Hillary Clinton Owes $22m

June 22, 2008 -NY Post- Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are heading for a meeting of the money.

As the ex-foes are scheduled to sit down face to face this week and talk fund-raising, each needs to leave the table with the promise of riches.

New campaign-finance filings reveal Clinton has even more debt than previously reported, while Obama’s fund-raising has stalled.

He pulled in $22 million in May – a sharp drop from the $30 million to $55 million he got in each of the prior three months.

And presumptive Republican nominee John McCain came up almost even with his Democratic rival, taking in $21 million last month.

The new reports show Clinton’s debt has risen to $22.5 million – $12 million of which is in personal loans she poured into her campaign – and she reported only $3 million in available cash. More debt is expected to be reported in the coming weeks.

From Hillary Clinton’s perspective, it seems clear that what she’s going to get out of these meetings is money… perahps enough to retire most if not all that debt.  What would Obama get out of the deal?  Delegates, and Hillary Clinton’s cooperation, without which he has no hope of winning.

How’d you like tyo be a fly on THAT wall, eh?

(RTTNews) – Oil production in Saudi Arabia will be raised, although officials in the oil-rich nation are expressing doubts as to its affects on the rising price of crude in the global market.

After an oil “summit” Sunday in Jeddah, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said the nation would begin pumping more crude, starting next month.

”Saudi Arabia is prepared and willing to produce additional barrels of crude above and beyond the 9.7 million barrels per day, which we plan to produce during the month of July, if demand for such quantities materializes and our customers tell us they are needed,” Naimi said. 

I suppose their public skepticism is understandable; It certainly is in line with previously expressed attitudes. But the bottom line, here, is that the added flow will help to break the bubble. Privately, however, the Saudis ahve another fear, I think… And here’s the real deal; When this added oil comes online,  the questions about America being able to limit price increases by putting it’s own oil on line, will have been answred. That, I think, is the reason the Saudis have been less than willing to do this, because what this move will eventually reveal, would encourage other oil feilds to be opened up in direct competition to OPEC in general and the Saudis in particular.

And as if to confrm the fact that the futures markets are being manipulated, oil futures actually went UP breifly on that announcement. I’m telling you, gang; the quickest way to get prices to crash is to bring our currently drilled and capped wells in the Destin dome  and elsewhere online.
 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday. He was 71.
***
His comedic sensibility revolved around a central theme: humanity is a cursed, doomed species.

His comedic sensibility revolved around a central theme: humanity is a cursed, doomed species.

‘I don’t have any beliefs or allegiances. I don’t believe in this country, I don’t believe in religion, or a god, and I don’t believe in all these man-made institutional ideas,’ he told Reuters in a 2001 interview.

I can’t help but wonder, what his position on all that is, now.

There are several ways to react to the  Gloucester High School baby boom.   About all the GHS officials did not do was award the girls on the knock-up team a varsity letter,  Fox News:

A Massachusetts high school is facing a pregnancy boom with 17 girls entering summer vacation expecting babies in what some have called a pregnancy pact.

“We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy,” Sullivan told Time.com.

Officials at Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Mass., are investigating whether half of the teens made a pact to get pregnant during the school year, Time.com reported.

Officials said that beginning last fall a large group of girls started asking the school clinic for pregnancy tests, the site said.

“Some girls seemed more upset when they weren’t pregnant than when they were,” principal Joseph Sullivan told Time.com.

The pregnancy rate at the 1,200-student school is four times higher than the previous year, and officials were shocked to learn that men in their 20s had fathered some of the babies, Time.com said.

Rachel Lucas offess a simple solution, “mandatory sterilization:”

At puberty. For everyone. I know it’s fascist and I don’t care, because I know it’ll never happen so why not fantasize with my fascist fantasies? In a world that I ruled over with combat boots and common sense, things like this would never happen.

Ms Lucas makes some good points.  

One, the girls wanted to get pregnant.  The problem was not caused lack of access to birth control and can not be prevented by free distribution of birth control.

Two, being judgemental is good.   We used to consider girls who wanted to sluts as bad.  Now we make sluts, like the Spears sisters, into media idols.

A point of my own, as a society we get the behavior for which we provide incentives.  If you incentive girls to be become sluts, teen mothers and welfare queens, that what you get.

Finally, Ms Lucas is being very judgemental.   Do you judge her to be wrong?

You know, it would be laughable if it were not so tragic.

Mike Allen at Politico:

With the cost of gas a top issue in the presidential campaign, Barack Obama on Sunday will announce a plan to crack down on oil speculation by tightening regulations on energy traders.

The announcement is further evidence that an Obama administration would take an activist, populist approach to regulating business.

Obama wants to close a loophole in federal law that exempts some energy traders from regulations that govern other exchange-traded commodities. Democrats call this “the Enron loophole” because it benefited the Houston energy-speculation firm that collapsed in an accounting scandal.

In response, John McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said: “The truth is Barack Obama is following John McCain’s lead to close a Wall Street loophole that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. John McCain has supported bipartisan efforts to close this loophole and will work to address abuses in oil speculation.

Those ‘abuses’  are caused by misguided energy policy on the lart of the Democrats. No domestic drilling, no domestic refineries. When the prices go up to reflect that sitaution, the government gets more money… and the guy at the pump shells out ever more money. What Obama has been proposing is exactly how we ended up here. THe results of Democrat policy are totally traceable. When the Republicans got pushed out because of the anti-war nonsense being spread by the Democrats, we were in the midst of slight economic boom, gas was slightly more than $2 per gallon, food costs were low and supplies were plentiful, the housing market was booming. Since then, our food and fuel are both double the price and in shortages, taxes are up, housing is tight, as is credit.

What Obama proposes is more of the same.

James Joyner at OTB mentions the current reading at Electoral-vote.com and says:

If the election were held today, Barack Obama would cruise to victory with 317 Electoral Votes to John McCain’s 194, according to projections tabulated by Electoral-Vote.com. Florida, with its 27 electors, is too close to call.  Again.

—

Then again, on this day in 2004, John Kerry was leading President Bush 285 to 249 and had slight leads in both Florida and Ohio. As you may recall, it didn’t turn out that way.

A cow is a cow, without regard to color.  Mary C. Curtis, Washington Post, moos about the “Silence Of Feminists:”

Michelle Obama has become an issue in the presidential campaign even though she isn’t running for anything. An educated, successful lawyer, devoted wife and caring mother has been labeled “angry” and unpatriotic and snidely referred to as Barack Obama‘s “baby mama.”

Democrats, Republicans, independents, everyone should be offended.

And this black woman is wondering: Where are Obama’s feminist defenders?

Professor Althouse wonders “Is feminism about defending women from criticism? :”

The notion that it’s sexist to criticize women is itself sexist. Address the criticism. If it’s unfair, say why it’s unfair.

Just what are Curtis’ credentials as a feminist, if any?   I found no defense of Ayaan Hirsi Ali by Curtis, who calls herself a black woman and a  feminist.   Yet no defense a black woman hero.  There seem to be few, if any,  true freminists.   Certainly Curtis is not among the few.

 ?

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) – Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said on Friday he expects Republicans to highlight the fact that he is black as part of an effort to make voters afraid of him.

Republicans? Seems to me the only place where the issue has come up so far is when running against his fellow Democrats, and that repeatedly over the last several months. BO is getting desperate already, folks, if he’s dragged the race card out this early.

And let’s call this what it is; Obama has spent 20 years under the wing, and the instruction of Fr. Michael Pfleger and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, arguably two of the bigger race-baiters out there. Are we to assume that the student of two such men would choose  a better path?

Obama has shown us his hand, here, folks. He clearly has nothing substansive left.  And already, there’s an answer for his charge. Mr. Obama, it’s not your color, it’s your politics, and your lack of a record, save where it indictaes your openly befreinding people who are not freinds of these United States.

Sadly, Barack’s insistence on gentle and civil debate seems to be as one-sided as his voting record in the Senate

Carol Platt Liebau, Townhall

.

Usually, when McQ breaks out the “Project Hero” header, there’s a medal involved. IN this case, not so. Yet, the kind of courage exhibited by Sgt Merlin German, deserves to be honored, nonetheless. McQ tells the tale.

Project Hero, is a worthy attempt on McQ’s part to remind us that we have heroes among us. Further, that these need to be honored as such. We at BitsBlog are proud to lend our voice to such a project.

Bill Dupray, Flopping Aces, reports that Fred will vet McCain’s judges:

Big Fred doing the Big Job. Love it. From Human Events.

In a McCain administration, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson would play a dominant role in selecting Supreme Court nominees and other judicial appointments, sources close to the McCain campaign and to Thompson tell us

Good move.

Barack Obama has now taken to mocking the Seal of the President of the United States.   Photo courtesy of CNN.   John McCormack, Weekly Standard, suggests that BO’s faux seal is illegal:

18 USC Sec. 713 …
(a) Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile thereof, in, or in connection with, any advertisement, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication, public meeting, play, motion picture, telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, or stationery, for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Legality aside, it does not say much for BO’s self-proclaimed judgemnt for him to be seen campaigning behind a phoney seal.

?

An interesting note at the LA Times Blog this morning:

Led by chairman Mike Duncan, the Republican National Committee ended May with 13 times more money in the bank than its Democratic counterpart, and raised five times as much money in the same time frame.

…

Based on the numbers so far, the Republican Party appears poised to act as the financial equalizer in the fall campaign. The RNC disclosed that it ended May with $53.5 million in the bank, compared to $3.9 million for the Democratic National Committee, which is headed by Howard Dean.

Thanks to the continuing popularity and fundraising attraction of President Bush, the RNC continued to vastly out-raise the Democratic party, amassing $24.4 million just in May.

“Oh, sure”, will be the commentary…”All of that money’s coming from big business, like big oil”.

Ummm… No…

The RNC raised more in small increments than the DNC’s total take in May of $4.8 million.

Do you begin to understand what that says, there? The RNC took in more money from small donors, than the DNC  took in, in total, for May.

But… wait, now… how can that be? I thought the Republicans in general and President Bush in particular were so unpopular as to obviate the need for an election? Well, perhaps as usual, the leftists and the press (A redundancy) are about creating their own reality. Out here in the real world, something very different is brewing.

What amuses me is that Obama thought going back on his word about government funding was any kind of advantage.

More, Memeorandum

The mortgage bail-out bill pending in the Senate, the so-called, Dodd-Shelby mortgage-lender bailout bill was written by the its chief beneficiary, Bank of America.  BOA paid the bill’s co-sponsor to push their bill.  Stephen Spruiell, National Review has both the BOA draft and the Dodd bill.   It’s time for the Senate ethics committee to investigate the corrupt Dodd and time for Dodd to resign from the Senate.

• Billy passes along a list of articles from Investor’s Busienss Daily, thirty in all inclduing a couple I’ve linked previously. It’s a must read, if you really want the unspun facts.
• Bruce talks here about the Politics of Drilling. It’s nothing I’ve not said here several times, but he says it very well. Kudos.
• Meanwhile, James wonders if Obama will be suffering from over-exposure. Read my comments there and you’ll notice I think that he likely will, for the same reason that so many one hit wonders did.
• I see Newt’s Drill here Drill now, Pay less” petition has reached a million so far.
• John Kerry is in trouble in Mass for this next election.  Heh… I’d love to see him out on the street, but such a situation with an Obama administration means he gets appointed within the executive branch…
• At some point, this Countrywide Mortgage scandal is going to cost pols dearly. But of course that won’t happen until the news media stops trying to not rain on Obama’s coronation. This story with Dodd, were this a Republican would be wall to wall on ever channel 24*7 on the cables, and would be a major election issue for Obama. this is all particularly true given the milage that Obama and his fellow democrats were getting out of lambasting Countrywide for it’s part of the housing credit crisis of a few months ago.  As it is, with the facts coming out that the Democrats were up to their eyeballs in the soup with Countrywide, and hence part of the problem,  we have silence on thepart of the big three, and reluctatnt mentions of the thing from MSNBC and CNN. One gets the impression that they’re concerned what else might be revealed… a concern, that, were they convinced Republcians were involved primarily, would be non-extsiant.
• Sister Toldjah notes the passage of the FISA bill. The message is the Democrats folded.
• Art Smith at the Conservative Reader is doing a fine job of tracking the flooding situation in Iowa, yet.