| Obama, McCain win in Wisconsin
McCain won the Republican primary, with ease, dispatching former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and edging closer to the 1,191 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination at the party convention in St. Paul, Minn. next summer.The Associated Press made its calls based on surveys of voters as they left the polls.In a scarcely veiled attack on Obama, the Republican nominee-in-waiting said, "I will fight every moment of every day in this campaign to make sure that Americans are not deceived by an eloquent but empty call for change." .
An American Unoriginal
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' Just words! 'I have a dream.' Just words!" There's no question that what Obama said Saturday was similar (videos of both speeches are here): "Don't tell me words don't matter! 'I have a dream.' Just words. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' Just words! [Applause.] 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself.' Just words--just speeches!" But isn't it a bit heavy-handed to accuse Obama of plagiarism? This is a serious charge in academia and journalism, professions in which words are the final product. By contrast, language is a mere instrument for politicians. They hire speechwriters to put words in their mouths, something that would also be frowned upon in academia and journalism.
Where bragging rights are served
The host and their guests get to watch us prep the dinner, we all share some great wines, we cook together, then we all enjoy the meal." For a crowd that pulls the corks on $3,000 bottles of wine when friends drop by for Saturday dinner, bringing a top-name chef into the kitchen is becoming a small price to pay for a stand-out dinner party. The cozy feeling that comes with being at home - controlling the music, dressing casually - can be blended with the cult of the chef that's been built up by restaurant reviews and ever-increasing television exposure. Anna Olson, a noted pastry chef and host of the Food Network Canada show Sugar, gets lured out of her Port Dalhousie, Ont., bakery every few months when clients drop up to $20,000 at charity events for the honour of having her and husband, chef Michael Olson, cook in their kitchens.
O'Malley backs limits on pollution
But business groups and many Republicans are fighting the proposal, saying mandatory caps on carbon dioxide could drive businesses out of the state and derail the economy.
More regulations on pollution from power plants are likely to further drive up the cost of electricity and a wide variety of products and services that depend on electricity, the critics argue.
Republican Sen. David R. Brinkley, the Senate minority leader from Frederick County, said that voters still smarting from O'Malley's recent tax increases will perceive this legislation as yet another tax.
"It's not going to be at all positive for the economy, but this legislature and this administration [don't] care," Brinkley said. "They are more interested in making political statements about saving the Earth than saving Maryland jobs."
Environment Maryland and other advocacy groups pushing the legislation counter that mandates for more alternative energy, such as wind and solar power, could create "green collar" jobs.
Coins of the Realm
Because the so-called SWFs are the new heavyweights of the global economy and people want to know what makes them tick. Such is their aversion to publicity, we don't even know for sure how much money the funds have, but Stephen Jen, an expert at Morgan Stanley, monitors about 29 SWFs which he reckons have combined assets of about $2.8 trillion (1.44 trillion). That's a bit more than British GDP and rather more than either the world's hedge funds or private equity funds can boast. Headline purchases So it's serious money. And they've been doing serious things with it: pouring $70 billion into major US banks in the last 9 months alone. Other headline purchases have been P&O, a large chunk of Standard Chartered Bank, large chunks of New York and London high-end commercial real estate (like Madison Avenue), and the QE2.
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