Behind the NY Times Story on McCain Last Night

According to one of the talking heads last night (and I honestly cannot recall who said this), the New York Times decided to break its controversial story about John McCain's alleged affair with lobbyist Vicki Iseman -- which they allege also may have compromised McCain's ethics in a conflict of interest with Iseman's clients -- because they learned the New Republic was planning to publish a story about the Times' problems getting this story out.

Here's the New Republic story, right on time, as it were.

Now This Guy Gets It

To Vilify Obama for his Ability to Inspire is to Ignore the Principal Lesson of the Last Three Decades of American Politics

Huffington Post
Posted by ROBERT CREAMER
February 19, 2008 | 11:30 AM (EST)

It's one thing for supporters of Hillary Clinton to make the case that her experience in Washington politics would make her a better president than Barack Obama. But it's quite another to actually vilify Obama's ability to inspire as a "cult of the personality" or "nothing but words."

It is particularly disturbing when serious progressive writers who should know better repeat this attack on Obama's inspirational abilities. It demonstrates a failure to grasp the principal lesson of the last thirty years of American politics.

In fact, it is precisely the absence of inspiration in progressive politics that has kept Progressives on the political defensive for decades.

That's because to inspire people, Progressives have to appeal to something much more important than endless lists of policies and programs. To inspire people, Progressives have to appeal to our values and to our vision for the future.

Read the rest of this insightful Huffington Post editorialist's essay here.

ABC News: Bill Clinton Tells Texans It Could Be Over

Texas Could Be Hillary's Last Stand
Former President Tells Lone Star Crowd Wife Needs Wins in Texas and Ohio

By RICK KLEIN and SARAH AMOS
Feb. 20, 2008

There's a Texas-sized stumbling block on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's comeback trail.

Even Clinton's most devoted surrogate -- her husband, Bill Clinton -- acknowledged the do-or-die stakes on Wednesday in Beaumont, Texas, conceding that a loss in Texas or Ohio would likely doom her candidacy.

"If she wins Texas and Ohio I think she will be the nominee. If you don't deliver for her, I don't think she can be. It's all on you," the former president told the audience at the beginning of his speech.

Read the whole article here. Huffington Post has the AP version of a similar story here.

An Overseas Perspective on the Dem Primaries

If you listen to the regular gaggle of talking blatherheads on CNN and MSNBC -- many of whom I like most of the time -- you might think that the campaign for the Democratic nomination is now all about the latest picayune verbal misstep, and all Hillary has to do is catch Barack in some epistomological hiccup (or his wonderful intelligent wife Michelle, who has five times the speaking skills that Hillary has; if you doubt my estimation, just go review her amazing speech at UCLA on Feb. 4 on YouTube).

Well, time to turn off the local so-called analysts. Only Howard Fineman and Bill Schneider have the good sense to see this race with an even temper. The more Hillary goes negative, the more it boomerangs on her. The Clintons are daily spoiling their 90s legacy with too-clever-by-half snide comments and knowing looks. She should have kept crying. It worked better.

Here's a well-considered editorial from Britain's Guardian this morning. Mull this over a cup of coffee, and then tell me that Barack Obama doesn't have the experience or the acumen to handle the presidency. He's beat the pants off of Billary on every level of the three-dimensional chess game they thought they were playing in this campaign. And I think the American people simply grok all of it very clearly.

I will leave you with this thought: none other than Pat Buchanan pointedly noted last night on MSNBC that Obama had accrued more votes by himself than the entire Republican field together in Wisconsin Tuesday. In fact, by midnight, the Dems had together received more than 1 million votes. The Republicans earned half that all told. The same was true in Virginia last week. In Virginia. Shall I say that again?

-------------------------

Lost in Wisconsin
US elections 2008:
Hillary Clinton's campaign has made a series of strategic and tactical blunders that will ultimately cost her the presidential nomination

by Richard Adams
February 20, 2008 4:00 AM

If Hillary Clinton loses the Democratic presidential nomination - and after another hammering at the hands of Barack Obama in Wisconsin, it's increasingly looking as if she will - then it didn't just happen overnight.

Nor did she lose it last week, when she was devastated in the "Potomac primary" of three big losses in one day. Nor was it the series of defeats she suffered in states such as Washington, Louisiana and Nebraska. No, the day when the first nails went into the Clinton campaign's coffin was exactly two weeks ago - on February 6.

Read the rest of the article http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_adams/2008/02/lost_in_wisconsin.html">here.

Barack Obama: We Need You, Texas.

Obama's Victory speech after winning the Wisconsin primary tonight.

I second Michelle Obama's comments yesterday: I am very proud of America, for the first time in a long time. We are rediscovering ourselves and the best values we represent -- those that make us dream about making the world a better place once again.

BREAKING NEWS: Fidel Castro Resigns

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Fidel Castro announced his resignation as president of Cuba and commander-in-chief of Cuba's military on Tuesday, according to a letter published in the state-run newspaper, Granma.

The resignation ends nearly a half-century of iron-fisted rule that inspired revolutionaries but frustrated 10 U.S. presidents.

Castro revealed his plans without advance notice by publishing a letter in the middle of the night in state-run newspaper Granma.

"I will not aspire to, nor will I accept the position of president of the council of state and commander-in-chief," Castro wrote. "I wish only to fight as a soldier of ideas. ... Perhaps my voice will be heard."

The news is likely to send shock waves across the island and among the tens of thousands of Cubans who have sought refugee in the United States and other countries.

Castro, 81, captured the world's attention at the age of 32, when the bearded revolutionary led a band of guerillas that overthrew a corrupt dictatorship in 1959. He went on to become a thorn in Washington's paw by embracing communism and cozying up to the Soviet Union.

Read the entire CNN story here.

Sheryl Crow - God Bless This Mess

Just got the new Sheryl Crow album 'Detours." It's as good a record as she's ever made, with strong songs and thought provoking lyrics. And more than any other album she's made, this one is very political. Fittingly, she starts the album with this song, a kind of tribute to Bob Dylan's early songs, complete with crappy microphone hiss and vinyl record clicks & pops.

Sheryl Crow - Lullaby for Wyatt

Sheryl Crow - Shine Over Babylon

Sheryl Crow - Love is free

Not posting much, cause....

I've not been feeling well this weekend, and even before that, plus this was an odd week for both my partner and myself. Hopefully, I will get back to posting more in the next week.

Democratic Sandoval County Straw Poll

Only attended for a little while, but it was an interesting event, and i met a couple of the candidates for Congress for my district.

When You Go Vote Today, Prepare for a Crowd

Voted around 1 pm today, after standing out in the cold (28 degrees) for an hour with a fellow Corralen(e)a -- we held Obama signs together, and nearly everyone that passed us in their cars gave thumbs up, waved, hollared support out their windows, or honked and banged on their steering wheels. What fun!

Sadly it was just too cold to stand outside, so we went inside to vote.

My only suggestion is, don't wait until 6:45 tonight to go vote. The parking lot at the Corrales Rec Center was jammed with cars at noon. There were dozens of patient voters lined up in Disneyland-style twisty lines inside the gymnasium. People were serious about their voting today, and they are coming out in droves. Expect to wait, but you will have fun. Everyone seemed to be in a bouyant mood.

And guess what? Simple paper ballots and black ink pens. You fill in the block next to the name of the candidate of your choice, fold up your ballot and drop it through the ballot box slot. After all the (well-deserved) fuss about electronic voting machines, vote tampering, stolen elections and equipment breakdowns, it was a joy to vote the old-fashioned way.

Welcome to Whistling Dog Too

The layout on my previous blog, Whistling Dog, just went wobbly the other night. I can't fix it, and the last person I found on Blogger Help who had this same issue posted last April (2007). And no one had yet helped him. Does anyone have any idea how to reach Blogger Help Desk directly by email? All I have are no-reply addresses for them.

I've finished rebuilding the entire Whistling Dog blog over again, all 52 entries, as of this morning, Feb. 5, 2008. The only thing I could not save were the comments.

Welcome to Whistling Dog Too. (smiles)

Barack Obama Rallies in New Mexico Friday, Feb. 1

I dropped by the Sandoval County Democratic Club's Presidential Straw Poll event in Rio Rancho last night (which Obama won, by the way).

I learned at the Obama table that Barack Obama would be making at least a couple of appearances at rallies here in New Mexico this Friday, Feb. 1. The Obama campaign called me today and confirmed it.

This evening I checked the Obama website (http://newmexico.barackobama.com), and the info was all posted around 7 p.m.

There is info about the Friday Albuquerque rally on the New Mexico Community Blog:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/zachedwards/CGBqq

And through a link on that page to:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/albuquerque

This Friday, February 1st, Barack Obama will be in Albuquerque, NM for a special event at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

Here are the details:

Economic Summit with Barack Obama
Kiva Auditorium
Albuquerque Convention Center
401 2nd Street NW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Friday, February 1, 2008
Doors Open: 11:30 a.m.
For security reasons, do not brings bags. No signs or banners permitted. The event is free and open to the public; however tickets are required. Tickets are complimentary and are not for sale or re-sale. Due to space constraints, admission is on a first come, first serve basis.

You can also pick up tickets are at the Albuquerque Obama office beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday:
Albuquerque Obama Headquarters
1014 Lomas Blvd NW
Albuquerque, NM
Thursday: 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Here’s the info on the Santa Fe rally:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/communityservice/4rkfk
When: Feb. 1, 2008
Where: Santa Fe Community College Witter Fitness Center, 6401 Richards Avenue, Santa Fe
Details about Albuquerque still pending.
Time: Doors open at 5 p.m., event starts at 6:30 p.m.
Free tickets available on-line on Thursday evening. Check BarackObama.com, click on STATES, click on New Mexico for information.

Here’s the Santa Fe rally ticket link:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/communityservice/4vt8f
Free tickets for the Obama event in Santa Fe, Feb. 1, 6:30 p.m. will be available on Thursday, January 31, 5 - 7 p.m. at parking lot across the street from the post office on Central Avenue. (doesn’t say which post office though).

The Albuquerque Obama information number I have is: 505-228-0496

First drafted for posting on 1-31-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius Endorses Obama

Last night in El Dorado, Kansas, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) endorsed Barack Obama for president with a very competent and impressive speech, and I couldn't help but think that she might make a wonderful vice presidential running mate for Obama, if he is nominated.

See what you think. (My guess is probably for Bill Richardson as a VP for either Obama or Hillary.)

So, I checked Wikipedia to see what it says about her. Lo, and behold! Read the rest of the Wiki entry about her here.

During the 2004 election Sebelius was named as a potential running mate for John Kerry.[14] In the aftermath of Kerry's defeat in the 2004 presidential election, some pundits named Sebelius as a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008. Some of Sebelius's political leanings, including support for abortion rights and opposition to capital punishment, are unusual for a governor of Kansas; yet many contend that her appeal would be broad among her fellow Midwesterners.[citation needed] As of 2008, speculation remains that she would be a contender for the vice-presidential slot on a ticket headed by either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.[15]Speculation that the Vice Presidential nomination lies in her future was heightened by the fact that she was chosen by the Democratic Party's congressional leaders to give their party's official response to Republican President George W. Bush's State of the Union Address.[16] The next day, she endorsed Obama's campaign, one week before the Kansas caucus on Super Tuesday [17].

Sebelius is now chair of the Democratic Governors Association, a popular launchpad for those with national political ambitions.[18] In 2007, she traveled to Istanbul to attend the annual Bilderberg Group meeting.[19]

First posted 1-30-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Kennedy Endorsements of Barack Obama

This is history in the making. The Kennedys have withheld their endorsements from candidates for 40 years. They have now done it as a family. Today, Barack Obama wears the mantle of the Kennedy family -- and he can call upon the heritage of Jack and Bobby Kennedy with the family's blessing.

Something new is happening.

First posted 1-29-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Charlie Gibson interviews Ted and Caroline Kennedy

First posted 1-29-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Barack Obama's response to Bush's final State of the Union

First posted 1-29-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

CNN: Barack forming a huge coalition

First posted 1-29-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Sandoval County Dems to Straw Poll in Rio Rancho Jan. 29, 6:30 pm

I received a call from the New Mexico Obama campaign last night, and they told me there will be a straw poll event at the Rio Rancho Inn, 1465 Rio Rancho Dr. SE, just north of Sara Road, at 6:30 pm tonight, Tuesday Jan. 29, 2008, for New Mexico Democrats, to test the temperature of the local electorate in advance of the Feb. 5 caucuses.

If you are a registered Democrat living in Sandoval County, please consider attending this event tonight, whichever candidate you support. I will be standing for Obama myself, as I have already declared.



http://newmexico.barackobama.com/page/content/NMResources/?source=NMhome

First posted 1-29-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

I Will Support Barack Obama on Feb. 5

If -- from my recent Whistling Dog posts -- you might be wondering if I'm favoring Barack Obama in the upcoming New Mexico Democratic caucuses, you would be correct in your assumption.

I think the Clintons (both Bill and Hillary) have behaved immaturely (my mother's word, actually) in recent weeks -- in a shockingly clumsy way, as a matter of fact -- especially for a couple with a reputation for competence and intelligence.

That Bill & Hill could not understand that the election is not about them, but about us -- as a people, a community, a culture, a country and an idea -- is disturbing, to say the least, and perhaps grounds for getting them both off the national stage ASAP with a very large and deliberate Vaudevillian hook.

Furthermore, I think Barack Obama has matured and held his ground not only as a candidate, but as a human being. In the words of my very Republican-loyalist 86-year-old mother, a President Barack Obama "could be very healing for the country." If my Republican mom wants to vote for Obama, I say we have a winning candidate.

On Charlie Rose tonight (Monday, Jan. 28), ABC News' Martha Raddatz said that the majority of service people in Iraq and Afghanistan she spoke with on a recent trip supported Barack Obama. Then presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin added that her son, who earned a Bronze Star during two tours of duty as a platoon leader in Baghdad, had told her the same thing. When the military supports a Democrat, especially whne a decorated and celebrated war hero like John McCain may well be the Republican nominee for president, it is time to sit up and take notice.

Re: the NM Dem caucuses on Feb. 5

I've felt we have heard too little about the Feb. 5 caucuses. It turns out that because the NM Dem State Central Committee and Governor Richardson wanted to move the Dem presidential primaries up to Feb. 5, the event had to be held separately from the state's regular primary, which meant it could not be called a primary, and it had to be promoted with publicity only (not advertising) by the NM Democratic Party. So, I thought I would do my little bit here to help get out the word.

The upcoming Dem "caucuses" -- which will be run by the NM Democratic Party, not by the NM Secretary of State's office -- will, by the way, not be an Iowa-style caucus. It will be a paper ballot election, with 184 polling places located around the state, each open 12 noon to 7 pm on Tuesday, Feb. 5. I was sorry to hear that when I called the NM Dem Party office the other day to get info about the election. I'd been looking forward to participating in a live-person caucus as they do in Iowa and Nevada. Ah, well.

Here's the link to the Feb. 5 caucus FAQ's pdf.

I'll be posting more about this soon. Please, Vote!

http://newmexico.barackobama.com/page/content/NMResources/?source=NMhome



First posted 1-29-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Barack Obama - Victory Speech in South Carolina

First posted 1-27-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Now Ted Kennedy Will Endorse and Campaign For Barack Obama

Photo credit: Stephen Jaffe/Agence France-Presse

When Bill Clinton was president, he and his wife sailed with the Kennedys off Cape Cod. In this 1997 outing, the former president is at the helm, Hillary Rodham Clinton is second from left and Senator Edward M. Kennedy is to her right.




January 28, 2008
Kennedy Chooses Obama, Spurning Bill Clinton Plea
By Jeff Zeleny and Carl Hulse

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Senator Edward M. Kennedy, rejecting entreaties from the Clintons and their supporters, is set to endorse Senator Barack Obama’s presidential bid on Monday as part of an effort to lend Kennedy charisma and connections before the 22-state Feb. 5 showdown for the Democratic nomination.

Both the Clintons and their allies had pressed Mr. Kennedy for weeks to remain neutral in the Democratic race, but Mr. Kennedy had become increasingly disenchanted with the tone of the Clinton campaign, aides said. He and former President Bill Clinton had a heated telephone exchange earlier this month over what Mr. Kennedy considered misleading statements by Mr. Clinton about Mr. Obama, as well as his injection of race into the campaign.

Mr. Kennedy called Mr. Clinton Sunday to tell him of his decision.

The endorsement, which followed a public appeal on Mr. Obama’s behalf by Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, was a blow to the Clinton campaign and pits leading members of the nation’s most prominent Democratic families against one another.

Mr. Kennedy, a major figure in party politics for more than 40 years, intends to campaign aggressively for Mr. Obama, beginning with an appearance and rally with him in Washington on Monday. He will be introduced by Ms. Kennedy.

Mr. Kennedy then heads west with Mr. Obama, followed by appearances in the Northeast. Strategists see him bolstering Mr. Obama’s credibility and helping him firm up support from unions and Hispanics, as well as the party base.

The endorsement appears to support assertions that Mr. Clinton’s campaigning on behalf of his wife in South Carolina has in some ways hurt her candidacy.

Read the entire article here.

First posted 1-27-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Caroline Kennedy Endorses Barack Obama

January 27, 2008
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
A President Like My Father
By Caroline Kennedy

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

Read the entire editorial here.

First posted 1-27-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

NY Times Praises Obama, but Endorses Hillary

The New York Times Editorial Board , as was earlier rumored, has endorsed Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee for president. This endorsement comes with a few caveats, however. Here are a few select paragraphs from today's editorial in the Times' Opinion section.

The potential upside of a great Obama presidency is enticing, but this country faces huge problems, and will no doubt be facing more that we can’t foresee. The next president needs to start immediately on challenges that will require concrete solutions, resolve, and the ability to make government work. Mrs. Clinton is more qualified, right now, to be president.

We opposed President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and we disagree with Mrs. Clinton’s vote for the resolution on the use of force. That’s not the issue now; it is how the war will be ended. Mrs. Clinton seems not only more aware than Mr. Obama of the consequences of withdrawal, but is already thinking through the diplomatic and military steps that will be required to contain Iraq’s chaos after American troops leave.

On domestic policy, both candidates would turn the government onto roughly the same course — shifting resources to help low-income and middle-class Americans, and broadening health coverage dramatically. Mrs. Clinton also has good ideas about fixing the dysfunction in Mr. Bush’s No Child Left Behind education program.

Mr. Obama talks more about the damage Mr. Bush has done to civil liberties, the rule of law and the balance of powers. Mrs. Clinton is equally dedicated to those issues, and more prepared for the Herculean task of figuring out exactly where, how and how often the government’s powers have been misused — and what must now be done to set things right.

As strongly as we back her candidacy, we urge Mrs. Clinton to take the lead in changing the tone of the campaign. It is not good for the country, the Democratic Party or for Mrs. Clinton, who is often tagged as divisive, in part because of bitter feeling about her husband’s administration and the so-called permanent campaign. (Indeed, Bill Clinton’s overheated comments are feeding those resentments, and could do long-term damage to her candidacy if he continues this way.)

We know that she is capable of both uniting and leading. We saw her going town by town through New York in 2000, including places where Clinton-bashing was a popular sport. She won over skeptical voters and then delivered on her promises and handily won re-election in 2006.

Her ideas, her comeback in New Hampshire and strong showing in Nevada, her new openness to explaining herself and not just her programs, and her abiding, powerful intellect show she is fully capable of doing just that. She is the best choice for the Democratic Party as it tries to regain the White House.

Read the full editorial here.

First posted 1-25-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

I Just Called Hillary Clinton's Office

Watch the above Chris Matthews interview with Ed Schultz and Mark Green of Air America Radio, and see what you think to the question: Is Bill Clinton helping or hurting Hillary and the Democrats. Ed Schultz says categorically Bill Clinton is hurting. I agree with him.

I called the press office for Hillary Clinton's campaign this morning. I wanted them to hear what I feel, and I know a lot of us have felt similar emotions this past month:

The attacks by Hillary and Bill on Barack Obama are not helping her campaign and are dividing the party, and this friction could conceivably hand the next election to the Republicans, however unthinkable that might have seemed even a couple of weeks ago.

I told them to stop, in no uncertain terms. I said their strategy would make it impossible for a Clinton/Obama ticket to be realized if they kept this up, that when Hillary announced with Obama and John Edwards in Las Vegas that they were all calling a truce, that everyone expected her to follow through on that. I said that because she and Bill did not quit their disingenuous sniping at Obama, she and Bill were losing credibility.

And I told them that everyone expects the Clintons to be the heroes right now, to be above the fray, to ride to the rescue of the country, and that is what the country wants, not this divisive bickering that they've started.

As my partner said this morning: every time Hillary shakes her head and purses her lips when Barack Obama says something during a debate, she only makes herself look like the pinched school marm we always thought she was. And none of us want to elect a school marm for president. We've already had seven years with a school bully in the White House.

If you want the Clintons to start embodying once again the best of what they can be and who they are, call the Hillary Clinton campaign in Washington now. Here is their contact info:

Hillary Clinton for President
4420 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203
703-469-2008
Fax: 703-962-8600
email: go to this URL and send a message of hope:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/help/contact/

First posted 1-24-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Al Gore Posts a Video Supporting Gay Marriage

In a story logged today on Politico.com and then covered on Huffington Post, Poltico.com columnist Ben Smith writes:

Not sure what prompted this, but Al Gore has quietly released a video with a forceful endorsement of equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians. It pushes the Democratic establishment that much closer to a position he now shares with Eliot Spitzer and some other leading Dems, and is prompting a bit of grumbling in gay political circles that this batch of candidates aren't quite there.

"Gay men and women ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women -- to make contracts, to have hospital visiting rights, to join together in marriage, and I don't understand why it is considered by some people to be a threat to heterosexual marriage," he says on the video, which appears on his Current TV network. "Shouldn't we be promoting the kind of faithfulness and loyalty to ones partner regardless of sexual orientation?"

Read the whole story here.

Towleroad.com has also covered this.

Here's Gore's original video link on Current.tv.

First posted 1-23-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Barack Obama On Email Rumors About His Faith

See an extended version from the CBN's Brody file, replayed by Wolf Blitzer at CNN. The YouTube version here.

First posted 1-23-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Sen. Obama on the Today Show

From this morning's Today show on NBC. I am so disappointed in the snarky and disingenuous tone both Bill and Hillary Clinton have taken since New Hampshire to try to cut Barack Obama down. If they are trying to test his mettle to make him a better candidate, I believe they are going to succeed.

First posted 1-23-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Red, White and Blue Tag Sale

If you want to know what's really going to drive the coming elections, there is no better sage than the sarcastic queen herself, Maureen Dowd, to lay it all out in easy to understand "See Dick Run" sophistication.

I recommend you read her column today (New York Times registration required). It is the perfect companion to the news article I just posted earlier today. And, I must ad, her column gave me a few bits of inspiration for the essay I posted directly before this.

Here are three apropos paragraphs from her column, entitled Red, White and Blue Tag Sale:

Two decades ago, we fretted that Japan was taking over America when Sony bought Columbia Pictures and Mitsubishi bought a chunk of Rockefeller Center. But they overpaid for everything.

Now, because of Wall Street’s overreaching, our economy depends on foreign oil and foreign loans to stay afloat.

China and Arab countries have a staggering amount of treasury securities. And the oil-rich countries are sitting on so many petrodollars that they are looking beyond prestige hotels and fashion labels and taking advantage of the fire sale to buy eye-popping stakes in our major financial institutions.

And then there's this humdinger Maureen quotes from Warren the Buffett:

As Warren Buffett has said, we are giving ourselves a party to feed our appetite for oil and imported goods and paying for it by selling off the furniture, our most precious assets.

Oh, by the way, if I am not mistaken, kiddies, it may have been Mr. Buffett, who helped get us into this mess 20-plus years ago by pushing the notion to corporate CEOs that the only obligation of public businesses was to please their shareholders -- not their employees, not their customers, nor their communities, nor even their country. He made a lot of money for himself and several thousand of his devotees before he told his children they weren't getting any of it -- oh, by the way -- more recently. A fine howdy-do that must have been.

At least Mr. Buffett is using his latter years to try to lead the rest of us out of this wasteland of milk and honey he first led us into. Sometimes I think I'd rather have a golden calf, personally. I guess his kids will have to find their way out on their own.

First posted 1-20-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

The Yard Sale - Homily for Sunny Winter Sunday

The previous post was the news side of today's sermon.

Here's where I think we are as a country in my own words.

Our economy is about to go through a ringer that was predictable from the beginning of the Bush Administration fiasco. Let's put this in personal, local terms:


Let's say you are the head of the spoiled brat ne'er-do-well family of the neighborhood.

You've always been uppity with your neighbors, and certainly you seemed to have more money than they did, but at least they all thought you meant well -- despite your occasional drunken binges, your wild parties (where everyone had fun anyway), in spite of that odd car you wrecked into a lamppost once when you were over in Little Vietnam down in Orange County (well, that was a long time ago), and in spite of a certain amount of bullying you can be prone to -- because you have always come to everyone else's defense when other people get into trouble.

Then let's say your oldest son comes home from college. He didn't graduate with honors, and he nearly got thrown out, but you don't tell anyone about that.

Everyone likes him at first. However, he's a smart-aleck frat kid, and his sense of humor tends to put others at a disadvantage. Every now and then he humiliates someone else with an off-hand joke, and you get the feeling from him that if you don't laugh, there will be consequences. Very awkward. People stop coming around, and your parties aren't fun any more.

What's worse for you is that your son can't keep a job. He goes through the allowance you give him on the first day you give it to him, every week.

You're starting to get worried, to say the least.













One day, someone who doesn't like your frat kid son, breaks into your garage and burns it down. He had an old race car in there he was fixing up. Maybe someone thought your son cared about it, but he'd had it up on jacks since he was in high school.

A couple of days go by, and still no one knows who did it. You want to get the police involved, but your son bullies you about it until you let the whole thing go.

Now you really begin to suspect that something is terribly wrong, but you say nothing for the sake of maintaining some peace at the dinner table. Your son has a rotten temper, and you don't want to provoke him.

No one outside your family knows anything about this, of course. All of your neighbors finally feel sorry for you. They come around bringing pies and cakes and lasagna to say how much they care. But instead of saying thank you, your frat kid son points his finger at one neighbor who comes to the door and he threatens to burn down your neighbor's garage if he so much as looks cross-eyed at your son again.

Word gets around quickly. Everyone in the neighborhood is frightened to talk with you now. They avoid you at the market, at church, at the hardware store. Even the barber won't talk to you when you get a haircut.

Still, you hold up your head and try to maintain your dignity. After all, you've been an important person in your town, in spite of your weaknesses.


The next blow falls when you start getting dunning notices from the credit card companies, and you discover to your horror that your son has been running up debt like a drunk (well, he is a drunk; you just didn't want to admit it. After all, you're not so sober yourself, and your spouse is on anti-depressants).

To get the banks off your back, you do something desperate: at a poker party at a neighbor's house one night you ask your closest friends to lend you money. You discover they still love you and your family, in spite of everything that's happened, and they feel very sorry for you now. They don't blame you for your troubles. They blame your son. So they say yes. "Anything you want," they promise, and you accept the moon.

But there is an unspoken agreement between you and your neighbors as a price for their generosity, and that is this: they tell you you have to keep your son under control. "He's a menace to the serenity of the neighborhood," they tell you. You say yes, okay, you will.

But you don't, and things get immeasurably worse.











One rainy night, under the cover of a thunder storm, your son gets caught breaking and entering an old lady's house. She gets driven off in an ambulance, a brace around her neck. You are left with untold thousands in legal bills, medical bills and lawsuits.

You wish your son had run from the law. It would have been easier to face everyone else. But he doesn't. Instead, he swears he was just getting his revenge for the garage incident. He insists the old lady's nephew was the one who did it, and he can prove it. He claims he was looking for evidence. He even tells this tall tale to the police. Your lawyer sends your son to a psychiatrist. He wants to use an insanity defense, but you won't hear of it. "Not my son!" you shout.

Your son bravely locks himself in his room and sulks. You can't talk to him. He won't come to the door. Things get black.

And the bills pile up, and up.


What can you possibly do? You're stuck. You can't move, you can't sell, because no one will buy your house for what you paid for it. The yard has gone to seed. The garage is still a charred scar beside your once beautiful home. The paint is peeling, and you have no money to fix it up again.

One morning you announce to your wife over the last two glasses worth of orange juice in the fridge that you've decided you have no choice. You have no credit. You plan sell everything you have to pay at least a few of your bills. All of your income and hers goes to the lawyers now. And you at least have to eat.

"You may just have to eat, but I have a life, and everything is in your name," she says. Your wife packs her bags and leaves you without another word. You know, because she's told you over and over for weeks, that it was either her or your son. And you hadn't been willing to make a choice. So she makes it for you.

You get really good and drunk that day, a Saturday. The next morning, on a Sunday, hung over and unshaven, you put everything out in your driveway, and you start a vigil with all of your belongings, until everything you own is gone. Your neighbors dub it "the longest yard sale in the history of your town."

Half of your belongings they simply cart away. You don't dare charge them a nickel, because you owe them more money than you want to tally.

Everyday you think, as you sink more and more into a depression, that maybe if your son has no bed to sleep on, he'll leave. You hope and pray he'll leave. But no. Never. He hunkers in the corner of his empty closet, rocking back and forth, madly muttering incoherently. His room begins to smell so bad you won't go down to that end of the hall anymore.

Now you can barely afford to buy peanut butter and milk. Your wife has left you. You sleep on one broken down couch facing an old black and white television you can't bring yourself to shut off at night. Your house is empty. You will never have any money to pay back your friends, the banks, the lawyers, the doctors, the IRS or the courts. You are alone, and friendless, and about to be homeless.

But at least, you have your son.












And that, my friends, is about where we are.

Not exactly David Niven's sermon at the end of The Bishop's Wife, now was it? I wonder what Cary Grant would say, were he alive today. I know if I were he, I would be living in France.

Here endeth the lesson for today.


Wait a second! Wait a second! I just watched Lewis Black's new HBO special on Comedy Central, and I just have one thing to say about the ridiculously pessimistic essay above. I mean, have you ever heard such sophomoric drivvle in your life? ...Wait...

What? Someone's at the door? The Intervention TV show crew?...What? And this stupid slob's parents? What? And his GRANDMOTHER? You have GOT to be kidding me. . ..

What? Bill Clinton's here, too? What the hell is this, a campaign stop, fer godssakes? What the hell is Bill Clinton going to do here, feel this guys's pain? What? No, I don't know whether he's going to vote in the primary next month! He doesn't even have a car! Jesus H. Chri...

Hey, ask Bill Clinton if he'll pay for this guy's heating bill! He will if this guy will volunteer for Hillary, huh? Okay, lemme ask him... Nah, don't bother. He says he's voting for Obama... Hold on! What did you say? You were a f***king Republican? That the f***ck is the MATTER with you people!??

Oh, fer Chrissakes, nevermind... Of all the stupid idiots in the world... And you couldn't see this coming, huh....?

First posted 1-20-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Overseas Investors Buy U.S. Holdings at a Record Pace

By PETER S. GOODMAN and LOUISE STORY
Published: January 20, 2008

Last May, a Saudi Arabian conglomerate bought a Massachusetts plastics maker. In November, a French company established a new factory in Adrian, Mich., adding 189 automotive jobs to an area accustomed to layoffs. In December, a British company bought a New Jersey maker of cough syrup.

For much of the world, the United States is now on sale at discount prices. With credit tight, unemployment growing and worries mounting about a potential recession, American business and government leaders are courting foreign money to keep the economy growing. Foreign investors are buying aggressively, taking advantage of American duress and a weak dollar to snap up what many see as bargains, while making inroads to the world’s largest market.

Last year, foreign investors poured a record $414 billion into securing stakes in American companies, factories and other properties through private deals and purchases of publicly traded stock, according to Thomson Financial, a research firm. That was up 90 percent from the previous year and more than double the average for the last decade. It amounted to more than one-fourth of all announced deals for the year, Thomson said.

Read the whole article here.


First posted 1-20-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Hilarious Colbert Report Interview with Lou Dobbs

See the original vid on Comedy Central here.

The Huffington Post published this piece about last night's Colbert Report spoof interview (above) with Lou Dobbs by Colbert's Spanish-language counterpart, Esteban Colberto. The interview, according to HuffPost Media & Special Projects Editor Rachel Sklar, was actually a clever re-edited version of Colbert's interview with Dobbs from a year ago.

Read Sklar's article at HuffPost here.

First posted 1-18-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

NH CONTEST: Diebold Miscounts Reported in First Day of Election Hand Recount

Blogged by Brad Friedman from on the road...

LATEST OUT OF NH: Disparities being found during hand-counts of ballots, in many wards, many candidates. Diebold op-scan memory cards unaccounted for at the moment, Secretary of State (SoS) doesn't track them after elections, doesn't track error reports during elections. LHS Associates (see below) handles all of it instead, according to reports on the ground. Public records request reveals hundreds of ballots in one area scanned as blank due to incorrect ink used on ballots, and other problems on LHS problem report forms.

Read the whole report here.

I will continue to post Brad's reports here on Whistling Dog.


First posted 1-17-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Survey Says? Bloomberg Couldn't Win

[New York] Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg would lose the presidential vote in key states and even in New York City were he to run, according to a SurveyUSA poll commissioned by WABC. Despite his strong approval ratings in the city — currently 73% according to Quinnipiac University — Mr. Bloomberg would be able to claim, in his best scenario, 28% of the vote in a three-way race between Senator Obama and Michael Huckabee, losing easily to Mr. Obama. He fares even worse in other hypothetical match-ups, securing only 18% of the vote against fellow New Yorkers, Senator Clinton and Mayor Giuliani, and 21% against Ms. Clinton and Senator McCain.

Read the whole article here.

First posted 1-17-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

GOP funk slows turnout, money

By: Jim VandeHei and John F. Harris
Jan 16, 2008 07:14 PM EST

Ten months before Election Day, Republicans are facing a threat that spells serious trouble for GOP candidates from the top of the ticket down to the most obscure races. The problem is the funk of the foot soldiers.

So far, the story of the 2008 campaign on the Republican side is what’s not happening.

Ambitious Republican politicians at the state and local levels are not deciding that this is the year to make a bid for higher office.

Republican contributors are not opening their wallets and writing campaign checks.

Most striking of all, Republican voters are not heading to the polls to vote in the GOP primaries in anything like participation rates of early years.

Read the whole article here.

First posted 1-16-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

New Hampshire Recount Granted

This story, by Kristen Anderson at the Huffington Post, is a pretty good summary of my thinking about why we need a recount for the New Hampshire primary. We've heard all kinds of explanations for why the vote came out the way it did last week, and they all have their merits, but as we are just beginning the primary process, it behooves everyone to make sure we feel comfortable with the integrity of our election system.

When even the New York Times chimes in with an article entitled: "Can You Count on Voting Machines?" the Sunday before the New Hampshire primary, well...let's just say it will pay to make absolutely certain the results were accurate. At least New Hampshire uses all paper ballots, so there are physical marks for the recount counters to count.

Hats off to Dennis Kucinich and Republican candidate Albert Howard. I'm with Frank, who commented about my earlier posting on Kucinich's call for a recount, I hope Dennis stays in the race to the convention just so we will have a candidate who can and will request a recount everytime if necessary, if nothing else but for the sake of principle. -- wes grey wolf



By Wednesday morning, stories were flying all around the Internet--have you looked closely at the results of the primary? There was something strange about the votes, they said, about the difference between municipalities that hand-counted votes and those that used optical scanners. The chatter increased, and by Friday, the New Hampshire Department of State issued a press release announcing that two candidates, Democrat Dennis Kucinich and Republican Albert Howard had requested and been granted a recount, having met the following requirement:

"New Hampshire law, RSA 660:7, provides that "any person for whom a vote was cast for any nomination of any party at a state or presidential primary may apply for a recount." RSA 660:2, IV provides that if the difference between the vote cast for the applying candidate and a candidate declared elected shall be greater than 3 percent of the total votes cast in the towns which comprise the office to be recounted, the candidate shall pay the fees provided in RSA 660:2, III and shall agree in writing with the secretary of state to pay any additional costs of the recount." RSA 660:6 provides that if the person requesting the recount is declared the winner after the recount or loses by a margin of less than one percent of the total votes cast, the fees for the recount will be refunded by the State."

The recounts will begin on January 16, at a time and location to be announced after the state has completed an estimate of the cost and received payment based on that estimate.

Read the whole article here.


First posted 1-14-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

John Kerry Endorses Barack Obama in 2008

This is a fine speech. I think strategically this is also an amazing move by the Obama campaign: on the heels of Hillary's turnabout in New Hampshire this week, the last Democratic candidate for President passes the torch instead to Barack Obama. Now this is an endorsement. I can't find the rest of this speech, but the Obama campaign has posted a shorter version of Kerry's speech and his introduction of Obama here.

YouTube video here.

First posted 1-11-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Barack Obama: Yes We Can

Obama's speech after the New Hampshire primary. It's not just that this man speaks in beautiful cadences reminiscent of Martin Luther King, I think I find him so inspiring because he holds himself at all times with such dignity and a sense of perfect, effortless balance.

Every other politician has to work at looking comfortable in his own skin, but Barack Obama gives confidence to everyone else around him, he has it in so much abundance. Even my mother, a lifelong Republican, wants to vote for him. That's the whole story in a nutshell.

YouTube video here.

First posted 1-11-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Anne Rice Pitches for Hillary and Barack as the Democratic Party Ticket

David Kuo, of all people, just posted this Anne Rice YouTube video in support of a Hillary Clinton candidacy -- with Barack Obama as Hillary's vice presidential candidate -- on the Huffington Post. If you don't remember David Kuo, he was once deputy director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives for the Bush White House, until he walked and took his evangelical friends and credentials with him, then wrote and promoted the book Tempting Faith -- before the 2006 election.

VERY interesting...

First posted 1-10-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Kucinich Calls for New Hampshire Recount

From a press release issued by the Dennis Kucinich campaign today, Thursday, January 10, 2008:

DETROIT, MI – Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, the most outspoken advocate in the Presidential field and in Congress for election integrity, paper-ballot elections, and campaign finance reform, has sent a letter to the New Hampshire Secretary of State asking for a recount of Tuesday’s election because of “unexplained disparities between hand-counted ballots and machine-counted ballots.”

“I am not making this request in the expectation that a recount will significantly affect the number of votes that were cast on my behalf,” Kucinich stressed in a letter to Secretary of State William M. Gardner. But, “Serious and credible reports, allegations, and rumors have surfaced in the past few days…It is imperative that these questions be addressed in the interest of public confidence in the integrity of the election process and the election machinery – not just in New Hampshire, but in every other state that conducts a primary election.”

Read the full press release here.

First posted 1-10-08 on the original Whistling Dog.

Sure, There Are Some Echoes, but '08 Won't Be '68

Joel Achenbach published this thoughtful editorial in the Washington Post yesterday. It reflects my own thinking on the parallels between our time and forty years ago (I can scarcely comprehend that much time has passed, but so be it).





By Joel Achenbach
, Sunday, December 30, 2007; B01

History repeating itself: It's a tidy premise. In fact, it's irresistible -- and wrong, but wrong in interesting ways that shed light on both years. Sure, elements of '68 persist in the world and in America today (because folly is durable), but the difference between 2008 and 1968 is the difference between needing psychotherapy and requiring a brain transplant.

Read the full editorial here.

First posted 12-31-07 on the original Whistling Dog.

Looking at America

December 31, 2007
EDITORIAL

There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior. It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency.

Read the full editorial here. Note: You must have a subscription to read this editorial.

First posted 12-31-07 on the original Whistling Dog.

Fixin' To Die Rag - Country Joe & the Fish

Okay, so this is an oldie, but so little has changed in this country over the last 40 years, and so much truly has changed, that it's worth looking back. The Iowa Caucuses are just a few days away, and it truly does feel a little like that time once more. The Circle Game, perhaps, as Joni Mitchell once sang.

First posted 12-30-07 on the original Whistling Dog.

Things Have Changed - Bob Dylan

Lately I've been vacillating between the sentiments expressed in this wonderful Bob Dylan song from "The Wonder Boys" and something like The Jefferson Ariplane's old song "Volunteers." Let's just hope 2008 is less like 1968 and more like 1967.

First posted 12-30-07 on the original Whistling Dog.

Key Setbacks Dim Luster of Democrats' Year

By Jonathan Weisman and Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 20, 2007; A01

The first Democratic-led Congress in a dozen years limped out of Washington last night with a lengthy list of accomplishments, from the first increase in fuel-efficiency standards in a generation to the first minimum-wage hike in a decade.

But Democrats' failure to address the central issues that swept them to power left even the most partisan of them dissatisfied and Congress mired at a historic low in public esteem.

Handed control of Congress last year after making promises to end the war in Iraq, restore fiscal discipline in Washington and check President Bush's powers, Democrats instead closed the first session of the 110th Congress yesterday with House votes that sent Bush $70 billion in war funding, with no strings attached, and a $50 billion alternative-minimum-tax measure that shattered their pledge not to add to the federal budget deficit.

"I'm not going to let a lot of hard work go unnoticed, but I'm not going to hand out party hats, either," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.).

On Iraq, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said yesterday: "Nobody is more disappointed with the fact that we couldn't change that than I am." But Pelosi was not about to accept Republican assertions that her first year as speaker has been unsuccessful, saying: "Almost everything we've done has been historic."

Read the full story here.

First posted 12-19-07 on the original Whistling Dog.

Dodd's Filibuster Threat Stalls Wiretap Bill

From Sam Stein at the Huffington Post:

Senator Chris Dodd won a temporary victory today after his threats of a filibuster forced Democratic leadership to push back consideration of a measure that would grant immunity to telecom companies that were complicit in warrantless surveillance.

The measure was part of a greater bill to reorganize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Earlier on Monday, the Senate, agreed to address a bill that would have overhauled FISA, authorized the monitoring of people outside the United States, given secret courts the power to approve aspects of surveillance, and granted telecom companies retroactive immunity for past cooperation.

But the threat of Dodd's filibuster, aimed primarily at the latter measure, persuaded Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, to table the act until January. A compromise on the immunity will ostensibly be worked out in the interim period.

Read the whole article here.

First posted 12-18-07 on the original Whistling Dog.

William S. Burroughs' Thanksgiving Card to America

This is a brilliant little polemic. It makes you cringe, and to wish what Burroughs says isn't true. But it all is. This is who we are as Americans, and who we have been, and not who we wish to be.

According to the YouTube summary, "...This is a short film by Gus Van Sant of Mr. Burroughs reading his poem called Thanksgiving Day Nov. 28, 1986." Here's the original video on YouTube.

There is also another more positive and hopeful side to America, of course. But I believe we cannot be who we want to be unless we accept the worst truths about ourselves. Burroughs lays it out, warts and worse, here.

We have certainly come face to face over the past few years with those parts of ourselves and of our society and our culture that we have preferred to lock away in secret cupboards. No doubt about that. All the crows are hanging about now and squawking, right in the open, from Bill O'Reilly to Mitch McConnell and Ann Coulter and the so-called Rev. James Dobson.

Pretend I'm Howard Beale for just one moment. I want you to get mad as hell. I want you to go to the window and open it and yell at all of those crows just like Terry Jones in Life of Brian. Repeat after me at the top of your voice (make sure you sound like an old British washerwoman now): "Go away!!"

Then take two Tylenol, but don't call me in the morning, please. Call your Senators and your Congressional Representative. Tell them what is on your mind. Be courteous. Their staff members are getting an earful right now on every subject. Please add yours to the mix.

Call the local Democratic candidate who is running in your district or state at whatever level and volunteer to work for them. Call your County Clerk's office and volunteer to work as a voting clerk or judge in the primaries next spring. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper and tell them what you see that bothers you and how you want to see us fix it as a community. And most of all, contribute, contribute, contribute as best you can with the means you have.

Whatever you do, don't just sit there. I'm serious.

First posted 12-18-07 on the original Whistling Dog.

An Early Movie with Two Men Dancing

Found this not directly on YourTube but at the top of a DList profile of a wise-beyond-his-years young man.

First posted 12-18-7 on the original Whistling Dog.

Sen. Chris Dodd Plans a Filibuster over FISA

Finally Something to Filibuster About

This CBS story was the headline link on Huff Post Sunday night.

I spoke with Sen. Chris Dodd's office several weeks ago after I heard him say on Air America that he planned to filibuster if the FISA "fix-it" bill came to the Senate floor with immunity for the telecom companies. Dodd's staff confirmed then that he planned to filibuster.

It appears he has stuck with his pledge. He should be supported and applauded.

Sen. Dodd (D-CT) has been an important articulator during this past year on the subject of Constitutional rights. His determined campaign to bring subjects like this to the front of the Democratic nomination process is one key reason all of the candidates made such a point of saying last week in Iowa that they would heal the Constitutional wounds that Bush has inflicted on this country.

The House has already passed a FISA bill that does not include telecom immunity, and in my opinion they should not get immunity. If they do, the courts -- which are dealing with numerous lawsuits on this subject right now -- and the Congress -- which has been investigating but not getting very far -- will never be able to uncover the un-Constitutional invasions of privacy shenanigans the telecoms have committed in collusion with the Bush Administration in the name fighting "terrorism."

Aside: Can one really declare a "war on terror?" Isn't that like declaring war on all the sand on all the beaches in the world? Answer: Yes. This is a completely futile and symbolic act, the only purpose of which is to keep the population stirred up and fearful, so one can do things like....infringe on people's civil liberties with relative impunity.

Anyway, please support Dodd's efforts to stop the Senate Intelligence Committee's FISA bill that coddles the telecom companies.

Please call your Senators now. Urge them to support the Judiciary Committee's FISA bill instead. This bill excludes immunity for the telecoms.

Both bills may come to the Senate floor as early as today, Monday, December 17.

The switchboard number for the US Congress (House and Senate) is: 212-224-3121.

First posted 12-17-07 on the original Whistling Dog.

Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose

Charlie Rose has been a blogger on the Huffington Post since August 15. I'm sorry I had not noticed this, because I believe he does the most important interviews on TV. I've been watching him routinely for 20 years at least.

Here is part of his interview with Bill Clinton from yesterday, Friday, December 14.



You can see the rest of the interview on Charlie's program website at http://www.charlierose.com/guests/bill-clinton.

Please note that the URL link to Charlie's site on the Huffington Post is incorrect.

First posted 12-15-7 on the original Whistling Dog.