There has been a lot of talk about Senator Obama using his mailing list of some two million names to assist the victims of Hurricane Gustav. Many on the right seemed to feel that action would be rather presumptuous on his part. Well, I do not agree. I think it’s a great idea, just as I applaud the Republicans for turning the first day of their convention into a hurricane relief effort. I am sure the folks who have been displaced by this storm will appreciate any help they receive, regardless of who it comes from.
Here is the e-mail, freshly received in my inbox…
Len –
Today, the thoughts and prayers of all Americans are with those in the path of Hurricane Gustav — and many of you are asking what you can do to help.
We do not yet know what the impact of Hurricane Gustav will be, and we hope with all our hearts that the damage will not be as great as it was three years ago.
But we know there will be damage, and there is something you can do right now.
Your financial support will strengthen organizations like the American Red Cross that are evacuating Gulf Coast residents and planning to help communities get back on their feet.
Thank you for your generosity, and I hope you will join Michelle and me in praying for the safety of those in the path of the storm and the first responders who are doing all they can to ensure the safety of their communities.
Barack
If you find yourself in a position where you are able to help, please do so.
WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after a sudden heart attack at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.
Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program when he collapsed, the network said. No details were immediately available.
Russert, the recipient of 48 honorary doctorates, took over the helm of “Meet the Press” in December 1991. Now in its 60th year, “Meet the Press” is the longest-running program in the history of television.
In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Timothy John Russert Jr. was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 7, 1950. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was a member of the bar in New York and the District of Columbia.[..]
Russert is survived by his wife, Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine, and a son, Luke.
He will be missed.
I will miss his whiteboard on election night. Nobody could ever handle a whiteboard quite like Tim Russert.
UPDATE — Statement of Mr. Russert’s physician on the cause of his death:
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton will win Puerto Rico’s Democratic primary by a wide margin, CNN projects, giving her the larger share of the territory’s 55 delegates.
With about 15 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton was leading Sen. Barack Obama by more than a 2-1 margin.
Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said Puerto Rico was “another great win” for the New York senator.
Clinton swept Obama in every major demographic group, including groups Obama generally wins, such as younger voters and higher income voters, according to CNN’s exit polls.
Clinton’s campaign has been arguing that a landslide victory would push her ahead in the popular vote and help her convince superdelegates to pick her instead of Obama.
To cross that threshold, she would need to win 65 percent of the vote with a turnout of at least 2 million people.
But Luis Hector, an elections official, said only 1.5 million ballots were printed.
CNN estimates turnout will be between 325,000 and 425,000.
The media is really milking this for all it’s worth, aren’t they? You have to admit, though, it has been fun. Thankfully, it will all be over in a couple of days.
Today is Memorial Day in the United States. It is a day we set aside to honor our war dead. Many of us take the opportunity to visit the cemeteries where our loved ones are interred and decorate their resting places with flowers, balloons and what not. We console, remember and renew our shared sense of loss and grief. Then we return home to enjoy a picnic in the backyard with family and friends.
It is a day for the living. I don’t think the dead really care all that much. Perhaps they do, but I don’t think they do. As Shaun says: “The only way to truly honor our fallen is to stop making more of them.”
Most bloggers are posting pictures of graveyards and headstones today. I thought I’d share a picture I took a couple of years ago of my favorite spot in the Dallas Arboretum. You can click on it to make it bigger.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - President Bush failed to win the help he sought from Saudi Arabia to relieve skyrocketing American gas prices Friday, a setback for the former Texas oilman who took office predicting he would jawbone oil-producing nations to help the U.S.
Bush got a red-carpet welcome to this desert kingdom, home to the world’s largest oil reserves, and promised to ask King Abdullah to increase production to reduce pressure on prices, which soared past $127 for the first time Friday. But Saudi officials said they already were meeting the needs of their customers worldwide and there was no need to pump more.
Their answer recalled Bush’s trip to Saudi Arabia in January when he urged an increase in production but was rebuffed.
Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said the kingdom decided on May 10 to increase production by 300,000 barrels a day to help meet U.S. needs after Venezuela and Mexico cut back deliveries.
“Supply and demand are in balance today,” al-Naimi told a news conference, bristling at criticism from the U.S. Congress. “How much does Saudi Arabia need to do to satisfy people who are questioning our oil practices and policies?”
Early this week, Senate Democrats introduced a resolution to block $1.4 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia unless Riyadh agreed to increase its oil production by 1 million barrels per day.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said the discussion with Bush about oil was friendly. “He didn’t punch any tables or shout at anybody,” the minister said. “I think he was satisfied.”
When the Supreme Court installed Mr. Bush as President in January of 2001, oil was selling for $28 per barrel. Today, the price is approaching $128. You dang betcha George W. Bush is satisfied. His buddies the oil company executives are, too. They’re laughing all the way to the bank.
What about you? Are you laughing all the way to the bank? Bet you’re not. But a lot of you will still go ahead and vote for Republicans this year. What’s wrong with you? Are you some kind of masochists or something? What’s it going to take for you to learn?
The day is finally upon us. Democrats, and I dare say a lot of Republicans, will go to the polls in Pennsylvania tomorrow to state their preference as to who should be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008.
Hillary Clinton is expected to win, though her projected margin of victory has been shrinking some in the past few weeks. She needs a big win to justify her continued presence in this primary. If, somehow, Barack Obama manages to defeat her, she is done. I predict that she will squeeze out a five to ten point victory, her campaign will spin that into a landslide and she will continue the fight into at least next month.
Both camps went on the air with last minute ads today. First, the Clinton folks made an attempt at Republican fear tactics…
The Obama camp quickly rebutted…
I would really like to see the good people of Pennsylvania put the Clintons out of their misery tomorrow, but I doubt they will. Obama will do well in the more populated urban and suburban areas where people tend to be more affluent and educated, but it will not be enough to overcome the elderly, white and rural Clinton demographic.
Perhaps, by some miracle and with a whole lot of luck, we will be listening to Hillary Clinton give her final concession speech at about this time tomorrow evening.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing “Ben-Hur” and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the ’50s and ’60s, has died. He was 84.
Heston spokesman Bill Powers says the actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia was at his side.
Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.
A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.
When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.
Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.
He likes his women young(er) and blonde. This should endear him to the machismo wingers.
Continue reading. You’ll find out — if you didn’t already know — just how “ethical” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee really is.
Repeat after me, Senator McCain: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
Addendum: I thoroughly believe this story was planted by the McCain campaign. It will cause the right wing of the Republican party, which heretofore has been wary of Mr. McCain, to rally to his side. If there is one thing that will overcome their hatred of John McCain, it is their hatred of The New York Times.
NEW YORK (AP) - Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan apartment, and police said drugs may have been a factor. The Australian-born actor was 28. Police said Ledger was naked in his bed with an unknown number of sleeping pills near the body.
Ledger had an appointment for a massage at a residence in the tony SoHo neighborhood, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A housekeeper who went to let him know the massage therapist had arrived found him dead at 3:26 p.m.
A large crowd of paparazzi and gawkers began gathering Tuesday evening outside the building on an upscale block, where several police officers guarded the door. The medical examiner’s office planned an autopsy on Wednesday, spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.
While not a marquee movie star, Ledger was a respected, award-winning actor who took his craft seriously rather than cashing in on his heartthrob looks. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a gay cowboy in “Brokeback Mountain,” where he met Michelle Williams, who played his wife in the film. The two had a daughter, Matilda, and lived together in Brooklyn until they split up last year.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in 'Brokeback Mountain'
For your global warming action alert, here’s the view on my deck this morning at 7 am:
I love this argument. It’s the end of December and it’s snowing in Minnesota, so all that global warming stuff must be baloney. Screw the science and the disappearing ice caps — it’s snowing in Minnesota!
We haven’t had any snow here in Dallas, yet. It’s unlikely we will. The weather’s kind of been fluctuating this month… 70 degrees one day and in the 40s the next. No wonder everybody has the sniffles.
