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[Election 2008] Obama Now Takes The Lead in Superdelegates Too (Political Radar)

Political Radar — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:01:42 GMT

ABC News' Karen Travers Reports: For the first time this campaign season, Barack Obama has surpassed Hillary Clinton's support among superdelegates, according to the ABC News delegate estimate. Sen. Obama, D-Ill., picked up two superdelegates this morning giving him a...

The Liberal Blog Network : Obama Takes Lead in Superdelegates [Taegan Goddard's Political Wire] ...
Balloon Juice : The Final Metric ...

blogs : Donklephant,Raising Kaine - Front Page,PoliPundit.com,Democratic Underground,Air America Radio -...
(19 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 17:01)

[Other] Witch Way to the Loony Bin? (The Blog)

The Blog — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:12:12 GMT

Somebody sent me this in an email and I didn't think it could be true. Then I followed the link to the Code Pink website and I was still dubious because the page looks like a mock-up , and it's so nutty...I still didn't think it could be true. But now Fox confirms , Code Pink is engaging in witchcraft at the Marine Corps recruiting station in Berkeley in another attempt to...drive the Marines into an ocean of peace? Witches, Crones, Sirens come to the MRS today to cast spells, weave magic, invoke the foremothers, share wisdom, lead rituals to banish war and violence and to bring peace to the MRS, to protect our youth from the powerful spells of pro-war forces, to lead the men of the marine recruiting station off into the oceans of peace! Some witches, crones and sirens are willing to risk arrest, others are not. We call on all crones, witches and sirens to come to the MRS, to bring your energy, your wisdom, your fierce determination to end war now and bring peace to our world. These people are bonkers, but you have to remember, each one of them is somebody's wife, or sister, or mother. Mental illness is a serious problem, and you just hope that this election will, at some point, get back to "real" issues like providing affordable mental health care for wealthy Bay Area liberals.

Fox News : Code Pink Protesters Try Witchcraft at Anti-Marine Rally ...
Stop the ACLU : Code Pink Resorts to Witchcraft: Bring Your Pointy Hats ...

blogs : Southern Appeal,Fox News,Shooting The Messenger,Jesus is Lord, A Worshipping Christ,FREEDOM EDEN...
(29 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 17:12)

[Technology] QStarz BT-Q818 eXtreme (NaviGadget)

NaviGadget — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:56:12 GMT

QStarz recently announced a new bluetooth GPS receiver which they claim is world's most powerful. The specs on the BT-Q818 eXtreme is pretty impressive; such as the 51 channel MTK chipset, and the 32 hours of use time thanks to the low power consumption hardware. However what makes the difference is the adjustable update rate [...]

Engadget : QSTARZ intros "most powerful GPS receiver in the world" ...
Coolest Gadgets : QStarz BT-Q818 Bluetooth GPS Receiver ...

blogs : Coolest Gadgets,arnsteinblogg 2.0,Best Gadgets World,NaviGadget,Engadget...
(8 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 08:56)

[Technology] Scoop: Facebook To Announce Safety And Privacy Deal With 49 States (TechCrunch)

TechCrunch — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:21:26 GMT

The Attorney General of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, is about to make an announcement at noon ET that he and the attorneys generals from 48 other states have negotiated a deal with Facebook to implement new safety and privacy rules, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. Facebook will be making its own announcement [...]

Marketing Pilgrim : Facebook Signs on to Child Protection Guidelines ...
BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog : Facebook commits to online safety ...

blogs : Unfortune,TechCrunch,BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog,moraaz.org - feed all tech!,Marketing Pilgrim...
(5 posts, last update: 08/05/2008 23:21)

[Technology] MySpace Embraces Data Portability, Partners With Yahoo, Ebay And Twitter (TechCrunch)

TechCrunch — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:56:46 GMT

MySpace is announcing a broad ranging embrace of data portability standards today, along with data sharing partnerships with Yahoo, Ebay, Twitter and their own Photobucket subsidiary. The new project is being called MySpace “Data Availability” and is an example, MySpace says, of their dedication to playing nice with the rest of the Internet. A mockup of [...]

ReadWriteWeb : MySpace Partners with Yahoo, Twitter, eBay on Data "Availability" ...
LibraryCrunch : MySpace and Data Portability ...

blogs : gtmcknight.com,TechCrunch,Identity Woman,LibraryCrunch,ReadWriteWeb...
(7 posts, last update: 08/05/2008 22:56)

[Politics] Republicans vote against Mother’s Day. (Think Progress)

Think Progress — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:11:58 GMT

On Wednesday, the House took up the seemingly uncontroversial H. Res. 1113, “Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother’s Day.” The resolution initially passed 412 to 0, until Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) rose in protest: Mr. Speaker, I ask for a recorded vote because I’m [...]

Firedoglake : GOP Makes Obstruction An Even Higher Priority Than Moms ...
Shakespeare's Sister : Republican Pride ...

blogs : Shakespeare's Sister,Firedoglake,Mercury Rising 鳯女,Think Progress,Kicking Ass...
(6 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 18:11)

[Technology] Microsoft: Windows Vista sales "rapid" at 140m copies (NeoWin)

NeoWin — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:15:07 GMT

Microsoft chair Bill Gates today noted at a European news conference that sales of Windows Vista have reached 140 million copies worldwide. The update is the first since the company crossed the 100 million mark at the start of the new year, although Gates doesn't clarify when the company reached the newer threshold. This demonstrates that Vista continues to sell at a "very rapid" rate, according to the Microsoft co-founder. If tracked between January and April, the number represents about 10 million copies of Vista sold per month in the first third of 2008 and signals a slight increase in the sales rate for the operating system, which averaged at just over 9 million copies sold per month in 2007. However, the sales rate is half that of the Windows update's initial results in the first two months of its launch, when it sold as many as 20 million copies per month to cater to early demand. View: Full Article @ Electronista Read full story...

Electronista : Vista sales "rapid" at 140m copies ...
ChatzWorld - A World of Chat : Microsoft: Windows Vista sales "rapid" at 140m copies ...

blogs : iPhone and iPod Touch Software,Pocket-lint,ChatzWorld - A World of Chat,The Apple News,MAC News Network...
(8 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 12:15)

[Entertainment] Mischa was photoshopped (The Blemish)

The Blemish — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:18:01 GMT

Mischa Barton's publicist claims that those photographs showing her “cellulite ridden” ass were doctored and that the photographer who took them, Jamie Fawcett, is out ...

NY Daily News : Rush & Molloy: Getting to bottom of Mischa photos ...
Yeeeah! : Mischa Claims Cellulite Pics Were Photoshopped ...

blogs : Yeeeah!,The Blemish,NY Daily News...
(3 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 16:18)

[Other] Declaring Victory: Remember, Florida And Michigan Will Count In November (TalkLeft)

TalkLeft — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:01:21 GMT

Politico is reporting that Barack Obama will declare victory on May 20: Not long after the polls close in the May 20 Kentucky and Oregon primaries, Barack Obama plans to declare victory in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. . . .The Obama campaign agrees with the Democratic National Committee, which pegs a winning majority at 2,025 pledged delegates and superdelegatesa figure that excludes the penalized Florida and Michigan delegations. So let me get this straight -- the first act of the self declared Democratic nominee Barack Obama will be to state that Michigan and Florida will not count? This is insane. Two key states in November will be dissed in the first act of the newly crowned Democratic nominee. At the least, Obama should wait until he has 2209 delegates counting the existing Florida and Michigan delegations. One assumes that will likely happen by the end of the primaries barring some unforeseen event. I can not understand the logic of this approach. More . . . By the way, the Obama campaign is badly mishandling this situation in other ways. In the Obama post NC/IN memo makes two very strange arguments. The first: With the Clinton path to the nomination getting even narrower, we expect new and wildly creative scenarios to emerge in the coming days. While those scenarios may be entertaining, they are not legitimate and will not be considered legitimate by this campaign or its millions of supporters, volunteers, and donors. The "wild scenario" is counting Michigan and Florida. This is simply madness from the Obama campaign at this juncture. Obama is going to be the nominee. It is time for him to think about November. The second problem from the Obama memo is its disgraceful disrespect of voters: [T]he popular vote is a deeply flawed and illegitimate metric for deciding the nominee since each campaign based their strategy on the acquisition of delegates. . . . Essentially, the popular vote is not much better as a metric than basing the nominee on which candidate raised more money, has more volunteers, contacted more voters, or is taller. This is political lunacy. The Obama campaign needs to get its act together on these issues at this crucial time.

Top Stories : The May 20 train wreck ...
The Liberal Blog Network : Tracking the Supers [Taegan Goddard's Political Wire] ...

blogs : Air America Radio -,The American Street,Outside the Beltway,HolyCoast.com,MyDD...
(35 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 16:01)

[Technology] $dotMobi[] = $Mowser (Mike Rowehl: This is Mobility)

Mike Rowehl: This is Mobility — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:56:12 GMT

The word is out now that dotMobi is picking up the Mowser assets. Like I said in my post about planning to shut down Mowser, the problem wasn't with Mowser itself or the technique of content adaption or the mobile web as a whole. We just weren't able to run Mowser as a media site [...]

Planet Intertwingly : Mowser.mobi ! ...
TechCrunch : Update: Mowser Assets Find a home at dotMobi ...

blogs : Planet Intertwingly,TechCrunch,Mike Rowehl: This is Mobility...
(3 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 15:56)

[US] Farewell, My Lovely Pork Buns (The New York Times Wine Blog)

The New York Times Wine Blog — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:11:59 GMT

I’m very sad to report that the venerable, wonderful Mei Lai Wah Coffee House in Chinatown appears to have closed for good. At least that was the report at Eater.com last week, which I have no reason to doubt. Rumors that Mei Lai Wah would close have floated for more than a few years now, [...]

Grub Street - New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog : Elegy for a Chinatown Coffeehouse ...
Ed Levine Eats : News Spread: Cipriani to Lose Liquor; Ed Loses Cheesecake ...

blogs : The Food Section,The New York Times Wine Blog,Ed Levine Eats,Grub Street - New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog...
(4 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 18:11)

[World] News of the Day (May 9) (China e-Lobby)

China e-Lobby — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:42:12 GMT

Communist persecution of Falun Gong continues: Xin Fei ( Epoch Times ) discusses how Communist China perverts its legal system to send Falun Gong practitioners to jail. The United Nations' top human rights official has more question for the cadres about organ harvesting ( Between Heaven and Earth ). Enterovirus -71 death toll hits 32, number infected passes 24,000: How many could have been spared this had the cadres been honest about the outbreak from the beginning may never be known ( CNN ). On "nationalism" in Communist China: Vaclav Havel once explained the mass participation of Czechs in Communist marches and propaganda events as their way of doing whatever they had to do to keep the Commissar off their backs. It should come as no surprise that the people trapped inside Communist China must resort to the same tactics ( Epoch Times ). News from the occupied nations (East Turkestan and Tibet): Uyghur Christian Alimujiang Yimiti is to be tried for his faith (China Aid via Uyghur American Association ). Meanwhile, CSRwire (via UAA ) notes one very important Tibetan resource Communist China is intent on stealing - water. The Long Arm of Lawlessness gets the color orange banned in Greece: Its most well-known success prior to this was making yellow illegal in France ( Adrift in a Sea of Phlegm ). India dealing with cyber-attacks from Communist China: Among the victimized websites over the last year and a half was the Ministry of External Affairs ( Epoch Times ). More opposition to the Singapore Surrender : The editors of the Washington Times speak out again, and Congressional Republicans are getting louder ( One Free Korea - which also has other news from " another Chinese province ").

OneFreeKorea : Anju Links for 8 May 2008 ...
Between Heaven and Earth : China's Organ Harvesting Questioned Again by UN Special Rapporteurs: FalunHR Reports ...

blogs : China e-Lobby,Between Heaven and Earth,OneFreeKorea...
(3 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 17:42)

[Politics] What might have been -- our government's plan for post-invasion Iraq (Power Line)

Power Line — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT

Few topics have been more thoroughly misreported than our government's planning for post-Saddam Iraq. In the MSM narrative, a project called the Future of Iraq developed a plan for rebuilding Iraq, but neo-conservatives in the Defense Department dismissed it and offered nothing in its place. Thus, the conventional wisdom is that we didn't have a plan for dealing with Iraq in the aftermath of the invasion. No one who knows anything about government could believe this. Government has many flaws but an inability or reluctance to draw up plans is not among them. Yet the no plan refrain is repeated endlessly. I've been on television with otherwise intelligent leftists (Christy Hardin Smith, in particular) who have put forth this facially absurd notion as an article of faith. Responding, other than through ridicule, has been difficult since I wasn't privy to the government's planning. Doug Feith was not only privy to the planning, he did much of it. And in his new, invaluable, book War and Decision , Feith describes what the plan was, how it was developed, how the State Department fought against it, how President Bush approved it, and how L. Paul Bremer cast it aside. (In Feith's account, the vaunted Future of Iraq project was not a governance plan; it was just a series of ideas which, contrary to the conventional narrative, the so-called neocons thought were mostly fine). In this post, I'll focus on the Defense Department's plan. In a follow-up post, I'll examine with more particularity the State Department's opposition to that plan. And I'll describe how Richard Armitage advocated a multi-year U.S. occupation even though he understood that it likely would result instability and possibly terrorism against U.S. forces. Armitage was motivated by a determination to ensure that externals Iraqi exiles and Kurds would not assume leadership in Iraq. In the end, of course, we got both instability/terrorism and the externals. The Defense Department's plan turns might have avoided much of the instability and terrorism. It was predicated on the idea that the U.S. should not be viewed as an occupier because that perception would breed violence. Thus, it was vital to get the Iraqis involved and out-front promptly. The original concept, developed by Feith, was to follow the Afghanistan model. That meant installing a provisional government immediately and placing it largely in charge of governing the country. However, Secretary Rumsfeld did not see the Afghanistan model as fully applicable. Afghanistan, he understood, was so bereft of resources and infrastructure that even a bad government could only do limited damage. Iraq, by contrast, was rich in oil and had a substantial military. Thus, a corrupt, incompetent, and/or vicious government could do major harm, for which the U.S. would be held responsible. Rumsfeld therefore told Feith to modify the plan. Feith responded with the Iraqi Interim Authority (IAA), in essence a power-sharing plan under which Iraqis would be in charge of certain ministries, but not at first the key ones. As the government proved itself, additional ministries would be handed over to it. The State Department opposed both a provisional government and the IIA concept. Its fear was that Iraqi exiles, and especially Ahmad Chalabi, would dominate in such an arrangement. The fear was rational in the sense that exiles, including Chalabi, might well dominate. What's less clear is why this prospect was so alarming as to become the touchstone for State's thinking. Feith speculates that this had to do with Chalabi's status as an anathema to Arab states, a status based on (a) his religion -- Shiite and (b) his association with the movement for Arab democracy. It is not unheard of for the State Department to accord substantial weight to the preferences of friendly, or nominally friendly Arab, governments. Feith insists that the Defense Department had no particular interest in installing Chalabi or other externals. It was not seriously pro or anti-Chalabi. Feith says that while there are dozen State Department memos that talk about Chalabi in negative terms, he knows of no Defense Department memo that advocates on his behalf. In fact, Rumsfeld was unequivocally against tilting in Chalabi's favor. Consistent with that view, the IIA was to be a mixture of externals and internals. Elections would later decide which Iraqis ran the government. To be sure, the Defense Department favored using the externals in advance of the invasion. It favored using them to obtain intelligence, which was in very short supply. Defense also wanted to hold a political conference among the exiles and the Kurds to develop the principles for a post-Saddam constitution. The purpose was not to favor Chalabi or anyone else; the purpose was to hit the ground running. Defense also wanted to train several thousands Iraqi troops. Here, again, the purpose was not sinister. The idea was to have Iraqis participate in their own liberation and to get a head start on developing a reliable security force. Armitage and others at the State Department fought vigorously against the political conference and the training. They were largely successful. The Defense Department was successful, however, in getting President Bush to sign-off on their post-invasion plan. General Jay Garner, the head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, then set about to put it into effect (Garner states, by the way, that he never received any instruction or request to favor Chalabi; when Feith talked to him about potential leaders, he was neutral and objective). But Garner's successor, L. Paul Bremer, decided to reverse course and implement the State Department's vision. That vision, and Bremer's decision, will be the topic of a follow-up post.

Bizblogger : Plans for Post-Invasion Iraq ...
"We Have Some Planes" : Power Line: What might have been -- our government's plan for post-invasion Iraq ...

blogs : "We Have Some Planes",Bizblogger,Power Line...
(3 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 13:00)

[Politics] 10-year-old gives birth in Idaho; Suspected illegal immigrant charged with rape (On Deadline)

On Deadline — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:34:27 GMT

A 37-year-old man is charged with raping a 10-year-old girl who gave birth last month in Idaho. "St. Anthony Police said they were notified of the young girl's pregnancy by medical personnel after she went in for treatment at a...

BizzyBlog : TILTPAT-BIDHAT4 (050908, Morning) ...
Tammy Bruce : Hey McCain: Here's the Latest Open Borders News ...

blogs : BizzyBlog,MsUnderestimated,Tammy Bruce,Hillbilly White Trash,On Deadline...
(5 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 14:34)

[Technology] Shawn Fanning Finally Gets A Real Payday: Electronic Arts Buys Rupture For $30 Million (TechCrunch)

TechCrunch — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:56:05 GMT

Shawn Fanning, best known for founding Napster, has a new job. He will be working at Electronic Arts, which has bought his social-network-gaming startup Rupture for $30 million, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. His co-founder Jon Baudanza will also join Electronic Arts. We first heard of a possible deal back [...]

Silicon Alley Insider : EA Buying Shawn Fanning’s Rupture for $30 million (ERTS) ...
VentureBeat : Shawn Fanning negotiating to sell social gaming company Rupture for $30M ...

blogs : TechCrunch,Memex 1.1,VentureBeat,WOW Insider,Xbox 360 Fanboy...
(8 posts, last update: 09/05/2008 17:56)