Pacified Citizen

From an ABC News article that asks if reality shows are going to far (while re-emphasizing that Nicole Ritchie’s head is disproportionate to her body):

Take, for instance, “Hurl,” an eating-and-regurgitating competition in which contestants gorge themselves on everything from chicken pot pies to peanut butter sandwiches, then get strapped into spinning contraptions — whoever vomits last wins.

These, I fear, are truly the end times.

Just got an e-mail with a video announcement from Barack Obama to his supporters, where he has announced that his campaign will forego public funding for the 2008 election. But public funds sound good, right? Well, not really. According to the NY Times:

Under the federal presidential financing system, a candidate this year would be given $84.1 million from the Treasury to finance a general election campaign. In exchange, the candidate is barred from accepting private donations, or from spending more than the $84.1 million.

All indications this year are that Mr. Obama will have no problem raising more than that amount for the general election; he raised $95 million in February and March alone, most of it, as his aides noted Thursday, in small contributions raised on the Internet. More than 90 percent of the campaign’s contributions were for $100 or less, said Robert Gibbs, the communications director to Mr. Obama.

So thanks to the little guys/girls, Obama stands to benefit dramatically from this decision. He’ll also be the first candidate to forego such public funding since the system was created in 1976. Although this is the case, the RNC still has a much easier time pulling in cash than the DNC. Time will tell if this decision will turn the tables on that situation, too.

The New York Times is reporting that four Western energy companies are in talks to receive no-bid contracts to drill for oil in Iraq.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.

The companies haven’t done work in the country since Saddam Hussein nationalized the oil industry in the 70’s. Wikipedia says that the Iraq Petroleum Company, once the Turkish Petroleum Company, has its roots in the 1910’s and was basically a collusion of large European oil companies to “avoid rivalry among the partners and to outflank other concession seekers” while going after oil in the Ottoman Empire. We’re going to go ahead and call that a monopoly. Once the Empire was broken up however, other countries (such as us, for instance) wanted a piece of the action and were eventually able to buy their way in.

Long story short, this situation allowed the companies to hold Iraqi oil back from the market so that it could maximize profits on their other resources. Iraq caught wind of this and allowed the British Oil Development Company to come in and bring some oil to market - however since there was a pile of giant oil companies in the way that were all on the same page, BODC couldn’t compete and was eventually assimilated into the Iraq Petroleum Company.

So here we are! Given the backstory, there is no way that anything negative could result from the now Worldwide Petroleum Company from going back into Iraq. No way at all.

Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment for June 12th (full text here) was in regards to John McCain’s comment during an interview on NBC’s Today Show. When asked if our “success” (in McCain’s mind) in Iraq made a timeline for withdrawal more clear, he had the following to say:

“No, but that’s not too important … What’s important is the casualties in Iraq. Americans are in South Korea. Americans are in Japan. American troops are in Germany. That’s all fine.”

Obama’s campaign was incredibly efficient in drawing attention to the quote a few hours later on that very same day, to which McCain’s response was that it was taken out of context. Olbermann pays us special attention to the context of that quote, and it doesn’t sound any better. My favorite snippet is right here:

You have attested to: a fairly easy success; an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time; in which we would be welcomed as liberators; which you assured us would not require our troops stay for decades but merely for years; from which we could bring them all home, since you noted many Iraqis resent American military presence; in which all those troops coming home will also stay there, not being injured, for a hundred years; but most will be back by 2013; and the timing of their return, is not that important.

That, Sen. McCain, is context.

And that, Sen. McCain, is madness.

Context, indeed.

This is just amazing, really.

“You know, as a shareholder and director of our company, I’m always proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else,” she said.

Clinton would not agree to be interviewed on the subject but now says she no longer shares Wal-Mart’s values and believes unions “have been essential to our nation’s success.”

Link

So it seems that Hillary Clinton’s campaign thinks that Pennsylvania is a stop-gap for the momentum that Barack Obama has been building over the past few weeks. While she took the big state of Ohio and apparently believes she took Texas as well, I don’t really see things turning around in her favor anytime soon. Yesterday, the campaign sends out an e-mail to “interested parties” (re: the media) titled ‘Keystone Test: Obama Losing Ground’. The kicker is that Obama’s campaign has responded in comment-form to the original e-mail, and it makes the effort from the HRC campaign look incredibly foolish. Excerpts, with Obama responses in bold:

After setbacks in Ohio and Texas, Barack Obama needs to demonstrate that he can win the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is the last state with more than 15 electoral votes on the primary calendar and Barack Obama has lost six of the seven other largest states so far — every state except his home state of Illinois.

[If you define “setback” as netting enough delegates out of our 20-plus-point wins in Mississippi and Wyoming to completely erase any delegate advantage the Clinton campaign earned out of March 4th, then yeah, we feel pretty setback.]

…

Pennsylvania is of particular importance, along with Ohio, Florida and Michigan, because it is dominated by the swing voters who are critical to a Democratic victory in November. No Democrat has won the presidency without winning Pennsylvania since 1948. And no candidate has won the Democratic nomination without winning Pennsylvania since 1972.

[What the Clinton campaign secretly means: PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE FACT THAT WE’VE LOST 14 OF THE LAST 17 CONTESTS AND SAID THAT MICHIGAN AND FLORIDA WOULDN’T COUNT FOR ANYTHING. Also, we’re still trying to wrap our minds around the amazing coincidence that the only “important” states in the nominating process are the ones that Clinton won.]

But the Obama campaign has just announced that it is turning its attention away from Pennsylvania.

[Huh?]

This is not a strategy that can beat John McCain in November.

[I don’t think Clinton’s strategy of losing in state after state after promising more of the same politics is working all that well either.]

Good stuff, it’s good to see Barack’s campaign begin to kick back at all the bullshit coming from Hillary’s. Let’s just get this over already, jeez.

Obama takes Mississippi. Might have taken the Texas caucuses as well, although Clinton did win the popular vote. Of course it’s more of the same, he takes the under 40s in droves while Clinton takes all the cobwebs down from the corners. If you can’t tell yet, I am heavily biased.

Geraldine Ferraro used to be a candidate for Vice President back in 1984. She also now serves on Hillary’s campaign finance committee. She also can’t keep her mouth shut. Late last week:

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

Okay.. oh wait I’m sorry, I thought you were finished. Yesterday:

“Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says, ‘Let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world,’ you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up,” she told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, California. “Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?”

I’m sure the Clinton campaign is very excited to have her around. NY Gov. Spitzer is going to talk to us at 11:30am, when he’s likely to resign. Breaking news in yellow all over the top of CNN, let me tell you - that’s how I like my news.