NYC, Obama, Structure, Me

• Not long after high school, I was a Vice General Secretary of a party in Nepal that had two MPs.
• Six months into landing as an international student, I got myself elected student body president at Berea College in Kentucky, the number one liberal arts school in the South.
  
• I am the only Nepali in America to have worked full time for two years for Nepal's magical April Revolution 2006, and Madhesi Movement 2007. We invented nonviolent militancy.
  

I am not "just a blogger." I am a leader. I am not a journalist, not that there is anything wrong with those who are, but rather a digital democrat. I pride myself in my political acumen and skills. Who else in the ranks has toppled a Third World dictator working almost completely in a Web 2.0 environment?

I want to clarify for my NYC comrades as to the kind of involvement I expect to have in the course of Obama 2008.

• I am not interested in any organizational title at all. If that means I miss some key strategy sessions, so be it.
  
• I have no desire to sit on any committee.
  
• The only organizational structure I am interested in is The Matrix. If I can convince people to build it, fine, I will be part of it, at the highest levels. If not, I will stay outside the traditional organizational structures, and do out of the box thinking instead.
  
• I give a few hours to Obama on a daily basis. This blog is my primary contribution. I fancy myself nothing less than Obama 2008's national Shadow Campaign Manager.
  
• I have a young tech, startup. I want the option to "disappear" for months if I have to to do right by my company. That is an additional reason I don't want to sit on any committee, acquire any kind of an official title.
  
• My goal is to attend as many Obama events as I can, and get to personally know as many Obama volunteers as I can. And I hope to videoblog the Obama operation in NYC extensively.
  
• I am not going anywhere outside the city boundaries. That is final.
  

In The News

Obama Holds Smaller Leads in US Race Angus Reid Global Monitor Democrat Barack Obama is the most popular presidential contender in the early stages of the 2008 electoral campaign in the United States, according to a poll by Zogby International. At least 45 per cent of respondents would vote for the Illinois senator in head-to-head contests against four prospective Republican nominees. Obama holds a three-point edge over Arizona senator John McCain, a four-point lead over former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, a 14-point advantage over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and an eight-point edge over actor and former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson. ........ "If that’s the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now—where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife—which we haven’t done,. We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven’t done. Those of us who care about Darfur don’t think it would be a good idea."
Democrats 2008: Hillary 35%, Obama 28%
Republicans 2008: F. Thompson 29%, Giuliani 28%
Approval for Putin Reaches 85% in Russia
Obama, Giuliani, Hillary Most Popular in U.S.
Giuliani, Hillary Still Lead in Florida
Obama Leads McCain, Romney in US RaceAngus Reid Global Monitor according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 47 per cent of respondents would vote for the Illinois senator in 2008
US ready to flatten FATA if attacked by al-Qaeda from there DailyIndia.com American intelligence officials have said that should a resurgent al-Qaeda think of attacking the United States again after a gap of six years from Pakistan's volatile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the Bush Administration would not hesitate to move in troops to "flatten" the area. ....... the al-Qaeda has reconstituted itself in the wild tribal areas of north western Pakistan. It is now stronger than at any other time in years, and is actively plotting new attacks. ....... the Bush Administration is captivated by General Musharraf because "he is a secular moderate" ...... the FATA is an area fanning extremist violence, and therefore, requires decisive attention. ....... no one in Washington believes that Pakistan's intelligence service has been purged of Taliban sympathizers. ...... "The Pakistani Army is designed, trained and equipped to fight India in Kashmir and deter New Dehli with nuclear weapons. That requires a dramatically different kind of strategy from what is needed in the tribal areas, whose leaders do not consider themselves part of Pakistan" ........ the western mountains of Pakistan have been the hatching grounds for some of Al Qaeda's deadliest plots, such as 7/7 in 2005 and the thwarted plot to blow up multiple trans-Atlantic commercial jets last August. ......... The options include initiating aggressive campaigns of deniable covert action in Pakistan to capture or kill Qaeda operatives, and pray that American Special Forces or C.I.A. officers don't get caught. Another would be to carry out air strikes against known terrorist compounds in the tribal areas. A third would involve carrying out a large-scale ground offensive across the border from Afghanistan to capture and, or, eliminate Qaeda and Taliban remnants, and lastly, but the least likely, to send thousands of heavily armed American soldiers on a cave-to-cave search of North Waziristan with the objective of effectively dismantling the Al Qaeda's Pakistan base of operations. ..... after each attack, the terror groups tap a deep bench and elevate another operative to a more lofty position.
US threatens Pakistan raids ABC Online "Our stance is that Osama bin Laden is not present in Pakistan," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told AFP in the Pakistani capital. "If anyone has the information he should give it to us, so that we can apprehend him. ..... Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri told CNN that instead of intelligence estimates, the United States should give Islamabad clear evidence of the Al Qaeda presence inside Pakistan. .... Democrats agitating for an end to the Iraq war have accused Bush of making the United States more vulnerable to terrorism by neglecting the strengthening Al Qaeda threat from Pakistan.
Ruling Party Wins Big in Turkey TIME a profound sign of Turks' disaffection with the traditional secularist elite.
LA no 'pub team', insists Beckham Scotsman
WINDS OF CHANGE ARE NOT ALL BLOWING HILLARY'S WAY Yahoo! News Sen. Clinton is clearly the candidate of the head. She is logical, methodical, thoughtful. Sen. Obama is clearly the candidate of the heart. He appeals to the romance of politics, to its sense of possibility. These two candidates both are from Illinois. She carries the whiff of Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson, intellectual and guarded. He carries the whiff of Sen. Paul Douglas, civil rights crusader, environmentalist and reformer. Both would like to be Abraham Lincoln, but even Abraham Lincoln wasn't Abraham Lincoln in 1859.
Can Obama turn backers' passion into votes? Minneapolis Star Tribune He raises tens of millions of dollars over a few months. His supporters are passionate. And his grass-roots movement threatens a more established rival. .... Dean's slow rise and rapid descent .... He must turn the intense devotion of his backers into a force that can win primaries, expanding his base of support beyond the narrow band of Democratic elites who backed Dean. .... "It looks like a movement candidacy, and it's generating an enormous amount of enthusiasm, excitement and money," said Steve McMahon, a Democratic strategist who was a top adviser to Dean. ..... Obama trailed Clinton by 16 points when he entered the race in February and by 15 points last month .... a "sequential strategy" that focuses exclusively on building a robust campaign organization in Iowa, where a caucus victory could provide a springboard to success in the New Hampshire primary and the early nominating contests beyond. ...... the race is much closer in the early states where residents know more about Obama. ....... a clearer picture is expected to emerge after Labor Day, when voters will be paying more attention. .... Only twice in the past eight contested primaries has the Democrat leading at this stage gone on to win the nomination. ...... Dean, now chairman of the Democratic Party, led both national and state polls in December 2003 ...... Obama's campaign is doing some retooling: He is focusing more on the economy...... Aides are working to get the occasionally long-winded senator to speak in shorter, crisper sentences, particularly in debates and town hall meetings. ...... At this point in the 2004 campaign, Dean had done relatively little to build effective organizations in the crucial early states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Federal election records show Dean spent $177,402 in Iowa and $116,830 in New Hampshire during the first six months of 2003. ....... Obama, by contrast, has spent $866,000 in Iowa and nearly $500,000 in New Hampshire, according to the latest numbers. The money went mainly to the nuts and bolts of a ground campaign: rallies and events, mailing lists, office space, and salaries for nearly 100 people on the Iowa payroll and about 50 more in New Hampshire. .... Davenport and Dubuque are part of media markets where Obama has been on the air since 2004. .... their success at fundraising will allow them to build a get-out-the-vote operation that could rival or eclipse Clinton's in the early states.
Poll: Clinton holds commanding lead over Obama Newsday
Republicans 2008: Giuliani 33%, F. Thompson 25% Angus Reid Global Monitor
Police foil attack on legislator in troubled south Nepal International Herald Tribune A group armed with knives, swords and guns had surrounded the home of Prabhu Sah, a legislator for former communist rebels, on Saturday in Patuara village ..... the attackers were from the Terai Liberation Front
Musharraf on the Brink in Pakistan? Time Pakistan's Islamist extremists have retaliated with a series of attacks that have killed more than 180 people, most of them soldiers and police. ..... if Musharraf really does take both gloves off in the tribal areas, that will just increase the likelihood of a split in the army, according to Hamid Gul, former head of the powerful Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Restoring the Draft: No Panacea Right now, there are only two real ways to extend or even increase the surge: call up more reservists — always tough to do in an election year — or extend active-duty combat tours from the current morale-wrecking 15 months to an even more painful 18 months. ..... the third, most controversial option — is it time to reinstitute the draft? ..... drafting people could make it easier for the Army to reach its 2012 goal of 547,000 soldiers. ..... 91% of last year's recruits were high school graduates ..... minorities are over-represented in the all-volunteer military because they have fewer options in the civilian world ..... African Americans accounted for 13% of active-duty recruits in 2005 ..... minorities are not being killed [in Iraq and Afghanistan] at greater rates than their representation in the force
Who Dies in Harry Potter? God Rowling has three fancy houses and more money than the Queen ..... By selling 325 million books in 66 languages, she has almost single-handedly made the case that the novel can still be a global mass medium. ..... If you want to know who dies in Harry Potter, the answer is easy: God. ..... Harry's power comes from love. This charming notion represents a cultural sea change. In the new millennium, magic comes not from God or nature or anything grander or more mystical than a mere human emotion. .... psychology and technology have superseded the sacred.
Harry Potter's Last Adventure he's supposed to become a man, and get the girl ..... excited, curious, burning to get to the bottom of a mystery ..... the richness and sheer high-resolution of Rowling's fictional world .... Must Rowling insist on making evil people short, fat or ugly, or all three? ...... fans have already worked through all the possible endings on the Internet with such massive rigor. If we'd spent all that energy on particle physics instead, we would have found the Higgs boson by now. ..... Rowling's abiding thematic concern: the overwhelming importance of continuing to love in the face of death ...... Harry, though also an orphan, has found the courage to love. "Do not pity the dead, Harry," a wise man tells Harry in Deathly Hallows. "Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love." ..... the cosmology of the Potterverse: there are no higher powers in residence there .....The attic and the basement are empty. .... turning the last page of Deathly Hallows made me look forward to rereading the first book.
How to Leave Iraq the U.S. could save the $10 billion a month that it is spending on the war and rescue the U.S. Army and Marine Corps before they both collapse. ..... by withdrawing from Iraq, we'd unleash a bloodbath, hand al-Qaeda and Iran huge victories, destabilize the Persian Gulf and empower terrorists everywhere to attack our allies and our homeland ..... remain in Iraq until a democracy emerges from the chaos of the Middle East — a project they openly acknowledge is the work of a generation. ..... no matter what your views of the war or its genesis, things are likely to turn out different from what you expect. ..... the reduction in the U.S.'s military footprint in the region should be accompanied by a sustained surge in American diplomacy. .... In a world of bad options, a phased withdrawal is the least bad one out there.
The Plight of the Antiwar Democrat pro-life, pro-gun but antiwar .... Pelosi announced her plan to hold a series of votes on Iraq this month--one each week throughout July ..... 62% of Americans, including 84% of Democrats and 66% of independents, now believe it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq in the first place .... a pro-gun fiscal conservative whose sandy hair, hazel eyes and freckles make him look far younger than his 39 years.
The Future of Facebook a 23-year-old CEO in Silicon Valley. ..... more than 150,000 new users signing up daily, it is growing three times as fast as rival MySpace ..... it's actually been growing and doubling about once every six months for quite a while. ...... we're not trying to build a community — we're not trying to make new connections. ..... a "social utility" rather than a "social network?" ...... rebuffed Yahoo's offer to buy Facebook for nearly $1 billion .... we're very focused on what we're building and not as focused on the exit ..... more than half of our users use the product every day — it's a more efficient way for them to communicate with their friends and get information about the people around them than anything else they can do. ...... your investors who put a total of $38 million into the company ..... we took our venture round from Accel Partners just about two years ago ..... we grant options to all of our employees. At this point we have more than 250 ....... the launch of Facebook Platform. ...... There are whole companies that are forming whose only product is a Facebook Platform application. .... 30 million active users on Facebook. ....... more ways for advertisers to reach people and communicate in a very natural way, just like users communicate with each other...... Facebook's exclusive advertising deal with Microsoft, which gives the software giant the right to sell ads on the site ...... With more than 40 billion page views every month, Facebook is the sixth most trafficked site in the U.S., and the top photo-sharing site. ..... We have more than 10% or 15% of the population of Canada on the site. ..... We haven't translated the site yet, but that's something we're working on and it should be done soon. What we're doing is pretty broadly applicable to people in all different age groups and demographics and places around the world. ..... I work, meet with people, and discuss things all day ..... a hyper-fast paced, high-profile technology company? ...... 'In order to be doing something like this, you have to really, really like what you're doing, because otherwise it just doesn't make sense.' ..... a team of really smart people who come from different backgrounds and have different experiences and think in different ways .... We're just focused on building things.
Chameleon Nature of Maoist Strategy In Nepal Global Politician the real and quite inflexible Maoist strategic objective of securing total and unequivocal power...... Ample & consistent evidence of ability to get their way through blackmail and pressure tactics - so why not make the most out of the situation? .... Apparently unhappy by the fact that UNMIN did not give a clean chit to all their underage combatants and perhaps more than a little embarrassed that some 19 percent of initially registered combatants are no longer present in the camps, the Maoists now demand that the verification process be halted until those verified at Chula Chuli are immediately integrated into the Nepalese Army....... in Nepal, negotiations simply mean the incremental subjugation of the government/SPA position in favor of the Maoist position. Initially the government / SPA may agree to only 10 percent of the Maoist demands. However, slowly but surely, they invariably give in inch by inch until the Maoists have it their way. The SPA then declares, what has been at best a delay of an unmitigated disaster, a 'victory for peace in Nepal' and we move on to another round of 'negotiations'.
CPN-M fighters fled the cantonment in southern Nepal People's Daily Online following internal argument among themselves. .... Three busloads of YCL cadres and several more on motorcycles mounted a night-long search for the PLA soldiers and they are still searching
Romney Camp Claims Giuliani Is No Longer GOP Favorite Washington Post
Female President Elected in India Washington Post hundreds of millions of Indian women and girls who face bitter discrimination in everyday life. .... the country's often male-dominated political scene. .... her deep political ties and friendship with Sonia Gandhi ...... A lawyer by training, she most recently served as the first female governor of the northern state of Rajasthan. ...... health minister of Maharashtra state in 1975 ...... there have been three Muslim presidents and one Sikh. ..... Girls are viewed as an economic burden because, traditionally, a bride's father is required to pay a groom's family an often large dowry. ..... about 10 million female fetuses have been aborted over the past two decades. ..... sexual harassment in the workplace remains a serious concern, even in urban centers. ..... the president's role as commander in chief of the world's fourth-largest army
Hispanics aim to stop 'wave of hate' United Press International the "wave of hate" used to sink the immigration bill in the U.S. Senate last month. ...... ... The National Council of La Raza plans to start a campaign to register and mobilize voters and to address "hate" messages spewed by conservative talk shows
Google the wireless broadband carrier? iTWire
Google aims to boost wireless competition Boston Globe
Google to FCC: Accept our rules and we'll bidWashington Post the company will commit a minimum of US$4.6 billion toward the auction ..... Verizon Wireless said that complying with Google's ideas would amount to corporate welfare and bad public policy. ....... the company's public policy blog. ..... "Google is demanding the government stack the deck in its favor, limit competing bids, and effectively force wireless carriers to alter their business models to Google's liking," Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs, said in a statement on Friday. "We would repeat that Google should put up or shut up -- they can bid and enter the wireless market with any business model they prefer, then let consumers decide which model they like best." ........ "Google and its allies, with their collective market capitalization approaching half a trillion dollars, don't need a government handout at taxpayers' expense." ...... Google is urging the commission to ensure that end users can download any applications, services or content they want. Consumers should also be able to buy a phone and use it on any network. In addition, Google says the winner of the spectrum should be required to allow third parties to resell services over the network on a wholesale basis. ........ former FCC chief Reed Hundt and former Netscape CEO James Barksdale, have proposals similar to Google's.
DoT chalks out road map for WiMax rollout Economic Times in the 2.5 Ghz frequency band .... in the 2.5 GHz-2.69 GHz
WiMax is more suited to city size Times of India The difference between WiMax and Wi-Fi is often likened to the one between a cellphone and a cordless phone. .... speed can go up to 9.2 Mbps.
I will work as long as I can: Amitabh Zee News as he does not want to ever face a financial crisis or feel insecure. ..... Bachchan, who burnt his fingers with the company he floated in 1996, was glad that the firm had finally made a turnaround. .... AB Corp (the company he floated) is now finally debt-free ..... Bachchan himself is scheduled to work on two international projects -- Director Deepa Mehta`s "exclusion" that centres round the plight of 376 Indian asylum-seekers who were denied entry to Canada in 1914 and Director Mira Nair`s "Shantaram" which is based on Gregory David Roberts` acclaimed novel.
Bachchan unlikely to get a breather in farmland row Hindu
Stop talking about cure for AIDS: expert The Age 40 million infected and 25 million already dead from AIDS.
Google Pushes for Rules to Aid Wireless Plans New York Times In the Internet giant’s view of the future, consumers would buy a wireless phone at a store, but instead of being forced to use a specific carrier, they would be free to pick any carrier they wanted. Instead of the wireless carrier choosing what software goes on their phones, users would be free to put any software they want on it. ..... Google believes that the cost of voice calls and data connections to the Internet may be partly subsidized by advertisements brought to users by Google’s powerful online advertising machine. ..... There might even be a Google phone. ..... mobile phone users would become significant consumers of online advertising, Google’s core business. ..... Google’s set of proposed rules would have the F.C.C. require that any devices and any application could be connected to the wireless network using the auctioned spectrum. Further, they would require that whoever wins the spectrum make a portion of it available to resellers on a wholesale basis, which Google and other technology companies believe is necessary to promote broadband competition. ...... The licenses, considered the beach-front property on the electromagnetic spectrum, are in the 700 megahertz band of radio frequencies, which are being surrendered by television stations as they convert to digital broadcast. The auction, to be held early next year, is expected to raise more than $10 billion in revenue for the government. ..... open handsets and open applications

John Edwards, Voucher Man, Is A Republican

John Edwards learned some very wrong lessons from Barack Obama's very strong performance at the NAACP Democratic debate. Obama spoke forcefully on race issues and stole the show. Edwards now seems to calculate that the cat is out of the bag. Obama has been outed. He is black. Now is the time to try and drive a wedge between Obama and white America.

I was under the impression that perhaps Edwards was doing some good work on the poverty issue the past few years like he had been advertising. Now it looks like all that was sham. His big house has blinded him. He can not feel your pain.

Did I hear it right? Edwards' idea of curing poverty in the poor neighborhoods is to offer vouchers.

A voucher by definition, if it works, will work for a select few. You can not move the entire neighborhood out of the poor neighborhood. The poverty is not geography, as in let's all of us move out of Staten Island, and then we will be fine.

Edwards has been outed. He now comes across as a guy who is fundamentally incapable of understanding poverty. How can you cure that which you do not understand?

Have not the Republicans been suggesting the same for poorly performing schools? What's the difference?

You could brush the whole episode off as Edwards' ignorance. But there is more to that than meets the eye. What is most offensive about Edwards' premise is that there are clear racial overtones to what he is saying. He is clearly not talking about the poor, white Appalachia. He is talking about the predominantly black inner cities that seem to suffer from seemingly incurable poverty.

This is wrong. It will not fly. In trying to play this race card, Edwards comes across as a candidate who is growingly desperate. It is not just Mike Gravel, and Kucinich, and Richardson. Edwards is part of that crowd. Why is it not obvious to him that he stands absolutely no chance of becoming president? Will someone inform him? Hello? Anyone upstairs?

Edwards needs to offer an apology. This is not a lapse of judgment. This is most definitely not a tongue slip. This is the exposing of a deformed constitution.

And as a political operative, he has seriously misjudged America's contemporary standing on race issues, especially when offered the Obama prism. The race card will backfire, big time. It will backfire so thoroughly it is already obvious this is the last election Edwards will ever lose. He will not run again for anything. He won't even have a Poverty Center to go back to.

Race has to be talked about. Obama was right in giving a strong performance at the NAACP event. Gender has to be talked about. Obama is also someone who has to engage in more gender talk. It is only fair.

Edwards has the option to apologize and continue to contribute to the Democratic discussion. Or he is going to flame out earlier than he is expecting. He will lose Iowa. I mean, he will lose Iowa regardless, but if he makes idiotic remarks like this one, he seals his own fate.

In The News

Analysis: GOP Senators Nervous About War Forbes
Obama invokes spirit of MLK, RFK Baltimore Sun a teary-eyed Kennedy looked at reporters traveling with him and asked, "How can a country like this allow it?" ..... how an Obama administration would fight its own war on poverty. ..... he would sign legislation raising the minimum wage; fund programs that support poor families with children; fund not only job-training programs but programs that help workers get promotions; give incentives to bring businesses back to the inner cities; and make affordable housing more accessible in "mixed-income neighborhoods." ..... the problems of absent fathers or persistent crime ..... a child who shoots another child has a hole in his heart no government can fill
Wife laughs off 'Obama Girl' Chicago Tribune
Obama's 2 daughters question mom about racy Obama Girl video Houston Chronicle
Obama says Bush does not understand role as US commander in chief International Herald Tribune
Clinton calls for help in Africa Independent Online
Bill Clinton In Africa: View Of Future? Guardian Unlimited
Clinton arrives in Malawi on African tour People's Daily Online
Craig Crawford’s Trail Mix: Clinton in Major Leagues while Obama ... New York Times
India Names Its First Female President Forbes
Nuke deal: India, US reach agreement NDTV.com
Fatah Militants Lay Down Their Arms to Bolster Abbas New York Times
Report: 82 killed in China in a week of record-breaking storms International Herald Tribune
US Attack in Baghdad Kills at Least 15 and Wounds 10 New York Times
Sprint, Clearwire in WiMax deal Los Angeles Times Reston, Va.-based Sprint Nextel and Kirkland, Wash.-based Clearwire said they planned to begin rolling out the service in Chicago, Washington and Baltimore by the end of the year and have it available to 100 million people by the end of 2008.
Sprint Moves to Build WiMax Network Washington Post a 20-year partnership with Clearwire, a three-year-old start-up that provides wireless Internet service and is headed by entrepreneur and early Nextel investor Craig O. McCaw. ...... the $3 billion project .... WiMax will use its current bandwidth more efficiently. But WiMax is considered to be a risky investment by some analysts because it has not been tested on a nationwide scale. ...... Sprint and Clearwire plan to let customers roam on each other's service while they complete their own sections of the network. .... costly cellphone towers and fiber-optic networks, as well as radio-frequencies ..... They will also work together with vendors to develop cellphones, computers and other devices that will work on the system. ....... Both have video ventures that compete with each other.
Bachchan's letter reaches Mayawati Hindustan Times
Donating land was my right, says Big B Times of India "At the time of my donation, the said land was in my possession and I have voluntarily and with good intent donated the land to the gram sabha, Barabanki," Bachchan said in a statement.
A yellow card for soccer chaos Globe and Mail
Three Executives Spared Prison in OxyContin Case New York Times
Dell Signs Deal With British Mobile Retailer PC World
Dell Continues to Sink New York Times Dell worldwide market share in the second quarter is down to 15 percent from 17.8 percent a year earlier. Shipments are down 5.5 percent...... So far, the new jockey, founder Michael Dell, hasn’t made a difference. .... Hewlett-Packard with 18.2 percent share, up from 14.9 percent. Shipments were up 36.6 percent, more, on a percentage basis, than any one else except Acer, which was up 54.2 percent. Acer’s market share was 7.2 percent, up from 5.2 percent a year ago. ...... jumped Toshiba to become the No. 4 PC vendor in the United States after Gateway ..... The market grew 11.7 worldwide and 5.9 percent in the United States
Restless Legs Get Respect TIME
Dust storms on Mars halt NASA rovers Los Angeles Times Temperatures around the rovers have dropped to minus 76 degrees. The electronics must remain warmer than minus 40.
They Were Wild About "Harry," Now What? CBS News
Harry Potter hits 2.5m doorsteps Financial Times
Obama Newsday , USA Hillary Rodham Clinton holds a commanding 14-point lead over Barack Obama among South Carolina Democrats and enjoys an even bigger edge among the state's African-American voters, according to a new CNN poll........ Clinton, who has deployed husband Bill Clinton to lobby black leaders in the state, leads Obama 47 percent to 31 percent among African-American voters. Among all Democrats in the state, she leads Obama 39 percent to 25 percent, with John Edwards, a native of neighboring North Carolina, garnering 15 percent -- and just 4 percent of black voters. ..... Thursday's New York Times survey of women's political attitudes showing female voters under 45 with a 47-to-27 favorable/unfavorable view of the Democratic front-runner. ..... Among older women, Clinton fares significantly worse, with middle-age women giving her a 33 percent unfavorable rating and that rate rising to 40 percent among women over 65. ..... Ann Lewis, who is directing Clinton's women's outreach operations, says winning over older women will be a long, labor-intensive process. ....... the campaign is also likely to focus on energizing the 20 million single women who sat out the 2004 contest. ...... "There's a very good chance they'll vote for Hillary," she said. .... Another target for Clinton will be the 32 percent of independent women voters who haven't made up their mind about Clinton ..... Clinton, speaking on a conference call, said that Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman's response was "offensive," "entirely inappropriate," "outrageous" and "dangerous."

PM discusses security with NA top brass NepalNews
Nepal-India agree to upgrade border checkpoints
Sitaula takes back his words; Deuba favours using force to control unrest, if necessary
EC conducts mock poll in Kathmandu suburb
Maoist-affiliated workers disrupt distribution of newspapers
Eight parties call Terai groups for talks
Indefinite bandh in Rautahat
Rajbiraj court employees halt work demanding security
Maoists, UNMIN meeting inconclusive
Madhesi leaders ask govt to hold dialogue with Terai groups soon
CEC says EC will proceed on even if govt lags behind in poll preparations
Protesting freed Kamaiyas arrested, freed; demonstrations in Mid-west as well
PM smells conspiracy to divide eight party alliance
Yadav elected new Tarun Dal president
Govt trying to bring JTMM to negotiating table: Poudel

Got To Take The Lead In The Fourth Quarter

Obama has to try and take the lead in the national polls some time in the fourth quarter, and it is very possible. Otherwise the fight will be longer than expected.

But then who would have thought Obama would beat Hillary in fundraising two quarters in a row? The amount of money he has raised, and the number of donors he has had tells me once people get to know both, they like Obama more. The Clinton brand name is well established. People are giving a Pavlovian response. The word Clinton reminds them of the roaring 90s. They like the ring of it. Once they find out this is a different Clinton, they will pause and think.

Obama's talk of a new kind of politics is real and appealing. What that means is he does not make personal attacks on Hillary. But he does have to differentiate. This is not Coke and Pepsi. This is orange juice and soda. Her Iraq vote has turned Hillary into soda.

How to grab the lead in the national polls?

(1) Iraq, Iraq, Iraq

Hillary fails the judgment test. Iraq has been a diversion against the just war on the Al Qaeda. It is about security. The Al Qaeda is stronger than ever before. Bush is to be blamed. Hillary partly shares that blame. She was an enabler.

(2) Health Care

Hillary says by the end of her second term. That is blackmail. If you don't elect and reelect her, you don't get it. Obama says by the end of his first term. He is respectful of voters. He is not counting on reelection to deliver.

(3) Obama Bio

Only a few months back, half of America had never heard of him. That number has gone down, but not much. Innovative ways have to be found to get him well known. The half dozen basic facts about him have to be made well known. Clinton's lead comes from her name recognition. That brand name is well established.

(4) Debates

They matter. They are of central importance. Got to prepare. Got to deliver.

(5) The Fundamentals

Hillary is methodical. She likes to do her homework. So you don't get to cut slack on the fundamentals.

(6) Raise Money

Raise, raise, raise.

(7) Spend Money

The trick is to know how to spend well. You don't want to spend so little that you are a loser on February 6 with gobbles of cash in the bank. On the other hand, you don't want to wake up on February 6 with a fighting chance and no money in the bank. Money raised from many small donors has to be spent respectfully.

Edwards: Voucher Man

John Edwards sounds like the Republicans on poverty. He wants to give the poor vouchers to get out of poor neighborhoods. That is such a false proposition. His heart is not in the right place.

Hillary: This Woman Deserves Her Revenge

Hillary has made Bill Clinton possible. It does not bother me that she taps on Bill Clinton when she can.

Hillary is strong and smart in her own right. I have always liked her, as I do today. I think she will be a great Vice President.

Sexism is such a thing all over the planet, it is nice to see Hillary aspiring for high office.

This line is from the movie Kill Bill: "This woman deserves her revenge."

On February 6, 2008, we crown her. She becomes running mate.




Africa Unite

I want to see full fledged democracy movements in all African countries that are not there yet. President Obama will be the inspiration. What his administration can do it will do, the rest will be done by Africans in New York City and elsewhere.

I would like to have Third World dictators for breakfast.



In The News

Old wisdom unites to solve global dilemmas ABC Online The Elders involved include the former secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and former US president Jimmy Carter. ..... former Irish president Mary Robinson and Archbishop Desmond Tutu ..... The Elders can speak freely and boldly. ..... One of the world's greatest players, Brazil's Pele, led a group of 50 players in an Africa versus the 'Rest of World' match labelled as '90 minutes for Mandela'.
China GDP growth jumps to 11.9 percent Washington Post straight fifth year of double-digit growth and to overtake Germany as the world's third-biggest economy -- perhaps as soon as this year. ...... Goldman Sachs, for one, now expects eye-popping growth of 12.3 percent in 2007. ..... the economy, which is firing on all cylinders. ...... 10 million jobs every year for workers leaving the land and flocking to the city ..... After leapfrogging Britain in 2005 to become the fourth-largest economy, China is now breathing down Germany's neck. China's GDP was $2.7 trillion in 2006, just below Germany's $2.9 trillion
Al Qaeda group's ranking Iraqi is captured, US says Los Angeles Times
Can Google Defy Gravity Again? Probably. Forbes Its not the Internet that’s suffering—its just Yahoo! ..... The company’s advertising business, which accounts for nearly all of its revenue, is still growing. Most of the headroom lies in international markets. Analysts expect 46% of the company’s gross revenue to come from companies outside the U.S. in the second quarter. ..... even though eBay is Google’s single largest advertiser, responsible for nearly 5% of the company’s revenue, the eBay ads-hiatus won’t hurt Google’s revenues. Other smaller companies eager to advertise with Google snapped up the inventory briefly vacated by eBay.
Sprint, Clearwire to build national WiMax network Kansas City Star Sprint will focus on building out the network primarily in a series of larger metropolitan markets covering about 185 million people.
WiMAX to Present More Opportunities Than Threats for Satellite ... Earthtimes.org
Google to sell ads for more than 225 papers Los Angeles Times They include the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post, and have combined circulation of almost 30 million
Bush Rejects GOP Appeals to Compromise on Health Bill Washington Post saying that expanding the program would enlarge the role of the federal government at the expense of private insurance. ..... would rely on a 61-cent increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes, to $1 a pack, which Bush opposes. ..... a product "that will never be safe."

Focus of Iraq War Debate Shifts to House New York Times
Dems wield war debate to weaken GOP in 2008 San Francisco Chronicle
Sleepless in the Senate Salon
Web brings jerks—and spoilers—from woodwork Chicago Tribune
Hillary's Primary Problem: Her Shift On Iraq Forbes Clinton was one of the most forceful Democratic proponents of U.S. intervention in Iraq during the 2002 congressional debate. While she has steadily distanced herself from this position, anti-war sentiment within the party is now so strong that it has become one of the major obstacles to her nomination. .... (July 12-15) Gallup survey gives Clinton a 34%-to-25% ..... near-universal name recognition, formidable fund-raising ability and sound campaign management skills, coupled with an effective and deep grassroots organizational structure, an impressive array of loyal, experienced and competent advisers--including her husband--and a demonstrated ability to listen to and act upon sound advice. ....... serving as a very able senator, and building a formidable organization in New York state ...... The tremendous momentum that Obama enjoyed after entering the race in February has stalled. He seems to have settled into a deliberately low-key campaign mode, eschewing charismatic oratorical displays and concentrating on fund-raising ....... it is not clear whether she read the key comprehensive 90-page National Intelligence Estimate, which assessed whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction--and poured cold water on its alleged connections to al-Qaida ....... 82% of Democrats believe that sending U.S. forces into Iraq was "a mistake," compared with 62% of all voters.
Nepal's government to hold peace talks with ethnic rights group to ... International Herald Tribune
Giuliani: More Ethanol, Nuclear Power Forbes Presidents going back to Richard Nixon have promised energy independence, "and we haven't made much of a real dent in getting there" .... We have a country like France that's 85 percent nuclear power. We haven't built a new nuclear plant in 30 years.
Poverty emerges as Democratic campaign issue Los Angeles Times to stake his own claim as a poverty warrior — and present a vision for fixing struggling inner cities that directly challenges that of Edwards. ...... Edwards has focused on the malignant effects of concentrating poverty in the inner city. He has argued for dispersing low-income families by replacing public housing projects with a greatly expanded rental voucher program to allow families to move where there are more jobs and better schools. ....... Though Obama offered some of the same proposals as Edwards, such as a transitional jobs program and expanding the earned income tax credit, he presented a sharply different overall objective — fixing inner city areas so they become places where families have a chance to prosper, without moving elsewhere. ..... "If poverty is a disease that infects the entire community in the form of unemployment and violence, failing schools and broken homes, then we can't just treat those symptoms in isolation," Obama said. "We have to heal that entire community."

Big B bails out of land mess, 'donates' farmland CNN-IBN The actor had received the state-owned farmland from the previous UP government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav. Bachchan had then allegedly used forged documents - approved by the then UP government - that certified him as a farmer to buy over 20 acres of agricultural land in Pune district. ..... As per Section 63 of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act 1948, no person can purchase agricultural land in Maharashtra if he is not a farmer. ..... the three plots measuring around 4.5 bigha of agricultural land in village Daulatpur in Barabanki which gave him the status of a 'farmer', legally enabling him to buy land in Pawna.
Murdoch bid splits Dow family Seattle Post Intelligencer
HP further boosts market share over Dell MSNBC consumer shipments declined rapidly with Dell moving away from the low end ...... the biggest PC makers were beginning to move beyond price to battle with each other on other fronts. .... "System design, customer service, channel coverage and market expansion are all playing key roles in winning business."
Dell Going Small In Asia Forbes
Breast cancer study: Fruits, veggies not the answer Houston Chronicle
Gene Linked to Restless Leg Syndrome Found Forbes
RIM Announces '8820': WiFi Blackberry TrustedReviews
So, Does Harry Potter Live? BusinessWeek
Harry Potter 'leaks' spread to China CNET News.com The books about the boy wizard have sold 325 million copies worldwide so far, and anticipation over what happens at the end of the series is high ahead of its official publication at one minute past midnight British time on Saturday. ...... China, which has a reputation for its poor protection of intellectual property rights. .... In 2002, an entirely fake Potter book, entitled "Harry Potter and Leopard Walk Up To Dragon," appeared in China. .... Deathly Hallows, which many expect to become the fastest-selling book ever. ..... In the United States, media has reported photographs circulating on the Internet of every page of Deathly Hallows, although publishers declined to say whether any were genuine. ..... "I hate it when people ruin things like this for everyone else who wants to enjoy it the right way," one contributor wrote on the Mugglenet site. "I think that's just the most awful thing ever. Especially when there's spoilers where you least suspect it. People are jerks."

Facing al-Qaeda Washington Post the threat that it will stage another major attack against the U.S. homeland is a serious one. .... make hard decisions about how to protect the country. ..... an al-Qaeda sanctuary exists in Pakistan. But they have rigidly stuck to a strategy of depending on Pakistan's autocratic president ..... The administration says it has a comprehensive strategy that involves funneling $750 million over five years into development programs in the impoverished tribal areas and beefing up the Pakistani forces that patrol the frontier with Afghanistan. ..... a revived al-Qaeda organization able to strike the United States from a secure base ...... order targeted strikes or covert actions by American forces
Al Qaeda's Comeback CBS News Even last year, officials were still describing al Qaeda as an organization gravely damaged by U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan and the capture or killing of key operational lieutenants but that still remained an inspiration to other jihadists. ...... a coordinated recruitment effort by al Qaeda leaders to bring operatives with useful skills and languages into Pakistan to train them toward the eventual goal of their infiltrating the United States ........ the type of attack that al Qaeda's operatives are most interested in staging inside the United States. Unlike the kind of smaller-scale plots seen recently in Europe, such as subway bombings, U.S. intelligence agencies agree that al Qaeda wants its next U.S. attack to be a spectacular one. In particular, operatives want to focus on "prominent political, economic, and infrastructure targets with the goal of producing mass casualties, visually dramatc destruction, significant economic aftershocks, and/or fear among the U.S. population." ....... a "flow" of operatives traveling from North Africa (particularly Algeria and Morocco) to the tribal regions of Pakistan to undergo training at al Qaeda's new compounds ...... al Qaeda's Maghreb group boasts long-standing networks in Europe that could theoretically be used to help operatives infiltrate the United States. ..... Hezbollah, which reportedly receives arms and other support from Iran, "may be more likely to consider attacking the homeland over the next three years if it perceives the United States as posing a direct threat to the group or Iran."
A Frighteningly Irrefutable NIE Commentary the CIA might be continuing to wage guerrilla warfare against the White House ....... Having missed the 9/11 attacks, and then botched its assessment of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the second Gulf War, the CIA is locked in perpetual defensive motion. ..... terrorists remain a hard target; they cannot be counted by satellites like Soviet ICBM’s ...... a continued effort by these terrorist groups to adapt and improve their capabilities. ..... Is there anything in the above paragraph that could not be deduced by reading a leading newspaper, like the New York Times? ...... al Qaeda will continue to try to acquire and employ chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear material in attacks and would not hesitate to use them if it develops what it deems is sufficient capability. ...... Is there anything in the above paragraph that could not be deduced by reading the footnotes of the wikipedia entry on al Qaeda? ..... the NIE appears, at least in its unclassified form, to be a shining example of bureaucratic self-protection. The CIA and affiliated agencies do not want to be wrong again; and they have found a way never to be wrong: by stating the obvious and calling it a National Intelligence Estimate.