, counting surveys through April 2007, now stands at 5.4 million deaths--1.5 million of which have occurred in just over the past two years (a rate they say is 60 percent higher than sub-Saharan Africa overall). According to the IRC, nearly half of those who perished were children under the age of five. NEWSWEEK's Seth Colter Walls spoke with Dr. Richard Brennan, head of global health programs for the IRC, about the association's field work in Congo, the scale of the tragedy, and why it seems to escape greater notice in the developed world.

The Congo wars were perhaps some of the most devastating wars to hit Africa, it's sad that even after the fact, death still continues.

Will Congo be on the agenda?

Where I found this article/photo:
Newsweek/CIA: The World Factbook

McCain Waiting on Florida

TIME has an article on McCain that is worth looking over.

In war and in politics, John McCain has endured more than his share of near death experiences. He's been shot out of the sky and held captive, hung from ropes by his two broken arms and beaten senseless. This is his second run for President; he lost before, has nearly lost again and has been all but disowned by his party. So on the night of South Carolina's Republican primary, when the victory he needed to keep his campaign alive seemed as if it might be slipping away once again, McCain stood silent amid the chaos of his crowded hotel suite, his eyes fixed on the television screen. The normally loquacious Senator, who is rarely silent and hates to miss a punch line, was tuning the rest of the room out. Rumors that the primary was about to be called for McCain had fizzled, supplanted by whispers that Mike Huckabee had taken a slim lead in the ballot count. For a moment, it all seemed as though it were going to fall down again.

But the announcement came: "McCain wins South Carolina!" The room erupted in cheers; McCain's wife Cindy dissolved into tears; and the candidate's pale, scarred, 71-year-old face spread into a triumphant grin. "Whether it was because of what happened eight years ago in South Carolina or because his campaign was declared dead last July, I don't know," says Mark Salter, McCain's adviser, speechwriter and alter ego. "But he was as happy as I've ever seen him." The old warrior in McCain has learned to savor every battle won because he knows it could be the last.

Saying no to quitting.

Where I found this article:
RealClearPolitics

Zakaria on Iraq

Zakaria has a new article about the Iraq conflict.

From 2003 to 2005 the war in Iraq was defined by an insurgency. After the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra in February 2006, it became largely a sectarian conflict. Now the dominant feature of the war is the proliferation of local ceasefires across the country. The real questions that candidates need to answer are these: How do they interpret this new reality? What would they do to maintain the new stability? What does all this mean for U.S. foreign and military policy in the next few years?...

The most intelligent strategy for the United States now is a combined political and military one. If we are to engage in peacekeeping, the operation needs to be internationally recognized, sanctioned and supported—as it was in Bosnia. We should call an international conference on Iraq and get the support of other countries—crucially Iraq's neighbors—for this new mission. There should then be a joint international push to get the Iraqis to make the kinds of political deals that will turn the ceasefires into lasting peace. Over the next year if the violence continues to decline, countries like India, Poland and South Africa could be persuaded to relieve American troops. With sustained and focused efforts, over time, American forces could draw down substantially. The mission could then become what it was always billed as, a genuinely international effort to assist the Iraqi people in founding a new nation.

It sounds like a solution.

Zakaria, knowing what's best.

McCain Derangement Syndrome

McCain is getting heavily attacked within conservative circles.

For Republicans, there is one form of suicide worse than losing the 2008 presidential election--and that is winning it with a candidate who will put the pro-welfare-state, pro-regulation left in the driver's seat of American politics. Yet that is precisely what Republican primary voters are unwittingly supporting when they vote for McCain.

Sounds insane doesn't it? Well, just like the left has problems with BDS, the far right has problems with McCain Derangement Syndrome. David Brooks examines this for us.

And still the corset tightened. Many professional conservatives do not regard Mike Huckabee or John McCain as true conservatives. “I’m here to tell you, if either of these two guys get the nomination, it’s going to destroy the Republican Party,” Rush Limbaugh said recently on his radio show. “It’s going to change it forever, be the end of it.”

Some of the contributors to The National Review’s highly influential blog, The Corner, look to Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney to save the conservative movement. Their hatred of McCain is so strong, it’s earned its own name: McCain Derangement Syndrome.

Yet a funny thing has happened this primary season. Conservative voters have not followed their conservative leaders. Conservative voters are much more diverse than the image you’d get from conservative officialdom.

Is the establishment too selfish to pick someone who actually has a shot?

The fight continues for McCain. Too bad it's from his own party.

Where I found these articles:
RealClearPolitics

Change What?

Humor helps me from going insane.

McCain Wins South Carolina

Defeated by George W. Bush in the 2000 primary, McCain came back to South Carolina to reclaim his honor. With just a 3% lead over Huckabee, McCain(with this SC win) moves closer to the Republican nomination.

John McCain claimed a sweet South Carolina victory that eluded him in 2000 - and, if history is a guide, may have set himself on course to become the GOP presidential nominee.

No Republican since 1980 has won the party's nod without a triumph in the first-in-the-South primary.

"It just took us a while. That's all. Eight years is not a long time," McCain said in an Associated Press interview. He added: "It sure was nice to have a lot of our old friends be happier that we've won."

Victory speech below:
Part 1:

Part 2:

Mac is back!

Where I found this article/video:
RealClearPolitics

Conan vs. Colbert

Great, simply great.

Where I found this video:
RealClearPolitics Blog

Hitchens on Identity Politics

Christopher Hitchens has a great article about identity politics. Why not look at the character of a candidate, or where they stand on the issues.

Let us give hearty thanks and credit to Rudy Giuliani, who has never by word or gesture implied that we would fracture any kind of "ceiling" if we elected as chief executive a man whose surname ends in a vowel.

Yet actually, it would be unprecedented if someone of Italian descent became the president of the United States and there was a time -- not long ago at that -- when the very idea would have aroused considerable passion. Now that it doesn't, is it not possible to think that that very indifference is the real "change"?

The first this, the first that.

Where I found this article:
RealClearPolitics

Rudy: Game Over

Rudy is done with.

So if I’d have been the respected (even beloved) mayor of NYC on 9/11 and had the reputation of turning one of the most dangerous metropolises in the developed world into one of the safest, I might have taken care to avoid the one thing that could mess up my legacy or popularity - a run for the Presidency. Credit, perhaps, to Rudy for not being focused on legacy or popularity. (The world would be a much better place if politicians studiously ignored both). Strange to think that Rudy’s popularity has fallen so far only because he’s entered a popularity contest.

Tested? Ready? Now?

The Climate in Pakistan

Newsweek has an article by Fareed Zakaria on Pakistan.

This was supposed to be a foreign-policy election. Iraq, Iran, North Korea were going to be prominent on the campaign agenda in 2008. In fact, over the past few months, the wider world has been receding.Violence in Iraq is down. The threat from Iran seems less urgent. We're negotiating with North Korea. But one country has been all over the news and is being debated on the campaign trail—Pakistan. Pakistan worries everyone. Commentators talk of rising instability and national peril. Proliferation experts like Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warn that the country's nuclear weapons could fall into the wrong hands. Presidential contenders threaten to get tough with Islamabad. And to add urgency to these discussions come periodic terror attacks, including one last Thursday, outside the Lahore High Court, that killed 19 policemen and bystanders...

The American debate has been, as is often the case, largely removed from reality. The two scenarios that obsess Western politicians—loose nukes and empowered mullahs—are overhyped. Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is, by all accounts, firmly embedded in the command-and-control structure of its military, with multiple supervisors and ultimate oversight by the prime minister and president. The second, related worry—that Islamic militants will take over the country—is even less plausible. For better or worse, Pakistan is run by a military that is disciplined and (mostly) secular, especially in its current leadership. The country's politics are dominated by parties that are mainstream and moderate in their interpretation of Islam. Fundamentalists have never done well in Pakistan's elections, gaining just over 11 percent of the vote in the 2002 elections, held in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Public-opinion polls all concur that these parties will be routed in February's elections.

Also a Q&A with Musharraf.

NEWSWEEK: What do you make of reports that the United States is thinking about launching CIA operations in Pakistan with or without Pakistan's approval?
Pervez Musharraf: We are totally in cooperation on the intelligence side. But we are totally against [a military operation]. We are a sovereign country. We will ask for assistance from outsiders. They won't impose their will on us.

How do you take Hillary Clinton's suggestion that the United States and Britain help Pakistan secure its nuclear weapons?
Does she know how secure [the weapons] are and what we are doing to keep them so? They are very secure. We will ask if we need assistance. Nobody should tell us what to do. And I'd ask anyone who says such things, do you know how our strategic assets are handled, stored and developed—do you know it?

Have you told the American government that?
No, why should we? We have said we are totally under control.

Very interesting.

Still waiting for that Fareed Zakaria hosted show on CNN.

Glenn Greenwald on Hate Speech Laws

Here is an article by Gleen Greenwald on hate speech laws, and how more harm is done than good by them.

I've written several times before about the oppressive, dangerous hate speech laws which are common -- increasingly so -- in both Canada and Europe, whereby the Government is empowered to punish as criminals citizens who express offensive or otherwise prohibited political views. But here is a visceral illustration of what these sorts of laws engender that ought to give great pause even to proponents of such laws...

Empowering the State to proscribe and punish speech is not only the most dangerous step a society can take -- though it is that -- it's also the most senseless. It never achieves its intended effect of suppressing or eliminating a particular view. If anything, it has the opposite effect, by driving it underground, thus preventing debate and exposure. Worse, it converts its advocates into martyrs -- as one sees from the hero-worship now surrounding people like Levant and Steyn, who now become self-glorifying symbols of individual liberty rather than what they are: hateful purveyors of a bitter, destructive, authoritarian ideology.

I agree.

Huckabee's Dukakis Moment

Ad denouncing Huckabee (not sponsored by any candidate).


Ad by George H.W. Bush in the 1988 election on Dukakis.

Wow.

The blame game.

Christopher Hitchens on Iraq

Here is Christopher Hitchens in Toronto (part of the Salon Speaker Series) speaking about Iraq.

Part 1


Part 2

It is nice to see Hitchens get things into perspective.

Also a debate with George Galloway at Baruch College.

Very interesting.

Source for videos:
Buildupthatwall

The Mac is Back

John McCain wins New Hampshire, that's the verdict I'm hearing.

John McCain's victory in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary appears to be paying off.

The senator from Arizona is the front-runner in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination, according to the first national poll taken after the New Hampshire primary.

McCain has the support of 34 percent of registered Republicans in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey out Friday. That's a 21-point jump from the last CNN/Opinion Research poll, taken in December, well before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary earlier this month.

Money (Romney) isn't everything, and that is clearly seen by the Huckabee win in Iowa and the McCain win in New Hampshire.

McCain showing America he is alive and kicking.

Where I found this photo:
Time

Giuliani on Freedom

Not a big fan of Giuliani. Here is why (article from 1994).

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani discussed his philosophy of what freedom means in a democracy yesterday at a forum on urban crime, and his remarks left a civil libertarian puzzled and worried.

The Mayor, a former United States Attorney in Manhattan, said New Yorkers were inclined to "see only the oppressive side of authority."

"What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be," he said at the forum, sponsored by The New York Post. "Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do."

A big no to Giuliani.