Reason for hope

It's a reassuring analysis as to why McCain can't win:

As we slog through the seemingly unending mire of the Democratic primaries, a meme has taken hold: the longer Obama battles Clinton, the more likely it is that McCain will win the election. Nonsense. McCain is a weak candidate in a year when Republicans are running against their own party. Barring some unforeseen catastrophe, there will be a Democrat in the White House come January. Take heart, ye who have suffered under Republicans for too long: change is coming. Here's why McCain can't win.

More (from Low on the Hog).

Tread carefully, however. Democrats sometimes do find creative ways to lose a sure thing.

Witness the disgusting (not a Democrat) Antonin Scalia "Get over it" blasphemy of 2000.

The President and my mother

The former President of the United States asked, "And where did you work for me?" He asked again, "Where did you work?"

Jimmy Carter was signing copies of his new book, A Remarkable Mother, a biography of his mother 'Ms. Lillian', at a bookstore today in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

It was an efficient signing.

We were wanded by Secret Service agents at the door and then moved briskly along a long line. "No personal time with the President," we were told.

But my mother, Gene, would have none of it. She reached the table and began talking a blue streak to Carter, a man she considers a great humanitarian. She mentioned that she had worked for him.

Carter may have just returned from the middle East, meeting with Hamas and the Israelis, working still, into his 80s, to broker peace. But Carter had never dealt with the oratorical skills of my mother, who had spent her working years representing her country, and raising a family overseas, in the Foreign Service.

He tried a third time, "Ma'am, where did you work for me?"

I was standing there, behind her, and saw the President looking at her. I nudged Mom and whispered, "The President just asked you where you worked for him."

"At the polls," she replied.

And then, the President of the United States, paused, smiled and looked up again. He thanked my remarkable mother, Genovaite Cizauskas, and wished her, in advance, "a Happy Mother's Day."

We were moved along.

Load up the Pantry

Load Up the Pantry

Stockpiling staples like rice and pasta, etc.: that's what the Wall Street Journal, this morning, has encouraged shoppers to begin doing in the United States.

Alarmist, yes. But it's yet another real sign of the world-wide economic maelstrom. And, that is indeed frightening.

Super-voters

What's the deal with super-delegates anyway? Are they bad for the democratic process of the Democratic Party? And in the Republican primaries, one vote more than the opponent yields the winner all of the votes. Is that fair?

We've had similar super-voters in our presidential elections since the U.S. Constitution was ratified over 200 years ago. They're called Electors -- of the Electoral College.

Witness the presidential elections of 2000 and 1876, and 1800, and in fact most presidential elections: with the Electoral College system of super-voters, the principle of one man one vote does not seem to apply.

[UPDATE 2008.04.25: The Wall Street Journal published an analysis today of the changing methods that have been used to determine the number of Electors for each state.]

more customer dis-service from Microsoft

I've stated before that I don't steal music. But the big music companies treat me, and millions of other music consumers, as if we do.

It's not just the music labels who use new-speak Digital Rights Management (but are indeed relenting as they see profit in sales) but it's also the providers, such as the increasingly irrelevant RealMusic, and nearly everyone's (not me!) darling Apple, and nearly everyone's target Microsoft.

Read about this recent development.

If you ever needed more proof of why DRM is just a terrible set of technologies that do nothing but frustrate legit customers, the MSN Music store is a prime example. The doomed service was shut down over a year ago upon the launch of the Zune, forcing people to switch to a new service. That minor annoyance aside, the change was manageable because Microsoft kept alive their authorization server for the DRM-locked music files people had previously purchased. Thus, even if the customer purchased a new computer, they could unlock that music.

But that is about to change. Microsoft has announced that they will cease maintaining the key retrieval service by the end of August.

As a result, for all the music purchased on the MSN Music store it will become impossible to retrieve your keys. If the music is transferred to another device, it can never be unlocked again – at least not in a legal way – rendering that purchase a total loss to that person. For those that have libraries of music purchased through the MSN store, they will be locked in to that specific hardware for as long as they want to use those files.

Ultimately, this serves as a reminder of what DRM really is: A way for companies to control your use of their content. Rather than purchasing, you are renting.

Microsoft to cease authorizing MSN Music keys
By Justin Mann, TechSpot.com
Published: April 22, 2008, 9:08 PM EST

Clinton wins ... Pennsylvania

• Clinton drew her usual strong support among senior citizens and white women, and narrowly won the votes of white men.
• She even was competitive with Obama among whites under 30 years old, a group that has favored Obama in many states.
• Obama won the support of black voters and college graduates of all races. A quarter of Obama's supporters were black, and half had college degrees.
• Three in 10 Pennsylvania Democratic voters were union members or had one in their household, and they favored Clinton over Obama.
• White voters who said race was a factor supported Clinton over Obama by 3-to-1, while whites who said race wasn't a factor divided between Clinton and Obama more evenly.
• Those who said gender was a factor actually tended to favor Clinton, while Obama did better among those who said gender was not a factor.

And here's where it bodes very well, if there's no self-immolation of the party before the convention:

Pennsylvania Democrats had a sour view of the economy — four in 10 said the country is in a serious recession and at least as many called it a moderate recession. Only about one in 10 said the economy is not in recession. Clinton did a little better than Obama on who would improve the country's economy, but nearly half of Pennsylvania Democrats thought both candidates would make a contribution to solving the country's economic problems.

from AP analysis of exit polls

Bitter?

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Obama's speech may have contained an un-felicitous turn of phrase, but as I read it I saw no "elititism" or "racism". (Although a Clinton supporter, I may not support all that she does or says!).

As a diarist at Daily Kos states:

Obama lists things that people use to explain their frustrations, not express them. I believe that Obama is remarking upon bitter people on the left and the right. In fact, this may be something of a pro-gun, pro-religious statement, basically saying that certain embittered liberals cling to guns as a way to explain their frustrations, while some embittered conservatives cling to xenophobia, while just about everyone can irrationally blame various religions.

And Robert Reich's take.

Over the last eight years (and really beginning back in the Reagan administration), wealth and capital and economic rights have been brazenly removed from the rest of us and transferred to an elite super-minority, the theft wrapped in a quilted cloak of growth and free enterprise and national security.

And if we dare to object, we are branded whiners or, worse, un-American.

Should we be bitter? HELL YA! Should we do something about in November? HELL YA!

First Lady? First Beer?

I learned several years ago about Cindy McCain —wife of the Republicanic presidential candidate.

I learned that she was an Anheuser-Busch distributorship heiress. I just hadn't realized how much of an heiress she was: try $100 million plus.

Cindy McCain is Hensley's chairwoman and holds at least a 20 percent stake in it, according to Arizona corporate records. She works mostly on strategic planning and corporate vision, said Hensley spokesman Douglas Yonko. The company is family owned, but Hensley won't say whether Cindy McCain is a majority shareholder.

Within the industry, as heiress to her father, she is widely assumed to own a majority of the company. If so, that would make her net worth at least $100 million, if industry estimates of Hensley's value are accurate. <...>

McCain himself reports little more wealth than when he started in politics. With his book royalties and radio-appearance fees donated to charity, McCain's Senate salary of $169,300 and Navy pension of about $56,000 are his only significant sources of income. He has accounts at two banks with his wife worth up to $15,000 each, according to his most recent financial disclosure report.

In contrast, Cindy McCain is a millionaire many times over — though the McCains haven't disclosed just how many times.

In government records, McCain is permitted to describe his wife's salary at Hensley as simply "more than $1,000" and, when listing her major assets, say only that they are worth "more than $1 million."

The reports show Cindy McCain has at least $9 million in assets on her own and at least $15 million with the McCain children. But those figures are virtually meaningless; her stake in Hensley & Co. alone almost certainly exceeds them by tens of millions of dollars.

Beverage industry analysts estimate Hensley's value at more than $250 million and its annual sales at $300 million or more. Hensley describes itself as the third-largest Anheuser-Bush wholesaler in the United States. It sold more than 23 million cases of beer last year and is among the nation's biggest beer distributors regardless of brand.

Beer executive could be next first lady
Sharon Theimer, Associated Press
April 3, 2008