Suspect in custody in California junk yard shooting SANTA MARIA, Calif. A suspect is in custody in connection with Tuesday's shooting deaths of four men at a California junk yard. via KXMA-TV Dickinson

"We would have liked to up the charge"

Cesar Rodriguez, the stepfather of Nixzmary Brown, is seen in this photo released by the District Attorney's office in Brooklyn, N.Y. A jury has convicted Rodriguez of manslaughter in the death of his ... via Lubbock Avalanche

"It's terrible anytime anyone gets killed. It was tragic for the Dieperink family and I'm sure it's tragic for the Bendross family."

A man on probation for his role in the 1996 slaying of a Dutch tourist became a murder victim himself near the original crime scene, authorities said.

Xaviein Bendross, 28, was one of three men killed in a drive-by shooting Saturday at an intersection in Miami's crime-ridden Liberty City neighborhood, Miami-Dade County police said Monday. A fourth man in their car remains hospitalized in critical condition. No arrests have been made.

Bendross was on probation for his role in the death of 39-year-old Dutch tourist Tosca Dieperink at a nearby gas station. Read more

"They have over 100 witnesses but they have no eyewitness, no confession. It's all circumstantial."

Two elderly women accused of killing two transient men with a car so they could collect nearly $3 million in insurance money were videotaped talking about the scheme while in FBI custody, the prosecutor said in ... via CNN

"It is our belief he intended to kill other family members."

A policeman free on bail while waiting to go on trial accused of murdering his wife may have been planning a killing spree, police revealed. via Daily Express

"It is beyond ridiculous and is completely false. Neither Biggie (Wallace) nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened."

Targeted ... Tupac / file A US newspaper has linked two former associates of rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs to a 1994 attack on singer Tupac Shakur and suggested Combs knew in advance of the assault. via News.com.au

"Any time a man shoots through a baby and kills an unarmed woman, and is charged with two misdemeanors, I think it would be an understatement to say that that's unacceptable"

LIMA, Ohio - Charges against a white police officer accused in the shooting death of a black woman during a January drug raid did little to satisfy community members. via The Advocate

A 17-year-old boy was shot and killed last night in Annapolis on the same street in which another man was found shot to death in his car in February, police said this morning.

A 30-year-old man shot and killed his two-year-old son before committing suicide in Tembisa, Johannesburg police said on Monday.

Speaking for me only

With every Obama blog whining that Hillary Clinton should drop out*, it is worth remembering this key point - the reason the Democratic contest will not be decided by the Convention is because Barack Obama did everything in his power to remove certainty from the contest by acting to block revotes in Florida and Michigan.

More . . .

Chris Bowers wrote:

Finding some sort of solution in Michigan, like a part-run "firehouse" caucus, is paramount in order to avoid a brokered convention. Without a Michigan solution, even the undecided superdelegates might not be able to end the nomination campaign before the convention.

Previously, Bowers wrote:

We are now virtually guaranteed to have a floor fight at the convention, since no Michigan revote will take place . . .

Barring a miraculous deal on Michigan that both the Clinton and Obama campaigns agree to, the failure to secure a revote in Michigan all but guarantees that the nomination campaign will head straight through to the convention.

Previously, Bowers wrote:

{W]ithout a Michigan revote, we are guaranteed to head to a brokered convention, since no one will be able to reach 2,208 without Michigan. . . .

[I]nstead of just signing on to a revote agreement that will both give Obama a better chance to win and give us a nominee in June instead of late August, we instead have to deal with the "concerns" of the genius chair of Obama's Michigan campaign. I'm not sure what "concerns" those are, since they don't include improving Obama's chances to win the nomination, or in ending the nomination campaign in June. The Clinton campaign is basically handing OBama the nomination through this Michigan re-vote, and Obama's Michigan co-chair refuses to accept it.

As Bowers writes, Obama's opposition to revotes is why we are headed to a contested convention.

*I have stated in comments that I believe that, in the interest of the Democratic Party, Clinton should negotiate with Obama to gain what she might want and then drop out of the race. If that means continuing through Pennsylvania or continuing through Puerto Rico, it should not mean continuing through to the Convention.

I don't like conspiracy theories, but this is bothersome. According to Raw Story, Robert Novak recently reported:

Republican political operative Roger Stone, Eliot Spitzer's longtime antagonist, predicted the New York governor's political demise more than three months in advance.

"Eliot Spitzer will not serve out his term as governor of the state of New York," Stone said Dec. 6 on Michael Smerconish's radio talk show on Philadelphia's 1210 WPHT. He gave no details.

Who is Roger Stone? According to the New York Times, a Republican political strategist with a long reputation for being a dirty trickster.

In August, 2007, Stone was forced to resign from his $20k a month job as a top political consultant to New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno after it was disclosed he left a threatening voice message at the office of Eliot Spitzer's father. [More...]

Mr. Stone, 55, has been a controversial figure in state and national political circles for decades. He cut his political teeth as a teenager in the campaign of Richard M. Nixon, working for the Committee to Re-elect the President, and later was a partner of Lee Atwater, one of the highest-profile political consultants of the 1980s.

Aside from some notable political victories, Mr. Stone has left behind a trail of short-lived campaigns, feuds with former friends and clients, and, above all, rumors of dirty tricks. As he once put it in an interview, “if it rains, it was Stone.”

The message he left on the elder Spitzer's phone:

The phone message left at the office of Bernard Spitzer, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, said that Mr. Spitzer, a wealthy real estate developer, would be “compelled by the Senate sergeant-at-arms” to testify about “shady campaign loans” he made to his son during his unsuccessful campaign for attorney general in 1994. (Senate Republicans have said they might investigate those loans.)

The message, left just before 10 p.m. on Aug. 6, went on to say that the elder Spitzer would be “arrested and brought to Albany” if he resisted. It also used profanities in referring to the governor.

The call came from Stone's apartment. He tried to blame the call on a colleague who had access and said wasn't home, but attending a play. Then it turned out the play had no performance that night. More on that here.

The full text of the message was:

"This is a message for Bernard Spitzer. You will be subpoenaed to testify in front of the Senate committee on investigation on your shady campaign loans. You will be compelled by the Senate sergeant at arms, if you resist, you will be arrested and brought to Albany - and there's not a goddamn thing your phony, psycho piece of s--- son can do about it. Bernie, your phony loans are about to catch up with you. You will be forced to tell the truth. The fact that your son is a pathological liar will be known to all."

Stone practically tries to take credit for Spitzer's demise. He told Newsday:

"I didn't make him go to a prostitution ring," Stone told a Newsday columnist Mar. 12. "He did that all on his own." Asked whether he had a hand in Spitzer's woes, Stone said, "No comment."

"I will say I knew it was coming," he added. "That's why I wasn't too upset about the results of the special election," where a Democrat won control of a formerly Republican seat in the State Senate, where the Republicans have a one-vote margin.

[Hat tip to LeftVoice.net]

On this 5th anniversary of the vote to authorize an invasion of Iraq, who is the candidate most likely to get us out? As the Clinton campaign suggests in this video, Barack Obama has been anything but clear and consistent.

I'd put it another way. Obama, even today, wants to focus on who did what five years ago. That is so not the issue and so last year. Voters want to know who has the best plan for an exit and who is best going to be able to execute that plan.

Here's Hillary's plan. Here are 34 Admirals and Generals explaining why Hillary is better equipped to be commander in chief and why her plan to exit Iraq is both the best and most achievable: [More...]

The March 10, 2008 issue of the New Yorker has a very long profile on Michelle Obama. It's mostly a big puff piece, but I wonder what the evangelicals will make of this:

Barack had a more bohemian attitude toward romance. “We would have this running debate throughout our relationship about whether marriage was necessary,” Obama told me. “It was sort of a bone of contention, because I was, like, ‘Look, buddy, I’m not one of these who’ll just hang out forever.’ You know, that’s just not who I am.

He was, like”—she broke into a wishy-washy voice—“ ‘Marriage, it doesn’t mean anything, it’s really how you feel.’ And I was, like, ‘Yeah, right.’ ” Eventually, he proposed to her over dinner at Gordon, a restaurant in Chicago. “

Right now, I'm on the Hillary Clinton press conference call today with Howard Wolfson and Mark Penn. They choose the topic and start with a little speech but then reporters can ask questions on any topic.

Here's a rough live blog (because it's a live blog it's not in complete sentences, and it's not a transcript, I can't type quite that fast.)

Their topic today: recent polling data.

Their points: There are changes happening with voters. While Obama was declaring himself the frontrunner, the polls show his lead with Democrats nationally is evaporating.

Cites the Gallup daily tracking poll and Zogby/Reuters polls. Obama's lead is down from 14 points to 3 points, suggesting a strong swing of momentum for Hillary after Ohio and TX.

As Obama is finally going through the vetting and testing process, his ability to beat McCain is dropping. Some new polls show Hillary is better able to beat McCain. Cites USA Today/ Gallup, PPP poll. [More...]

CNN poll has her doing better on economy. PA polls: Quinnipiac shows her doubling her lead from 6 to 12 points. She's improving among men. She leads across every region except Philly.

Open now to questions: (we press *1 on our keyboards if we have a question.)

Fundraising for the month? Strong enough to go forward in PA and beyond.

St. Petersburg Times reporter: What do they think about another compromise under discussion involving proportional seating of Florida delegates? Phil Singer: One vote, one person is a bedrock principle of this country, we should honor the Jan. 29 vote or have a revote. Not to count MI and FL would jeopardize prospects of Democrats in the fall. Refers to yesterday's poll showing 1 in 4 Democrats might not support the nominee if Florida's votes are not counted. The remedy must be to honor votes in FL and MI. They are very disappointed in Obama campaign's response so far which has been to sit on its hands and disenfranchise voters in two states. It should change its tune and step up to the plate. It's outrageous that they have failed to do so to date.

Kate Snow of ABC: On Wright, does new polling reflect voter views on Obama's connection to Wright? Mark Penn: Can't pick out any single issue, it's more that the vetting process of Obama has begun on a number of issues. Samantha Power, Tony Rezko as well as Wright.

Detroit Free Press: Has Hillary called MI legislators re: her trip? They don't know, they'll try to find out.

Newsweek: Why are the White House schedules released today riddled with redactions? The redaction process is controlled by National Archives, the redactions are made by them. Reporter asks about Bruce Lindsey's role in redactions. The redactions were not made by or suggested by Bruce Lindsay. When the National Archive workers complete their review they send their proposed redactions to Bruce. In this case, he wrote them back a letter asking them to unredact large sections of information. None of the redactions were done by Clinton White House lawyers. He receives them and reviews, and as a result of Bruce's work, they are far less redacted than they would have been. He can only make recommendations.

Bruce did not ask National Archives to redact more than National Archives wanted to redact. He asked for no additional redactions. He asked to unredact.

Newsweek question on Wright: Republicans have said they will make Wright controversy the centerpiece of attack in November. Will they give them advice? No, they won't give Republicans advice on what they should do, and they expect Hillary to be the nominee.

Tampa Tribune: Florida: Have there been any private conversations between the campaigns to discuss compromise or solution? Wolfson: Not aware of any beyond one letter last week.

USA Today: Michigan question again. They say the point of the trip was to press the argument for a new vote in Michigan. What we've always said in both MI and FL is that the votes should count from the first primaries, and if not, then there should be revotes not at the taxpayers expense. Only person not on board is Obama. So she went to MI to press the case for a new vote. She's urging Obama to agree.

They break in to go back to polling. A new daily tracking poll that has come in while we are on the call shows 49 of Dems for Hillary, 42 for Obama, suggesting people are having buyer's remorse. Another shows Obama losing big to McCain.

Questions go back to Florida and MI: They criticize Obama, saying he's all words, no action, and it's not the first time that Obama has been inconsistent in this regard. When he first ran for state senate, one of his first actions was to make sure his primary opponent wouldn't be on the ballot, so he wouldn't have to face an opponent. That's not consistent will full participation.

Detroit News: Would they agree to a formula or insist on full seating of delegates? They won't speculate on various scenarios and we should wait until the process plays out.

Gun rights question on yesterday's Supreme Court decision wanting to know Hillary's view: She does not support any sort of federal handgun ban. She supports Second Amendment but there are reasonable steps we can take, like Assault weapons ban and Brady Bill, to reduce crime, but she won't support a federal handgun bill.

On Obama's speech, has she now seen it and what does she think? She's now seen it and thinks it was a good speech.

More on archives records. They call on Obama to release his state senate records. They mention Rezko records. They challenge him on his claim of transparency.

That's it for me, it's still going on but I have to get back to work.

By Big Tent Democrat

The trend continues:

New Gallup Poll Daily tracking finds Hillary Clinton with a 49% to 42% lead over Barack Obama in national Democratic voters' presidential nomination preference. . . . The initial indications are that the speech has not halted Clinton's gaining momentum, as she led by a similar margin in Tuesday night's polling as compared to Monday night's polling.

Time will tell where this is heading.

Update (TL): Comments now closed.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

No excuse left for Barack Obama and his ardent supporters. Once so outraged by so called attempted "disenfranchisement" by Hillary Clinton, prove that their concern for the voters was false, as they either cheer or stand silent to Barack Obama's attempts to stop the revote in Michigan. The DNC has given the the thumbs up to the MI revote plan:

We have recently been asked whether the legislation as proposed by Michigan would fit within the framework of the National Party’s Delegate Selection Rules. Our review of this legislation indicates that it would, in fact, fit within the framework of the Rules if, it were, passed by the state legislature and used by the Michigan State Democratic Party as the basis of drafting a formal Delegate Selection Plan. If a formal Delegate Selection Plan is received we will convene a meeting of the RBC to consider such a Plan.

No more excuses Barack Obama. No more excuses Obama supporters who claimed a love for voters rights. Your hypocrisy is revealed. As they love to say, this is a question of what type of Democratic Party we will be - one that aims to enfranchise voters or disenfranchise them.

At a time when the country's struggle to overcome racial divisions is deservedly making front page news, the Supreme Court overturned a Louisiana conviction after concluding that a state prosecutor deliberately excluded a black student from serving on the defendant's jury. The opinion reinforces an earlier decision that called for stronger judicial scrutiny of the bogus explanations that prosecutors often give for their decisions to remove minority group members from criminal juries.

The decision (pdf) was 7-2, with Justices Scalia and Thomas joining in an unsurprising dissent. More surprising is that Justice Alito did not join them. In fact, he wrote the majority opinion.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only.

Now she wants to fight for revotes:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s hopes of ending the primaries with game-changing victories from new contests in Florida and Michigan grew dim on Tuesday as Florida officially scuttled plans for a new vote and Michigan lawmakers appeared far from a deal.

In a sign of how badly she thinks she needs the Michigan delegates to catch the Democratic front-runner, Senator Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton made a last-minute schedule change and planned to fly to Detroit on Wednesday to plead with Michigan lawmakers to approve a new primary election in June to replace the January contest that awarded no delegates.

“We will go and make the case for a revote,” said Mo Elleithee, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Obama’s campaign has resisted a new contest, saying that Michigan Democrats are divided, that a revote would not make much difference in the overall delegate count and that the Clinton camp was trying to change the rules to suit itself.

(Emphasis supplied.) I hope this ends once and for all the silly theory that it was Clinton who was resisting revotes. The Clinton Uncertainty Theory propagated by Mark Schmitt and adopted by pro-Obama bloggers should be officially dead now. BTW, Clinton was too slow on this. She needed to do this last week.

The Government's star witness, Stuart Levine, took the stand Monday in the corruption trial of Tony Rezko. He's a defense dream for a witness.

Levine was charged with corruption along with Rezko but pleaded guilty and agreed to testify. Technically, Levine could be sentenced to life in prison, but he said he hoped prison time would be limited to about 51/2 years in return for his cooperation with the government.

Levine dressed for and sounded the part assigned to him by the Government:

He displayed the demeanor of a practiced public speaker and lawyer and hardly the picture of a strung-out drug abuser that Rezko's attorneys hope will damage his credibility.

What about that drug use? [More...]

"I experimented with LSD, marijuana, cocaine, quaaludes, Ecstasy, crystal methamphetamine, ketamine," answered Levine, explaining that his drug use spanned from 1972 to 2004, when federal agents confronted him about corruption.

How many times was he interviewed by the Government? More than 100.

Levine said he agreed to cooperate with the government in January 2006 and was interviewed "certainly more than 100 times" by federal prosecutors and agents. Levine said he initially lied in those sessions to protect [former Chicago Ald. Edward]Vrdolyak but ultimately decided to be straight when he realized federal agents were on to his deception.

Vrdolyak has separate federal criminal charges pending. His lawyer, Michael Monico (full disclosure, he's a long time friend)blasted Levine's allegations as false today.

"It's hard to imagine a witness with less credibility than Stuart Levine," said Monico, adding that he was upset that the allegations were leveled during the Rezko trial when Vrdolyak was not present. "It was unfair," Monico said. "We had no opportunity to defend ourselves."

Levine laid out his own bad deeds -- decades worth of bribery and other political misconduct.

Levine said he also quietly slipped money through straw donors to some Democrats over the years. Levine said he did so at the request of Vrdolyak, whose political allegiances have flip-flopped between the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Niewoehner asked Levine what he expected to get in return for his secret donations. Levine had a one-word answer: "Access." Levine explained how he had become wealthy by carefully cultivating access to politicians and the levers of power.

Sounds like we're going to hear a comparison to Rezko soon. And here it is.

[Levine] has served on three state regulatory panels spanning the administrations of two Republican governors as well as Blagojevich, a Democrat.

He resigned one board position but remained on "one that regulated hospital expansion and one that invested state teacher pension money." Prosecutors say Blagojevich reappointed him to both boards at Rezko's request.

Levine also had a real estate tale to tell about Rezko. He had been trying to buy a property. At a dinner party,

...Levine complained to his dinner partners that he was having trouble closing the sale on the Scholl building. Rezko then admitted that he was the one gumming up the works, trying to line up his own deal for the property, Levine said. Rezko promised to back off, and he quickly did, Levine said.

According to prosecutors, that was the beginning of their beautiful friendship:

Prosecutors say that was the start of a corrupt relationship between the two men that fed off Levine's board positions and Rezko's clout with Blagojevich.

The defense should have a field day with Levine's purchased testimony. Nonetheless, there are some takeaways.

Why do men like Rezko and Levine bribe and contribute to political campaigns? For access. They are groomers. They carefully cultivate the politicians by raising money for them and lavishing attention on them, get themselves in the door, and then ask for their payback. Does anyone believe men like Rezko and Levine do the fundraising and bundling of contributions out of the goodness of their heart?

If the jury doesn't decide that Stuart Levine is too much of a slimeball to believe, the person that will likely take the biggest hit in the Rezko trial, after Rezko, is Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Levine is scheduled to be on the witness stand for several days.

The Kinks. All day and all of the night. In recognition of the incessant news coverage today and tonight of Barack Obama's speech. Enough already.

This is an open thread.

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A new St. Petersburg Times, Bay News 9 and Miami Herald poll finds one in four Florida Democrats may abandon the party if their Jan. 29 votes aren't counted.

Howard Dean and Barack Obama may insist Florida’s Democratic presidential primary was meaningless, but a new poll shows Florida Democrats aren’t buying it, and one in four may not back their party's nominee in November if Florida winds up with no voice in the nomination.

Twice as many Clinton supporters -- 56 percent -- want the Florida primary to count as do Obama supporters -- 27 percent. Still, even among Obama supporters, the idea of counting that primary is slightly more popular than holding a new election or dividing Florida’s delegates evenly between the two candidates.

Key findings: [More...]

• Obama has gained strength in Florida, and today lags Clinton among Florida Democrats 46 percent to 37 percent, with Clinton leading by 33 percentage points among white Democrats and 20 points among Hispanics. Obama leads among African-Americans, 74 percent to 12 percent.

• More than three out of four Florida Democrats say it’s “very important” that Florida’s delegates count toward the nomination, and one in four said they would be less likely to support the ultimate Democratic nominee if Florida’s delegates don’t count.

What the poll suggests:

The poll suggests most Florida Democrats viewed the Jan. 29 primary as a legitimate election.
For instance, only 15 percent of those surveyed said their main interest in voting was the Amendment 1 tax reform initiative, while 43 percent said the Democratic primary was the big draw and 40 percent said both were equally important to them.

Likewise, 56 percent of those surveyed said the lack of Florida campaigning by the major candidates had "no effect at all" and 16 percent said it had a "major effect" on their choices.

It' time to reverse Florida's penalty and award and seat the delegates according to the Jan. 29 vote.

By Big Tent Democrat

I hope Obama's speech worked politically today, for the sake of the Democratic Party. It was certainly a beautiful speech.

Meanwhile, PPP released a PA poll today. It is not surprising that Clinton leads Obama by 40 points among whites. What is surprising is PPP's finding that Clinton gets 27 percent of the African American vote.

Chris Bowers at Open Left has been numbers-crunching:

Obama needs 471.5 of the 875 remaining delegates, or 53.9%, in order to reach the magic number.

Clinton needs even more, 489.5 of 875, or 56.0%. Both scenarios are extremely unlikely.

Those numbers are very close to each other. Put another way, Hillary is only 18 delegates behind Obama in the race for the next 875.

Chris then makes predictions. But they all start with his (probably educated)guess that the credentials committee will refuse to seat MI and FL because it will have more Obama supporters than Hillary supporters on it. But these committee members like superdelegates can change their support at any time, and not all of them have declared, so I'm not prepared to agree with that. That said, here's how Chris sees it playing out:

What is likely is that the Clinton campaign will push for Michigan and Florida to be seated as is, and use the Michigan and Florida delegations to argue that Obama has not yet clinched the nomination. After June 3rd, they will take that argument to the credentials committee, which gains authority over the matter on June 11th.

From that point, the credentials committee will probably deny the Clinton's campaign's argument to seat both delegations as is, since Obama will probably control the majority of seats on the committee. The next step will be for the Clinton faction on the committee to file a minority report on the delegations, which will then be referred to the full convention.

The full floor vote on the Michigan and Florida delegations will then be a good proxy to determine who will win the nomination on the first ballot. And that is what the convention fight of 2008 will probably look like.

Chris also got this e-mail from the DNC on why they didn't penalize NH for moving its primary date up:

New Hampshire wasn't punished for moving up because the Rules and Bylaws Committee voted to allow NH, IA, NV and SC to move their primary dates after Florida and Michigan moved their primaries forward. So that the was the reason there was no punishment. The RBC members felt that because they (the 4 states) had been granted early state status they should be allowed to move their primary based on FL and MI's decision.

Update: Thanks to a commenter below, I see that on Feb. 12, Chris argued for the seating of the Florida delegates in accord with the Jan. 29 votes.

And for the record, I can't make heads or tails out of his chart. I'm not vouching for it, just putting it out there.