Is it Finally Over?

Yesterday, Barack Obama won North Carolina handily and Indiana was much closer than expected. Polls had Clinton up by around 9% in Indiana and then squeaked out a 2% victory.

Clinton has cancelled all television and public appearances today, likely opting to meet with her top advisor about what her next move should be in the race.

Late last night on MSNBC, Tim Russert said we now know who are nominee is going to be.




**Update**
Political Wire has a list of quotes from pundits saying the race is now over.

75 million Reasons the Gas Tax is a Scam

Tom Harkin said Iowa would lose $75 million for roads and bridge maintenance under the gas tax holiday proposed by John McCain and Hillary Clinton.

Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, has objected to the idea because the proposal would eliminate at least $75 million per quarter - based on 2006 estimates - that the Iowa Department of Transportation gets to use on roads and bridges in the state. In effect, enacting a gas tax moratorium for the summer would amount to a loss of at least $75 million in revenues to rebuild the highways, roads and bridges in Iowa.

It isn't like our roads and bridges are fixing themselves. The state would be forced to find the money from another source, which would most likely be property taxes or increasing fees on vehicles.

The Gas Tax Holiday is scam that would likely increase state and local taxes, while giving your minimal relief at the pump.

Hey Hillary, which votes count?

Keith Olbermann attempts to explain Hillary Clinton's definition of which votes counts...



Unfortunately, Iowa doesn't count because we are a caucus, a small state, next to Illinois, have educated activists that are liberal, we voted Republican in 2004, and we care about both foreign policy and domestic issues.

Cartoon Nails Clinton on the Gas Tax Holiday

From the Charlotte Observer...

Bill Moyers on the Rev. Wright Controversy

Democratic Race for President in 7 minutes

The last 18 months of the Democratic race for President condensed into 7 minutes...

Teachers and Personal Websites

As a teacher with a Facebook profile and a blog, this story drew my interest.

Personal websites raise professional ethics issues.

The Washington Post (4/28, A1, Shapira) reports in a front-page story that some teachers' Facebook profiles "can be overtly sarcastic or unintentionally unprofessional -- or both." And "the crudeness of some Facebook or MySpace teacher profiles, which are far, far away from sanitized websites ending in '.edu,' prompts questions emblematic of our times: Do the risqué pages matter if teacher performance is not hindered and if students, parents and school officials don't see them? At what point are these young teachers judged by the standards for public officials?" The Post notes that teachers in "Florida, Colorado, Tennessee and Massachusetts...have been removed or suspended for MySpace postings, and some teachers unions have begun warning members about racy personal websites." In the D.C. area, "school officials say they have no policies concerning social networking pages or blogs kept by teachers. But they said that online improprieties would fall under general guidelines requiring proper behavior in and outside school and that sketchy websites would be handled case by case."

It would really be a step in the wrong direction if schools adopt policies regulating the use of social network sites and personal blogs. It reminds me of some of the ridiculous things in teacher contracts years ago.

1905 teaching contract for Story County, Iowa

Teachers will be required to spend weekends in the community unless permission is granted by the Chairman of the Board.

Dancing, card playing and the theatre are works of the Devil that lead to gambling, immoral climate, and influence and will not be tolerated.

Any teacher who smokes cigarettes, uses liquor in any form, frequents a pool or public hall, or (for men) gets shaved in a barber shop, (or for women) bobbs (cuts) her hair, has dyed hair, wears short skirts (could not be any shorter than 2 inches above the ankles) and has undue use of cosmetics will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

Teachers will not marry or keep company with a man friend during the week except as an escort to church services. (The only man a woman teacher could be seen with was her father or her brother).

Loitering in ice cream parlors, drug stores, etc., is prohibited.

Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.

Facebook Isn't As Cool in Real Life

5 Years Since Mission Accomplished

This video is from Eric Massa, a candidate for Congress in New York's 29th District.

Obama on the Horrible Gas Tax Holiday

John McCain introduced the idea of a gas tax holiday and Hillary Clinton jumped on the bandwagon. These two ignore the basic economic concept of supply and demand. Removing the tax on gas would increase demand, which would then increase the price.



Barack Obama isn't on board, calling the idea of a gas tax holiday a Washington gimmick...

That’s typical of how Washington works. There’s a problem, everybody’s upset about gas prices – let’s find some short-term, quick-fix, that we can say we did something even though, even though we’re not really doing anything. We cannot deliver on a better energy policy unless we change how business is done in Washington.

Hillary Clinton = Elitist

Hillary Clinton was on Bill O'Reilly last night, pandering to rich people, saying, "Rich people, God bless us."

Then there's a clip of Clinton having trouble getting the coffee machine to work at a convenience store. Maybe she should have her maid just get the coffee for her.

Obama, Wright, and the Youth Vote

A reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog wrote this about Obama and Rev. Wright...

I'll just put that out there. If Obama is done in by this whole Wright thing I am done with politics. I can't invest myself in something that is so sure to disappoint me time and time and time again. If the Democratic party decides that it can not risk nominating a great and decent African American man because his pastor is a scary African American man, it does not deserve power because it will have caved to what is worst about America. Racists on both sides of the divide will rejoice at having taking down the biggest threat to their belief system since Martin Luther King....and young people like myself will burrow deeper into to the holes we were in before Barack Obama dug us out.

I have to second that.