Bush’s 2009 earmarks.

post from Think Progress on 09 February 2008 08:14:00 PM. © Think Progress

President Bush has sharply criticized Congress for its earmarks. Yet The New York Times notes that “buried deep” in Bush’s 2009 budget are similar earmarks:

Mr. Bush has often derided Congressional earmarks as “special interest items” that waste taxpayer money and undermine trust in government. Congress, he said, included more than 11,700 earmarks totaling almost $17 billion in spending bills for the current fiscal year.
But some of those earmarks were similar or identical to ones included in the 2009 budget that Mr. Bush sent Congress last week. For example, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip, obtained an earmark of $1.5 million last year to deal with the emerald ash borer, a beetle that attacks trees, lawns and crops. Mr. Bush now wants more money to fight that insect.

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http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/09/bushs-2009-earmarks/

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At Virginia JJ Dinner Watching the Obama Momentum

post from Open Left - Front Page on 09 February 2008 08:09:31 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

I'm at the Jefferson/Jackson dinner in Richmond, after having snuck in with a media pass with Todd[...]

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Could John Edwards Decide the Democratic Nominee
for President

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 09 February 2008 07:45:37 PM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

Mark Karlin, Editor and Publisher, BuzzFlash.com

February 10, 2008

john edwards

With only 26 delegates to his name at the time he "suspended" his campaign for president, it is unlikely that John Edwards will be the final factor that puts Clinton or Obama over the top, but not impossible given how close the candidate count is.

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720/796 is not the final superdelegate number

Just a reminder that the number of regular superdelegates, now at 720, can easily change up or down, depending on circumstances. Here are just a few of the events that have or will change the number. (The 76 add-ons will stay constant).

Joan Fitz-Gerald left the DLCC last year, and was replaced by Mark Schauer, but he is from Michigan. Michigan doesn't get any superdelegates as of now, so down 1.
There is an open House seat in Indiana, with a special election in March where the Democrat is favored. Up 1. (There are other open house seats too, with the Republican favored, but maybe we'll get lucky).
If an at-large delegate moves into or out of Michigan or Florida, the number will go up or down appropriately.
And, of course, if the Michigan and Florida delegations are seated, the numbers will increase.

As always, for the most accurate list of superdelegates anywhere on or off the web, check out our lists of superdelegates who have endorsed and those who haven't endorsed a candidate.

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http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/02/720796-is-not-final-superdelegate.html

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Ustream of Virginia JJ Dinner

post from Open Left - Front Page on 09 February 2008 07:44:58 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

If you can't catch it on the teevee, it's being pushed through the tubes here (LINK). [...]

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Clinton-Obama: Loser Takes All

post from Connecting.the.Dots on 09 February 2008 07:42:00 PM. © Connecting.the.Dots

With Barack Obama's Saturday sweep, are the Democrats headed for their own version of Bush-Gore 2000 in which the candidate with the most popular votes ends up losing?

Using the latest available tallies from CNN and Time, my calculator shows Obama ahead of Clinton by 168,721 votes of 15,854,593 cast on Super Tuesday and in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nebraska, Louisiana, Kansas, Washington, Nevada and the Virgin Islands. (He won in Iowa, too, but the popular vote there is a mystery.)

If this trend continues, as it may very well do, Hillary Clinton could lose in the popular voting but win the Democratic nomination as a result of what 796 Super Delegates decide, just as George W. Bush moved into the White House in 2001 based on what nine members of the Supreme Court ruled.

In a year of strong feelings, would such a situation lead to a contentious convention like the one in 1968 that tore the Democratic Party apart and led to the election of Richard Nixon by less than one percent of the vote in November?

I was there as an alternate delegate in Chicago to be tear-gassed by the police of Democratic Mayor Richard Daley, which, to my lasting shame, led to the decision to vote for Hubert Humphrey but not campaign for him, as did others I knew.

Over the years, Democrats have found many ways to lose elections they might have won. Will we find a new one this year?

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http://ajliebling.blogspot.com/2008/02/clinton-obama-loser-takes-all.html

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Huckabee humiliates McCain in Kansas

post from Daily Kos on 09 February 2008 07:41:35 PM. © Daily Kos

In the Kansas caucuses today, the first contest since John McCain identified himself as the Republican frontrunner, he was thrashed by Mike Huckabee. In Kansas, it is being viewed as an upset in part because Sam Brownback had endorsed McCain.

Huck won 60% of the vote to McCain's 24%. Turnout was huge (though not remotely as heavy as for the Democratic caucuses on Tuesday). The results have to be read as a rejection of McCain by Republican arch-conservatives - who are just about the only ones left in the Kansas Republican Party.

What do the numbers mean?

"John McCain has a lot of work to do to get the Republican Party solidly behind him," answered Kris Kobach, Kansas GOP chairman.

Even though George Bush all but endorsed McCain at CPAC yesterday, Huckabee's theocon support is growing stronger, if anything.

Yet (the Kansas victory) underscores, once again, the appeal of Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, to a core of social conservatives and evangelical Christians within his party at a time when McCain is struggling to convince those conservatives that he is worthy of their support. With the newfound backing of James Dobson, the Christian broadcaster, and the departure from the race of Mitt Romney this week, Huckabee is providing a rallying point for party conservatives with whom McCain has not closed the deal.

The Huck has become by default the standard-bearer for the kind of screw-ball conservatism that has dominated the GOP for years.

His speech at (CPAC on Saturday) was attended by more than a thousand people who applauded wildly at his announcement that he is staying in the race...

A former Southern Baptist minister, Huckabee appealed to the audience by playing up conservative themes, including references to his faith, his firm opposition to abortion and his determination to replace the Internal Revenue Service with a national sales tax.

The theocons aren't ready to let go of their death grip on the Republican Party.

(Lucas) Roebuck, a journalism professor at Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho, said a "strong turnout from values voters" in the Kansas caucuses should remind McCain and Republicans of the importance of social conservatives going forward...

McCain has been trying to wrap up the nomination, in part, by getting the Republican establishment behind him in primary and caucus states...But as the Arizona senator learned in Kansas on Saturday, endorsements don't always matter.

Especially when voters despise the frontrunner.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/232395954/6286

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Saturday Primaries - NE, LA, WA, KS

There are a few races going on today. We have Democratic caucuses in Nebraska, Republican caucuses in Kansas, primaries in Louisiana and caucuses in Washington state. Since the Democratic side is the only race really going on now, here is the delegate breakdown:Nebraska - 24 Washington - 78 Louisiana - 56And here is the tracker [...]

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/02/09/saturday-primaries-ne-la-wa-ks/

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Sometimes paranoia is the rational response

Especially when you consider that businesses and government you help support may be working to destroy your life.Can you think of a single thing your FBI has done in your behalf in recent years? Got any positives to relate?‘Know thy enemy’ would seem to be the most apropos advice then. Especially WHEN, NOT IF martial [...]

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http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2008/02/09/sometimes-paranoia-is-the-rati
onal-response/

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Clinton Demands NBC Change Its Pattern Of
Behavior

By Big Tent Democrat

Over at TPM, Greg Sargent is, in my opinion, completely misreporting what Hillary Clinton meant in her written response to NBC Clinton wrote:

Nothing justifies the kind of debasing language that David Shuster used and no temporary suspension or half-hearted apology is sufficient.

I would urge you to look at the pattern of behavior on your network that seems to repeatedly lead to this sort of degrading language.
. . .

(Emphasis supplied.) Sargent utterly misses Clinton's point. He thinks she wants Shuster fired. That is not what Clinton is demanding. She wants "the pattern of behavior [at NBC] that seems to repeatedly lead to this sort of degrading language" to change. Too often people miss the real problem. Jamison Foser got it. Greg Sargent did not. BTW, that is poor reporting by Sargent imo.