Identity Politics, Front And Center

Bill Clinton admitted today that there are identity politics cards on the table. He said that he expected blacks to vote for Obama in South Carolina while Hillary Clinton would catch the votes of women. Then he blew up at the media and moved along to his next appearance.

DILLON, S.C. - Bill Clinton said Wednesday he expects blacks to vote for Barack Obama and women to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the dynamic may cause his wife to lose the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary Saturday.
 
The comments by the former president — who also lashed out at Obama and the news media — mark one of the starkest commentaries yet on the possible role of race, although it has been a subtext of the Obama-Clinton rivalry for months. The comments also furthered the Clintons' bid to play down Sen. Clinton's chances of winning in a state where Obama seems to be ahead.

Voting for president along racial and gender lines "is understandable because people are proud when someone who they identify with emerges for the first time," the former president told a Charleston audience while campaigning for his wife.

His comments and later outburst came on a day when Obama continued to challenge Hillary Clinton's candor and trustworthiness, saying the New York senator has indulged in double-talk on bankruptcy laws, trade and other issues.

The atmosphere grew more charged after Clinton's campaign aired a radio ad in South Carolina suggesting Obama approved of Republican ideas. Obama responded with his own radio spot that says, "Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected."

Questions about the candidates' honesty and consistency have been paramount since Monday's testy presidential debate involving Obama, Clinton, and former senator John Edwards. Obama, campaigning all week in South Carolina, is portraying Sen. Clinton as an old-school politician willing to shade the truth.

Politicians "don't always say what they mean, or mean what they say," the Illinois senator told about 900 people at Winthrop University Wednesday. "That is what this debate in this party is all about."

At three stops Wednesday, Obama mocked Sen. Clinton for saying she voted for a 2001 bankruptcy bill but was happy it did not become law.

"Senator Clinton said, `Well, I voted for it, but I hoped the bill would die,'" he said, drawing hoots from the university crowd.

As I have written before, playing identity politics is a lot like staging a production of Riverdance in a minefield. Just picture the howling, frothing outrage if you substituted white and Christian into the identity politics cards Bubba laid out. But the press reports this sad state as straight news without a murmur of protest.

Getting It Wrong, Part Two

Only a few days ago, I pointed out that the media has a tendency to get things wrong about technical issues like nuclear power. That first article was written by AP writer Angela Charlton. Today's article by Mitch Weiss is not a whit better. While he is describing a genuine concern - low water levels potentially causing problems for nuclear stations - he misses completely the other issues and gets in a stunningly bad error that shows a lack of understanding of the basics of how a nuclear plant - or any generating station, really - works.

LAKE NORMAN, N.C. - Nuclear reactors across the Southeast could be forced to throttle back or temporarily shut down later this year because drought is drying up the rivers and lakes that supply power plants with the awesome amounts of cooling water they need to operate.

Utility officials say such shutdowns probably wouldn't result in blackouts. But they could lead to shockingly higher electric bills for millions of Southerners, because the region's utilities may be forced to buy expensive replacement power from other energy companies.

Already, there has been one brief, drought-related shutdown, at a reactor in Alabama over the summer.

"Water is the nuclear industry's Achilles' heel," said Jim Warren, executive director of N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, an environmental group critical of nuclear power. "You need a lot of water to operate nuclear plants." He added: "This is becoming a crisis."

An Associated Press analysis of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors found that 24 are in areas experiencing the most severe levels of drought. All but two are built on the shores of lakes and rivers and rely on submerged intake pipes to draw billions of gallons of water for use in cooling and condensing steam after it has turned the plants' turbines.

Because of the yearlong dry spell gripping the region, the water levels on those lakes and rivers are getting close to the minimums set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Over the next several months, the water could drop below the intake pipes altogether. Or the shallow water could become too hot under the sun to use as coolant.

"If water levels get to a certain point, we'll have to power it down or go off line," said Robert Yanity, a spokesman for South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., which operates the Summer nuclear plant outside Columbia, S.C.

So far, that's accurate. Nuclear generating stations have certain limiting conditions of operation written into their Technical Specifications and other licensing documents. Those can include water levels and temperatures. Yes, the plants may have to limit loads. But this is the real howler in the article:

At a nuclear plant, water is also used to cool the reactor core and to create the steam that drives the electricity-generating turbines. But those are comparatively small amounts of water, circulating in what are known as closed systems — that is, the water is constantly reused. Water for those two purposes is not threatened by the drought.

Instead, the drought could choke off the billions of gallons of water that pass through the region's reactors every day to cool used steam. Water sucked from lakes and rivers passes through pipes, which act as a condenser, turning the steam back into water. The outside water never comes into direct contact with the steam or any nuclear material.

The water in question here is called circulating water. It flows - exclusively - to the turbine condenser. It never, ever is sent into the reactor. Those are closed systems. This is a pretty simple diagram. (That is a Pressurized Water Reactor or PWR in the diagram.)

The other point to consider here is that fossil generating stations can also be impacted by low water levels. Those problems may actually happen sooner because their systems are not subject to the same licensing requirements and design standards as a nuclear facility.

UPDATE: Same AP article from the Washington Post. They have pictures, though.

Driving With The Top Down Frowned On

Driving with the top down - and the bottoms off - when the vehicle operator isn't in a convertible, is illegal most places. It certainly is in Southern Illinois:

Police arrested Justin Flora, 34, of Marion, Ill., on Monday and charged him with two counts of public indecency after several female motorists reported him driving without a stitch of clothing.

Police Chief Jeff Tharp says Flora said he just liked to drive unencumbered to check out the ladies.

Tharp says Flora insisted he didn't mean to offend any one in the southern Illinois town of 8,200.

Dude, it's Illinois, not Brattleboro. Of course, it does appear to be spreading west, doesn't it?

"Unencumbered to check out the ladies." Well, it's original. Stupid, but original.

Wall Street Rebounds

They're calling it "stunning" in the media. Stocks appeared to be tanking earlier in the day, but a sudden rally later in the day pushed them higher. About 300 points higher than the opening, in fact.

NEW YORK - Wall Street pulled off a stunning comeback Wednesday, surging higher in late trading and wiping out what looked to be yet another precipitous decline. The Dow Jones industrials, down more than 323 points in earlier trading, ended the day with an advance of just under 300 points, according to preliminary calculations.
 
While such volatility has become a hallmark of Wall Street's performance in recent months amid the ongoing housing and credit crisis, analysts saw some positive signs in the day's trading.

"There does come a point and time when the market itself recognizes that it got out of hand, and that is when bargain-hunters can come in," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners.

The Fed's decision Tuesday to lower its federal funds rate by 0.75 percentage point to 3.5 percent has been met with some skepticism, but it gave intrepid investors Wednesday a reason to buy the severely dented stocks in the financial sector.

"You might say this is a belated reaction to what the Fed did this week, compounded by hopes for the Fed to do more next week," Cardillo said. Traders who bet on the Fed's target fed funds rate were pricing in on Wednesday a 100 percent chance of a 0.50 percentage-point cut by the central bank when it meets next week.

That's a bit of a surprise, I think.

Cold, Wet Weather Damages Chinese Apple Crop

Shoppers in Britain (and likely globally) are about to get hit with an increase in the price of apple juice. Why? Well, it seems a late frost and a cold, wet growing season have left the supply of Chinese apples well below the growing demand.

The price of apple juice in British supermarkets is set to rise this year due to bad weather in China, in another sign the country's growing influence is affecting the world in unexpected ways.

China sells as many apples as the rest of the world put together.

But a late frost last year and cold, wet weather has reduced the crop by 10 per cent and helped to increase the price of international supplies of apple juice concentrate, for which much of the fruit is destined.

The other main reason is a late frost in Poland, another large supplier.

"Raw material prices have more than doubled as apple processors compete with the fresh market for supply of apples," said a spokesman at the British Soft Drinks Association.

"It is likely that, globally, supermarkets will charge more for apple juice to compensate for the raw material price increases."

There seem to be an awful lot of reports like this recently. Officials were complaining last year that a late frost had killed the US acorn crop, leading to increased bear-human incidents in many areas.

“He Treated Me Like A Dog”

The line from National Lampoon's Vacation comes to life today in the pages of Britain's Telegraph. First, there is a report of a lawsuit where a former butler alleges that his former employer treated the Butler "like an animal."

A butler had insults and walking sticks hurled at him before being thrown on to the streets by a diplomat's "despotic" widow, an employment tribunal heard.

Lady Killearn, the widow of Britain's ambassador to Cairo during the Second World War, owns a £10 million home in Harley Street, London, and Haremere Hall, a 17th century country house set in 145 acres of East Sussex.

She and her Eton-educated husband, Sir Miles Wedderburn Lampson, who became the 1st Baron Killearn, developed a reputation as society hosts and their guests included Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle.

However, Paolo Sclarandis, an Italian butler, claims he found 98-year-old Lady Killearn, whose husband died in 1964, living in squalid conditions when he took up employment at her London home in Sept 2004.

He told the hearing in Ashford, Kent: "Lady Killearn is despotic, she still thinks she is living in the glory days of the British Empire, but she lives in squalor, with dangerous wiring, piles of clothes in her cramped bedroom and her bathroom falling to pieces. And she treated me as her slave."

He said she would call him a "toad", "monster" and "selfish prat" during his 67-hour working weeks.

He added: "She was violent to me on many occasions. One time she threw walking sticks at me. I was treated like an animal."

The countercharges by Lady Killearn are just as lurid. Which is why the press is covering it, of course. Meanwhile, in more pet like news, a British couple was barred from boarding a bus. Because the man was treating the woman like a dog.

A Goth who walks his girlfriend on a leash has complained that he was discriminated against by a bus driver who refused to allow him to board.

Tasha Maltby, 19, and her fiance, Dani Graves, 25, were not allowed to get on a bus in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and claim the driver told them: : "We don't let freaks and dogs like you on."…

……Miss Maltby, from Dewsbury, who describes herself as a 'human pet' told the Daily Mail:

"It is definitely discrimination, almost like a hate crime. "I am a pet, I generally act animal like and I lead a really easy life," she said.

"I don't cook or clean and I don't go anywhere without Dani. It might seem strange but it makes us both happy. It's my culture and my choice. It isn't hurting anyone."

I fail to see the problem. Public conveyances have rules against people bringing pets on board. (The bus company is claiming the leash is a safety issue. That is quite legitimate. A sudden stop could break her neck.)

The Gentle Sound of Falling Leftists In Italy

It appears increasingly likely that the leftist Prime Minister of Italy, Romano Prodi, will either resign or lose a vote of confidence, leading to either a transition government or early elections.

ROME (AFP) - Italy's embattled Prime Minister Romano Prodi may decide to resign rather than risk losing a vote of confidence in the opposition-controlled Senate, Italian media reported Wednesday.
 
Citing "government sources," the reports said President Giorgio Napolitano advised Prodi not to submit to the test set for Thursday in the Senate, where the centre-left's slim majority evaporated this week with the defection of a small centrist party.

Prodi, 68, who won 2006 elections by a handful of votes, will decide later Wednesday after a vote of confidence in the lower house Chamber of Deputies, where he enjoys a comfortable advantage, the ANSA news agency and RCOR radio reported.

Prodi and Napolitano — who could call elections or form a transitional government — met for about half an hour earlier Wednesday.

The daily La Stampa said Wednesday: "The prospect of early elections terrifies the pillars of the left" who would prefer a transition government.

Three recent voter surveys show the Italian right with double-digit leads over the left.

"Early elections have never been so close," wrote Stefano Folli of the financial daily Il Sole-24 Ore. "Hardly anyone believes in the future of the centre-left, and yet Prodi wages his battle without realising it."

That was a short run, even in Italy which has not been known for stability in government for many years now. Silvio Berlusconi is pushing for the early election option, incidentally. He senses and opportunity to return to office.

“Sorry For Being Topless”

Warning: The link is NOT safe for work. The article comes from the Daily Mail and is written by Simon Mills, describing how Carla Bruni greeted him when he showed up at her apartment to conduct an interview. The presumed soon-to-be (or maybe already is) first lady of France appears in a photo in the article sans-culottes. In fact sans anything.

A Gorgeous, husky-voiced supermodel greeting me with the words "Sorry for being topless" will go down in memory as the greatest celebrity introduction of my journalistic career.

As an opening gambit, it was pure conversational Viagra and a welcome change from the cold, dead-eyed greetings you usually get from actresses, models and TV starlets.

Although perhaps not quite the brand of etiquette you'd expect from a woman who may well become France's first lady.

But that's how Carla Bruni, who appears to be the new wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, decided to present herself to me not that long ago when I encountered her at her home, a grand, shabby-chic apartment in a fashionable Paris arrondissement.

Carla, naked from the waist up, was having her make-up done at the time - I was interviewing her for a glossy magazine - and seemed only vaguely embarrassed by her evidently chilly state of undress.

Carla, naked from the waist up, was having her make-up done at the time - I was interviewing her for a glossy magazine - and seemed only vaguely embarrassed by her evidently chilly state of undress.

Well, she was a model - they tend to be fairly businesslike about that sort of thing. What worries me is that this might give Bill Clinton ideas. Yechhhh.

Once again, the link is NSFW, click accordingly. For those unable to click that link, here's a consolation prize (Safe for work).

The image was published as an opinion poll revealed that the vast majority of French people are sick of hearing about the romantic escapades of their President.

The TNS Sofres poll for La Croix daily said 93 percent of people thought the media had dedicated too much space to Mr Sarkozy's private life, while 52 percent thought too much space was given to covering his political actions.

Interesting dynamic here.

Frozen Beauty

Britain's Daily Mail discovers that old Jack Frost can bring beauty even as the temperatures drop.

Ivory-Billed Bust

Despite three years of effort by researchers and volunteers, no evidence has been discovered that ivory-billed woodpeckers are not still extinct. This, however, has not deterred the US Fish and Wildlife Service from proposing the waste of $27 million to provide habitat for the ex-woodpeckers. But the towns in that area that expected a windfall from the discovery of the nonexistent birds are finding out that fantastic claims do eventually lead to the ugly reality of a burst economic bubble.

It has been almost three years since a research team, led by Cornell University and the Nature Conservancy, announced the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the Big Woods — a 550,000-acre tract of bottomland hardwood forest. Researchers have also reported spotting an ivory-billed woodpecker in a northwest Florida swamp.

The large, yellow-eyed bird had not been conclusively seen in the United States since around the end of World War II, and some scientists have questioned whether the more recent reports of sightings are legitimate. Nevertheless, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended spending $27 million on recovery efforts for the woodpecker.

The patch of Arkansas bayou where the researchers said they spotted the bird is in the heart of Monroe County. Once an agricultural and manufacturing center, the county is now one of the poorest places in Arkansas. For its roughly 10,000 residents, the reported rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker fired hopes of an economic turnaround not seen since the soybean boom of the 1970s.

After the sighting was announced, local economies seemed to benefit for a while as scientists, bird-watchers and news media outlets from around the world flocked to Brinkley and to the other communities in the patchwork quilt of fragmented forest and farmland that surrounds the Big Woods.

“People came from everywhere,” said Gene DePriest, who still has an ivory-billed cheeseburger, salad and dessert on the menu of his barbecue restaurant in Brinkley. “I sold over $20,000 worth of T-shirts in six months.”

After a while, though, the tourists and true believers began staying away in droves. Ivory-billed woodpecker themed business ventures like gift shops and motels have folded and the souvenirs are gathering dust, not generating income. The boom was short lived. Never fear, folks. The Fish and Wildlife folks still appear to be determined to waste the nation's tax money on the former species instead of spending it on actual, living wildlife.

Too Cold To Walk

A group of four teenagers from Winnipeg, Canada had been ordered to attend a program meant to keep them from stealing cars. The program calls the offenders in to report at odd intervals to ensure they are not committing new crimes. The four got called in when the outside temperature happened to be minus 40° C (which converts to -40° F) and they apparently thought it was too cold to walk.

So they stole a car to get to their appointment.

The four suspects, aged 16 and 17, were attending the counselling program in the Canadian prairie city as part of a court order relating to previous auto thefts, said Detective Sergeant Kevin Kavitch of the city's stolen-autos unit.

A local newspaper suggested the teens had stolen the car because it was "too cold to walk" to their court ordered training program, although Kavitch described it as a crime of opportunity. Winnipeg daytime temperatures dipped to -40 degrees Celsius last week, with wind chill.

Kavitch said three of the four suspects are level four offenders, the highest designation for chronic auto thieves in the city.

Well, that certainly is an effective diversion program, isn't it? Or should they reclassify it as a job training program?

Gee, Thanks For Rescuing Me….

An Australian man managed to rescue a coworker from the jaws of an attacking crocodile in a rather unusual fashion.

He shot the coworker.

CANBERRA, Australia - A man rescued his colleague from the jaws of a crocodile in northern Australia but accidentally shot the unlucky co-worker in the process, police said Wednesday.
 
The two farmhands were collecting wild crocodile eggs on a riverbank Tuesday in Northern Territory when a crocodile snatched one of them, Jason Green, by the arm, the Northern Territory Police said in a statement.

"The male colleague shot at the crocodile, causing it to let go of the victim's arm, but a further shot hit the victim in the upper right arm," the statement said.

The two men had been collecting eggs to boost the crocodile population at their farm in the northern city of Darwin. Their employer sent a helicopter that flew Green to a Darwin hospital for surgery.

We rather suspect that the crocodile began laughing and let go. We predict that the rescuer will henceforth be known as "Deadeye."

Clinton Abandons South Carolina

Hillary Clinton has pretty much given up in South Carolina and has taken her campaign to other states that will vote in the super-whamadyne Tuesday primaries. The Washington Post covers her efforts in an article published today.

SALINAS, Calif., Jan. 22 — The next Democratic presidential nominating contest will take place in South Carolina on Saturday, but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has already turned her full attention to places such as this: delegate-rich pockets of states that will vote in a tidal wave of primaries two weeks from now.

Clinton has been focused on California, New York, New Jersey and Arkansas since her defeat in the Iowa caucuses earlier this month, betting that she can sweep states where her name recognition and popularity are strong.

The logic seems simple: She represents New York in the Senate, and New Jersey is next door; she was the first lady of Arkansas for a decade; and California will be the biggest prize when 22 states vote on Feb. 5. But in a system that awards delegates by congressional district, with some worth more than others, the calculation is far from straightforward, and Clinton backers fear that the setup could boost Sen. Barack Obama if he fares well in populous corners of key states.

Her strategists call it a "game of chess," part of the byzantine path to the Democratic nomination in a campaign that has pitted two strong front-runners and a determined third candidate, former senator John Edwards, in a tight battle from one contest to the next.

It is a dangerous strategy. There is a real chance that Clinton will win the nomination but fracture key voting blocs away from her party in the process. One can hope, at any rate. At last count, Obama actually has more delegates than Clinton, though. The press is falling into the Clinton as front runner narrative anyway. If Obama pulls off a huge win in South Carolina, it will remain a close contest. If the victory is narrow, maybe not so much.