I think that is the ultimate progressive goal. The political, social and technological infrastructure has to evolve to the point that the big three are universal and lifelong.
Education, health, credit.
The three stick to you like umbilical cords. You can't cut loose.
As to how it will be achieved. I think democracy is a precondition. Democracy of state funded parties, transparent book keeping.
Both the private and public sectors will play due roles. The private sector's role will be larger, but the public sector's role will be more instrumental.
And this is a global undertaking.
As to what exactly will be the mix of the public and private sectors, I think it will play out slightly unique for each country. It is not going to be one size fits all. And the mix will stay dynamic. Each successive elected government will tweak it a little.
Governments might experiment with public owned, semi-public owned enterprises.
Whether or not the goal is achieved is the only thing that matters. As to how the goals are achieved is the less important question.
Transparency will also mean that progress or lack thereof will be shared globally and in real time. You will expect and get feedback from a large audience. Expertise will be widely shared.
Actor Jeffrey Wright
I went to a Fort Greene event a few days back inside a church where actor Jeffrey Wright was one of the speakers. It was good to see Hakeem Jeffries there also. He is now an assembly member. He made a powerful contrast between Katrina and California. This guy is promising. He is going places. Jordan Thomas also spoke. It was amazing to see the response he got when he was introduced. You could hear the gasp. He has been putting tremendous effort into the Obama operation in Brooklyn. He is a good guy.
In The News
West urges Pakistan to lift martial law CNN International declaring an indefinite state of emergency ...... Musharraf did not consult Washington before declaring the state of emergency ....... the Pakistani government has a list of about 1,500 opposition figures, mostly activists and lawyers to be rounded up ....... Chaudhry is one of seven Supreme Court judges placed under house arrest after the court declared Musharraf's state of emergency illegal under the constitution. ........ The head of Pakistan's human rights commission, Asma Jahangir, said she, too, was under house arrest and that Musharraf "has lost his marbles." Activists detained in Pakistan crackdownLos Angeles Times Musharraf cracked down hard on opponents today, the second day of emergency rule in the country...... scheduled elections could be put off for as long as a year ...... Private news channels remained off the air and were told they would be subject to strict new regulations if and when they resumed broadcasting. ...... "This is not going to end any time soon," he said. "Whether in prison or not, it is as if we are all in jail." ....... Musharraf, whose popularity and prestige have nose-dived this year ........ Musharraf acted to preempt a potential legal ruling invalidating his election to another term ...... "Musharraf's Second Coup" ..... Musharraf has quickly set about remaking the judiciary, only allowing judges who swear allegiance to retain their posts. Five of the 19-member Supreme Court bench have done so; the rest refused. ......... most opposition leaders, at least for the time being, refrained from calling supporters into the streets, apparently fearing a bloodbath. Police used batons to break up one gathering of several dozen protesters not far from the presidential compound. ....... Benazir Bhutto, who returned to the country from a brief visit to Dubai just as the emergency order was taking effect, remained largely out of sight in her residential and office compound in the port city of Karachi. GOP Race in SC Reflects Larger Contest The Associated Press Hillary Clinton shakes off shots, still leads poll New York Daily News Britney Spears reveals her spending habits Times Online Apps Already Coming for Google's New OpenSocial PC World Beyond the many fun and entertaining social applications we already have seen, we think we'll see a number of social applications emerge in business contexts ........ OpenSocial dispels the common assumption held by some that Facebook has established unquestionable dominance in the social networking world. ..... Ning plans to make OpenSocial applications available to all of its 113,000 social networks For US and Turkey, different priorities Christian Science Monitor whether the US can keep a lid on the war-related flash points roiling the Middle East. .......relations that for the Bush administration have been going awry since the Iraq war ...... an American failure to control the territory in next-door Iraq, where PKK militants appear to roam free. Obama onslaught forces Clinton onto back footTelegraph.co.uk Week of mistakes by the former First Lady has reinvigorated the Democratic race ...... Obama is stepping up pressure on Hillary Clinton's honesty, electability and hawkish foreign policies in a winter assault ....... Clinton was a "divisive lightning rod" and said her status as a former First Lady was irrelevant to her presidential credentials. ....... concluding each speech with his electrifying appeal: "Let's go change the world!" ....... "I fear no man," he told the crowd, pausing before adding: "Or woman." ...... "She authorised war and then recently starting voting on this Iran resolution. The drums of war are beating again. You can't be fooled twice." ......... "We are on the front foot. She is on the back foot. She's given us an opening. It was the first time she was really under pressure and she flubbed it." ......... over the first nine months of his presidential campaign, high excitement gave way to somewhat ponderous performances in debates ....... "someone who doesn't have one position one day and another position the next day" and "someone who will tell you the truth, not someone who will tell you what they think you want to hear". ........ his character and judgment. ...... His rallies have a feel of a religious revival ........ In Manning, South Carolina, one section of his speech was met with cheers and a cry of "Goodbye, Hillary," which elicited laughs and applause. ....... Asked why she preferred him to Mrs Clinton, she said: "I just believe what he's saying." ...... a poll last week showing Mr Obama within two points of Mrs Clinton in Iowa ...... Obama has also narrowed the gap in South Carolina ....... In this part of the world there is a palpable sense that he carries the hopes not just of a party but of a race on his shoulders. ....... Obama spoke 50ft from a memorial for Confederate soldiers who died defending slavery. ....... "I don't need to run for president to get on television," he said. "I've been on Oprah." ..... one voice can change a room. ....... "Are you fired up? Are you ready to go?" he asked the crowd. Not one voice was silent as they loudly shouted their affirmation. Obama continues to poke fun at Clinton on SNL Baltimore Sun his day-long criticism of Clinton and her former president husband. ....... when near the end, a man walked in wearing an Obama mask. The Illinois Democrat then removed the mask to reveal that he was indeed Obama. .... “Well, you know, Hillary, I have nothing to hide. I enjoy being myself,” Obama said. "I'm not going to change who I am just because it is Halloween." ... "She's a witch,'' the Bill Clinton replied. ....... a subtle swipe at former President Bill Clinton by listing problems that "existed long before George Bush took office." Obama Tweaks Clintons on 'SNL'The Associated Press Campaigning in South Carolina earlier, Obama accused Hillary Clinton of giving voters "vague, calculated answers to suit the politics of the moment instead of clear, consistent principles about how you would lead America." And he subtly swiped at former President Bill Clinton by listing problems that "existed long before George Bush took office." Who Was That Masked Man? New York Times Obama, who flew to New York from campaigning in South Carolina, seemed to be reveling in his appearance, which was not publicly announced before the show. ...... why was Mr. Obama the only candidate invited to appear? His aides said they didn’t know, but were happy to accept the offer. Live From New York... It's Barack Obama!National Review Online Obama urges voters to 'turn the page' in Washington Boston Globe Obama Criticizes Clinton's Drive to WinWashington Post Obama Criticizes Bush, ClintonThe Associated Press in the wake of President Bush's "catastrophic failure of leadership" the nation needs a candid leader like himself, not rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's calculated politics. ...... Bush failed with handling of the Iraq war, spread fear and fumbled with Hurricane Katrina ...... independents and Republicans who have never been more disillusioned ....... widened blame for the nation's problems to her husband's and previous administrations. ..... The 2008 election is "a chance to come together and finally solve the challenges that were made worse by George Bush, but that in fact existed long before George Bush took office. Challenges like health care. Challenges like energy. Challenges like education." ......... "She's a skilled politician and she's run so far what Washington would call a textbook campaign," he said. "The problem I have and the disagreement we have is with the textbook itself." .......... you can promise progress for everyday people while striking a bargain with the various special interests that crowd them out ....... Obama said a 2008 Republican opponent "won't be able to say that I was for the war in Iraq before I was against it. They won't be able to say that I supported an extension of the Iraq war into Iran. They won't be able to say that I support Bush-Cheney diplomacy of not talking to leaders we don't like," Obama said. Clinton puts her war room on attackTimes Online It was Hillary Clinton who invented the war room during her husband’s campaign and she has developed her own fighting machine. ..... “Politics is not a polite sport and if you’re not prepared to rough it you’re going to get rolled over.” ...... Clinton has recruited rapid rebuttal experts ...... Clinton’s team sprang into operation after last week’s Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia. ...... calculating, secretive and evasive on a range of issues ....... punched the air with a boxing glove to prove her fighting spirit. ..... Clinton’s counterblast was so powerful that some critics believe it amounted to overkill. She was “whiney”, “tinny”, playing the “victim”, a “diva” ...... he was above playing the race card while she whinged about her gender. ....... the war room operates on the principle that no attack, no matter how small, will go unpunished ....... “They take every gnat and smash it with a sledgehammer. It’s mean, but it works.” ........ One poll taken after last week’s debate showed Clinton extending her lead over Obama ....... The war room’s strategy has been carefully thought through. ..... a clear and long-planned strategy to fend off attacks by accusing her male rivals of gathering against her”. ...... intriguing hints about what may be to come. ..... Obama’s alleged ties to shady financiers and friends of the mob in Chicago and other supposed ethical and political lapses. ...... As Clinton herself has said, “When you are attacked, you have to deck your opponent.” Voices grow louder in the anti-Clinton chorus ANALYSIS Detroit Free Press The sheen of inevitability that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has cloaked around her presidential candidacy has been suddenly and fiercely challenged. ...... She has greatly helped create the impression of being the one to beat, not only by virtue of polls, but in the way she has campaigned. ....... running a campaign that has all the look and feel of an incumbent president -- down to the Secret Service protection and carefully controlled media access. ....... Most improbably of all, she's portraying herself as the true change agent, despite 16 years in the national spotlight. ..... accused Clinton of using "smoke and mirrors" to duck tough questions ....... The anti-Clinton chorus was sung all week. ........ Former Hewlett-Packard Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina swiped at Clinton's gender appeal when Fiorina introduced Republican Sen. John McCain at an appearance at Coastal Carolina University on Thursday. ...... "I am a woman, and I know what it's like to be in a man's world," Fiorina said. McCain of Arizona, she added, has "greater capabilities, greater character, to lead than does Hillary Clinton." ....... the New York senator had a propensity to parse. ....... a reprisal of a 1990s theme: that an aspirant named Bill Clinton was too slick and too willing to dodge questions to be trusted in perilous times. .... her supporters viewed them as further evidence of her formidableness. Edwards Says Debate Boosted His CampaignThe Associated Press South Carolina ... Edwards with 10 percent of support ... Clinton had 33 percent ... Obama... 23 percent. Former President to Give Clinton No Pass The Associated Press A Bush or Clinton has been on the ballot in every presidential contest since 1980 ........ The former president also said he's not as sure as he once was that Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination. Hillary: Campaign 'to get heated up'Newsday "It's going to be exciting. It's going to be a very fast ride. It's never started earlier. It's never been more intense." ...... A Newsweek poll released Saturday shows her favored by 44 percent, compared with 24 percent for Barack Obama and 12 percent for John Edwards. Giuliani Poised to Launch His Own Version Of The "Southern Strategy" Huffington Post Strategists for Rudy Giuliani are quietly preparing a significantly race-based campaign strategy to strengthen support among socially conservative white voters, in the South as well as in the North. .......... three marriages and a Brooklyn accent ...... reflecting Giuliani's confrontational stance towards black New Yorkers and their white liberal allies, as well as his record of siding decisively with the police against minorities .... fractured the Democratic loyalties of white working class voters in the urban North from 1968 to 2004. ........ Giuliani brought to a halt the black and minority domination of New York city politics. ....... calling Dinkins a "Jesse Jackson Democrat." ....... Rudy stood up to and beat three icons of the black community - Dinkins, Sharpton and Jackson - all figures recognizable to white Republican primary voters. ........ He presided over the clean-up and revitalization of a sex-dominated Times Square, the most notorious red-light district of a city considered a den of sin by the Religious Right. ....... If Giuliani were to lose the first three contests to Romney, his chances of winning the nomination would sharply diminish and perhaps disappear. For that reason, South Carolina is becoming crucial to Giuliani's survival India Has Muted Reaction to Pakistan Emergency Voice of America King Tut's Mummy on Public Display for First Time Voice of America China's 1st lunar probe to reach moon orbit Monday morning Xinhua US pilot who dropped Hiroshima bomb dies - report Reuters Bomb found near nuclear plantBoston Globe Authorities said it didn't appear to be an act of terrorism. US defense secretary to press for military openness in China International Herald Tribune Cyberdude: OpenSocial, a masterstroke by Google Hindustan Times maybe even deciding the future of the world wide web ...... Facebook, termed as the next big thing on the internet ...... Google's masterstroke has got practically anybody who matters on the internet under its influence. ...... social networks are getting social with each other ...... OpenSocial is built upon Google Gadget technology, so you can build a great, viral social app with little to no serving costs. With the Google Gadget Editor and a simple key/value API, you can build a complete social app with no server at all. ........ Google's gadget caching technology can ease your bandwidth demands should your app suddenly become a worldwide success. ....... iLike can now enable artists to reach an additional 200 million music enthusiasts ...... "Building upon the 15 million music fans we already reach through other channels, the OpenSocial platform helps us pursue our vision of becoming the broadest artist-fan communication platform on the web, without having to write custom software for multiple websites." ........ Google dominates our online experience and Microsoft has so far ruled our offline/desktop experience. As connectivity gets pervasive the offline-online lines are fading and creating tension between the companies. ....... Google has now struck back in a way so hard by getting almost anybody who matters under its influence that Facebook billed as the next big thing on the internet suddenly seems dwarfed. .... OpenSocial has the potential of getting innovation onto a level unparalleled ever before in recent history. ..... Google's popularity has been built on its openness, wisdom and innovation of masses. It's nice to see Google back in form, again. Why Google Turned Into a Social ButterflyNew York Times you could leave the island compound of a social networking site and take your network of friends, and friends of friends, anywhere on the Web? ....... social networking will become ubiquitous. ..... “Social Will Be Everywhere” ...... the Google search crawler is not allowed to land on most social networking islands and gather data about what island residents are saying and doing. ....... Google’s use nonproprietary programming languages. ........ Bebo, the No. 1 networking site in Britain .... If Facebook chooses to remain a holdout, it will not be as the head of a countercoalition but as a cranky recluse. ...... a day when all sites on the Web are equipped to utilize one’s social network ...... So far, every time the Web has matched up against a proprietary alternative, the Web has prevailed. ........ “Trust builds up over a very long time,” he said, “and can be lost very quickly.” Sprint Considering Changing Course on WiMAX eWeek Sprint Nextel's $5 billion WiMax plans appear to be in flux. ....... "We will have 100 million covered by the end of 2008 and be in 35 markets," Sprint Chief Technology Officer Barry West proclaimed in August at NXTcomm. "We're soft launching in Washington and Chicago in December and launching commercially in April of 2008." Africa: Wifi/Wimax to Ease Internet Access AllAfrica.com the capital Freetown can now boast of being the third city in the world to have a city-wide unrestricted wifi/wimax network after Philadelphia in the USA and Taipei in Taiwan. ....... "with the right support FGC Wireless as of now can boast of enough capacity to surpass any like minded company for the advancement of an Internet Service Provision in the world." Marathoner Dies in Olympic Trials New York Times Excess Body Fat Causes Cancer Kansas City infoZine Ex-Astronaut Wins Ruling in Attack New York Times 'American Gangster': Mystery Man, By Kurt Loder MTV.com Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas, is so deeply embalmed in dignity ..... in 1968, Lucas is a driver for Harlem mob boss Bumpy Johnson (Clarence Williams). After Johnson dies of heart attack in an appliance store, where he'd been railing about U.S. retailers buying direct from overseas suppliers and cutting out hard-working American middlemen, Lucas decides to introduce that practice into the drug trade ....... The New York Mafia, which has run the drug-distribution business up till now, isn't pleased. ..... Lucas, with his reverence for family and his penchant for sudden, bloody violence, could be a character out of the "Godfather" movies. ........ an innovative businessman with an unbending code of honor. ....... sleek tailored suits ...... telling one gaudily-attired player, "That's a costume with a big sign on it, says 'Arrest me'" ....... he may preside over big, warm family dinners ...... the sympathetic Puerto Rican beauty queen (Lymari Nadal) who becomes his wife. ....... has captured the urban landscape Musharraf imposes emergency rule in Pakistan (Roundup) Monsters and Critics.com troops and police surrounded the Supreme Court and deployed inside state-run TV and radio stations. Private news channels went off air. ...... The Saturday's presidential order prohibits the top court from giving a judgement against him. .... 'No judgement, decree, writ, order or process whatsoever shall be made or issued by any court or tribunal against the President or the Prime Minister or any authority designated by the President' ....... the government was putting pressure on Chaudhry and other judges of the apex court to take a fresh oath under Saturday's presidential order, but at least six of them had so far refused from doing so. ..... Chaudhry was removed from his post and another judge, Abdul Hamid Dougar was appointed as the top judge. .... Anticipating the imposition of state of emergency, Bhutto left the country for Dubai Clinton takes on gender issue Chicago TribuneDemocratic and Republican opponents blistered her for parsing her words, engaging in secrecy and blaming the male candidates for the controversy........ "I anticipate it's going to get even hotter. And if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen and I'm very much at home in the kitchen." ........ at Wellesley College on Thursday, she said the school had prepared her for "the all-boys-club of presidential politics." ....... (Little more than a week ago, she curiously noted that winning the Iowa caucuses might prove difficult for her because the Hawkeye State had never elected a woman governor or senator.) ...... her remarks on gender seemed to open up a new vein of attack. ..... Clinton deflecting the question about driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, as well as seeming to say one thing and then another on the Iraq war. ........ "Most people in New Hampshire were watching the replay of the Red Sox victory parade in Boston, not watching the presidential debate," said Kathy Sullivan, Clinton's state co-chairwoman. ....... "I don't think she needs 'the boys are being mean to me' story line. I think she needs to put her head down and keep plugging." ...... capable of dealing with nuance and complexity. ...... some of the challenges facing our country and some of the difficult issues we have to grapple with are not so easily answered within a 15-second hand raise or sound bite." Indian Government Shuns Dalai Lama Voice of America the Tibetan spiritual leader decried China's "cultural genocide" of his Buddhist homeland ........ the president of the United States, the chancellor of Germany and the prime minister of Canada. ..... a former prime minister, Inder Kumar Gujral, did attend. Obama: A Clinton-led ticket at best "barely" wins Baltimore Sun destined to largely repeat the disappointing Democratic performances of 2000 and 2004 and could aspire only to eke out a victory. ....... Obama questioned the front-runner’s ability to convert broad public discontent with the Bush Administration into a decisive Democratic victory ..... portrayed Clinton’s campaign so far as one based on obfuscation and avoidance of clear political stands. .... Obama accused Clinton of playing from a worn campaign "textbook" that "encourages vague, calculated answers to suit the politics of the moment, instead of clear, consistent principles about how you would lead America." Obama accuses Clinton of hiding behind genderReuters Clinton is widely viewed as a tough figure in national politics. ...... "So it doesn't make sense for her, after having run that way for eight months, the first time that people start challenging her point of view, that suddenly she backs off and says: 'Don't pick on me,'" he said. "That is not, obviously, how we would expect her to operate if she were president," he said. ........ "the Politics of Parsing," accusing Clinton of "double-talk" on issues such as Iraq, Social Security and illegal immigration. ..... "We still don't know the answer. That's the politics of parsing," the video said. The Obama-sphere Slate Clinton's commanding lead in the polls remained unthreatened following her worst debate performance ...... the LGBT community had to learn not to be "hermetically sealed" from the faith community ...... "At its best, the Obama candidacy is about ending a war—not so much the war in Iraq, which now has a momentum that will propel the occupation into the next decade—but the war within America that has prevailed since Vietnam and that shows dangerous signs of intensifying, a nonviolent civil war that has crippled America at the very time the world needs it most. It is a war about war—and about culture and about religion and about race. And in that war, Obama—and Obama alone—offers the possibility of a truce." ........ Donald Rumsfeld's more memorable "snowflake" memos. ..... secretary dispatched to his staff at a rate of about 30-60 a day. ...... Rummy saying that Muslims avoid "physical labor," the need to elevate "the threat," and to link Iraq and Iran. ....... You can almost imagine Rummy's underlings not even bothering to read his memos and just tossing them straight in the trash. ...... "What's perhaps the most telling thread running through these memos is that Rumsfeld's primary mission was to basically scare the crap out of the country. That way the Bush administration could do whatever they wanted in terms of war and conquest." ...... Rumsfeld comes off as defensive, self-centered, manipulative, deceitful, anti-democratic, and closed minded. He seems more concerned about selling policy to the public than actually getting it right. His substantive assessments are simplistic." Obama mocks Clinton for playing gender card Los Angeles Times she cried "Don't pick on me" after being attacked by her foes on legitimate policy issues ...... the first time that the undercurrent of identity politics has become an issue of open contention between the two trailblazing candidates. ....... Clinton, who says she wasn't at her best during the debate, seemed to both oppose and support New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. ........ "I got a lot of questions that night, a lot more than anybody else," she explained to a New Hampshire newspaper on Friday. "I'd be the first to tell you that I wasn't as effective in answering the driver's license question as I should have been." ....... Later, she stepped back from her "boys club" remark, saying, "I don't think they're piling on because I'm a woman. I think they're piling on because I'm winning." Scorched by rivals, Hillary Clinton says bring on the heatNew York Daily News Clinton, momentarily sliding the gender card back in the deck ...... a debate in which foes charged she waffled and stumbled, said she wasn't deterred by criticisms of being too "nuanced" - read: too evasive. ....... John Edwards, scoffed Friday: "I have a really simple rule: If you get asked a yes or no question, you don't give a yes and no answer." ........ questions on Gov. Spitzer's plan to let illegal immigrants get driver's licenses - the debate issue that caused her the most heartburn. ...... Again, Clinton took no clear stand for or against Spitzer's plan. She added, though, that when Spitzer "was with Michael Chertoff over the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security said, 'Well, we're not for it, but we're not against it.'" Chertoff actually said he opposed licensing illegals but could not stop states from doing so. Clinton: They are piling on because I am winningBoston Globe there were pictures in front of her of when she filed for her husband in 1991 and 1995. "Oh my look how my hair styles have changed," she said. Video: Clinton takes on Russert, says letter was no cover-up Seattle Post Intelligencer Bill Clinton rejects archive delay accusationsReuters Bill Clinton on Friday called accusations that he and his wife Sen. Hillary Clinton are delaying the release of records from his administration as "breathtakingly misleading."
If Hillary wants to bring gender as an issue in this presidential campaign, she should be talking about perhaps waging a war on domestic violence, she should be talking about equal pay, she should perhaps pledge that half her cabinet will be female, she should be talking about day care, about health and education.
The policy differences between Barack and Clinton are too stark. Barack's and Clinton's leadership styles are too different. Drawing out those differences is not being sexist on Barack's part. That is the job and responsibility of someone running for president.
I can't remember a time when I did not absolutely totally hated the tie.
In The News
Report from the front: Tonight's launch of Open Social Marc Andreessen The total aggregate user base of the Open Social partners is now in excess of 200 million people. ........ But Facebook is part of the web. Think of the web, of the Internet itself, as water. Proprietary platforms based on the web are ice cubes. They can, for a time, suspend themselves above the web at large. But over time, they only ever melt into the water. And maybe they make it better when they do. ........ freedom and openness let people all over the world be fully creative and innovative in every way they want. ..... freedom and openness enable will always swamp anyone's attempt to wall off a proprietary world with tight controls and sharp limitations. ........ In the mid-1990's, people told me all the time, "AOL has all the users; why would you think this web thing is ever going to amount to anything?" And it was true -- AOL did have all the users. In the beginning, AOL had tens of millions of users when the Internet had low single digit millionsat best. Everyone was scrambling to do deals with AOL to get access to that huge user base, and every media company we met with (there were no Internet companies yet) laughed at the idea of regular people ever using the web. .......... decentralized, open, free web. ....... It's quite easy to develop for both Open Social and Facebook, and in practice that's what I'll bet most serious app developers will be doing for the next few years, at least. ....... Everyone can just smell the opportunity
Clinton, Obama Spar over Social Security in Ads NPR Obama's guide to leading a "post-post-9/11" America International Herald Tribune, France "If I am the face of American foreign policy and American power," Barack Obama mused not long ago aboard his campaign plane, "as long as we are also making prudent strategic decisions, handling emergencies, crises and opportunities in the world in an intelligent and sober way. . . ." He stopped. He wanted to make sure he got this just right, and he had got a little caught up in rebutting the claim, which Hillary Clinton has artfully advanced, that he is not prepared to handle emergencies. Obama stopped picking at his grilled salmon in order to stare out at the sky for a few moments. "I think," he said, in that deep and measured voice of his, "that if you can tell people, 'We have a president in the White House who still has a grandmother living in a hut on the shores of Lake Victoria and has a sister who's half-Indonesian, married to a Chinese-Canadian,' then they're going to think that he may have a better sense of what's going on in our lives and in our country. And they'd be right." ........... his life story and the angle of vision it affords him ........ our indifference to the views of others and through the insularity of a president who seems so incurious about the world ..... A President Obama, says Joseph Nye, the Harvard professor who popularized the term "soft power" to describe the capacity to gain support through attraction rather than force, "would do more for America's soft power around the world than anything else we could do." ........ Democratic voters seem to be torn between the hope of reshaping a frightening world and the fear of being terribly vulnerable to that world. ........ must, like "a Swiss Army knife," offer different tools for different situations, rather than only the sharp edge of a blade; must pay close attention to "how others may perceive us differently than we perceive ourselves, no matter how good our intentions"; must recognize that other nations may legitimately care more about their neighbors or their access to resources than about terrorism; and must be "grounded in hope, not fear." ........ A post-post-9/11 strategy must harness the forces of globalization while honestly addressing the growing "perception of unfairness" around the world; must actively promote, not just democracy, but "a world of liberty under law"; and must renew multilateral instruments like the United Nations. ........ In mainstream foreign-policy circles, Barack Obama is seen as the true bearer of this vision. "There are maybe 200 people on the Democratic side who think about foreign policy for a living" ........ "The vast majority have thrown in their lot with Obama." ......... And they are ardent. Romney, Obama Air New TV Ads in NH The Associated Press
South Carolina rejects Colbert candidacy Los Angeles Times Obama Says US Must Try Talking to Iran The Associated Press What's new: Obama's 'new Iran approach;' PACs aren't so givingUSA Today Obama for 'creative diplomacy' to bring Iran on boardHindu The Early Word: Obama’s Iran Resolution New York Times The Clinton gospel Boston Globe the way Clinton's campaign acts, you could be forgiven for thinking she was an absolute monarch, and not merely the Democratic front-runner. ...... Tsongas, who liked Clinton, thought he and the Arkansan had an informal agreement not to go after each other. But as the campaign moved south, Clinton's camp launched a sharp attack. Why after one candidates' forum, Clinton himself appeared in the press room and deftly sliced and diced the policy plans of his absent rival. ...... So far, that's really all Obama and Edwards have done: draw distinctions. ..... Clinton's spinmeisters are trying to make her rivals look disreputable for doing something that's absolutely in-bounds. .... "It gets tiresome after a while," says Paul Pezzella, a Massachusetts political operative who is a veteran of four presidential campaigns - and a Clinton supporter. "Campaigns are all about drawing distinctions. That's completely legitimate." ...... that stratagem contradicts a central part of Clinton's own message: The notion that she is a battle-tested veteran ready for anything the Republicans can throw at her. If so, she should prove it by engaging with her rivals and defending her positions - not by having her campaign protest each and every time another Democrat says something critical about her. Clinton Climate Initiative Names UTC Power as a Supplier Partner CNNMoney.com Clinton, Wal-Mart Push 'Green' CitiesThe Associated Press Clinton group, Wal-Mart aim to lower 'green' costsLos Angeles Times Thousands gather for 2007 World Toilet Summit in India Melbourne Herald Sun India's untouchable waste collectorsBBC News Peeing in public in booming IndiaRadio Netherlands Political Leader of Tamil Tigers Reported Killed New York Times a 6 a.m. aerial strike on their headquarters in the north ..... The senior rebel leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, is rarely seen. Mr. Tamilselvan was the official who met with peace envoys and talked to journalists, and his death leaves the group with no obvious public face. China to build new series of rocket launchers Reuters Militants in Pakistan Display 'Captured Soldiers' Voice of America Google's Mobile Plans To Be Revealed Monday InformationWeek Whether Google will move along an evolutionary or revolutionary path is completely unknown, but the result will probably shake up the industry either way. Google’s OpenSocial: Strategy, money and the art of war, err APIs ZDNet Google rolled out its OpenSocial initiative–along with nearly every big social networking player not named Facebook–and the response was fairly overwhelming. .... The big plus: Developers only have to learn one API. ...... I’m more of a business strategy, art of war, follow the money type of guy. ..... where things go from here is going to be worth watching. ...... so the web as a whole can become more social ...... AOL-Facebook analogies as Marc Andreessen notes are off the mark. ....... Google is using the surround tactic to rattle Facebook. The big question is where Facebook goes from here. ...... these APIs somehow sprinkling Google ads around.... A decade ago, the approach to thwart an upstart was to bundle, give product away for free and use your girth to squash a smaller rival. Think Microsoft meets Netscape. Today, it’s a different game. Open protocols rule. ...... Under the guise of being open you can line up every competitor of a rival and still potentially squash the upstart. You think MySpace is really doing OpenSocial for the greater good? Of course not, MySpace is scared to death of Facebook’s growth rates. ....... Users are still on Facebook. .... Just wait til profiles and identities are portable (it’ll happen). ...... Will OpenSocial herald an era of open APIs in enterprise applications? ...... it’s impossible to control information. ..... Google assumes its partners will use AdSense. This sets up an interesting battle of the social ad networks in the future. Facebook/Microsoft vs. Google/everyone not Facebook. Sprint Nextel Weighs Changes to WiMax Plan Wall Street Journal WiMax will allow customers to get wireless Internet connections through laptops and cellphones at speeds on par with landline speeds. ....... a rollout that would reach 100 million U.S. consumers by the end of next year. But the two parties never signed a definitive agreement. ....... Sprint is on track for "soft launches" of the high-speed WiMax service in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore in coming months. ...... Sprint posted poor third-quarter results yesterday, including a net loss of 60,000 customers and a 77% drop in net income from the year-ago period. ...... Google's goal of opening up phones to more third-party application development "is very consistent with the way Sprint has always operated." Can Sprint be saved?ZDNet The company reported third quarter net income of $64 million, or 2 cents a share, compared to $279 million, or 9 cents a share a year ago. ....... There’s no guarantee that the new CEO will see WiMax as a wireless utopia. ....... Given the networks at AT&T and Verizon aren’t going to crumble, Sprint needs to at least attempt a leapfrog. WiMax could be that leapfrog move. ...... Sprint better move heaven and earth to partner with Google on its mobile plans. ....... Sprint’s acquisition of Nextel seemed like an OK deal at the time. But the company got more complicated with two networks and two customer bases. And probably two IT infrastructures that may only be halfway integrated. ..... Take Sprint back to basics. The problem with this obvious fix is that it will take years to remedy. ..... What’s Sprint’s calling card? Is it data, voice, cool phones or some other niche. Sprint doesn’t seem to know. It better find out. If not the new CEOs job description will be to stop the bleeding and dress the pig up for a sale. Sprint considers shift in Wimax strategy CNet News.com Blog For the third quarter of 2007, the company said it lost 337,000 subscribers to its postpaid monthly service. ..... The new network, which is set for a soft launch in Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., within the next few months, will cost the company $5 billion. Best Buy follows Wal-Mart with $100 HD DVD player TG Daily Letterman sides with Hollywood writers as strike looms Times Online Jerry Seinfeld to Hollywood:'You can't buy me off' Reuters the annual income of the stand-up comedian and creator of the 1990s smash hit television show "Seinfeld" at $60 million, among the highest on TV. ...... This was nine years after his show left the air and was based largely on payments for reruns and other products from the program. ..... The "they" that Seinfeld referred to are Hollywood executives who would salivate at any hint ....... Spielberg called his friend Jeffrey Katzenberg -- now the head of the DreamWorks Animation movie studio -- and faster than one can say "punch line," a movie deal was born. ...... and discovers people are stealing honey for their own consumption. ..... Seinfeld has made his living telling funny stories about ironies and inconsistencies in people's everyday lives, and similarly "Bee Movie" pokes fun at human foibles. ........ one key lesson was not to question his instinct about a good joke. .... But about not rehashing his old TV show, Seinfeld is dead serious. And that you can take to the bank. Brilliant Washington powers 'Gangster CNN International an entrepreneurial self-starter in the black economy ...... , he studies status and power at the elbow of Bumpy Johnson (Clarence Williams III), an old-school inner-city crime lord who hands out turkeys on Thanksgiving. ...... watchful, attentive henchman ..... When he needs to underline the new order, he does so promptly and with the minimum of fuss: He shoots his loudest rival in the head right out in the middle of the street. Then he goes back and finishes his lunch. ....... it's not the ruthlessness that distinguishes Lucas from every other Scarface on the block. It's his business smarts. Boys are coming back from Vietnam high on the local smack. ....... By eliminating the middleman, he's able to undercut the competition by 200 percent, and with a superior product. In any other field, he'd be gracing the cover of Forbes. ....... he marries a beauty queen and brings his momma (Ruby Dee) and his brothers over to share his suburban mansion - ....... the black-and-white mirror images of the dedicated cop and the consummate operator drawing ever nearer. .... in a gangster movie, it's the bad guy you come to see -- and here Denzel kills. ..... Whether it's fastidiously demonstrating the correct way to remove bloodstains from an alpaca rug ("Don't rub. Blot") or patiently explaining the concept of trademark infringement to a rival dealer (Cuba Gooding Jr. as flamboyant Nicky Barnes), every move he makes speaks to an essentially African-American pride and passion, the contained fury of an invisible man striving to get out from under. 'American Gangster': A Direct HitWashington Post In "American Gangster," time doesn't fly, it explodes. ..... a beneath-the-radar Harlem heroin impresario who puts together an astonishing organization before anyone notices ........ an almost subliminal feel for myth. ..... "Either you're somebody or you ain't nobody" ....... the criminal Yoda of the rough terrain above 125th Street ...... he listened hard and well. ..... When his turn came, he insisted that his organization's minions be low-key, steely-eyed, well-dressed, un-flamboyant. ........ confident that his sedate coat and tie would shield him from the attention of police investigators ....... His junk is better and cheaper than anything on the streets and soon enough, by the physics of the market, he controls the streets. ...... Richie is famously honest, and in Newark he marks himself off from all cops for all time by the simple act of turning in a million bucks he recovered from the back of a mob Cadillac. Big mistake, Richie: No cop in the Newark of the early '60s would work with a guy they knew was tainted by the disease of honesty. So when Richie calls for backup, guess who shows up: nobody. Like Serpico, he goes through the doors alone. ..... But first he has to get a serious enemy out of the way: the New York City Police Department. ....... parallel cutting and equal screen time as well as the charisma of the stars, aren't even aware of each other until the movie's second half, and never eyeball each other until the last 20 minutes. ........ Washington seems to have a secret mechanism by which he turns his face off; it goes from a vibrant, expressive projection of humanity and empathy to a stone-killer executioner's mask so fast it's scary. ...... the charisma of the man who triumphs over the system. ..... When the inside is so corrupt, you must turn to outsiders. ....... lived high while they bottomed out in the gutter and were found in the thousands with needle tracks, scabs and hepatitis B in cold Harlem alleyways?
Michelle Obama, Indebted to Clinton, Campaigns as an Everywoman Bloomberg Michelle Obama's juggling of professional life, motherhood and the duties of political spouse make her something of a modern-day everywoman. ....... When her husband was elected to the Senate in 2004, she kept her job in Chicago as an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center. ...... By contrast, Obama has mostly stayed under the radar, only rarely generating headlines, with the exception of a reference she made to her husband's ``stinky'' morning breath and an interview on CBS News's ``60 Minutes'' in which she said that as a black man, ``Barack can get shot going to the gas station.'' ......... She and her husband discuss the issues, then ``I go to my job and I make decisions on my job and those are my decisions, and he goes to his job and he makes the decisions,'' she said. ``Now, I would like to think that he has the good sense to understand that I am usually correct.''
Coke Gatorade, Not Coke Pepsi The distinctions between Barack and Clinton on all the major issues are stark. Iraq, Iran, Health Care, Social Security, Ethics Reform. They are like night and day.
Barack wants to end the Iraq War. Hillary does not really. She wants to retain an unspecified number of troops.
Barack wants to fully engage Iran. Hillary wants to stop the talk and possibly invade Iran.
Hillary thinks the problem with health care is that the insurance companies are not making enough money. She is going to make it illegal for people to not have insurance. And she wants eight years to achieve that goal. Barack will deliver universal health care in four years without doing that illegal thing. Cutting costs across the board is a big part of it.
Barack has pledged to tax income also after 200,000 so as to solve the Social Security insolvency for good. Hillary does not like the idea.
Hillary is on the right to the Republicans when it comes to taking money from lobbyists. Barack wants major ethics reform.
And on and on and on.
It is Barack's job to make sure the American people get to know the distinctions exist.
Work The Fundamentals
Hillary 2008 is not going to implode. It is because Hillary is good at working the fundamentals. Money, message, organization. Obama 2008 is also good. It is going to keep at it. You have to balance Hillary out in this department. She should not feel to have an advantage.
Google Gadgets Go Into The Wild InternetNews.com Google's announcement of OpenSocial Wednesday night marks something of a turning point for the technology darling. ..... OpenSocial will speed innovation and bring more social features to more places across the Web ..... we hope OpenSocial will become a standard set of technologies for making the Web social ..... the "social graph" concept that illustrates how individuals are connected to others across Web-based applications and discrete social networks like Orkut or Friendster. ...... Ning, Orkut, Hi5, LinkedIn, iLike, Flixster, and Slide ..... "People are getting sick of registering and re-declaring their friends on every site," and "developing 'social applications' is too much work." ...... a social graph comprising data from five community sites ...... established a Google Group for technical discussions. ...... geo-spatial mark-up language, KML 2.2 ...... Orkut, its social networking site, had 24.1 million users worldwide in June .... 114.1 million for MySpace ..... Google Gadget Ads ..... the clash between the company's old-school PR tactics and the more open attitudes of Silicon Valley startups. SC Democrats Say No to ColbertNew York Times Poll gives Hillary Clinton big lead over Giuliani Telegraph.co.uk Details of Spears' custody fight emerge USA Today MySpace Joins Google Alliance to Counter Facebook New York Times The addition of MySpace, the world’s largest social network with 110 million active members, and Bebo, the No. 1 site in Britain with 39 million active users, could also put pressure on Facebook to drop its own standard and join the alliance, called OpenSocial. ....... “It will have access to 200 million users ...... The open standards could create a boom of innovation around social networks ........ Friendster, Hi5, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Ning and the blogging network SixApart, as well as the software makers Oracle and SalesForce.com. ........ Creators of several of the most popular programs on Facebook, including Slide, RockYou, iLike and Flixster, have announced their intention to write programs conforming to the OpenSocial standards. Iran letter sparks new fight between Clinton, Obama Reuters Clinton signed a letter to President George W. Bush on Thursday warning he has no authority from Congress for an attack on Iran ...... joined 29 other senators in signing a letter expressing concern about "provocative statements and actions" toward Iran by the Bush administration. ....... Obama instead introduced a binding Senate measure nullifying the earlier resolution. His campaign accused Clinton of using the letter to adjust her stance on Iran. .......... "While she's trying her best to change her position on yet another critical issue facing our country, Senator Obama knows that it takes legislation, not letters, to undo the vote that she cast" ........ dubbed the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and imposed sanctions on its Qods force. ........ Obama said in an interview with The New York Times that if elected president he would "engage in aggressive personal diplomacy" with Iran, offering it economic inducements and a possible promise not to seek "regime change" if Tehran stopped meddling in Iraq and cooperated on terrorism and nuclear issues. ..... "changes in behavior" by Iran could possibly be rewarded with membership in the World Trade Organization. Obama to Introduce Measure on IranABC News His resolution says any offensive military action against Iran must be explicitly authorized by Congress, and seeks to clarify that nothing approved so far provides that authority. A New Democratic Split Over IranWashington Post Iraq Asks for Iran’s Help in Calming Kurdish Crisis New York Times Obama Envisions New Iran Approach New York Times forging a new relationship with Iran would be a major element of a broad effort to stabilize Iraq as he executed a speedy timetable for the withdrawal of American combat troops. ............. Obama said that Iran had been “acting irresponsibly” by supporting Shiite militant groups in Iraq. He also emphasized that Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program and its support for “terrorist activities” were serious concerns. ....... Iran’s support for militant groups in Iraq reflected its anxiety over the Bush administration’s policies in the region, including talk of a possible American military strike on Iranian nuclear installations. .......... he would sit down for diplomatic meetings with countries like Iran, North Korea and Syria with no preconditions. .......... criticized Mrs. Clinton for an approach to Iran they call too hawkish ........ a yellow legal pad on the table in front of him, which listed points where he believed he and Mrs. Clinton differ on how to go forward in Iraq. .......... “She missed the strategic interests that should have dictated whether we went to Iraq in the first place or not.” ........ the mission of his residual force would be more limited than that posited by Mrs. Clinton. ....... the residual force would not have the mission of deterring Iranian involvement in Iraq. ...... the trainers are not constantly embedded in combat operations.” ...... said he hoped to withdraw all American combat forces within 16 months of taking office, his plan states that American and allied troops should be prepared to return to Iraq and protect civilians if there were genocidal attacks. ......... defense secretary or to important national security positions, Mr. Obama said he would consider “the best person, regardless of party.” Clinton Signs Letter on Iran New York Times Obama Takes Questions From 5-Year-Old The Associated Press Obama said. "If you had a whole pizza, and your friend had no pizza, would you give him a slice?" ..... Hadassah, a correspondent for brandnewz.com, said after the interview that Obama "had great answers. And I had a great time meeting him." Union in Clinton's Corner--And Ready For a Fight Washington Post Kurds in Turkey Who Backed Erdogan Now Fear Civil War (Update1) Bloomberg Turkey closes airspace to N.Iraq flights - NTVReuters I was persecuted, Sobhraj tells Nepal judges Sify Candidates Biden, Giuliani trade insults Newsday Wednesday, Giuliani hit back, essentially calling Biden a cheat. .... the former New York mayor had only one sentence: "a noun and a verb and 9/11." He later added, "He is genuinely not qualified to be president." ...... Giuliani returned the favor, saying, "Joe was reading that comment. You've gotta ask him, who wrote it for him?" ..... While running for president in 1987, Biden was caught on video delivering a speech that borrowed lines from British politician Neil Kinnock. Clinton's rivals see an opening Los Angeles Times her evasiveness on several key issues. ....... a candidate unwilling to commit to concrete plans. ...... On at least five issues raised in the debate, Clinton replied in ways that left it unclear what she meant or what action she might take. ........ "She was being attacked all night for taking different positions in front of different audiences," Giuliani said in a radio interview. "And then, by the end of the night, she took different positions in front of the same audience. It was pretty amazing. I mean, in politics I've never quite seen that before." ......... The response from the Clinton campaign included a somewhat lighthearted touch -- it posted a video on YouTube with footage of her debate rivals repeatedly invoking her name, set to Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." The montage ends with a clip of Clinton saying during the debate: "I seem to be the topic of great conversation and great consternation. . . ." ....... Social Security, whose long-term viability is a source of worry for many Americans. ...... The topic that caused her biggest political headache was the proposal by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. ..... Clinton was asked about the controversial plan by Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) to overhaul the tax code. Rangel, a Clinton supporter, has suggested repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax, a burden to some middle-class families, and imposing a 4% surtax on wealthier households. .... Clinton praised Rangel's "goal," said she did not have all the specifics of the plan and added that she did not like some of the details. ...... On Iraq, she said she was for ending the war, but also said an unspecified number of troops may be left in place for an ongoing mission of battling Al Qaeda fighters in that country. ...... In the last half-hour she probably didn't do so well. ...... 2.5 million viewers ..... a forum featuring the Democrats in September on the same cable network had an audience of fewer than 1.5 million viewers Germany's Merkel hails India AFPShe also pointed to India's need for nuclear energy as another business opening, should New Delhi manage to implement a deal with the United States that would bring the country into the global loop of nuclear commerce. ..... Bilateral trade has doubled in the past three years to 10 billion euros ...... India is currently the biggest arms buyer among emerging nations. ...... the country is not ready to compromise economic growth by accepting binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The climatic imperialism Economic Times Climate change, as an issue, is most likely to become the next outsourcing backlash, the next big WTO type North-South divide, and eventually the next big anti-globalisation weapon that rich countries can point at developing ones. ...... Give up cheap flights, give up the 30 layers of plastic packaging on a biscuit, the wasteful luxury that development brings? Voluntarily return to a poorer way of life? ....... Since nobody can make the US budge, or China, they're gonna point fingers at you ..... across Europe, climate change is much less of a concern than globalisation. ...... we want the rich countries to pay for cleaning up the mess they've made, and we'll try not to make the same mess as we grow. ........ in India, we already recycle everything, thrice over. .... Indians are way more concerned about climate change than Europeans ..... and our politicians just blather on about the nuclear deal, which might have helped us off this precipice. Everybody vs. HillaryNew York Times Hello, India? I Need Help With My Math Life’s Work: The Feminine Critique In Rape Case, a French Youth Takes On Dubai The rape of a 15-year-old French boy in a remote patch of desert outside of Dubai has raised questions about how the country’s legal system treats foreigners. ....... an acquaintance, a 17-year-old native-born student at the American school, who said he and his cousin could drop Alex off at home. ...... three Emirati men in the car, including a pair of former convicts ages 35 and 18 ...... they stripped off his pants and one by one sodomized him in the back seat of the car .... dumped Alex across from one of Dubai’s luxury hotel towers. ...... criminal legal system remains a perilous gantlet when it comes to homosexuality and protection of foreigners. ....... authorities not only discouraged Alex from pressing charges ..... they raised the possibility of charging him with criminal homosexual activity, and neglected for weeks to inform him or his parents that one of his attackers had tested H.I.V. positive while in prison four years earlier. ........ Dubai still lives in the Middle Ages ....... sperm from all three were found in Alex ...... questions about unequal treatment of foreigners here that have long been quietly raised among the expatriate majority ..... taboos surrounding H.I.V. and homosexuality ....... (Under Emirates law, foreigners with H.I.V., or those convicted of homosexual activity, are deported.) ....... Dubai’s economic miracle — decades of double-digit growth ...... inexplicable and at times hostile official behavior described by Alex and his parents. ...... the moral, pseudoscientific and political prejudices ........ the 36-year-old assailant was H.I.V. positive ....... So far the teenager has not tested positive for H.I.V. ........ A doctor examined Alex the night of the rape, taking swabs of DNA for traces of the rapists’ sperm. He did not take blood tests or examine Alex with a speculum. Then he cleared the room and told Alex: “I know you’re a homosexual. You can admit it to me. I can tell.” ........ The doctor, an Egyptian, wrote in his legal report that he had found no evidence of forced penetration ....... suffering unsettling flashbacks. ....... “the most modern legal system among the Arab countries ...... In business and finance, the nation has worked hard to earn a reputation for impartial and speedy justice. But the criminal justice system has struggled, balancing a penal code rooted in conservative Arab and Islamic local culture, applied to an overwhelming non-Arab population of foreign residents. ......... boycottdubai.com, a Web site started by Alex’s mother. ...... I’m doing this for all the other poor kids who got raped and couldn’t do anything about it Maureen Dowd: Hillary la Française, Cherchez la Femme? Obama's jabs at Hillary just bounce off Chicago Sun-Times AP Interview: Obama Criticizes ClintonThe Associated Press Obama said Wednesday that rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's less-than-straightforward answers in a Democratic debate raise questions about her ability to assume the presidency. ....... we need a president who is going to be open and forthright ...... Clinton left us wondering where she stood on every single hard question from Iran to Social Security to drivers' licenses for undocumented workers ....... she is running on her record as first lady as much as on her record as a senator ..... "The politics of hope does not mean hoping that your opponents aren't going to point out the differences between you and them," Obama said. ..... He pledged to continue to draw clear differences between himself and Clinton. Obama, Edwards hammer Hillary on Iran, doubletalkTimes of India NH service workers union backs Edwards over Obama Boston Globe Anatomy of an endorsementMSNBC The backstory of the NH SEIU endorsement of EdwardsBoston Globe a week after the executive board voted in favor of Barack Obama. ....... the SEIU decision was far from unanimous and far from uncomplicated. ..... the final count was 7-5 in favor of endorsing Obama. ...... after that vote New Hampshire SEIU President Gary Smith called Obama. Obama was on the phone as he walked off a stage on the Boston Common where he just received the endorsement of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Obama believed he won the endorsement of the union. Where Do the Candidates Stand on Social Security? NPR Iraq, Iran, free trade, illegal immigrants — and Social Security, which is emerging as a hot issue among both Democrats and Republicans. ...... Obama says he would impose the tax on all incomes over $200,000, a move that could significantly improve Social Security's financial picture. ....... anything could be considered when we get to a bipartisan commission," Clinton said. "But personally I am not going to be advocating any specific fix until I am seriously approaching fiscal responsibility." ....... avoid generational warfare and big tax hikes or benefit cuts in the future Clinton Regroups As Rivals PounceWashington Post After a rare night of fumbles by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, her rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination rushed to maximize the damage yesterday, even as her advisers argued that the "piling on" engaged in by an all-male field of opponents will ultimately drive more female voters into her camp. ...... not her finest ..... the debate marked a turning point and would open a newly aggressive phase in the race. ..... Clinton's performance played into a pre-existing caricature: that she is both secretive and calculating ..... Edwards challenged Clinton most forcefully on what he called "double talk" in her rhetoric, after weeks on the campaign trail questioning her integrity. ....... Clinton advisers privately criticized her opponents and the debate's moderators. ....... it was six guys against her ..... Clinton appeared to equivocate ..... Yesterday, her campaign issued a terse statement intended to clear up her position, although it, too, was vaguely worded. ..... Campaign advisers, pressed to explain her view more clearly, said that she ultimately supports the driver's-license proposal. ....... Her rivals clearly remained delighted by the turn of events. Edwards .... promised to "keep pounding the drum ...... the entrenched special interests in Washington, represented by Clinton ...... "Some of you may have seen last night's debate," he said. "Six guys against Hillary. I'd call that a fair fight." Democrats’ Debate: A Focus on ClintonNew York Times “In 7th Round, a Pitched Debate: Clinton Hears It From Her Rivals” ....... Ronald Reagan’s “11th Commandment,” which says Republicans should not speak ill of fellow Republicans, should be applied to the Democrats as well. ...... All made impressive statements, coming across as thoughtful, intelligent individuals committed to keeping the United States the superpower it has always been. ...... all the candidates in the Democratic debate were fact-based and articulate, exhibiting leadership. ...... Mrs. Clinton was tougher and more credible on Iraq and Iran than any of the men on stage. She’d be just as much a cowboy toward Iran as President Bush is. ....... Not one male president seeking power gets called power hungry, and that is what you have to be to want to run for president. How come it is O.K. for a man but not a woman? The pressure we women have to live up to from all sides. Crazy! Mad crazy! Union Gives Endorsement to Clinton New York Times Clinton Wins Endorsement of Public Employees Union (Update2)Bloomberg Clinton, Edwards pick up Big Labor supportCNN Opponents pounce on Clinton's wavering over driver's licenses San Diego Union Tribune Clinton foes pounce on her support of license planNewsday Clinton backs NY driver's license plan for illegal immigrantsBoston Globe Bush confidant quits administration Los Angeles Times Google's Growing GraspForbes Google Goes OpenSocial to Trump FacebookeWeek a set of application programming interfaces that will allow programmers to write social applications that will work on LinkedIn, Friendster and other social networking sites. ....... OpenSocial is designed to help programmers build applications that reach more of the 400 million users of social networks than they would under the original open developer model ...... an answer to the launch of Facebook's highly successful developer platform, on top of which 7,000 applications have been built ..... Google is going the extra mile by enabling programmers to write applications for multiple social networks under three APIs, which will offer access to a user's profile and their friends, and the ability to let their friends know that activities have taken place. ....... to run on any Web site enabled by OpenSocial. ..... In addition to Google's own Orkut social site, roughly a dozen partners have signed up for OpenSocial, including LinkedIn, hi5.com, iLike, Friendster and Ning. All told, the sites comprise over 100 million users, or roughly double the Facebook user base. ........ Google has also lured SAAS (software as a service) provider Salesforce.com and business software giant Oracle to the OpenSocial fold. ...... business is by nature a social practice, predicated on relationships. Salesforce.com wants its developers to be able to build "social extensions" to Salesforce.com ...... The launch of OpenSocial fans the flames between Google and Facebook, which look like real rivals with each passing day. Google's move comes a week after Microsoft announced that it won an extension as the exclusive ad provider for Facebook, in which the Redmond, Wash., software giant also took a $240 million stake. ....... "I don't think its zero sum at this point, since the market is growing so quickly." ..... OpenSocial may be the harbinger of standards for social networking sites. Google shares pass the $700 mark BBC News In Search of a Google-Verizon DealBusinessWeek ambition to become as major a broker of ads on mobile devices as it is on computers ..... Google typically keeps the lion's share of the advertising revenue generated when customers click on the ads ..... so-called white-label deals in which the brands of partners are hidden from the consumer's view Apple's Leopard Hits the Spot The art of writing software involves a lot of borrowing from the work of others. Everyone does it ...... Apple's claim to have the best consumer computer. ...... While Windows and Linux encourage the use of folders and directories to tuck information out of sight, Mac users tend to store more and more stuff—programs, documents, videos—right on their desktops, until the screen calls to mind a teenage boy's bedroom. Leopard gently nudges you to keep the mess under control. Another borrowing from Windows Vista is the extensive use of detailed graphical icons to tell you what's in a file. And Apple adds Quick Look, a nearly instant full-size preview of the contents for most file types. ....... the equivalent of the Windows Start menu. ...... Apple's "my way or the highway" approach to how things should be done. ..... Ken Bereskin, senior director of OS X product marketing, says Mac's "robust system reliability" makes something like System Restore unnecessary Why Delta Should Buy Northwest From route networks and planes to workers and investors, the third- and fifth-biggest U.S. airlines face compelling reasons to merge. ....... At Northwest, half of the 20 largest institutional shareholders are hedge funds or private equity firms, with a nearly 31% stake in the airline. ........ "six major domestic network carriers are too many." ...... Asia, a prized growth destination where all the major airlines have been scrambling to expand. ...... a consensual merger with a rational mix of routes, employees, and resources .... meld pilot seniority lists Heads up: Google in talks with wireless phone companiesKansas City Star Google shares coast past $700 International Herald Tribune 3 ex-NJ police say 'American Gangster' rewrites history New York Daily News years of selling $1 million-a-day worth of heroin - much of it smuggled into New York in the coffins of Vietnam soldiers. ........ "We spent nearly two years risking our lives on that case, and then we see a guy who had no interest before we made the arrests take the credit. We're angry." ...... Their work led to a 1975 raid after a delivery of 10 kilos of heroin. More than 30 members of Lucas' team were arrested, a bust that ended Lucas' reign. ..... Lucas, who spent time on the New York movie set last year, said his conviction came not from information gathered in the 1975 raid, but from investigations that followed it. ...... "I'm not going to credit them with getting me," said Lucas, who became an informant under Roberts' prodding. ..... "Those three cops couldn't catch a cold." Jerry Seinfeld Buzzes His Way to the Big Screen ABC News
