Rust Belt Raconteur

From the BBC: “Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags.” Ha!

WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton now leads John McCain by 9 points in a head-to-head presidential matchup, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that bolsters her argument that she is more electable than Democratic rival Barack Obama….

Helped by independents, young people and seniors, Clinton gained ground this month in a hypothetical match with Sen. McCain, the GOP nominee-in-waiting. She now leads McCain, 50 percent to 41 percent, while Obama remains virtually tied with McCain, 46 to 44.

Really America? That Hillary Clinton? Interesting. That margin comes from the poor whites who got her the win in Pennsylvania. Is it racism? (There aren’t many policy differences and anyone who believes Hillary’s salt-of-the-earth shtick should be shot.) Are his preacher and his middle name really going to stop this guy from becoming the next president?

ADDED (7:30): Trumping all that is a mind-blowingly horrible ruling from the Supreme Court today:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court affirmed Wednesday that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law.

What?? And it was unanimous, no less. This blows a hole in the exclusionary clause, as I noted here.

Clinton wins Pennsylvania by 10, so we’re stuck with playing out the string on the primaries until June 3. In other news, there’s a pair of great foreign policy articles today here and here … and quality web comics today here and here. And Rachel writes quite eloquently, as usual, here.

And last, in legal news, it seems that the feds are going to persist in retrying the Liberty City Six in what amounts to a thoughtcrime trial. Meanwhile, the “Rutgers Three” — a triplet of individuals that were seemingly randomly chosen by police and the DA from the dozens of anti-war demonstrators that closed the Route 18 freeway in New Brunswick — have been indicted for disorderly conduct.

8:00 PM: Here we go. Democratic Debate #21, with at least one more after this. Bloody hell.
8:02 PM: Okay, ABC. Way to go with the public access-quality, 1990s-retro debate studio.
8:04 PM: Hillary says we have the inalienable right to keep voting until she wins the nomination.
8:05 PM: Then she plugs her website. Notably, they shouldn’t allow them to have opening statements … and they sure as hell shouldn’t have a commercial right after it! Why not add a ticker of ads?
8:08 PM: Snippets of the Constitution coming back from commercial. This is pathetic.
8:09 PM: Stop trying to force them to run together, people! Really, that’s your FIRST question? That’s more pressing than anything else, Chuck? Boring platitude marathon ahead.
8:11 PM: More history lessons. Help, I’m trapped in an after school special!
8:12 PM: Also, did Obama get taller during this campaign? Okay, now it’s time for the ‘bitter’ remark question. Obama’s all, we’re cool, right? In other news, foreclosure and inflation suck.
8:14 PM: As Stephen Colbert would say, Hillary’s the daughter of a turd farmer (but from Scranton, where she totally grew up!).
8:17 PM: John McCain is distinct.
8:19 PM: Obama says “people of faith” can’t be condescending. Riiiight. (That’s her line.)
8:20 PM: The bloody mutual admiration society continues.
8:22 PM: You can say all kinds of shit about the other person, as long as it’s about what they say, apparently. Hillary also has a “passion for empowering people.” What the hell does that mean?
8:24 PM: More on Reverend Wright. Obama issues a nuanced, dull, plausible response, getting to his talking points in record time.
8:26 PM: Thank you, Hillary, for stating unequivocally that you would not attend a black church. Awesome.
8:28 PM: Obama reminds us that he was not recording everything his pastor ever said. Now let’s bridge divides! Also, what is it about communities that needs organizing? Two words: garage sale. Problem solved.
8:30 PM: Obama has confidence in the American people. Well that’s your first mistake.
8:33 PM: Hillary gives a confusing answer on the ’sniper fire’ thing. Basically, she was wrong, but was basically right, so screw you.
8:36 PM: Obama tells us to quit taping them all the damn time, then says there’s some important shit to deal with. Too bad we can’t talk about any of it in, y’know, some sort of debate format.
8:38 PM: The flag pin issue? Really?? We’re seriously going to question a senator’s patriotism because he’s not lily white and doesn’t wear the right kind of jewelry? Awesome. This was in Doonesbury last Sunday as a punchline. Obama struggles to not be profane in being pissed that he still has to answer this.
8:40 PM: No clapping, audience! And now George is all, hey, this guy you know was a radical 40 years ago. Are you a terrorist? Fuck.
8:42 PM: Barack, sadly, I don’t think the American people are smarter than that. And Hillary knows they aren’t.
8:45 PM: Obama punches back! Awesome. It’s fun to watch when it happens. Then he’s all, I’m a one-man panacea! Hillary saves her roll-over minutes until after the commercial. We’ll be back.
8:48 PM: I wouldn’t want a picture of the “can you hear you me now?” guy on my wireless card, thanks.
8:53 PM: Hey, issues! Are we really pulling out of Iraq? Hillary: Our military is awesome. And we’ll leave within sixty days, hell or high water — because she doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of actually winning this thing, so she’ll never be held accountable.
8:57 PM: “We don’t know what will happen if we withdraw, but we do know what will happen if we stay mired there.” Quite a cogent statement from Hillary. Obama also points out the stupidity, inaccuracy, and backwardness of Bush acting like he’s just a blind empty vessel being led around by General Petraeus. They’re both all, hey, out of Iraq and into Afghanistan/country-to-be-determined!
9:00 PM: Obama spins like hell on whether we should treat an Iranian strike on Israel like one on us. In short: Yes, but no.
9:03 PM: Hillary offers up some sort of NATO-like entity with us and our Middle Eastern allies in exchange for them promising not to develop their own nukes (interesting idea) while making it seem like Obama would totally shoot hoops with Ahmadinejad in Tehran.
9:05 PM: The economy, the thing that George says is “the number one issue out there in America,” finally gets addressed 65 minutes in. Awesome, ABC. Hillary says that we’ll raise taxes on those earning over $250,000, even if we’re in an economic apocalypse-death spiral. (Another website plug! Do you have an AOL keyword, Hillary?)
9:07 PM: Obama tries to one-up Hillary on middle-class tax cuts and both reiterate that only the wealthy will get socked. Unless, you know, they’re in the stock market, because they want capital gains tax hikes, even if they’ll reduce revenue (as Charlie suggests has been the case).
9:10 PM: Oooh, Barack says the government has a “Bank of China” credit card. Does that come with free miles?
9:12 PM: Hillary has a time machine that can bring us back to the 1990s! Awesome. Give her a Nobel Prize!
9:14 PM: Charlie has to remind Hillary what the actual question was. She might raise taxes, but might not.
9:16 PM: Some chippiness! Turns out also payroll taxes don’t count as taxes. Also: Donut holes! Yummy.
9:18 PM: Hillary, partial credit doesn’t count. Way to have a plan but never implement it. Commercial!
9:20 PM: Back-to-back ads for Dulcolax and Midol. I’m so not the target demographic of this debate.
9:22 PM: Nice ‘n’ Easy hair color! Activia! Neutrogena anti-aging! Okay, ABC. I get it. I will leave …
9:24 PM: Oooh, text of the second amendment. And a rememberance of Virginia Tech. Gun question!
9:25 PM: Hillary can totally reconcile gun rights pandering and, y’know, having contempt for gun rights.
9:27 PM: Hillary can also totally explain being unable to pronunce “Harrisburg.” Or calling the VT shooter “mentally challenged.” Not quite.
9:30 PM: Obama spins like hell too. And also thinks that zoning can fix gun violence. Or … something?
9:32 PM: Hillary refuses to actually weigh in on the DC gun ban and says cities should have different gun laws from rural areas. Way to crib your notes from Giuliani.
9:33 PM: George asks Obama how to implement class-based, not race-based, affirmative action. Obama’s just an idea guy, pal. Step off.
9:35 PM: Hillary says that Head Start and banking regulations are totally types of affirmative action. And then: “Let’s affirmatively invest in our young people.” Fuck you, Hillary. That was fingernails-on-the-blackboard painful.
9:37 PM: Time for some retro-style class warfare rhetoric on gas prices. Please get this woman off the stage, Pennsylvania voters.
9:39 PM: Obama, on the other hand, sounds sane. Raise fuel economy standards to reduce demand. That’ll, y’know, actually work.
9:41 PM: Hillary gets a softball about former presidents and says Bush wouldn’t be listened to much. And might be her envoy to Dangerstan.
9:42 PM: A commercial break before Final Jeopardy. Write down your wagers now!
9:44 PM: Apparently pre-teen kids have busy, stressful lives that turn them into ghosts. They need liquid yogurt! And maybe sane parents.
9:47 PM: Where’s the third amendment in the lead-in? We must never forget about the right to not have soldiers crashing our pads, people!
9:48 PM: Hillary’s case to superdelegates: She’s a fighter. And she’s a champion. And she has plans. And we can do it the right way. Sold!
9:50 PM: Obama says we’ve lost trust in our government. Like, recently. And he’s gonna fix that. Also sold! And we’re done. Hallelujah.

From the NY Times op-ed page:

In February, a man carrying a fake assault weapon burst into an American foreign policy class at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina. The seven unsuspecting students, along with a stunned professor who later remarked that he was “prepared to die at that moment,” were held hostage for 10 minutes. During that time, the gunman said he would kill at least one of them.

The class survived because the gunman was a volunteer, part of an exercise intended to test the university’s system for responding to a possible campus attack. The university had alerted its students and faculty with e-mail and text messages, but not everyone read them. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the simulation — at least physically.

In the year since the shooting at Virginia Tech last April 16, American colleges have been under pressure, from worried parents as well as from the news media, to beef up campus security. Like Elizabeth City State, many schools have overreacted by instituting safety measures of questionable effectiveness. Safety officials are quick to shut down classes, as happened recently at California State University, Dominguez Hills, when an R.O.T.C. student with a drill rifle was mistaken for an assailant toting an automatic weapon. Instead of making campuses safer, we are fostering an unwarranted and unhealthy level of fear.

Who knew? Not that our ever-professional law enforcement ever makes a habit of terrorizing the people it’s sworn to protect.

From the BBC: “The Simpsons has been dropped from morning TV in Venezuela after being deemed unsuitable for children — and has been replaced by Baywatch.” Because the sons and daughters of the Bolivarian Revolution need role models like Pamela Anderson?

And to answer today’s featured question, the worst ad in the history of TV is any Chevy plug that includes the John Mellencamp song “This Is Our Country.” They ruined the ‘06 MLB playoffs (this was my extended rant on it at the time, along with a clip of the original ad) and continue to be a blight on the human condition. Abominations such as this ought to be included in my proposed Cultural Crimes Tribunal at The Hague for the most glaring abuses of the privilege of mass media access. First case: The entire cast of “Full House.” Bob Saget, who has clearly shown contrition and remorse for his crimes, will be given special consideration but must still be included symbolically. As for the rest of ‘em, especially the Olsens (whose assets will be seized to finance the tribunal for many years to come): To the guillotine with you.

From the NY Times:

BAGHDAD — More than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen either refused to fight or simply abandoned their posts during the inconclusive assault against Shiite militias in Basra last week, a senior Iraqi government official said Thursday. Iraqi military officials said the group included dozens of officers, including at least two senior field commanders in the battle.

The desertions in the heat of a major battle cast fresh doubt on the effectiveness of American-trained Iraqi security forces. The White House has conditioned further withdrawals of American troops on the readiness of the Iraqi military and police. The crisis created by the desertions and other problems with the Basra operation was serious enough that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki hastily began funneling some 10,000 recruits from local Shiite tribes into his armed forces….

And then there’s this:

“Everyone who was not on the side of the security forces will go into the military courts,” Maliki said in a news briefing in the Green Zone. “Joining the army or police is not a trip or a picnic….”

Don’t make the prime minister stop this car. I’m serious. I will totally turn this car around if you don’t stop fomenting sectarian violence …

From the AP:

Recalling a famous scene on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from the 1976 Oscar-winning film “Rocky,” Clinton said that ending her presidential campaign now would be as if “Rocky Balboa had gotten halfway up those art museum steps and said, ‘Well, I guess that’s about far enough.’”

“Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people,” Clinton said in excerpts of prepared remarks to be given Tuesday to a meeting of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.

Um, right. Because you, Hillary, daughter of upper-middle class parents in suburban Chicago, alumna of Wellesley College and Yale Law School, and long-time corporate lawyer and boardmember, know exactly what it’s like to spend your life in the slums of South Philly, scraping together an existence on the basis of manual labor. Also, I seem to recall that you were the inevitable nominee until you finished in third place in Iowa, then still the favorite until Barack clocked you in twelve straight primaries, so I’m not really buying the underdog narrative. Also, at this point in the campaign, you’re not running up the steps of the museum, you’re in the 14th round of the fight and losing on every judge’s card by an insurmountable margin, hoping that your hired goons can threaten or bribe them into naming you the winner.

And for the record, Hillary … in the original, ROCKY LOST!