We'd rather spite capitalism - Via PBS and the Nightly Business Report, here's Allan Sloan on Social Security: "Instead of building a Social Security sovereign wealth fund, we're running an impoverishment fund and our children and grandchildren will get to pay for it."

Motorcyclist's civil rights violated - Via Stop the ACLU, how they deal with a hostage taker in Spain.

Poll positions - President Bush: now with twice the approval rating of the New York Times.

Extra - From Jawa Report: "NYT shareholders revolt"

Somebody keeps calling at 3 a.m.

Hillary came out with an ad asking "who do you want answering the phone at the White House at 3 a.m." and, a couple hours later, the Obama campaign responded with this. That's some rapid counterpunching.

By now the Clinton people should have recognized the pattern of this campaign:

Hillary: "Blah blah blah experience blah blah blah "ready to lead from Day One" blah blah blah sat on the Armed Services Committee blah blah blah I know which corridors lead to the West Wing."

Obama: "She voted for the Iraq war."

Faced!

Hillary battles back!

Politico: "Clinton raises $35 million in February"

Obama counters!: "Obama raises 'considerably more' than $35 million" So there.

But Hillary isn't going down and retakes the lead in Texas! Or does she? What a fight.

I'm tired - The debates are over. It's going to be McCain vs. Obama. Can I take a nap?

Light sabers, standing proud - Gizmodo: "1301 florescent bulbs lit solely by magnetic fields" Cool picture. (HT: Fark)

A giant of the conservative movement - From National Review: "William F. Buckley, Jr., R.I.P."

Heading for a showdown


This is quite likely the last debate between Clinton and Obama. Which Hillary will show up tonight? The one who was "honored" to share the stage with Obama or the street fighter, swinging away? Frankly, Hillary is boxed in. If she picks a fight, it's going to remind voters of the same ole triangulation politics that Americans are trying to break away from with Obama's message of inclusion. (Watch for a "there you go again" moment). But if she doesn't draw a sharp distinction with the Senator from Illinois, we're back to choosing a candidate on "likeability."

Extra - From the Caucus: "Fight night"

More - Will we be seeing a March 5th press conference? Fox News: "March 4th will determine if Hillary will go forward or not." If she loses Texas, it's "not."

Update - Obama wins because nothing happened. There a sliver of daylight between Clinton and Obama's health care plan but they spent 16 minutes debating the small differences mostly because Hillary wouldn't let it pass. There's not one American in a hundred who could explain how the plans are different. By 9:17 EST, TV sets across the country were turning to ESPN. The only thing remotely newsworthy was Hillary's peevish complaint about "always taking the first question." Not a Presidential moment.

Medicare tsunami

Fox News "Health care spending projected to double by 2017":

In his budget for next year, President Bush recommended slowing the yearly growth of Medicare from about 7 percent to about 5 percent. The slowdown would occur primarily by freezing reimbursement rates for the next three years to scores of health care providers, such as hospitals, nursing homes and home health centers. Bush also proposed requiring wealthier Medicare beneficiaries to pay higher monthly premiums when participating in Medicare's prescription drug coverage plan.

Those recommendations would reduce spending by nearly $178 billion over five years, but have little chance of passage in Congress. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has acknowledged the unpopularity of the recommendations, but he said politicians must make some hard decisions. The longer lawmakers wait, the more difficult the decisions will be.

Bush made the entitlement problem much worse by piling on the Prescription Drug Benefit and now we've reached the tipping point where Congress will never vote down a benefit for the baby boomers because they're just too numerous. Plus, with all their free shuffleboard time, they have nothing else to do but complain and vote.

Spending like Democrats - From Real Clear Politics blog, the Clinton campaign spent $10 large on Internet access while in Las Vegas. This and more high living while fighting for "the people."

Apple patent lawyers put other tech platforms in a pinch

So it's come to this: Apple may try to patent the movements on their Apple IPhone which would put other technology platforms in a tight squeeze:

Is pinching proprietary? We may find out in the coming months as many companies, inspired by the success of Apple's iPhone, release their own multitouch-enabled laptops, smartphones and tablets. In doing so, these companies -- including RIM, Nokia and Synaptics -- may run afoul of multitouch patent applications recently filed by Apple.

"If Apple's patents are granted, the company could absolutely stop others from using similar technology," says Raj Abhyanker, a patent lawyer who used to write patent applications for Apple. "They'd also be in an especially good position to stop others from including certain features. Apple could stop [their use] not only on mobile devices but also desktops."

This gives a whole new meaning to "inappropriate touching."

If you thought the Democratic nomination was a nailbiter - Wait for the general election: John McCain has a hairsbreadth lead over either Obama or Clinton in a head-to-head matchup according to Rasmussen.

Extra - The RCP McCain-Obama match-up.

And there goes Texas - CNN: "In the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Monday, 50 percent of likely Democratic primary voters said Obama is their choice for the party's nominee, while 46 percent backed Clinton."

Hillary's final days - I suspect that this week a series of new polls will come out and at least a few will show Barack Obama ahead in both Ohio and Texas. The superdelegates will bolt to Obama and Howard Dean will make an awkward phone call to the Clintons. Andrew Sullivan explains how Hillary's two-decade march to the White House was derailed: "It seems obvious to me that the Clintons blew this because they never for a second imagined they could. So they never planned to fight it. Once put in a fair contest, they turned out to be terrible campaigners, terrible politicians, bad managers, useless executives, wooden public speakers. If you're a Democrat, that's good to know, isn't it? All that bull**** about Day One and experience? In retrospect: laughable."

As far as I can figure it, the only pathway for Clinton is to squeak out wins in Texas and Ohio, spin it as "momentum" and then try - somehow - to seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida. That's not going to happen.

Liquids and debris everywhere - Ugh, today's Auto Club 500 was delayed by three hours due to rain, then Michael Waltrip spilled a couple gallons of oil on the track, then the rain put the race under red flag again. Also, everybody's overheating their engines because the California Raceway is so laden with trash, it's blocking everybody's air intakes. Looks like they'll restart this race tomorrow.

Different drum - This article in the Boston Globe is written by an advisor to Mike Gravel, but it also makes some sense: "Why Democrats should love the FairTax."

Academy Awards - Jessica Alba is explaining how she handed out the scientific and technical awards at a dinner a couple weeks before tonight's ceremony. I'm sure all those nerds appreciated the choice of host.

Veepstakes! - Looking over the Sunday morning talkshow lineup tomorrow, it's a virtual who's who of potential sidekicks. Fox News Sunday, for example, has the Republican governors of Minnesota and South Carolina along with the Democratic govs of Virginia and New Jersey.

There goes $1 billion - Fox News: "B-2 stealth bomber crashes in Guam; pilots eject safely." I find it utterly amazing that an aircraft as huge as the B-2 has only two pilots. It must be, by far, the largest cost-to-staff ratio in the U.S. military.