the history channel is a joke.

All over the inter-tubes today ... Hillary tendrá problemas en Tejas

I'm having trouble finding some info. Michigan and Florida have 313 democratic delegates between them (these are the delegates that were stripped.) But how does that break down?

Florida went Clinton 49.7%, Obama 33, Edwards 14.4. Michigan was Clinton 55.4%, Uncommitted 39.9. So assuming these states assign delegates proportionally it's easy to see how you could seat Florida - but Michigan really seems unfair. Obviously a lot of that 39.9 would have gone to Obama.

If they are sat, how many delegates does it give each of them? What's the best case for Hillary, ~160 more delegates? Obama is harder to guess without knowing the Florida/Michigan delegate split, but something around 50 from Florida? So best for Hillary is a little over 100 delegate gain on Obama?

I'm trying to figure how much of a lead Obama needs to be able to just agree to seat those two states and still have the lead.

Barkley for Gov. 2014. Go Charles. Anybody who can make Wolf that uncomfortable is okay in my book.

We have seen the consequence of such a liberation from both types of law in Iraq, in Guantanamo, and all places where extraordinary rendition, kidnappings, torture, and detentions without due process have been practiced by U.S. authorities. Hillary Clinton may be an opponent of all that, but she does not attack the problem at its roots even if she goes further than McCain in the one and only case of Iraq. The empire is not only Iraq, and presidential power in an imperial setting would remain a danger also after an Iraqi withdrawal, assuming she would carry it out. As the famous colonel in the film Battle of Algiers said to the assembled French journalists: if you want an Algerie Francaise, you must put up with all that. If you want to protect the American empire as is . . . if you are unwilling to negotiate with all our adversaries without pre-conditions that is of course the pre-condition of orderly withdrawal…then you must put up with the means necessary to protect it. Clinton’s positions on negotiations with Iran indicate that she has not yet learned much from the past, indeed from the war in Iraq itself. And McCain is one of the most aggressive American politicians with respect to both continuing the war in Iraq and risking a new one with Iran. Only Obama, not Clinton, nor McCain in spite of his loud verbal opposition to torture is ready to do what it would take to end the situation in which there is any kind of imperial rationale (however mistaken technically) for torture. Obama (tutored here by Zbigniew Brzezinski) is the only realist among the three candidates still standing, in spite of his soaring rhetoric.

All polls currently indicate that the great majority of the country is with Obama on questions of foreign policy, and has been for two or more years, though they may not yet correctly identify his views on all the issues. But given the threat of recession, the issue of external affairs retreated behind that of the economy. In general this would be an advantage to the Democrats. It is also to Hillary Clinton’s advantage, because of the superior track record of the Clinton administration, her own obvious competence, and better thought out position on very much needed health care reform – where she is an expert paradoxically enough because of her dramatic failure in 1993, that led to the so-called “Republican Revolution in 1994. The Obama idea of “change” has to do mostly with the large issue of identity and foreign policy posture in the world, while Clinton’s slogan experience refers to her managerial abilities in the domestic sphere where there is very little difference between the two equally liberal (in the American sense = social liberal) Democratic candidates. In spite of small, probably tactical differences, they both have dramatic health care reform as the centerpiece of their social program, and they would both pay for it the same way, by refusing to make the outrageous Bush tax cuts that produced huge deficits permanent for the wealthy. They are lucky, because unlike Kerry in 2004 they don’t have to promise to pass new legislation to finance health expenditures . . . all they have to do is the much easier thing, namely to oppose new legislation to make reduction of governmental resources permanent. This will still be called raising taxes by the Republicans; but the stress will be on rescinding tax cuts to the wealthy! In any case, the Democratic electorate is asked to decide whether the more experienced but more polarizing Clinton, or the more novice Obama who is willing to work with Republicans is likely to accomplish a similar domestic agenda. And we still do not know how they will decide this question.

dumb and dumber in america

next thurs i will be attending the premiere of the "rock opera" Tonya and Nancy, and just heard Ms. Harding herself will be in attendance. all in a day's work. http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2008/02/real_tonya_will_rock_out_with.html

best sandwiches

Comcast to FCC: We block only 'excessive' traffic

space shuttle images

with 6% reporting

Donna Edwards	2,510	55%
Al Wynn *	1,884	41%

as the kids say ... w00t!

angels want to wear my red shoes. (tcm 1030est)

Roy Scheider RIP

Wild Toronto cartoons from Rosemary Mosco of Bird and Moon.

beantown

9th st espresso

la columbe coffee

New York Times reporter Phillip Shenon joins us to talk about his new book, The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation. Shenon says 9/11 Commission executive director Philip Zelikow had close ties to both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Bush political adviser Karl Rove. He suggests that Zelikow sought to minimize the Bush administration’s responsibility for failing to prevent the September 11th attacks. [includes rush transcript–partial]

Michael Pollan takes aim at “nutritionism” in his new book
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By SARAH KERR

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We prepare our meals from plants and animals—a fact we can choose either to note with some humility or to hide from our awareness by forgetting. This has been a recurring theme in Michael Pollan’s books of late. Like all good writers, Pollan aims to describe what he sees as precisely as he can. But this does not lead him to a showily fine prose style. That would be an aesthetic approach, and though Pollan often worries that we’ve lost the sense of pleasure, he is very much the ethicist—and, if we’re honest, he is once in a while even a scold. This is happily offset by a sly modesty (“By now,” he self-accuses in 1997’s A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder, “you have probably noticed a tendency of mine to lean rather heavily on words and theories in my dealings with the world”), a deftness at animating philosophical problems, and a knack—unusual in books that seek to change minds and habits—for sustaining an atmosphere of suspense.

thegrandsichuan.com/

coming soon to jersey city! they dont say where in jc but this is good news. note the virtual drawings and they request help and approval of the color scheme.

A sign of increased Democratic enthusiasm?

2004 California Primary
Bush		2,216,047
Kerry	2,002,539
Edwards	614,441
Kucinich	144,954
Dean	130,892
Sharpton	59,326
Lieberman	52,780
Clark	51,084
Braun	24,501
Gephardt	19,139
Totals	3,099,656	2,216,047
	58.3%	41.7%

Candidates receiving less than 10,000 votes ignored in the results above. Bush was the only candidate on the 2004 California Republican Primary ballot; he received 100.0% of the vote.

California 2004 General Election
Kerry	6,745,485
Bush		5,509,826
	54.4%	44.4%

Minor party candidates ignored in the results above.

2008 California Primary
Clinton	2,133,975
Obama	1,737,807
McCain		986,384
Romney		801,873
Huckabee		272,719
Edwards	170,050
Giuliani		115,787
Paul		99,591
Thompson		45,805
Kucinich	20,216
Richardson	16,964
Biden	15,474
Hunter		12,215
Totals	4,094,486	2,334,374
	63.7%	36.3%

With a hotly contested Republican Primary, the Republicans manage to get just over a hundred thousand additional voters to the polls, compared with the previous primary. The Democrats add a million voters.

The propositions on neither the 2004 nor 2008 primary ballots generated intense interest.

On a clear September day in 1776, smoke rose from lower Manhattan as the British advanced into the city. From his headquarters on the Morris-Jumel estate, Gen. George Washington may have paused in the shade of a young elm tree to take in the scene.

Today, that tree still stands in what is now Washington Heights, though at about 110 feet tall and almost six feet in diameter, it is doubtful that Washington would recognize it. Affectionately known by locals as "the dinosaur," this living witness to those events 230 years ago it is now one of 25 trees in New York City that will be preserved—through cloning.

As you might guess from previous posts, I'd like to see results tabulated like this ...

Missouri 2008 Presidential Primary (candidates less that 10k votes ignored)

Obama	405,470
Clinton	394,991
McCain		194,119
Huckabee		185,573
Romney		172,390
Paul		26,427
Edwards	16,734
Totals	817,195	578,509

The 2008 Democratic National Convention, where the Democratic presidential ticket is formally agreed upon, has 796[3] superdelegates, although the number is not final until March 1, 2008. Superdelegates to the Democratic Convention include all Democratic members of the United States Congress, Democratic governors, various additional elected officials, as well as members of the Democratic National Committee.[4] A list of superdelegates can be found here.

A candidate needs a majority of the combined delegate and superdelegate votes to secure the nomination. Democratic delegates from state caucuses and primaries number 3,253, resulting in a total number of votes of 4,049. The total number of delegate votes needed to win the nomination is 2,025.[3] Superdelegates account for approximately one fifth (19.6%) of all votes at the convention. Delegates chosen in the Democratic caucuses and primaries account for approximately four fifths (80.4%) of the Democratic convention delegates.[3][5] Note: All numbers in this section assume that Michigan and Florida's delegates are not counted, as per current Democratic National Committee rules. If the rules change before or during the convention, the numbers above will change as appropriate.

i was one of a dozen lucky guests at a post-show dinner cooked by the italian performance group societas raffaello sanzio last weekend in seattle. to my delight i just found their eggplant recipe posted here