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Clinton, Obama converge on Florida

TAMPA, Florida (CNN) — The two Democratic presidential candidates are campaigning Wednesday in Florida, but they are in pursuit of different goals.

Fresh from her win Tuesday in the Kentucky primary, Sen. Hillary Clinton will be pushing for the Democratic National Committee to seat Florida’s delegates at the national convention.

Sen. Barack Obama, meanwhile, is keeping his eye on November as he campaigns in the Southern state for the first time this year, as Florida again is expected to play a critical role as a swing state in the general election.

Obama directed his fire at Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, during a campaign stop in Tampa. Watch for Obama call for unity

He’s running for four more years of George Bush, Obama said of McCain. He’s running for a third Bush term; that is what he’s running for.

Obama also challenged McCain’s position on lobbyists.

John McCain offered a bill that said he would ban a candidate from paying registered lobbyists, and he did this because he said that having lobbyists on your campaign was a conflict of interest. This is what he said 10 years ago, Obama said.

Well, I’ll tell you that John McCain then would be pretty disappointed with John McCain now, because he hired some of the biggest lobbyists in Washington to run this campaign.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds lashed out at Obama on Wednesday.

Sen. Obama made some pretty harsh attacks today on John McCain … but a quick look at his campaign shows he’s completely hypocritical on this issue, he said. In Obama’s world, a lobbyist can’t contribute to the campaign, but they can raise money and advise the candidate on policy issues. It’s absurd.

McCain’s national finance co-chairman stepped down Sunday, the fifth adviser in a little more than a week to leave the Republican’s campaign over questions about lobbying or past ties to lobbyists. Former Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler of Texas was a major fundraiser for McCain.

During his time in Florida, Obama will attend three fundraisers. On Wednesday evening, he will be at one in Maitland, near Orlando, and then Thursday, he will appear at two in South Florida — in Miami and Hollywood.

Obama strengthened his position as the favorite in the race for the Democratic nomination Tuesday when he captured a majority of the pledged delegates after winning the Oregon primary and additional delegates in Kentucky. Watch Obama celebrate his victory in Iowa

With 1,656 pledged delegates, Obama has more than half of the 3,253 total pledged delegates, those allocated according to the results of primaries and caucuses.

However, Obama does not have enough delegates to secure the nomination outright. He has 1,962 delegates, including superdelegates, the elected and party officials — short of the 2,026 needed to secure the nomination, according to CNN estimates. Analysts look at the race ahead

Clinton has 1,777 delegates.

While Obama was looking ahead to the fall, Clinton was fighting hard to keep her candidacy alive.

Florida was stripped of delegates because its January 29 primary was held too early and in violation of party rules.

The Democratic National Committee will decide May 31 whether the Florida delegates — as well as those from Michigan — will be allowed to vote at the convention. Michigan also lost its delegates for scheduling its primary too early — on January 15 — in violation of party rules. Watch James Carville argue that the delegations to be seated

The decision our party faces is not just about the fate of these votes or the outcome of these primaries, Clinton said Wednesday in Boca Raton.

It’s whether we will uphold our most fundamental values as Democrats and Americans. It’s whether we will move forward united and take back the White House this November. That has to be the prize we have to keep in mind.

Clinton said Florida’s Democratic voters were being punished for something they did not do, noting that the Republican-controlled Legislature moved up the state’s primary date to late January.

They did nothing wrong, and they should not be punished for doing their civic duty, Clinton said of those who voted in the primary.

The senator from New York won the Florida contest and would receive a majority of the state’s 211 delegates if the primary results were counted. Her campaign argues that she is leading Obama in the popular vote if the results from Florida and Michigan are included.

Clinton maintains that the Florida and Michigan delegations should be seated out of fairness to voters in those states. Watch Clinton vow to never give up

I’m going to keep standing up for the voters of Florida and Michigan, Clinton told supporters Tuesday in Louisville, Kentucky.

Democrats in those two states cast 2.3 million votes, and they deserve to have those votes counted. And that’s why I’m going to keep making our case until we have a nominee, whoever she may be.

found here.

Iraqi: ‘I killed her with a machine gun’

BASRA, Iraq (CNN) — The man, blindfolded and handcuffed, crouches in the corner of the detention center while an Iraqi soldier grills him about rampant crimes being carried out by gangs in the southern city of Basra.

How many girls did you kill and rape? the soldier asks.

I raped one, sir, the man responds.

What was her name?

Ahlam, he says.

Ahlam was a university student in the predominantly Shiite city of Basra. The detainee said the gang he was in kidnapped her as she was leaving the university, heading home.

They forced me, and I killed her with a machine gun, sir, he says.

The suspect, who is unshaven and appears to be in his 20s or 30s, was arrested by Iraq security forces after they retook most of Basra in April.

CNN was shown what authorities say was his first confession. On it are the names of 15 girls whom he admitted kidnapping, raping and killing. The youngest girl on the list was just 9 years old.

Basra turned into a battleground between warring Shiite factions vying for control of the country’s oil-rich south after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Basra’s streets teemed with Shiite militias armed with weapons, mostly from Iran, according to the Iraqi forces and the U.S. military. Watch a mom describe her three sons killed

For four years after the invasion, Basra was under the control of British forces, but they were unable to contain the violence and withdrew in September last year.

Women bore the brunt of the militias’ extremist ideologies. The militants spray-painted threats on walls across Basra, warning women to wear headscarves and not to wear make-up. Women were sometimes executed for the vague charge of doing something un-Islamic.

In the wasteland on the outskirts of Basra, dotted with rundown homes, the stench of death mixes with the sewage. Local residents told the Iraqi Army that executions often take place in the area, particularly for women, sometimes killed for something as seemingly inocuous as wearing jeans.

Militias implemented their own laws with abandon, threatening stores for displaying mannequins with bare shoulders or for selling Western music. Many store owners are still too frightened to speak publicly.

But the horrors of militia rule are now surfacing as some residents begin to feel more comfortable speaking out.

Inside her rundown home, Sabriya’s watery eyes peer out from under her robe. She points to the first photo of one of her sons on the wall.

This one was killed because he was drinking, she says.

She draws her finger across her neck and gestures at the next photo.

This one was slaughtered for his car.

This one the same, she adds, looking at the third.

Her three sons, her daughter and her sister were all killed by the hard-line militia. Her sister was slaughtered because she was a single woman living alone, Sabriya says.

They came in at night and put a pillow on her face and shot her in the head, she says.

Sabriya lives on what was once dubbed murder street for the daily killings that happened there last year.

On the day CNN visited, dozens of young men sat where there used to be piles of bodies. Sheik Maktouf al-Maraiyani shudders at the memory.

Every day, we would find 10 or 15 of our men killed, he says, adding sorrowfully one of them was my son. His son was 25 years old.

Now, murder street is part of a citywide effort to get Basra back on its feet. In a project funded by U.S. forces, Sheikh Maktouf and others are being paid $20 a day and upwards to clean up trash. Watch the transformation of ‘murder street’

Basra may be part of the country’s oil rich south, but it wallows in its own sewage and trash. The stench of filth is impossible to escape. The effort also helps with the massive unemployment plaguing the city.

British forces officially handed over responsibility of Basra to Iraqi forces in December.

The situation was so bad because the security forces were controlled by the militias, says Brig. Gen. Aziz al-Swady, who commands the 14th Iraq Army Divison.

To help curb the violence, British troops have returned to the city, adopting the U.S. approach of embedding with Iraqi units as advisers. The Iraqi prime minister also has flooded the city with additional troops, bringing in soldiers from western Iraq along with their American advisers.

Now the citizens have started to trust the Iraqi security forces, said al-Swady.

The biggest difference is that residents are starting to leave their homes — something unthinkable just a few months ago. At one of the parks in the city this past weekend, a father named Al’aa was out with his three young children and his wife.

It’s the first time that we have dared to come here in two years, he said.

The park was once often used for executions.

found here.

Chemlab

Emerald City ComiCon - post 1

many cool things to blog round wrt eccc. but this needs to do well posted online without further delay, because it is so funny. i neck open to question content, a friend turned me onto it last get a wiggle on. in november i scan from the start up to coeval,…

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Obama out-raises Clinton, McCain again

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama raised millions more than his Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, and presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain in April. Obama brought in $31 million, his campaign announced Tuesday.

Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, raised $22 million in April, campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said. McCain’s take of more than $18.5 million was a new high for the Arizona senator, according to his campaign’s monthly finance report.

Obama, the Democratic front-runner, has $37.3 million remaining for his Democratic primary campaign, plus another $9.2 million set aside for a general election contest, his campaign announced.

According to CNN estimates, Obama claimed a majority of the pledged delegates in the Democratic race on Tuesday despite losing the Kentucky primary to Clinton by a wide margin. Results from the second contest of the night, in Oregon, were expected after 11 p.m. ET.

But Obama is short of the 2,026 total delegates needed to win the party’s August nominating convention in Denver, Colorado, where the race is likely to be settled by the party’s superdelegates — unpledged elected officials and party leaders.

Wolfson said Tuesday that Clinton has the resources to compete in the remaining contests and that the Democratic campaign was far from over.

We don’t have a nominee until we have a nominee, he said.

found here.

Obama takes Oregon; Clinton wins Kentucky

(CNN) — Despite Hillary Clinton’s landslide victory in Kentucky, Barack Obama has won a majority of pledged delegates in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton won Kentucky by more than 30 points, but Obama’s share of the state’s 51 delegates was enough put him over the threshold, according to CNN estimates.

Obama is expected to pick up at least 14 delegates in Kentucky, and by CNN estimates, that will give him 1,627 of the 3,253 pledged delegates at stake in all of primaries and caucuses.

Obama will also pick up a win in Oregon, CNN projects, giving him the larger share of the state’s 52 delegates.

Obama’s top strategist, David Axelrod, said getting the pledged delegate majority was an important milestone, but not the end of the trail.

Neither candidate is expected to reach the 2,026 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.

That means the race is likely to be settled by superdelegates — party leaders and officials who will cast votes at the Democratic convention in August.

Speaking in Iowa, where he won the first-in-the-nation caucuses, Obama told supporters, it was in this great state where we took the first steps of an unlikely journey to change America. Watch Obama say he’s in reach of the nomination

The skeptics predicted we wouldn’t get very far. The cynics dismissed us as a lot of hype and a little too much hope. And by the fall, the pundits in Washington had all but counted us out. But the people of Iowa had a different idea, he said.

Obama continued to look to the general election, focusing his attacks as he has for the past week on Sen. John McCain, while commending Clinton for her courage, her commitment and her perseverance.

Obama said McCain’s policies don’t represent change.

This year’s Republican primary was a contest to see which candidate could out-Bush the other, and that is the contest John McCain won, he said.

McCain’s camp accused Obama of launching the tired old political attacks of a typical politician, not the ‘new politics’ he’s promised.

Without a doubt, Barack Obama is a talented political orator, but his naive plans for unconditional summits with rogue leaders and support for big tax hikes on hardworking families expose his bad judgment that Americans can ill-afford in our next president, spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement.

After Kentucky’s results came in, Clinton thanked her supporters for handing her a win even in the face of some pretty tough odds.

Tonight we have achieved an important victory, she said in Louisville.

It’s not just Kentucky bluegrass that’s music to my ears. It’s the sound of your overwhelming vote of confidence even in the face of some pretty tough odds. Watch Clinton vow to keep going

Clinton beat Obama across all age groups, income groups and education levels in Kentucky.

Eighty-nine percent of Tuesday’s voters in Kentucky were white, according to the exit polls. Among them, Clinton won 72-22 percent. Nine percent of the voters were African-American and they overwhelmingly broke for Obama, 87-7 percent.

The exit polls from Kentucky also suggest a deep division among Democrats. Watch how Clinton’s win could affect the race

Two-thirds of Clinton’s supporters there said they would vote Republican or not vote at all rather than for Obama, according to the polls.

Forty-one percent of Clinton supporters said they’d cast their vote for McCain, and 23 percent said they would not vote at all.

Just 33 percent said they would back Obama in the general election, according to the polls.

Those numbers are even worse for Obama than in West Virginia one week ago, where 36 percent of Clinton voters said they would back him in the fall.

Obama on Tuesday downplayed the idea that his party will have trouble unifying once there is a nominee.

Some may see the millions upon millions of votes cast for each of us as evidence that our party is divided, but I see it as proof that we have never been more energized and united in our desire to take this country in a new direction, he said.

More than anything, we need this unity and this energy in the months to come, because while our primary has been long and hard-fought, the hardest and most important part of our journey still lies ahead.

Obama leads Clinton in the number of states won and in the popular vote in the primary and caucus contests this campaign season, but he has been careful not to declare victory in the Democratic contest.

Obama doesn’t have enough delegates to capture the nomination outright; Clinton still has a chance, if a slight one, to win the nomination if enough of the roughly 800 superdelegates were to back her.

I’m going to make [my case] until we have a nominee, but we’re not going to have one today, and we’re not going to have one tomorrow, and we’re not going to have one the next day, Clinton said Monday in Kentucky.

She argues that she leads in the popular vote, but her argument is debatable.

For Clinton to claim such a lead, primary states but not caucus states — which Obama mostly won — would only be counted, plus the popular vote totals in Florida and Michigan.

Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates for scheduling their primaries too early, in violation of Democratic Party rules. Obama’s name wasn’t on the Michigan ballot, and he received no votes in that state’s contest.

found here.