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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (315924)	12/16/2006 9:33:36 AM
From: steve harris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576592

Do you know where Okinawa is?

To: tejek who wrote (315924)	12/16/2006 9:54:29 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576592

Bayh rules out White House bid in 2008 By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 46 minutes ago Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh (news, bio, voting record) of Indiana announced on Saturday he will not seek the presidency in 2008, saying he believes the odds of a successful run were too great to overcome. "At the end of the day, I concluded that due to circumstances beyond our control the odds were longer than I felt I could responsibly pursue," Bayh said in a statement. "This path — and these long odds — would have required me to be essentially absent from the Senate for the next year instead of working to help the people of my state and the nation." The announcement comes just two weeks after Bayh, in an appearance on a Sunday talk show, said he would take a first step toward a presidential campaign by forming an exploratory committee. His decision to step aside narrows a crowded field of possible candidates that, for now, is dominated by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. Just last weekend, Bayh traveled to New Hampshire, the early presidential primary state, but his appearance drew little notice as Obama delivered two speeches to sold-out crowds and attracted hordes of reporters. Bayh joins former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner as well-known Democrats who already have decide against a 2008 run. "The odds were always going to be very long for a relatively unknown candidate like myself, a little bit like David and Goliath," Bayh said in the statement. He added that beyond the question of "whether there were too many Goliaths or whether I'm just not the right David," his chances were slim. Bayh, 50, left open the possibility of a run at some point, saying, "There may be no campaign in the near future, but there is much work to be done." Bayh is a Democrat with a record of political success in a Republican-leaning state. He had been pointing toward a White House campaign for months, and had $10.5 million in his Senate campaign bank account as of Sept. 30. That money could have shifted to his exploratory committee. The senator recently hired his first paid organizer for Iowa, the state whose caucuses commence the competition in the campaign. Among the announced Democratic candidates are Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich. But Clinton and Obama loom large in a potential field that also could include 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts; Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware; and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut. The Republican lineup is equally crowded: Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are some of the contenders. As a member of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees, Bayh was one of the first Democrats to support military action in Iraq. But in December 2005, he changed his position, saying he would not have supported legislation authorizing the invasion if the facts the Bush administration used to support the move had been presented to him accurately. Bayh has charted a centrist's course throughout his political career, including two terms as governor and eight years in the Senate. He also has served as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, a prominent voice for moderation within the party, and has helped establish the centrist New Democrat Coalition. Elected governor in 1988, he was the first Democrat in 20 years to hold that office and at age 33 was the youngest state chief executive in the United States. Bayh was often referred to as a "Republicrat" who courted the middle. He never raised taxes and he left office with a humming state economy, low unemployment and a record budget surplus. His approval rating was an astonishing 79 percent in a state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since Lyndon Johnson's 1964 landslide. Bayh drew national notice, too, as his tenure neared an end. Bayh was tapped to give the keynote address at the 1996 Democratic National Convention. He was elected to the Senate two years later. In recent years, Bayh voted against confirming John Roberts and Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court; opposed legislation to open a portion of an Arctic wildlife refuge to oil drilling; and supported a comprehensive immigration bill that included a path to citizenship for millions of men and women in the country illegally. Bayh is the son of Birch Bayh, who won three terms in the Senate from Indiana before losing his seat to Dan Quayle in the Republican landslide of 1980.

To: tejek who wrote (315924)	12/16/2006 9:54:30 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1576592

Sorry... dup.

To: tejek who wrote (315924)	12/16/2006 10:16:36 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576592

Democrats Arrive at the Heart of the Matter By THOMAS B. EDSALL Washington The Democrats are positioned to make a down payment to the voters who gave them majority control of the House and the Senate. Their ability to pay in full is another question. House Democrats, more than their Senate colleagues, can set certain partisan markers: a minimum-wage hike, ethics reform, reduced student loan interest rates and changes in labor law, which will make union organizing less difficult. As the majority, Democratic leaders and committee chairs can focus public attention on job, pension and health care security issues; publicize evidence of decreased mobility on the economic ladder; and spotlight the growing vulnerability of middle-income families to sharp and sudden downward financial swings. The threat to the middle class is real. “I won by almost 13 points, with almost no newspaper endorsements, against an incumbent who had given out $1 billion in projects,” says Sherrod Brown, a new senator for Ohio. “It was because of the strength of our message about the middle class.” So much for the down payment. After that, the going for the Democrats gets tougher. They will encounter two roadblocks: Republican chokeholds on federal spending, meant to “starve the beast” by radically depleting coffers, and intense internal Democratic policy conflicts. Democrats on the House Budget and Appropriations Committees released a report early this month, titled The Republican Legacy, which describes the spending restrictions confronting them. The 110th Congress “will face a fiscal challenge of historic proportions. The cost of the Iraq war, coupled with the growing price tag of tax cuts passed over the previous six years, have left the nation deeper in debt than ever.” (Since 2002, Congress has appropriated $379 billion for the Iraq war.) One solution, raising taxes, is widely seen as a third rail for Democrats. “We are not talking about that now,” said a spokesman for the incoming speaker, Nancy Pelosi. The intraparty conflict pits its business and labor wings against each other on policies dealing with the international marketplace. Should lawmakers encourage the flow of cheap goods from China to stock the shelves of Wal-Mart, benefiting American shoppers, many of whom are low income? Or should policy be designed to protect American jobs and wages by raising trade barriers? This split is profound. Barney Frank — echoing a large swath of his party — contends that this nation’s “enormous economic power” could be used to stem the hemorrhage of services and production overseas. Trade agreements could be made contingent upon rules requiring that China and other countries abide by environmental and labor standards. “People greatly exaggerate the value of a cheap T-shirt,” Frank says, upholding the position of organized labor and dismissing the argument that such goals are unattainable and unenforceable. A leading Democratic proponent of free trade, who does not want to publicly engage the topic yet, has a counterargument, that China is moving full speed ahead, that “you cannot put labor provisions into a trade agreement with China. They’ll walk away.” That globalization is inexorable. That “we are either going to be inside the net or outside the net.” That America needs to deal with dislocation effects and negative distribution consequences. He points out that Midwestern law firms are outsourcing research to India, that the U.S. needs a better education system, that Korea has a national broadband infrastructure, that Shanghai and Beijing airports are more modern than J.F.K., that key military agencies no longer support basic research. He argues that chemical plants need security and that America needs universal health coverage. “There’s a lot we can do to make it better,” he says, like locating businesses in the U.S. in clusters around universities, and locating production closer to centers of “intellectual ferment.” He is firm on one point: “We need to get back on track fiscally. We have to have higher revenue. Business is not supporting taxes. They rail against government spending. We don’t have the means to pay for what we need.” This conflict goes to the heart of Democratic struggles to develop a credible economic policy. The Democrats have a two-year window in which to confront their internal schisms and to present a stronger face to the electorate in 2008.