Blue Crab Boulevard

Hillary Clinton has unveiled the uber-tippity-top-secret that will propel Her Inevitableness to victory!

A Saturday Night Live skit!

"I am very optimistic and extremely positive about what we're doing as we go forward in these states," Clinton said of Ohio and Texas, two delegate-rich states on which she has pinned the future of her candidacy.

"I hear with increasing frequency, 'Don't give up, you're going to win,'" she said.

The former first lady pledged to continue to stress her differences with Obama on issues including universal health care, and said she will step up her criticism of the Illinois senator's lack of experience in public life.

"We're going to emphasize more and more the experience gap," Clinton told several hundred supporters who had paid at least $500 to attend a Boston fundraiser. "You'll hear a lot about it the next eight days."

The New York senator said the posters voters are bringing to her events indicate that the issue of experience is coming to the forefront.

"When I first started, it was 'You Go Girl,' 'Women Making History,' all about the pioneering nature of my candidacy," Clinton said. Recently, she said, the signs had changed.

"In Houston last night, it was, 'We Want Experience, Not An Experiment,' and 'The White House Is No Place for Training Wheels,'" she said.

Clinton blamed her woes in part on unfair press coverage but said she believed Obama had come under increased media scrutiny in recent days. She urged the group to watch the latest episode of "Saturday Night Live," which featured a skit mocking last Thursday's CNN debate as little more than a love fest for Obama.

Yea, verily  thou shalt combat the usurper with a skit! Good luck with that. 

The headlines are screaming all over the world right now. The wire services are agape! Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic airlines has, according to the headlines: 

Virgin Atlantic flies jumbo jet powered by biofuel - International Herald Tribune

Biofuel takes flight with Virgin Atlantic -  Kansas City Star

Virgin Atlantic flies jumbo jet powered by biofuel from London's Heathrow: Charleston Daily Mail  

Britain's Daily Mail is also excited, but they at least got some detail in:

World's first aircraft powered by bio-fuel takes off

The world's first commercial aircraft powered partly by biofuel took to the skies today.

The Virgin Atlantic 747 took off on route from London Heathrow to Amsterdam using a 20 per cent biofuel mix of coconut and babassu oil in one of its four main fuel tanks.

Environmentalists are frothing at the mouth calling this a publicity stunt - which, if Branson is involved, it is. That is exactly what Branson does: self-promotion. What is missing here is an explanation of what, exactly, was done. Did one engine run the very small amount of biofuel or did all four? What impact on performance did the biofuel have? Was the one tank with a (minor) biofuel mix even used? 

Witout knowing those things, this is all hype.

The last two passenger-carrying Douglas DC-3 aircraft in Britain are to be grounded due to European Union regulations. First flown in 1935, the 70-year old aircraft would require expensive new equipment to meet the new regulations and the owners cannot justify the expense. An era is ending.

'It groaned, it protested, it rattled, it ran hot, it ran cold, it ran rough, it staggered along on hot days and scared you half to death.

'Its wings flexed and twisted in a horrifying manner, it sank back to earth with a great sigh of relief. But it flew and it flew and it flew.'

This is the memorable description by Captain Len Morgan, a former pilot with Braniff Airways, of the unique challenge of flying a Douglas DC-3.

For more than 70 years, the aircraft known through a variety of nicknames - the Doug, the Dizzy, Old Methuselah, the Gooney Bird, the Grand Old Lady - but which to most of us is simply the Dakota has been the workhorse of the skies.

With its distinctive nose-up profile when on the ground and extraordinary capabilities in the air, it transformed passenger travel and served in just about every military conflict from World War II onwards.

Now the Douglas DC-3 - the most successful plane ever made, which first took to the skies just over 30 years after the Wright Brothers' historic first flight - is to carry passengers in Britain for the last time.

Romeo Alpha and Papa Yankee, the last two passenger-carrying Dakotas in the UK, are being forced into retirement because of - yes, you've guessed it - health and safety rules.

Their owner, Coventry-based Air Atlantique, has reluctantly decided it would be too expensive to fit the required emergency escape slides and weather radar systems required by new European rules for their 65-year-old planes, which served with the RAF during the war.

Mike Collett, the company's chairman, says: "We're very saddened."

The end of the passenger-carrying British Dakotas is a sad chapter in the story of the most remarkable aircraft ever built, surpassing all others in length of service, dependability and achievement.

It has been a luxury airliner, transport plane, bomber, fighter and flying hospital and introduced millions of people to the concept of air travel.

It has flown more miles, broken more records, carried more passengers and cargo, accumulated more flying time and performed more "impossible" feats than any other plane in history, even in these days of super-jumbos that can circle the world non-stop.

Indeed, at one point, 90 per cent of the world's air traffic was operated by DC-3s.

It's a rather good article about the old warhorse. The DC-3 is an amazing aircraft - I've posted about them before. There are some good links at the last linked post. 

The Cuban parliament has installed Raul Castro as the new head of the Cuban hereditary communist monarchy, a not unexpected result. Fidel II has promised to defer to both his brother and to the communist party in order to ascend to the throne.

HAVANA - Cuba's parliament named Raul Castro president on Sunday, ending nearly 50 years of rule by his brother Fidel but leaving the island's communist system unshaken.

The vote came five days after Fidel said he was retiring, capping a career in which he frustrated efforts by 10 U.S. presidents to oust him.

The succession was not likely to bring a major shift in the communist government policies that have put it at odds with the United States. But many Cubans were hoping it would open the door to modest economic reforms that might improve their daily lives.

In another sign that major change was not afoot, Raul Castro, 76, proposed he would consult with the ailing, 81-year-old Fidel on all major decisions of state, and parliament approved the proposal.

An old guard revolutionary leader, Jose Ramon Machado, was named No. 2 — the slot that Raul Castro had previously held. The 77-year-old fought alongside the Castro brothers in the Sierra Maestra during the late 1950s.

In his first speech as president, Raul Castro suggested that the Communist Party as a whole would take over the role long held by Fidel Castro, who formally remains its leader.

The new president said the nation's sole legal party "is the directing and superior force of society and the state."

"This conviction has particular importance when because the founding and forging generation of the revolution is disappearing," Raul Castro added.

The U.S. has said the change from one Castro to another would not be significant, calling it a "transfer of authority and power from dictator to dictator light."

Or, to put it more succinctly, nothing really changes except the name on the door. Meet the new boss and all that.  

No, not a post apocalyptic movie starring Mel Gibson. Rather, it is the tail (yes, I meant to spell it that way) of a man's worst friend. Max the boxer stole his master's pickup truck and drove off in it.

Police say Charles McCowan parked his pickup truck in front of an Azusa mini-mart Wednesday, leaving his 80-pound Boxer named Max in the passenger seat.

When he came out, the truck and Max were gone.

McCowan called police, assuming it had been stolen. When officers arrived, they found the truck across the street in a fast-food parking lot, but had no idea how it got there.

In security video shown Thursday, the truck can be seen rolling backward out of the store lot, across a busy street unscathed, and out of view.

Police say after McCowan left the truck, Max somehow released the parking and sent the vehicle rolling backward. 

Max is not your average canine Sunday driver, either. The truck was not harmed during the adventure. Max is fine, too. Although he will now be considered one of the usual suspects when a truck gets stolen. No word on whether the  Azusa police pawprinted the canine crook.  

The Daily Mail hits at the "Fair Trade"certification in Britain again this morning. This time, they are reporting on the release of a study by the Adam Smith Institute that slams the entire fair trade movement as worthless marketing or something that is actually harmful to the most vulnerable people on Earth.

Last year, British consumers spent more than £300million on Fairtrade products.

But the report Unfair Trade claims that the organisation's "positive image appears to rely more on public relations than research".

It adds:
• Fairtrade helps only a very small number of farmers while leaving the majority worse off.
•It favours producers in better-off nations such as Mexico, rather than poor African countries.
•It holds back economic development, paying inefficient cooperative farms and discouraging diversification and mechanisation.
• Supermarket chains profit more from the higher price of Fairtrade goods than farmers.
•Only a fifth of produce grown on Fairtrade-approved farms is actually purchased at its guaranteed fair price.

Tom Clougherty, policy director of the Adam Smith Institute, says: "At best, fair trade is a marketing device that does the poor little good.

"At worst, it may inadvertently be harming some of the planet's most vulnerable people."

Most damning of all, the report claims that Fairtrade is hurting the poorest group of all in the production process of its goods – the casual labourers hired by farmers to pick the bananas, coffee and cotton. 

The UK executive director of Fairtrade whines that the report is beating them up for trying. (It's all about the good intentions, don't you see?)

Actually, the study, as reported in the story, isn't beating them up for trying. It is beating them up for what they are doing wrong. Is making sure that farmers get a fair shake a laudable effort? Well, maybe, although that is a subject that is debatable. But forcing collectivism is the surest way to ensure that they all get treated equally badly. The "fair trade" activists insist on only dealing with collectives. Winston Churchill's famous quotation applies here: "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

The report indicates that the "fair traders" are very good indeed at making everyone miserable.  

The increasingly authoritarian "liberals" in Britain are now working on banning the humble McDonald's Happy Meal. The people's republic city of Liverpool is set to enact a ban on the meals. It's for the children, of course.

McDonald's Happy Meals are to be banned in Liverpool over claims they are contributing to the epidemic of childhood obesity.

The city council is planning to outlaw the meals on the grounds that they are damaging the heath of children - particularly as they offer free toys in order to encourage parents to buy junk food for their children.

The Liberal Democrat-controlled authority claims the credit for taking the lead in the campaign that led to the ban on smoking in public places.

Members of Liverpool City Council's Childhood Obesity Scrutiny Group want a bye-law that would forbid the sale of fast foot accompanied by toys.

Councillors say the promotional items are used to boost sales through the "Pester Power" phenomenon - children pestering parents for Happy Meal toys.

The scrutiny Group has ordered a report from town hall officials that would pave the way for the bye-law that would be the first of its kind in the UK.

Lib Dem councillor Paul Twigger said: "The Scrutiny Group is recommending that a bye-law be enforced to stop the circulation of free toys associated with junk food promotions.

"We consider it is high time that cash-hungry vultures like McDonald's are challenged over their marketing policies which are directly aimed at promoting unhealthy eating among children.

"Childhood obesity is a dire threat to the health in this country and it needs to be nipped in the bud urgently.

"Children are directly targeted with junk food and McDonald's use the Happy Meals to exploit Pester Power of children against which many parents give in.

"In most Happy Meals the toy is sold with a burgers containing four or five tablespoons of sugar, along with high-calorie fries and milkshakes.

"These fattening meals are being shamelessly promoted through free toys and it is clear that it is going to take legislation to combat the practice. 

The left has become much worse than what they rebelled against forty years ago. They now think their groupthink mentality is the only way to think and that decisions must not be made by anyone but them. The lovely "cash-hungry vultures" remark is especially telling.

It just doesn't say what Mr. Twigger thinks it does.  Nice jackboots, Mr. Twigger.

I had a request from my son to make linked articles appear in a new window, rather than sending readers away from the page. I am told by the WordPress FAQs that this is considered bad web etiquette these days, however. So, I'd like some feedback from readers before I start doing the open in a new window thing.

Personally, I always just right-click a link and open it in a new tab or window and rather dislike the sites that force a new window. So I really don't want to force that on readers unless there is a real demand for it. Please let me know in comments which you'd prefer. I'll consider the reader's preferences here, but I won't swear I'll be bound by them.

Side note: A couple of regulars are reporting some issues with the comment editor, but I am not able to replicate them on my end at all. Leave any feedback on issues about that here as well. It would help if I know what browser and operating system you are using as well. (It seems to be a Firefox issue at this point, but I can't get my Firefox to do it - but then, I am running Firefox in Linux, not in Windows.) I'm suspecting that this may be a Firefox-Windows conflict and nothing I can fix here at the site.

In what has to have Democratic operatives kicking the walls and punching computer monitors all across the nation, Ralph Nader has just announced a third-party bid for the presidency.

WASHINGTON - Ralph Nader is launching a third-party campaign for president. The consumer advocate made the announcement Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." He says most Americans are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties, and that none of the presidential contenders are addressing ways to stem corporate crime and Pentagon waste and promote labor rights.

Nader also ran as a third-party candidate in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. He is still loathed by many Democrats who call him a spoiler and claim his candidacy in 2000 cost the party the election by siphoning votes away from Al Gore in a razor-thin contest in Florida.

Democratic nightmare scenario: Nader siphons off the left-fringe votes again this year. There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth today.

And not a small amount of glee on the right. 

Michael Goodwin at the New York Post looks at Hillary Clinton's campaign here in the dying days of the race for the nomination and says that the low road she has chosen has taken on a distinctly un-presidential quality.

No matter the office or the candidates, all campaigns usually arrive at a moment of clarity. The cotton-candy clouds of confusion part and we suddenly see that one person is connecting with voters and looks better suited for the job.

That moment is upon us in the Democratic race for President, and for backers of Hillary Clinton, it is not a pretty picture.

Although she is desperate for a big win, Clinton has frittered away almost three weeks in astonishingly trivial pursuits. It's as though her computer blew a fuse after Super Tuesday on Feb. 5 and she doesn't know what to do. Or who she wants to be.

Internal campaign feuds are becoming public, she is running low on cash and the message changes as often as Hillary's pantsuits.

One day the media is blamed for letting Obama off easily and the next day voters are accused of being fooled by his charisma. Bill Clinton is Mr. Everything one day and Mr. Invisible the next.

Most revealing is that Hillary herself now seems determined to aim low, a conclusion that was painfully obvious at Thursday's Texas debate. In a showdown she had to win, she bet the night on a cheap attack that Obama plagiarized some of his speeches and thus has a disqualifying character defect.

To say the logic is a stretch doesn't do it justice. No surprise then that Obama swatted the charge away, but she couldn't let go. "It's not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox," she said in a rehearsed line that will have no imitators at the Oscars.

It's hard to imagine a more un-presidential moment at such a critical time. It qualifies as a case of political malpractice that neither she nor her aides realized how petty the attack would sound.

It did sound petty, it made Clinton look small and weak. Goodwin seems a bit surprised at all this, but I have been pointing out for a very long time that Hillary Clinton suffers from a serious case of political tin ear and always has. She has had a knack for belting out statements that just plain sound bad - they grate on the ear of voters regardless of part affiliation.

That political tone-deafness is why she has almost no hope of catching Obama at this late date. Unless he stumbles, she's done.