Excitable Andy, in addition to general gobsmackedness???????? over the idea that history might treat Pres. Bush more kindly if Iraq turns out relatively well in the long run, is agitated over terms of the proposed Iraq security pact: 50 long-term military bases. How is that not empire? It is not empire in the sense that the US bases in Japan, Germany and South Korea pursuant to Status of Forces Agreements

Hillary Clinton will be offered a dignified exit from the presidential race and the prospect of a place in Barack Obama’s cabinet under plans for a “negotiated surrender” of her White House ambitions being drawn up by Senator Obama’s aides. The former First Lady would get the chance to pilot Mr Obama’s reforms of the American healthcare system if she agrees to clear the path to his nomination as Democratic

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: With its power-to-the-individual approach, the new media world promises anyone with a laptop the possibility of a publishing empire. But, as some black bloggers are finding out, the new media world is a lot like the old one: racially segregated, with many prominent black voices still fighting to be heard. Some bloggers felt insulted this month when the Democratic National Committee selected 55 state-oriented blogs

The other day, I noted that for all of the usual caveats about polls being snapshots and a week being a lifetime in politics, the May-June polls in 2004 correlated pretty well to the November results.  A diarist at OpenLeft has posted a table showing the national presidential polling for March/ April, May, June and the actual vote margins for elections going back to 1972, along with the following observations: In