Obama's Problem With Bill Ayers

Not even close to being a member of the vast right-wing conspiracy, esteemed writer and social/political commentator John Ridley offers a perspective in the Huffington Post that many Obama supporters seem unwilling to face up to. Namely, that unlike other straw-man issues the Bill Ayers controversy is a very real problem which will not go away and it could very well be Obama's Willie Horton moment come general election time.

Election Turnout More Bad News For GOP

Perhaps the real headline Tuesday night, was that once again Democrat's enthusiasm for their two inspirational candidates won out in a landslide over tired old Republican apathy. Even in Dubya's own back yard.

According to CNN election results, the Democrats garnered a record 4.3 million votes last night in Texas, Ohio, Maryland and Vermont, to the Republican's paltry 2.3. This included a 500,000 Democratic edge in the blood red Lone Star State.

The Democrats have consistently set records for turnout this year, voting in substantially more numbers than the Republicans. Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at the University of California made this comment about the primary season,

Turnout and various poll data suggest Democrats are more eager to vote and happier with their choice set than Republicans. I think it reflects an eagerness to get the Bush administration behind them.

It seems as if the winds of change are indeed blowing.

The Gaza Bombshell

An amazing read by David Rosen at Vanity Fair detailing yet another abysmal Bush Administration adventure and it's disastrous results. Here's the lead-in.

After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, David Rose reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.

FOX Anchor Ignores Dead Women And Children While Reporting Somalia Missile Attack

Watch the FOX anchor ignore reports of women and children being killed while reporting today's missile attack today near Dhoobley, Somalia. Dhoobley's District Commissioner Ali Nur Ali Dherre told CNN the AP and other sources that the raid destroyed two homes and resulted in the deaths of three women, three children while wounding twenty others.

The attack provides yet another reminder as to why we are so despised by so many worldwide. Predictably, a U.S. military official said the attack was on a "known terrorist target" with precision missiles. Precision? Fatuma Abdullahi, a resident of the town, gave the following account of the strike to The Associated Press.

We woke up with a loud and big bang and when we came out we found our neighbor's house completely obliterated as if no house existed here. We are taking shelter under trees. Three planes were flying over our heads.

Ali Dherre said the remains of the missiles were marked 'US K'. Having all seen the images of children walking through the rubble of a U.S. missile attack, is it any wonder that they grow up harboring such hatred for us?

Hillary Gets Back At Bill

Like William Congreve penned so eloquently in Act III Scene Vlll of The Mourning Bride, . . . "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned". All set to the romantic, mellifluous wailing of Jessica Simpson as Blitzer cringed and the whole world watched. So sorry Bill.

Inflation Soars With Stagflation At Doorstep

Confirming something that the majority of working class Americans already knew, courtesy of the Bush presidency, we are now on the doorstep of a much more serious economic downturn than economists had envisioned.

Today, the Labor Department reported that inflation at the wholesale level soared in January by one percent, the fastest pace in 16 years. This was more than double the 0.4 percent increase that economists had been expecting. This combination of rising inflation and weaker growth raises the threat of "stagflation," the economic plague that battered the country in the 1970s, when a series of oil price increases left Americans battered by stagnant growth and rising prices. This is when those least capable of withstanding an economic downturn really feel immense pain and suffering, often being forced to choose between paying for their medication, rent or utilities.

With the January jump; wholesale prices have risen over the past 12 months by 7.5 percent, the fastest increase since the fall of 1981, when the country was in a deep recession. This gain was led by a 1.5 percent spike in the cost of prescription and non-prescription drugs, which will hit the poor and elderly hardest of all.

If anything was ever deserving of political analysis and the assignation of blame this is it. The Bush administration's abominable economic policies have finally burst the dam. Their foundation of tax cuts for the wealthy, a soaring deficit, spending billions on an endless war, outsourcing of quality jobs and the enabling of corporate greed and malfeasance at the expense of the American public is beyond the pale.

One can expect nothing but more of the same from a McCain administration; maybe even worse as he will inevitably try to reduce the deficit on the backs of needed social programs. That's the GOP way, spend billions on war and tax breaks for the wealthy, then make the poor and middle class pay.