The Dead Guy

You would think I wouldn’t have to say more. That we have all heard the news. That we all knew what was done was against the law - both domestic and international. One day, maybe soon, we all will know. One day, maybe soon - we’ll see our 43rd President, along with current and former members of his administration, hauled before an international court for crimes against humanity in time of war.

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Another of the Clinton campaign and supporters cries of “fairness” is that the popular vote of the primaries should be considered when deciding the Democratic Presidential Nominee. If one angle doesn’t work, try another … and another … and another.

I will repeat the same response I have whenever someone tries to rewrite the rules. The DNC determines the Democratic Nominee by only one measure: Delegate count in sanctioned, legitimate elections. However, to quell the cries, I’ve laid out the math of the popular vote scenario. And in the end, Obama is projected to win the popular vote as well as just about every other concept the Clinton campaign wishes they could find a way to win (against the rules).

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The race is on in Puerto Rico!

We finally have a poll in Puerto Rico looking at the primary on June 1^st between Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. Conducted by Research & Research between 3/31 and 4/5 of 800 self identified Democrats shows Clinton leading Obama 50% to 37% (MOE ± 4.4%).

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chimerical

Main Entry: chi•me•ri•cal
Pronunciation: \k?-?mer-i-k?l, k?-, -?mir-\
Variant(s): also chi•me•ric \-ik\
Function: adjective
Etymology: chimera
Date: 1638
1 : existing only as the product of unchecked imagination : fantastically visionary or improbable
2 : given to fantastic schemes

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This is not a new concept. FDR and The New Deal. The late Senator Paul Simon’s 1987 book by the same title as this post (Which I have a signed copy of - I had Senator Simon autograph it for me when he was in Iowa campaigning for the 1988 Democratic Presidential Nomination).

With a country that has resources and infrastructure in dire need of help, we need to put America back to work fixing these problems. Where could we start? Well, there are 10 pieces of U.S. infrastructure we must fix now!

And America needs jobs. The March 2008 unemployment rate is 5.1%. However, many thousands of unemployed workers fall off the rolls each month because they either can’t find a job while on benefits or just plain give up. The US Dept of Labor defines “unemployed” as those who “do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work.” It’s not a true look at how many Americans are out of work at any given time. When you add in the discouraged, marginally attached, and those working part-time but can’t find a full-time job - you end up with about 9% rate of unemployment.

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Bill Clinton

The Chicago Tribune reports in September 2006 former President Bill Clinton spoke at a fundraiser for Fortune Forum, a non-profit set up to tackle problems such as global warming, water shortages and disaster relief. Now, before you hail the chief - the event raised about $1.5 million, of which $450,000 went to Bill Clinton’s speaking fee.

That’s right, almost 1/3 of the money raised went straight into Bill Clinton’s bank account - where I am sure some was transferred over to the Clinton Family Foundation, where just about all of the Clintons’ ‘charitable’ donations of $10.2 million has gone since 2001. (as a side note: Bill is the President, Hillary is the Secretary/Treasurer, Chelsea is a director and Gloria Clinton is the CEO/Manager. Gloria earned $250,000 in 2006 from the CFF.)

$450,000. As also reported in the same article, Clinton gave two other speeches that day and the next while he was across the pond. One was for a London for-profit partnership and the other was in Dublin. The fees he charged for each of those? $280,000 apiece. So, in 2 days, he racked up over $1 million in speaking fees - almost half from the one non-profit speech, alone.

I can understand charging for speeches, even to a non-profit who is attempting to bring change in the world in respect to climate change and disaster relief, that’s what public speakers do. But to charge a non-profit almost twice the amount that is charged to for-profit company is not just dirty - it’s downright despicable.