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By Wellford Wilms
$19.00 Buy direct from the publisher - Use Truthdig discount code TD35
By David Mamet
$21
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Hillary Clinton showed she could dish it and take it from Jon Stewart with her opening zinger in her Monday night appearance (via a not-so-very-synced-up satellite connection) on “The Daily Show,” pronouncing her decision to spend precious minutes with Stewart “pretty pathetic.”
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After parsing the Clinton campaign media call, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reports that “if Clinton wins the popular vote in Ohio and Texas, she’s staying in the race.” Texas has a somewhat bizarre primary/caucus hybrid that is thought to favor Barack Obama. Which is to say Clinton could find herself even less likely to win the nomination, but still feeling like a winner.
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weblogs.newsday.com
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Once again the candidates are headed toward what has been billed as a climactic showdown, but which is likely to turn out like the others before it: one more bump in the road.
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youtube.com
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In the waning days before the crucial electoral contests in Ohio and Texas, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has released targeted advertising emphasizing her readiness to handle the most dangerous security threats to the nation and suggesting that she would be better prepared than Barack Obama to pick up the dreaded “red phone.”
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By Eugene Robinson — Humor me while we conduct a little thought experiment. Imagine that Barack Obama lost 10 states in a row.
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zenpundit.com
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Pollster John Zogby has crunched the numbers and he’s impressed by Barack Obama’s string of election victories, but he says “this deal is not closed” because Hillary “is after all a Clinton—she and her husband are popular, dogged, able campaigners.”
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By Amy Goodman — The “Democracy Now!” host explains why Virginia is the new Massachusetts and Texas is the new Florida, and why Barack Obama is benefiting from more than a boost in demographics.
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Exit polls, those surveys of voters as they leave their polling places, should be taken with a grain of salt. Having said that, CNN’s exit poll data from the so-called Potomac Primary shows Barack Obama crossing the demographic divide that has hampered him throughout the race. Seniors, white people, working-class voters and women—all traditional supporters of the Clinton campaign—came out for Obama in big numbers.
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nytimes.com
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Clinton insiders talk a lot on the record about Hillary’s viability against John McCain, her confidence in Ohio and Texas and her determination to seat delegates from the uncontested Michigan and Florida primaries. But off the record, at least a few wonder if all that long-term thinking isn’t a bit premature for a campaign that is losing contests left and right.
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By Marie Cocco — As they prepare to vote, thousands of Virginia Democrats are struggling to decide between two able candidates. Many of those will not make that decision until they have ballots in their hands.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The Democrats’ hopes of regaining the White House hinge on how the party proceeds in the coming weeks and months. If momentum or civility reigns, they’ve got a shot. But if back-room dealing and cheating prevail, don’t hold your breath.
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flickr.com
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Sen. Hillary Clinton is focusing on the high points of the last week—her Super Tuesday successes in weighty states like New York and California, for example—and looking to potential wins in Texas and other elections to hold her position in the race for the Democratic nomination in coming weeks.
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With a win in the Maine caucuses, Barack Obama has scored four lopsided victories in a row and the map favors him for weeks to come. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, responded to her troubles by replacing her campaign manager. Clinton now has to hold back Obama’s momentum long enough to win the big states weeks from now, a strategy that did not help Rudy Guiliani.
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The one and only anti-war Republican presidential candidate didn’t raise his hand when asked who doesn’t believe in evolution, but it turns out he may have wanted to. In this clip, Paul responds to a question about the incident by saying that it was an “inappropriate question,” but that “I think it’s a theory—theory of evolution—and I don’t accept it.”
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Texas Rep. Ted Poe, pushing for a probe into the case of former Halliburton/KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones, who says she was gang-raped by co-workers in Iraq and then intimidated into keeping silent, urged other possible victims of crimes against U.S. contract employees working abroad to come forward, saying he believes Jones’ case is not unique.
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boston.com
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It’s difficult to fully comprehend the total price tag of the Iraq war, but Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has made some staggering calculations, coming up with a whopping $3.5 trillion—including “hidden costs” such as interest on the money we’re borrowing, and long-term health care for vets.
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AP photo / Rick Vasquez
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James Harris and Josh Scheer —
The always entertaining Kinky Friedman, author most recently of “You Can Lead a Politician to Water, but You Can’t Make Him Think: Ten Commandments for Texas Politics,” tells Truthdig why the Internet is the work of Satan, why politicians are “stuck on stupid” and why even God couldn’t beat the Republicans in Texas.
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AP photo / Rick Vasquez
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The always entertaining Kinky Friedman, author most recently of “You Can Lead a Politician to Water, but You Can’t Make Him Think: Ten Commandments for Texas Politics,” tells Truthdig why the Internet is the work of Satan, why politicians are “stuck on stupid” and why God couldn’t beat the Republicans in Texas.
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By Will Durst — Funnyman Durst sends up the absurd criticism of Al Gore and the Nobel Prize. Why stop at global warming when there’s plenty in the world of science and nature to deny?
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Photo by Arturo Perez y Perez / Courtesy of Malaleche
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By Rosa-Linda Fregoso — Cinema, communication and American studies scholar Rosa-Linda Fregoso takes a look at recent exhibitions and installations by the Colectivo Malaleche, a Mexican artists’ collective that addresses the plight of women, migrants and other vulnerable groups through their work.
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AP Photo / Tony Gutierrez
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The family of Navy veteran Cecil Sinclair says it’s deeply insulted because a Dallas-area megachurch reneged on its offer to hold a memorial for the 46-year-old Gulf War serviceman just 24 hours before the service was to take place. The reason? Sinclair was gay—a fact that Sinclair’s sister insists High Point Church leaders already knew, despite their denials.
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AP Photo / File
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Lady Bird Johnson, widow of President Lyndon B. Johnson, died Wednesday at 94 at her home in Austin, Texas.
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Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has been rebuked by the state Legislature for ordering Texan girls to be vaccinated against HPV, the leading cause of cervical cancer. Lawmakers passed a bill by a comfortable margin that would block the governor’s order for four years.
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utexas.edu
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Polar ice experts warned Wednesday that a Texas-size block of ice in the Antarctic has thinned surprisingly fast. The Amundsen Sea Embayment contains enough water to elevate sea levels worldwide nearly 20 feet.
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By Marie Cocco — Tom DeLay’s new self-obsessed memoir, “No Retreat, No Surrender,” turns out to be a hoot from start to finish. Take the title—this from a man who ended his disgraced career with a resignation.
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By Ellen Goodman — Merck raised suspicions about its cancer-fighting HPV vaccine with a cluelessly aggressive lobbying campaign, but a lifesaving drug is still a lifesaving drug.
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news.yahoo.com
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has issued an executive order mandating the use of the HPV vaccine, which can help prevent cervical cancer. The conservative Christian’s decree trumps opposition in the Legislature and elsewhere from opponents who feel the treatment encourages premarital sex. Texas will be the first state to require that schoolgirls receive the vaccine.
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AP / Henny Ray Abrams
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Robert Scheer remembers the irreplaceable voice and generous spirit of Truthdig’s most beloved columnist.
Anthony Zurcher, a longtime editor and friend, says goodbye and pays tribute to Ivins’ life, work and wisdom.
Plus: Molly Ivins’ last column—a stirring call to action against the war.
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Left: softvote.com / Right: wikipedia.org
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President Bush will skip out on President Ford’s state funeral on Saturday, instead remaining in Texas until services are held on Tuesday. Ford gave two embargoed interviews critical of the current president that were released shortly after his death.
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Wikipedia
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Democrats picked up another House seat on Tuesday when a victim of Texas redistricting ousted the incumbent in a Supreme Court-ordered runoff election. The upset victory brought the Dems’ total gain of House seats to 30.
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The Republican Party of Texas has sent out a newsletter calling a Democratic nominee for a seat on the 6th Court of Appeals a “professed atheist.” A local poli sci professor says he’s never seen the religion card pushed that hard. (via Andrew Sullivan)
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By Molly Ivins — Between an unabashedly clueless Kinky Friedman and Rick “The Coiffure” Perry, the Texas governor’s race is screaming for a dark-horse candidate.
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Image: ancientsculpturegallery.com
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A fifth-grade teacher is out of a job after leading a class through an art museum in Dallas. One of her students saw nude art; the student’s parent complained; the teacher is suspended.
Even crazier: Local TV stations are blacking out Greek sculpture genitalia during newscasts.
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From tsl.state.tx.us
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By Molly Ivins — The Texas-based columnist reminisces about the former Texas governor, who died Wednesday from cancer. “Anyone who ever heard her speak at an AA convention knows how close laughter and tears can be.”
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tsl.state.tx.us
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Ann Richards, the sharp-tongued trailblazer from Texas, died on Wednesday at the age of 73. Though she served only one term as governor, Richards left her mark on Texas and the nation. Known for a keen wit, Richards also accomplished an unprecedented promotion of minorities and women to positions of influence.
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By Molly Ivins — Those who advocate withdrawal from Iraq ASAP have just as much of a duty to make the arguments for doing so—and to admit how much they don’t know—as those who got us into this mess five years ago.
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A well-connected Texas oil executive reaches out to Karl Rove and presto!—thus disappears a new rule designed to keep groundwater clear near drilling sites.
Posted on Jun 13, 2006
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By Robert Scheer — “It is good news that the public is finally hip to Bush’s con, yet it is worrisome when surprisingly sensible proposals by the president on immigration are automatically rejected because of the source.”
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By Molly Ivins — In this classic column from 2000, the Texas columnist uses unearthed testimony from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to expose Karl Rove’s modus operandi back in the 1980s.
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By Molly Ivins — Ivins weighs in on immigration reform, “The Fence” and corporate America’s demand for cheap labor.
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Ann Johansson / AP Photo
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On a day when tens of thousands have taken to the nation’s streets to protest a tightening of immigration laws, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas finds himself pinched between conservative “no amnesty” types and and Texas’ huge immigrant population.
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Undercover agents will bust you in a bar for public intoxication—so you don’t get behind the wheel of a car, or something like that.
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From Fox News via Newsbusters
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Did Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg fall asleep while hearing a key redistricting case—as Fox charges? If so, most traditional media outlets didn’t report it.
A conservative website poses an interesting question here: if Justice Thomas or Scalia fell asleep, would most news outlets ignore that, as well?
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A retired Texas schoolteacher pays off a larger-than-usual chunk of his credit card bill—and the payment gets frozen as Homeland Security investigates. “It’s scary how easily someone in Homeland Security can get permission to spy,” says the teacher.
Posted on Mar 3, 2006
READ MORE
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The president says “I thought the vice president handled the issue just fine” but declines to discuss details of Cheney’s late disclosure of the hunting accident.
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Harry Whittington, the 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident, has a birdshot pellet in his heart and had “a minor heart attack” Tuesday morning. He is back in intensive care. | story
The ER chief at the Texas hospital, asked if the birdshot could endanger Whittington’s life, responded: “When birdshot is in your body, there’s always the risk they can move. We’ll watch very closely for any migration.”
Continuing Coverage:
Account of Doctors raises questions on heart injury
Think Progress: Scott McClellan concealed the heart attack from the press.
A White House spokesman cracked jokes on the record about the incident (before Whittington suffered the heart attack).
The Smoking Gun surfaces the Texas hunting accident report. (hat tip: Huffington Post)
The lowdown on what hunting rules Cheney broke.
Slow Leak: Time publishes an inside account of why Cheney didn’t publicly disclose news of the accident for 24 hours.
Unloading on Cheney: Comedians take aim at the vice president.
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By Molly Ivins — Welcome back to the paradoxical Bush/Cheney “responsibility society,” where no one (starting with the administration) takes responsibility.
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Mr. Fish
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Truthdig says: It strains credulity to suggest, as the White House has, that the vice president couldn’t inform the national media of the incident while also ensuring proper medical care of the guy on the receiving end of his shotgun blast.
Lots of updates on the next page.
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