Edwards Will Continue Campaign

Despite the recurrence of his wife's breast cancer. Elizabeth Edwards has been diagnosed with breast cancer that has spread to one of her ribs. The AP story notes that once that happens, the cancer is no longer considered curable. I am sorry to hear that.

"The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly," Edwards told reporters, his wife by his side.

John Edwards had canceled a Tuesday evening house party in Iowa to go with his wife to a doctor's appointment, which his campaign described as a follow-up to a routine test she had Monday.

The campaign refused to comment on Elizabeth Edwards' health Wednesday, fueling speculation about a recurrence of the cancer and raising questions about the political future of the 2004 vice presidential nominee.

Edwards put those questions to rest although he said: "Any time, any place I need to be with Elizabeth I will be there — period."

It is their decision. It is not one I personally would have made, but I'm not trying to judge Edwards, either.

This Isn’t Good

South African police have uncovered the latest menace from the rodent legion of the Animal Uprising™. They managed to stop it for now, but there is no telling how far it has spread, either. But at least they took away the giant rat's cars.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African police said Thursday they had impounded 11 old cars after receiving complaints that giant rats nesting in the vehicles were attacking pedestrians.

"We've had to deal with vicious dogs before but not with rats," Wayne Minnaar, chief superintendent of the Johannesburg police, told SAPA news agency after police discovered 25 large rats living in the cars in Soweto, a township south of the city.

So now giant rats have their own cars. They won't have to hitchhike to get around anymore. This is really not good at all. Check your automobile insurance policy right away and see if you have an uninsured rat rider on your coverage. If not, be sure to phone your insurance agent and ask for one right away. We did. We're still waiting for the agent to stop laughing to see what it will cost. We're not sure what was so funny, but something really funny must have happened on his end of the line judging by the hysterics he's still having.

Sweet Dreams

So, you head for bed after a long day to get some much-needed sleep. You put on your jammies, pull the covers over you and fall asleep. You're busily snoring away, minding your own business in your own bed, having a nice, peaceful sleep.

Then you're run over by a jeep.

ROANOKE, Va. - The underside of a car is a familiar sight to auto mechanic Dean Blevins. Seeing one on top of him at 2:30 in the morning, while he was in bed — that was new. A Jeep crashed through a wall of Blevins' apartment early Tuesday and pinned him in his bed. It took firefighters an hour to free him, but he suffered only minor bruises and scrapes.

As he saw the vehicle's engine above him and felt hot antifreeze splash onto his face, Blevins said, his initial thoughts were less about his injuries than about going after the driver.

"If I'd a had my gun," he told The Roanoke Times, "I'd a probably shot him."

The driver, Wesley Dewayne Smith, 34, of Roanoke, was charged with driving under the influence.

There's one more thing to be worried about when you climb into bed that you never thought of before. You can thank me later.

The Media Is Not Buying It

Ouch, This is going to be a very harsh lesson, indeed. The Associated Press is resoundingly not buying the explanation that the "1984" anti-Hillary! YouTube video was not associated with the Obama campaign. This is very, very bad for Obama. And the funniest part: Arianna Huffington, in her zeal to publicize and lionize the creator of the ad, may have been the undoing of the Obama media love-fest.

Heralded by many as the embodiment of Web-driven citizen activism, the mysterious YouTube ad now stands revealed as the work of a Democratic operative employed by a consulting firm with Obama links.

"It's true … yeah, it's me," said Philip de Vellis, a 33-year-old strategist with Blue State Digital, a Washington company that advises Democratic candidates and liberal groups.

Blue State designed Obama's Web site, and one of the firm's founding members, Joe Rospars, took a leave from the company to work as Obama's director of new media.

Obama, Blue State and de Vellis all say de Vellis acted on his own. De Vellis left the company on Wednesday. He said he resigned; Thomas Gensemer, the firm's managing director, said he was fired.

The entire episode hangs a cloud over the Obama camp.

Since he arrived on the national political scene, Obama has won convert after convert with a vow to rise above the bare-knuckle fray of politics.

However tenuous, any link to the ad, with its Orwellian image of Clinton as Big Brother, raises questions the Obama camp would rather not face.

In a statement, the Obama campaign said it "had no knowledge and had nothing to do with the creation of the ad."

Make no mistake about this, either. It is about more than Obama. This gives the AP a vehicle to bash the heck out of the internet as a news source. They are playing up not only the connection to Obama but also that this so-called "Citizen Ad" was the work of a professional political operator. And they are using that to undermine the credibility of all internet news and opinion sources.

UPDATE: This may not be over with yet. One Ohio blogger has an interesting history of Philip de Vellis and his background of political dirty tricks. The speculation is that de Vellis may not actually be the person who produced the video. And at least one person at the Politico is very interested in this development. Pull up a chair. This might get interesting.

Whoopsie

Ed Morrisey discusses an article in the New York Times that, if anything, paints an even more bleak portrait for the Pelosi-Murtha cut and run pork festival - er - spending bill than the one I linked in the WaPo.

The Democrats thought they rode to power on a wave of anti-war sentiment, but they have discovered that their victory had much more to do with Republican failures than with Democratic platforms. Most of their new members come from center-right districts where Democratic messages about corruption and abuses resonated — but where they see Congress' role in Iraq as limited at best. Boren represents a typical Democratic pickup district in that respect.

Now that the Democratic leadership has gone on record as wanting to limit options for victory in Iraq, Nancy Pelosi and company find that these new representatives will not play along with them. The Blue Dogs understand that timetables represent nothing more than defunding efforts under another name. They will not vote for anything that smells of defeat and retreat, and their numbers indicate that the Democratic supplemental — even filled with hometown pork for those on the fence — will likely fail.

It isn't a good idea to count chickens early, of course. But if this bill fails to pass, it will be a major blow against Pelosi. She will have squandered a lot of voter good will and internal political pull. We'll see how the actual vote goes, of course. I continue to maintain that contrary to the assertions of Pelosi and her pal Murtha, the Democrats were not given a mandate to lose a war. If they find that out the hard way, so be it.

Edwards To Make Announcement Today

The Washington Post is reporting that John Edwards has scheduled an announcement today regarding his presidential campaign plans. They also hint darkly that the announcement may have something to do with his wife's medical condition:

Former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) and his wife, Elizabeth, have scheduled a news conference for noon today in their home state of North Carolina, in what aides described as a major development in his 2008 presidential bid.

Advisers declined to discuss the details of the hastily arranged announcement ahead of time. "He's talking tomorrow," said Jonathan Prince, Edwards's deputy campaign manager, last night. "Listen to what he says tomorrow."

The appearance comes on the heels of a last-minute decision by Edwards this week to cancel an event in Iowa to accompany his wife to a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Elizabeth Edwards was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of her husband's unsuccessful 2004 campaign as the Democratic vice presidential nominee. She subsequently underwent extensive treatment.

Her husband has repeatedly said he would put his wife's well-being first; he announced that he would mount a second bid for the presidency after she was given a clean bill of health.

After a doctor's appointment Monday, Elizabeth Edwards, 57, was summoned for further tests.

Some kind thoughts for the Edwards are in order, I think. I'll post about whatever the announcement reveals later.