Saturday, July 21, 2007

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

Thursday, July 19, 2007

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.

Hillary Is Not In The White House, But She Is The Establishment

Look at all the endorsements she has accumulated.
Look at the way she voted on the Iraq War.


Events


Time: Thursday, July 19 at 6:30 PM
Duration: 1 hour

Host: Daniel Soyer

Location:
Daniel Soyer's house (Brooklyn, NY) 379 East 8th Street Brooklyn, NY 11218
F to Ditmas Avenue, exit the back of the train. Turn right onto Cortelyou, left on East 8th.


Time: Saturday, July 21 at 11:00 AM

Cooper Union - East Village Street Festival for Obama (Community Service)

Host: Howard Bodenstein

Location:
Cooper Union - East Village (New York, NY) 4th Ave between Astor Pl & 5th St New York, NY 10012

Time: Sunday, July 22 at 10:30 AM

Host: Carlos Odio
Contact Phone: 718.312.9063

Location:
Grand Concourse & Mt. Eden (in front of Bronx-Lebanon Hospital) (Bronx, NY)
#4 Train to Mt. Eden Avenue - when you get off the train, exit to your right; at the end of the stairs leading to the street, make a left and walk up Mt. Eden Avenue (it's a small hill); pass two blocks and the third will be Grand Concourse; You will see Bronx-Lebanon Hospital


Debate Watching Parties in the City

When:
Monday, July 23, 2007, 6:30 PM
Where:
SoHo Loft 431 Broome St Buzz No. 4 New York , NY 10013 646-691-7944

Time: Monday, July 23 at 6:30 PM - 3 hours
Event Name: Harlem for Obama Democratic Presidential Debate Series

Host: Brian Benjamin

Location:
Home of Nicole Valentine, Esq. and Stefon Moody (New York, NY ) 167 W 136th Street, Unit #6 New York, NY 10030

Monday, July 23 7:00 pm
CNN-YouTube Democratic Presidential Debate Watch Party - Live from South Carolina!
O'Lunney's Pub
145 W 45th Street
(between 6th and 7th Avenues)
Second Floor
1/2/3/N/R/Q/W/B/D/F/V to Times Square/42nd Street
Time: Wednesday, July 25 at 7:00 PM Western Queens Organizational Meeting Duration: 2 hours Host: Alexis Soterakis Location: Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden (Astoria, NY) 29-19 24th Avenue Astoria, NY 11102 Directions: Take the N/W to Astoria Blvd. Walk one block north to 24th Avenue. Make a left onto 24th Avenue.

Tuesday, July 31 8:00 pm
DL21C's Annual Summer Bash!
Featuring live music by
The Bluetones
and very special guest
Dave Pollak
DL21C Founder and New York State Party Co-Chair
Plus elected officials and community leaders and other special guests.
Iguana Lounge & Nightclub
240 W. 54th St (at Broadway)
1 train to 50th St., B/D/E trains to 7th Ave
8:00 pm until the break of dawn


Time: Thursday, August 2 at 8:00 PM

Duration: 1 hour

Host: Beatina Theopold

Contact Phone: 302-584-0952

Location:
La Fonda Boricua (New York, NY) 169 E. 106th Street (bet.Lexington & Third Avenues) New York, NY 10035
Number Six (6) train to 103rd St station, walk three blocks north to 106th Street, then one block east toward Third Avenue.


Time: Sunday, August 5 at 11:00 AM

Upper West Side Street Festival for Obama
Host: Howard Bodenstein
Location: Upper West Side (New York, NY) (New York, NY) Columbus Ave between 69th & 70th Street New York, NY 10023
Directions: #1,2,3 to 72nd St



In The News

Explosion rocks NY Midtown Manhattan, killing one People's Daily Online Mayor Michael Bloomberg attributed the blast to a "failure of infrastructure." ..... One woman died of heart attack in the aftermath of the explosion and about two dozens were injured, some seriously .... Bloomberg said a steam pipe, 24 inches in diameter, ruptured, possibly caused by cold water, from raining or otherwise. The pipe was installed in 1924, he added..... The underground steam pipes, which heat and cool buildings in New York, have been turned off, and a gapping crater could be seen in the middle of the street. A red pickup truck sat in the crater. ..... Some described the spewing steam and debris as "tornado rising from the ground." ..... Some windows were blown out in buildings adjacent to the site of the explosion. .... The last major steam explosion happened in 1989, killing three people and sending mud and debris several stories into the air.
NYC Explosion Caused By Steam, Not Terrorism Washington Post, United States
WHY IS OBAMA SO STRONG? Yahoo! News on his way to becoming a fascinating footnote in Hillary Clinton's methodical march to the Democratic nomination for president. ..... programmed and practiced candidate .... Clinton had withstood the challenge, holding a 10-point lead among Democrats ..... he was getting larger crowds, raising more money. Most important, he was raising that money from more than twice as many donors. People wanted to be part of this thing. ........ approval levels for Washington, both the presidency and the Congress, were at all-time lows, generally below 20 percent. ....... more that 75 percent of Americans answer "no" when asked whether "the country is going in the right direction." .... a foolish and unnecessary war. ....... the Congress does not have the courage to shout that the emperor has no clothes. The air in the war capital is thick with delusion and lies. ....... the people running the country, or at least the executive branch, are deliberately hiding the truth about a range of scientific subjects from global warming to stem cell research.
Obama tries to turn heads of Clinton admirers by taking regular ... International Herald Tribune for all his campaign money and promises of hope, he still trails her in most national and early state polls. ..... the quasi-incumbent, as his campaign manager called her recently .... Obama says changing the political tone does not mean he won't draw distinctions in the race. He said he is trailing Clinton now because she is so well known and he is not, but he expressed confidence that will change. ...... "The tough part for Senator Obama or anyone is how to criticize Senator Clinton without getting crosswise with Democrats and their affection for the Clinton family"
Obama Says He, Too, Is a Poverty Fighter Washington Post a vision for fixing struggling inner cities that directly challenges that of Edwards. .... fixing inner-city areas so they become places where families have a shot at prospering, without having to move. ..... Edwards grew up in rural North Carolina and often seems more comfortable in rural settings than in urban ones, whereas Obama got his poverty education on Chicago's South Side and speaks more freely about the cultural underpinnings of urban ills, such as absent fathers. ..... "You want to fix the problem rather than fleeing from it."
Obama And Edwards Split On Poverty Plans CBS News
2008: Dueling Edwardses New York Times
Oh-eight (D): Obama's jabs at HRC
MSNBC it was Clinton who provided the most “bruising critique of Bush administration policies and Republican conservatives on abortion rights and contraception policy.” ..... Newsweek's Meadows interviews every candidate that has ever faced Clinton in an election (including her high school student council opponent) to find out how one beats Clinton. "There’s a reason she hasn’t lost an election since she ran for president of the student council in high school. She does her homework; she doesn’t do gaffes. Anyone running against her would be wise not to count on an implosion. So if she won’t do herself in, how can she be beaten?" Newsweek offers up 10 ideas.
Sen. Clinton doesn't take the bait San Francisco Chronicle
Mrs. Edwards Serves Critique of Mrs. Clinton New York Times

Obama on Iowa, Iraq and the 2008 race USA Today | July 18, 2007 My grandparents and my mother were very Midwestern. The culture of Iowa's very familiar to me. Meat and potatoes. Common sense. Not a lot of pretense. Straight talk. That's the kind of atmosphere that I grew up in. A lot of these folks look like my grandparents. ......... I don't look like the other 43 presidents. ..... a certain self-reflective quality in how I approach issues and a willingness to consider other points of view ...... hard work and good judgment and sound strategy when it comes to foreign policy. ..... What's remarkable is that we're within the margin of error running against one candidate who's been campaigning here for basically four years straight and another candidate who is known by 99% of the population. .......... the progress arises as a consequence of tribal leaders in that region making a decision that they no longer want to participate in the sectarian nonsense that has been taking place there. ..... The military has performed its task. The problem has been the civilian leadership. ...... If we have a coherent government in Iraq, we can wipe out the al-Qaeda Mesopotamia, we can knock them out in pretty short order. ..... We have to have an embassy, absolutely. Now the fact that we built this Xanadu in the middle of Baghdad, I would question the wisdom of that.
Obama's Plan for Victory U.S. News and World Report | July 18, 2007 Everyone should pay less attention to national polls and focus instead on grass - roots enthusiasm, numbers of campaign contributors, and the early nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire ..... Hillary Clinton's lead among Democrats in national polls is ephemeral and based largely on her superior name recognition. ...... a "sequential state" strategy in which he gradually becomes better known, turns in solid performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, and goes on to do well in the South Carolina and Florida primaries ....... he will enter the February 5 round of a dozen or more megaprimaries with a huge advantage that will put him on a clear path to victory. ...... Obama is enjoying the campaign routine, despite its pressures, and likes meeting voters and is still drawing huge, enthusiastic crowds - an important indicator of his political strength.

The Gandhi Protests Pay Off BusinessWeek On July 14, five hundred tech workers from companies like Sun Microsystems (SUNW), Oracle (ORCL) and Cisco (CSCO) marched in the streets of Silicon Valley to express their outrage. "Justice for Legal Immigrants" read a placard carried by one protester. "We Played by the Rules, Now It's Your Turn" read another. ...... on July 11 sent a letter asking for detailed information on how and why the decision was made. She requested "all correspondence, e-mails, memoranda, notes, field guidance or other documentation relating to the issuance" of the reversal notice ...... As they wait, visa workers are required to maintain the same job and salary, or they are bumped back to the long queue. That leaves many of the most educated and talented immigrants feeling stuck, sometimes to the point of hopelessness
India: Translators Wanted
Bloggers Bring in the Big Bucks 375,000 hits in March, 750,000 in April, 1.5 million in May ... Cheezburger now gets 500,000 page views a day from between 100,000 and 200,000 unique visitors, according to Nakagawa. The cheapest ad costs $500 for a week. The most expensive goes for nearly $4,000. ..... many of the most popular bloggers have similar tales of starting out with a niche idea—an inside joke, a particular obsession—and watching it explode. ...... Early on, when Nakagawa saw the site getting 1,000 page views a day, he added a widget that allows visitors to rate each post on a scale of one to five cheeseburgers. That helped boost traffic to 2,000. ...... Readers don't just rate or comment on the posts. They create them. Cheezburger depends on its fans to submit pictures, write funny captions, and send them in. ..... as much a community as a blog .... The idea of building a community around content supplied by users sustains several top blogs ..... BoingBoing, a "directory of wonderful things," might be the king of moneymaking blogs. ..... in June the site garnered 22 million page views from 2.6 million unique visitors ...... Frequent posting—the four authors update the site 20 to 40 times each day—drives high traffic to the blog ....... BoingBoing's ad sales top $1 million a year. ....... accounting for a third of the traffic on the WordPress blogging platform ...... A week of ads on Cheezburger, via Blogads, starts at $500 and tops out at $5,400 for a premium position. The site also sells through Google AdSense and AdBrite platforms. It recently ranked No. 26 on the most-linked-to blogs list on Technorati. ............ Overheard draws 6 million page views a month and gets 100 submissions from readers each day ...... a small media company with a Manhattan office, three spin-off sites, an editorial staff of six, and a reputation for digging up stories that major papers ignore ...... "If someone advertises with us, I guarantee you that a substantial number of people in every big-city newsroom around the country are going to see it," Marshall says. ........ 24 posts on an average day—and as many as 40 on a day with talk of a Britney Spears meltdown. ...... a full-time news operation and a network of local blogs across 14 cities on four continents ....... 20 to 25 posts daily on their most popular sites, and draw 7 million page views a month ...... young, educated, and often wealthy readers .... Federated Media handles ad sales for the sites ....... They take celebrity photos from a wire service, add snarky comments about the getups, and click "publish." The result? Some 3.5 million unique visitors a month, a book coming out in February, and two full-time jobs. ....... the emerging trend of mashups, which he defines as "the fusing of multiple Web services." ..... Mashable uses Federated Media for its ad sales. ....... across the many blogs he writes, he clears six figures a year from a mix of private ads, affiliate deals, and ads sold through platforms such as Chitika, Google AdSense, Text Link Ads, and Amazon Associates. An Australian minister who discovered blogging in 2002, he has written sites devoted to religion, digital photography, camera phones, the Athens Olympics in 2004, and, of course, blogging. ......... Hot Air, a group video-blog
The High Cost Of Wooing Google The digital titan, based in Mountain View, Calif., has been hunting for places to plant new server farms: vast, immaculate warehouses filled with row upon row of computers that allow Google to offer faster online searches and advertisements. Lenoir (pronounced like the woman's name Lenore) boasts resources at the top of Google's list: cheap, abundant electricity; excess water capacity to keep the computers cool; and lots of inexpensive landthe North Carolinians agreed to a package of tax breaks, infrastructure upgrades, and other goodies valued at $212 million over 30 years, or more than $1million for each of the 210 jobs Google said it eventually hoped to create in Lenoir.... "These are business decisions by the smartest businesspeople in the world, and it's just exploiting a desperate town." ...... IT, biotech, and financial-services companies .... States and localities bruised by globalization view these knowledge-based fields as the foundation for economic rebuilding. ..... pegs the aggregate value of incentives at about $50 billion a year. ..... sophisticated corporate consultants expert at playing jurisdictions against each other ..... Lenoir, population 17,000. It's a place that clings to tradition: Wednesday night outdoor movies in the main square, a blackberry festival each July, and a Civil War battle reenactment in August. But the world is changing, and Lenoir has been devastated by the departure to China of its core business, the manufacturing of bedroom sets. ..... "When our globalization came," says Bernhardt, "it came with lightning speed." ..... he hadn't given Weiss a hard sell at the festival, Wood says: "You don't usually ask someone to marry you on the first date." ...... During negotiations over the next 10 months, Weiss combined a calm demeanor with an obsessive attention to detail ....... Google plans to invest $600 million in the Lenoir server farm. ..... new computer centers in South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Iowa. Google won't say how many server farms it operates nationwide. ..... " Google, he adds, "put us on the map." ..... The Google site in Lenoir now bustles with tractors, bulldozers, and contract workers. A large silver-roofed building is going up behind fencing, a retaining wall, and a 200-foot buffer of trees. Visitors aren't allowed. As of early July, Google had hired one full-time employee: a site manager who came from out of town.
Apps vs. Office: Google Ups the Ante the holdouts who still use Microsoft Office to create documents and spreadsheets. They're "curmudgeons" ... Microsoft, which boasts more than a half-billion users of its long-successful Office suite ..... a corporate version of YouTube to create videos for training and employee communications
Vodafone's Tricky Wireless Split If Goldman and TPG simply decided to walk away, they'd owe Alltel a $625 million breakup fee

New Compaq Notebooks Offer Mobile Broadband
mobilised the new Intel Centrino Pro Mobile technology ..... The notebooks also have things like HP QuickLook, which offers single touch access to frequently used applications like email, calendars and contact information. ..... In addition to 802.11n (draft) WiFi and Bluetooth, these notebooks come with a choice of 3G mobile broadband connectivity options from a choice of carriers and technologies
Intel folds on OLPC Computerworld
Intel Joins One Laptop Per Child Washington Post
Cisco to expand to 16 more cities
Economic Times
EU court sets date for Microsoft ruling
Irish Times
Yahoo May Say Profit Fell as Google, MySpace Took Ad Sales
Bloomberg the most- visited U.S. Web site .... Yahoo's second-quarter net income probably fell 6.9 percent to $153 million ..... reorganized the sales staff to win back buyers of the banner advertising that runs on Web pages. Customers placed more of those ads on social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, while Yahoo continued to lose search-ad business to Google. ...... While Yahoo may be able to regain momentum in display sales, ``we haven't seen any evidence of it yet' ...... Yahoo makes its money selling display advertising, which includes the graphical banner ads and newer animated spots with videos, and search-linked ads, the four-line text spots that appear next to search results. ........... In his first move as CEO, Yang, 38, combined the search and banner-ad sales teams so customers can buy different ads from the same sales person. ..... banner advertising ... account for about 40 percent of Yahoo's sales. ..... The U.S. market for ad sales on social networking sites, dominated by Facebook Inc., a privately owned company based in Palo Alto, California, and News Corp.'s MySpace, will more than double to $900 million in 2007 and reach $2.5 billion in 2011
A Study in Contrasts: Yahoo and Google New York Times Google’s core business, search and contextual advertising. ..... Roughly one third of online advertising worldwide flows through Google’s platform ..... Google’s net revenue is larger than Yahoo’s and eBay’s and gross revenue is larger than Amazon’s; despite that, Google is growing seven times faster than Yahoo and more than twice as fast as eBay and Amazon; and Google’s profit margins are bigger than those of Yahoo, eBay and Amazon. “It is bigger, growing substantially faster, with higher margins,” Mr. Brown said. “That’s a pretty compelling set of attributes.”
Google's Yin to Yahoo's Yang CNNMoney.com the stock has hit several new all-time highs in the past few weeks. ..... Investors are excited about Google's prospects in not just search advertising, a market that it dominates, but display advertising (i.e. banners, videos and other graphical ads) as well. ..... eBay "going dark" on Google. .... Google has been able to take advantage of growth in social networking more effectively than Yahoo since it inked a partnership last year that made it the exclusive provider of keyword ads on MySpace. ...... Google, of course, doesn't have to worry about overpromising or how the Street will react to future plans since the company famously does not give earnings or sales guidance and is usually tight-lipped about its strategy. ...... increased advertising at Google's Gmail
Yahoo!: New CEO, Old Problems TheStreet.com Right Media is supposed to help boost Yahoo!'s position in the display ad market, one of the few remaining areas in which the company remains in the lead.
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Yahoo!: New CEO, Old Problems
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Nokia Smartphone to Bundle eBay's Skype Service
Google's Latest New Toy Threatens Microsoft
Microsoft Has Some Potholes to Dodge
eBay May Dump Its Stake in Craigslist
eBay Takes On Craigslist
China's Baidu Ready to Rocket
Bubbly Chinese E-Commerce Will Spark Baidu
Yahoo! Crawls Back With SmartAds Strategy
Amazon's Price Tag Gives Pause
Google-eBay Skirmish Underscores eBay's Strength
Google Not the Boss of eBay
Google Gallops Toward $600
Google Beats Amazon in Smart Tech Spending
No Fast Money in Yahoo!
Yahoo! Doubters Return
Yahoo! Rally Fails to Hold
Microsoft, Sony to Play Nintendo's Game Forbes
IBM in $1.4B Services Deal
Forbes
IBM looks to gain an edge with Unix virtualization features
Computerworld
Oracle Delivers Expanded Field Service Capabilities With Google ...
CNNMoney.com
Oracle and Symantec Certify Veritas Data Center Solutions on ...
CNNMoney.com Oracle PartnerNetwork is a global business network of 19,000 companies who deliver innovative software solutions based on Oracle software.
Oracle, Symantec to bring Veritas Storage to Oracle Linux eWeek
Oracle expects quick 11g upgrades
Australian IT
Intel, Sun to Tackle Telecoms
Channel Insider looking to jointly enter the telecommunications market with a combination of Intel processors and hardware and the Solaris 10 operating system. ...... Although Intel and Sun are practically neighbors, as both are based in Santa Clara, Calif., Sun refused to use Intel processors in its products for many years. The two companies did not cooperate with each other and occasionally took swipes at one another through the media. That all changed on Jan. 22, when the CEOs of both companies promised to begin working together.
Nine Indian companies in Wal-Mart's honour list Hindustan Times
Intel puts out "Extreme" chips for PC gaming addicts
Salon
Will Web radio stations be forced to combat copying?
Salon
Talks on Internet radio royalties continue Los Angeles Times
Deal keeps Internet radio from being muted Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Monday roundup: PopCap's latest buy, WiMax as a commodity, etc.
Seattle Post Intelligencer

Russia set to respond to British expulsion move Washington Post
Giuliani masters the fundamentals Politico Giuliani's campaign fundamentals are growing stronger ...... Giuliani has raised more than a million dollars in five states: California, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Texas. Romney has just two million-dollar states: California and Utah. ...... Unlike in previous cycles, Democrats are outraising Republicans this year, adding credence to anecdotal reports that some Republicans are sitting on their checkbooks for now. ....... Giuliani's internal numbers show he is building one of the biggest campaign networks among the notable Republican candidates, which could send his costs soaring and test his ability to maintain his fundraising pace. ...... Giuliani also is basing his campaign in New York, which carries big leasing costs .... he plans to compete hard in California, where the delegates are doled out according to congressional districts.
Japan Debates Safety After Quake TIME
Nuke Waste Drums Tipped in Japan Quake ABC News
Senate Dems Vow to Pull All-Nighter to Force Iraq Vote ABC News Because Republicans won't consent to an up or down vote, Democrats say they are filibustering. The filibuster is, for the most part, a thing of the past. ..... a president who doesn't understand the reality of the war in Iraq .... On Nov. 13, 2003, then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist kept the Senate in session for 30 straight hours of debate on judicial nominees.
Look out, Rudy: 'Obama Girl' sequel is instant YouTube hit Chicago Sun-Times
LJP MLA tears off clothes in Bihar Assembly
Hindu after failing to get an immediate assurance of the state government to repair dilapidated roads in his constituency in Darbhanga district. .... Ahmed rushed to the well shouting at the top of his voice before tearing off his clothes. He later walked out of the House.
MLA tears off clothes in Bihar House Financial Express
National Intelligence Estimate Day
New York Times
Al Qaeda May Use Iraqi Network Wall Street Journal
Spy Chiefs: US to Face Ongoing Threats Washington Post
NYC: the congestion-pricing debate continues
seattlepi.com Buzzworthy
Gridlock in Albany on Mayor's Congestion Pricing Plan WNYC
Monkey steals tourist's glasses in India Seattle Post Intelligencer
Israeli-Palestinian scepticism greets Bush peace call Zee News
China steps up food-quality fight
Houston Chronicle
US group says China's meat import ban groundless Reuters
China Turns Tables, Blocks American Meat Wired News
Ready for Surge II?
Washington Post
2008: Inside the Money Machine
New York Times counting sales of Obama paraphernalia like T-shirts and key chains as individual donations. While about a third of the $33 million Mr. Obama raised in the second quarter came from small donors, he “has relied on a relatively conventional network of big donors for a majority of his money.” ........ is riding the wave of a “movement candidacy,” just like Howard Dean did in 2003 ....... Later Mr. Obama receives the endorsement of Mayor Adrian Fenty of Washington, D.C.
Assad gives priority to economic development Xinhua
Google offers discount search service
BusinessWeek Google Inc. is offering to run the search engines of small Web sites for as little as $100 per year ..... to sift through up to 5,000 Web pages. Larger Web sites can pay Google $500 annually to search up to 50,000 Web pages. ..... More sophisticated iterations of Google's search engine cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. ...... he search engine has become the hub of the Internet's most lucrative advertising network. ...... The advertising funneled through Google's search engine generates virtually all of the company's profits, which have totaled $5.8 billion since its initial public offering in August 2004.
Miller, Big B team up against global warming
Hindustan Times
Amitabh Bachchan's ode to Tagore
Hindustan Times
Amitabh woos Hema
Hindustan Times
Dell Vostro 'largely a branding exercise'
VNUNet.com
Ahead of the Bell: Dell
Forbes
Weight Lifting For Health And Heart
Medical News Today
Intel takes popular laptops to 'extreme'
MyADSL
Intel to Lower Quad-Core Desktop Pricing InformationWeek used primarily in workstations and high-end machines used for PC gaming ...... Intel's dual-core Extreme X7800 processor for notebooks, with 4 Mbytes of L2 cache, is available to manufacturers at a cost of $851. For the desktop, Intel also introduced on Monday the Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz E6850 for $266, the 2.66 GHz E6750 for $183, and the 2.33 GHz E6550 for $163.
'Potter' Premieres With $77.1 Million
Forbes
Is LA ready for Victoria Beckham's style?
Times Online