Blue Crab Boulevard

I just went outside to see the lunar eclipse. It is pretty impressive with the moon well up in the sky. Unfortunately, it is also well below zero outside right now where I live, so the viewing pleasure was very brief. Go take a look if you have clear skies. 

Sleazy, even for the declining New York Times: a hint of an innuendo of a penumbra of a ghost of a possible or even completely imaginary scandal warrants a  four web page smear on John McCain. I won't even excerpt this slime. This is gutter politics and beneath even the already badly squandered dignity of a formerly great newspaper. 

(The only reason I'm linking this at all is that is is out there and the left is screeching about it trying to pump it up) I'll only point out that the fact that the NYT is willing to publish something this thin indicates that they are worried about McCain. Badly worried.

The Daily Mail - which has been exhibiting a bit of a split personality of late, reporting both major freezes in Britain while simultaneously running stories about what a mild winter they are having - suddenly notices that it's cold this year. Cold just about everywhere in the northern hemisphere except western Europe, in fact. Actually, it is more than just cold - it is killing people cold. They finally have a roundup of just how cold - and how many people have died from the cold this year. Even the Daily Mail is having doubts about global warming right now.

Yesterday's picture in the Mail of a cascade of icicles in the Yorkshire Dales was a reminder of how cold Britain can be - something many of us have forgotten in this unusually mild winter.

But it really is remarkable how little attention has been paid to the extraordinary weather events which in recent weeks have been affecting other parts of the world.

Across much of the northern hemisphere, from Greece and Iran to China and Japan, they have been suffering their worst snowfalls for decades.

Similarly freakish amounts of snow have been falling over much of the northern United States, from Ohio to the Pacific coast, where in parts of the state of Washington up to 200in of snow have fallen in the past fortnight.

In country after country, these abnormal snowfalls have provoked a crisis.

In China - the only example to have attracted major coverage in Britain - the worst snow for 50years triggered an unprecedented state of emergency.

Large parts of the country have been paralysed, as rail and road transport ground to a standstill.

More than 25,000 miles of power lines collapsed under a weight of snow and ice they were never designed to cope with.

Snow has devastated thousands of square miles of farmland, threatening severe food shortages.

The total cost of the disaster to the Chinese economy may be more than £10billion.

In Afghanistan, freezing weather and the worst snow for 30 years have killed more than 900 people.

In neighbouring Tajikistan, according to aid agencies, the coldest winter for 50 years, along with soaring food prices and a massive energy crisis, threatens a "humanitarian catastrophe". 

They have quite a lot more as well as some stunning pictures of just how bad it is in some places you would not expect. An outdoor cafe in Greece shrouded in very thick ice, for example. Today's Rutgers Global Snow Lab shows an enormous departure from "normal" snowfall amounts all over the northern hemisphere (it is down from a couple of weeks ago but still extensive). That departure is in an upward direction. The U of I Cryosphere Today website shows that Antarctic ice is above "normal" for this time of year. While it also shows northern ice is a bit below "normal", ice is very, very far down the west coast of Greenland and is still growing. 

The earth's climate is always in a state of flux. There is no constant, perfect climate - the UN's own "proof" of global warming shows that. The only factor that provides a significant amount of heat to the earth is the sun - without it this planet would be a ball of ice in very short order. Some researchers have been warning that the sun is in a down cycle. If so, it is going to get colder.  The climate will change in a different direction.

As it has done for millions of years. 

I don't quote Michael Medved very often, but he makes a lot of sense with this column. He offers firm advice for John McCain if he does, indeed, face Barack Obama in the general election: Do not try to play on experience or personal history in the campaign. That is precisely what has been damaging Hillary Clinton. Instead, make the issues and real policy the focus.

John McCain needs to learn the lessons of Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign. If he tries to emphasize his obviously superior experience and preparation for the job, he’ll lose in a landslide. Obama can easily characterize him as “yesterday’s man” (as he did in his victory speech on Tuesday night) and emphasize his opponent’s advanced age by “graciously” saluting his “fifty years of service.” He thereby makes the point that he himself isn’t even fifty years old, confirming his vacuous declaration that “we are the change that we’ve been waiting for.”

McCain and the GOP can win the election, but only if they draw crisp, unmistakable distinctions on the issues. Voters should face big questions: do you think America will be safer if we surrender to terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere? Do you want to pay more in taxes to pay for a bigger government? Do you want to pay for your neighbor’s health insurance, or is the nation stronger when we emphasize individual responsibility? Do we want more freedom and opportunity or do we need more government supervision and regulation?

On these issues, on these crucial choices, Republicans can win. If McCain explains those choices clearly and persuasive (and I believe he will) then his problems with movement conservatives will take care of themselves.  

It has to be a clear choice between massive taxation and massive government intrusion into personal lives. It has to be about individualism versus raging statism; nannies deciding for you versus helping you reach goals that you decide for yourself. Obama is closing in rapidly on calling for a trillion dollars in new spending, make him explain how he plans to raise that kind of money without declaring the middle class "rich" and beggaring them with confiscatory taxes. Offer real choice, not just bland and directionless "hope."

The only way to derail a would be messiah is to expose their feet of clay. Don't fall into the Hillary trap.  

This time it was caught on tape. CNN is dutifully reporting that it was just a meteor. We here at Blue Crab Boulevard know better, of course. We also know what the outcome will be for folks in that area, don't we?

(Photo by Joel Friesen) 

A shopkeeper in the British town of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, fought back against a career criminal who was in the process of trying to carjack the man. Despite being stabbed himself in several places, the shopkeeper, Tony Singh, managed to wrestle the knife away from Liam Kilroe, a wanted fugitive with warrants out for his arrest. Singh stabbed Kilroe, killing him.

The police then promptly arrested Singh and charges of murder are being considered.

Kilroe had been given bail last year despite pleas he remain in custody after his trial for the two earlier robberies collapsed.

Lancashire Police issued a warrant for his arrest last week because he failed to appear in court.

But days later, on Sunday night, he was still on the run and targeted Mr Singh's late-night corner shop in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

Kilroe suddenly appeared at the shopkeeper's car window and smashed it with the butt of his knife before putting his arms in the car and demanding the takings.

Mr Singh refused to give up without a fight and they tussled for several minutes before Kilroe was stabbed in the chest.

Officers later found the shopkeeper in his car with stab wounds to his back and neck and the robber's dead body on the floor nearby.

They immediately detained Mr Singh on suspicion of murder and questioned him for hours after he had been given hospital treatment.

His knife was later recovered at the scene, but it is still not clear whether the shopkeeper told police he had stabbed the robber in self-defence or if it was an accident.

Mr Singh was eventually freed on bail after several eye-witnesses backed up his story that Kilroe had been trying to rob the shop and was stabbed with his own knife.

But Lancashire Police are now sending a file to the CPS for lawyers to consider whether murder, manslaughter or assault charges should be brought against him. 

The Daily Mail reports that people who know Singh are outraged that the police are even considering charges against him. Let's hope they talk some sense into the authorities. But it is sickening that the police even arrested him in the first place.  

John Hood at NRO's The Corner points out that Hillary Clinton is not done yet. As he points out, ego is a prerequisite for a politician:

First, they believe — and I think they are correct — that by talking up Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania for weeks, they have reduced the political value of Obama's February wins and programmed the media to wait until next month to call the nomination race (it helps matters that the media wants a live race to attract audience and sell to advertisers). Admittedly, they must win all three states for this "February didn't happen" strategy to work, but they still think they can do this.

Second, they believe — and I'm not as sure about this one — that they can woo our old friend John Edwards to endorse Hillary, perhaps after wins in Texas and Ohio on March 4. Such a move would snag them a couple dozen delegates, which in the Democratic proportional-vote system would be like winning a couple of primaries, plus perhaps give them a leg up in the next big-state primary after Pennsylvania's: North Carolina's May 6 contest, with 115 delegates at stake.

Third, they believe — and I haven't seen enough reporting to know whether they are right about this — that there will, in the end, be large delegations seated at the convention from Michigan and Florida, where she won lots of popular votes (some but not all by default). If the primary results are used to apportion them, the Clintons are willing (and they believe able) to weather the resulting storm. If the party uses some other means, such as a hastily called caucus or state convention, they think they can prevail. Haven't they always?

Gerard Baker at the Times of London warns that the Obama campaign had better get some hazmat suits right away. Because Clinton will see no alternative to going utterly toxic in the next few weeks:

A few months back, as Barack Obama’s campaign was just beginning to look like it might seriously challenge Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions, a senior Obama campaign official sent a warning to his staff.

It was a succinct message designed to forewarn and forearm his people against what was expected to be a ferocious onslaught from an increasingly desperate Clinton campaign.

“Better get your hazmat suits on”, the memo told them

If they didn’t do it then, the Obama team should now be reaching urgently for the protective outerwear, because following another night of crushing defeat for Mrs Clinton, it seems that the Clintons have only one remaining hope if they are to wrest the Democratic nomination – a highly toxic attack on the man who is now clearly the frontrunner.  

How bad will it get? Well, Baker thinks it is going to get really ugly, real fast - because time is running out:

The Clinton campaign may need to reach deeper into the negative campaigning armoury if they are to have any chance. They will doubtless be looking at Mr Obama’s remarkably low negative ratings in polls and wondering how they can push them up.

Until now the danger has been that negative attacks could backfire. That is a risk that will probably now have to be taken, even if it damages the Democratic party as a whole. The Clintons have only a matter of days to save their lifelong aspirations. They will not give them up without a fight.

I have no doubt Clinton will go down that path. The attacks are going to become ferocious. But I suspect (some commenters are going to disagree) that this is going to backfire spectacularly. Clinton's recent attacks have made her sound weak, I believe that the upcoming ones will sound even worse - for her. Instead of looking presidential, she is sounding shrill and desperate - and is reminding voters of everything they disliked about the Clintons in the first place.

But I also have no doubt she is going to go down that road, regardless of consequences.  

Sure, Fidel Castro's "worker's paradise" is now, tentatively, under new management, But the Miami Herald points out that nothing is likely to change since the new boss is pretty much just the old boss.

Fidel Castro, Cuba's dictator for almost five decades, relinquished his official title Tuesday. Still, he is not gone, and his influence will continue. His official successor as ''president'' may attempt some modest reform. However, serious political and democratic freedom will remain a dream deferred.

The end of Cuba's totalitarian era is closer, but there is still no telling when real change might begin. This explains the subdued reaction of Cubans on the island and in Miami. As long as Castro is physically capable, he will use his considerable personal power to hold up the failed communist system. Even in his resignation notice, he promised to continue writing his ''Reflections,'' a series of editorials that regularly skewer the proposals of his designated successor, brother Raúl.

The notice comes as Cuba's political elites prepare to name the members and president of the Council of State on Sunday. The council president is considered Cuba's official leader, even though none of the candidates has been selected in anything resembling a free, democratic election.

The odds are that the new ''president'' will be Raúl Castro, who has been provisional ruler since his brother's health crisis in 2006. But that is not certain.

Regardless of who takes the title, that person's power will be limited not only by Fidel Castro but by the growing frustration of Cuba's people. They are the ones suffering the country's economic and moral decay. Raúl Castro let the genie out of the bottle when he solicited criticisms of the system. That was reflected in the students who recently grilled high-ranking official Ricardo Alarcón, who didn't give straight answers. A leaked video showcased their uncomfortable questions:

There will be no meaningful changes in Cuba at least until the Maximum Leader is in a grave. There will be no relief for the jailed dissidents until the dictatorship itself is buried. The Herald editorial calls for increased support for Cuban dissidents and to increase pressure on Cuba's elites to change.

This is not the time to respond to feeble promises of halfhearted "reforms" by the current management of the island prison that is Cuba. 

The New York Daily News reports that longtime Hillary Clinton supporters are beginning to lose hope. The campaign continues to desperately rearrange the deck chairs on the USS Titanic Inevitableness but the passengers are beginning to look for life jackets.

WASHINGTON - Finally, there's some happy news for Hillary Clinton: The most abysmal stretch of the primary season for her limping candidacy is over. Unfortunately, the damage may be irreparable.

It's not just that Clinton has been on a February losing streak to Barack Obama, catapulting him to a close but clear lead in delegates and denying her life-giving momentum.

Still worse for the beleaguered Clinton high command, Obama's momentum hasn't shown any signs of sputtering. In fact, it's still building.

"I've been there trying to turn around losing campaigns," a true-blue Clinton loyalist painfully acknowledged Tuesday. "When nothing you do is working, you get desperate. This is starting to feel desperate."

Clinton surrogates have tossed eggs everywhere, hoping something would stick. They've called Obama a wimp for refusing to debate in Wisconsin - a classic loser's ploy.

They've accused him of breaking pledges and being an empty-suited orator.

The attacks bombed - especially the lighter-than-air charges that Obama plagiarizes key portions of his campaign spiel. 

Insiders say that Clinton herself remains undaunted. I'd say it sounds like her supporters, however, are getting that sinking feeling that they backed the wrong horse - and need life jackets. 

Robert Samuelson admits to having been impressed with Barack Obama when he first met him. Impressed with his intelligence, his apparent willingness to rise above partisanship and a number of other things. He is not, however, impressed with Obama's current agenda as opposed to Obama's stirring rhetoric. He judges the agenda very harshly.

It's hard not to be dazzled by Barack Obama. At the 2004 Democratic convention, he visited with Newsweek reporters and editors, including me. I came away deeply impressed by his intelligence, his forceful language and his apparent willingness to take positions that seemed to rise above narrow partisanship. Obama has become the Democratic presidential front-runner precisely because countless millions have formed a similar opinion. It is, I now think, mistaken.

As a journalist, I harbor serious doubt about each of the most likely nominees. But with Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain, I feel that I'm dealing with known quantities. They've been in the public arena for years; their views, values and temperaments have received enormous scrutiny. By contrast, newcomer Obama is largely a stage presence defined mostly by his powerful rhetoric. The trouble, at least for me, is the huge and deceptive gap between his captivating oratory and his actual views.

The subtext of Obama's campaign is that his own life narrative — to become the first African American president, a huge milestone in the nation's journey from slavery — can serve as a metaphor for other political stalemates. Great impasses can be broken with sufficient goodwill, intelligence and energy. "It's not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white," he says. Along with millions of others, I find this a powerful appeal.

But on inspection, the metaphor is a mirage. Repudiating racism is not a magic cure-all for the nation's ills. The task requires independent ideas, and Obama has few. If you examine his agenda, it is completely ordinary, highly partisan, not candid and mostly unresponsive to many pressing national problems.

By Obama's own moral standards, Obama fails…..

Read it all, Samuelson points out that despite the rhetoric, Obama is really not offering any change, merely more of the same. A regular, unoriginal series of proposals that ignore the underlying issues that make those problems hard to solve in the first place. The promises of change and hope ignore the intractable issues that have led to the various impasses in the first place.

In the computer world, grandiose announcements of miraculous software that never materializes are known as vaporware. Is Obama a vaporware candidate? Samuelson seems to think the answer is a resounding yes.