And so it goes.

Ralph Nader said Sunday he will run for president as a third-party candidate, criticizing the top White House contenders as too close to big business and pledging to repeat a bid that will “shift the power from the few to the many.”

Nader, 73, said most people are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties due to a prolonged Iraq war and a shaky economy. The consumer advocate also blamed tax and other corporate-friendly policies under the Bush administration that he said have left many lower- and middle-class people in debt.

His entry to race is pretty much irrelevant. After 2000, Democrats, determined not to let Nader siphon off votes from John Kerry in 2004, blocked Nader from getting on the ballot in many states, and with yet another likely close race for 2008, Nader will probably not see his name on the ballot except for in a handful of states.

…and its glory.

An artist killed herself after aborting her twins when she was eight weeks pregnant, leaving a note saying: “I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum.”

Emma Beck was found hanging at her home in Helston, Cornwall, on Feb 1 2007. She was declared dead early the following day – her 31st birthday.

Her suicide note read: “I told everyone I didn’t want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no-one else does.”

It’s interesting that while the left makes up buzz phrases like “women’s rights,” “reproductive rights,” and “right to choose,” they absolutely ignore the negative effects of abortion on women.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: For more information on the devastating effects abortion has on its adult victims, please go to Silent No More. Matt and I were honored to meet some of the women from this organization and they stirred us greatly in our opposition to the practice of abortion.

So, with the media coronation of Barack Obama as the nominee for the Democrats, as a result of his repeated victories, I’d like to raise the question again about the state of the Clinton Brand.

How badly has the Clinton Brand suffered from this campaign? If Hillary somehow manages to pull of getting the nomination, will that repair the damage done? What if she doesn’t get the nomination, is it permanently destroyed?

Ah, nothing like the thesis of a liberal (PDF) for intersting items:

…My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong…

Stokely Carmichael and Charlie Hamilton’s (1967) developed definitions of separationism in their discussion of Black Power which guided me in the forumlation and use this concept in this study:

The concept of Black Power rests of this fundamental premise: Before a group can enter the open society, it must close ranks. By this we mean that group solidarity is necessary before a group can operate effectively from a bargaining position of strength in a pluralistic society.

Thus, Carmichael and Hamilton define separationism as a necessary stage for the development of the Black community before this group integrates into the “open society”.

All really good liberal mental gobblydegook – the sort of “thinking” which you get when you are just repeating back what a leftist told you. Trouble is, this lady might be the person who gets first and last crack at advising the President of the United States every day. I guess Michelle Obama doesn’t have as much pull in 2008 as Hillary had in 1992 in getting her thesis locked away. I wonder, however, what we might find in any thesis written by Barack? Would there be, for instance, anything like Michelle’s assertion that black (errr…I mean Black) politicians are to pretend to be working with Whites when they are actually advancing the Black community?

…They discuss the problems which face these Black officials who must persuade the White community that they are above issues of race and that they are representing all people and not just Black people…

Its going to be a very fun and interesting fall campaign…

The location of the library has now been determined.

Southern Methodist University in Dallas has been selected as the home for U.S. President George W. Bush’s presidential library, the school said on Friday.

The university had been widely seen as the front-runner to house the facilities which will consist of a library for the Bush administration’s documents, a museum and a public policy institute.

Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale University School of Architecture, will design the buildings.

I have to say I am very pleased with the selection of Robert A.M. Stern as the architect. I met Mr. Stern several years ago when I was an undergraduate architecture student, and admire his work. I look forward to seeing the design proposal.

Obama is, quite simply, not up to the task of heading up American foreign policy. In statement after statement, Obama has shown that he’s unaware of the realities of world politics as well as America’s position in the world – and John McCain is calling him on it:

ARLINGTON, VA — U.S. Senator John McCain today issued the following statement on Senator Obama’s remarks on Cuba during last night’s Democratic debate:

“Not so long ago Senator Obama favored complete normalization of relations with Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Last night, he said that as president he’d meet with the imprisoned island’s new leader ‘without preconditions.’ So Raul Castro gets an audience with an American president, and all the prestige such a meeting confers, without having to release political prisoners, allow free media, political parties, and labor unions, or schedule internationally monitored free elections.

“Instead, Senator Obama says he would meet Cuba’s dictator without any such steps in the hope that talk will make things better for Cuba’s oppressed people. Meet, talk, and hope may be a sound approach in a state legislature, but it is dangerously naive in international diplomacy where the oppressed look to America for hope and adversaries wish us ill.”

This is Obama hoping for change – he hopes that if he meets Raul Castro, there will be change. This is an amazingly ignorant view of the true state of affairs in Cuba, where Raul Castro has played the heavy for older brother Fidel for nearly a half a century. Legitimize Raul, and all you’ll do is tighten the shackles on the people of Cuba. It is time, Senator Obama, for Cuba to be free – which means you should agree to meet with Raul only after he’s opened up his nation to the light of liberty.

Ha! I like it.

Hillary Rodham Clinton accused Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama of political plagiarism Thursday night and said he represented “change you can Xerox.” Obama dismissed the charge out of hand, adding in a campaign debate, “What we shouldn’t be doing is tearing each other down, we should be lifting the country up.”

The exchange marked an unusually pointed moment in an otherwise civil encounter in the days before March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio — contests that even some of Clinton’s supporters say she must win to sustain her campaign for the White House.

UPDATE: More Obama/Rezko details…

We shot down that satellite:

WASHINGTON (AP) – A missile launched from a Navy ship successfully struck a dying U.S. spy satellite passing 130 miles over the Pacific on Wednesday, a defense official said. Full details were not immediately available.

It happened just after 10:30 p.m. EST.

Two officials said the missile was launched successfully. One official, who is close to the process, said it hit the target. He said details on the results were not immediately known.

The goal in this first-of-its-kind mission for the Navy was not just to hit the satellite but to obliterate a tank aboard the spacecraft carrying 1,000 pounds of a toxic fuel called hydrazine.

U.S. officials have said the fuel would pose a potential health hazard to humans if it landed in a populated area. Although the odds of that were small even if the Pentagon had chosen not to try to shoot down the satellite, it was determined that it was worth trying to eliminate even that small chance.

By now, you’ve probably heard news of the New York Times smear job against John McCain. It is such a ridiculously poor piece one has to question the motives of the New York Times for even going forward with it. With McCain pretty much securing the nomination, it’s inevitable that he’ll be the target of baseless smear attacks…

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. In the meantime, discuss.

UPDATE: Wow, even Alan Colmes concedes this is a non-story.

Not even his supporters can name a single legislative accomplishment of Barack Obama’s.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=SZTo0iGc_Dw%5D