Political Newsclippings, Issue 11, Vol. II: A Troubling Number, A Troubling Huck, Troubling Math

Five million dead in Congo.

Nearly half the deaths were among children younger than five, even though they are only 19 percent of the population, the IRC said.

I'd expect better of America.  I'd expect better from the world.

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George Packer wrote a great book on the Iraq War called "The Assassin's Gate."

In the New Yorker, he has a great piece on Hillary Clinton.  It's a must-read. 

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Mike Huckabee is continuing to make a complete ass of himself, now in South Carolina, according to the Tampa Tribune. 

At a campaign stop in Myrtle Beach, Huckabee tried to appeal to white Southerners still upset that the Confederate flag was moved from atop the Capitol dome in Columbia after blacks protested the flag had become a symbol of racism.

"You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag," Huckabee told the cheering crowd. "If somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell them what to do with the pole. That's what we'd do."

He ought to be shamed right out of the race.  He won't be, which is actually worse.

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Also from the Trib, a good piece on Governor Crist's fuzzy math on education.

Gov. Charlie Crist unveiled an ambitious education budget proposal last week to help win support for the property tax amendment that is on the Jan. 29 ballot.

But this deceptive spending plan should make Floridians even more skeptical that Tallahassee can pump up education spending while approving tax cuts and struggling with tight economic times.

Can't possess the baked goods and consume them as well, Chuck.

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Carl Hiaasen, one of my journalistic heroes, does it again in the Miami Herald.  I just knew he'd have a view on this whole Florida primary mess.

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I had to put this in because of Ikea.  My wife loves Ikea.  I mean, not the bad environmental stuff, but, well you know.  It's cool.

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Want to end with a couple of articles from the heart of America, and the Springfield, Missouri News-Leader.  First, a good piece from Sarah Overstreet entitled "Why don't we act?"

It's so easy just to feed people who are hungry. You don't have to agree with the life decisions they've made. You don't have to know whether they've been laid off or cut back at work, or if they have debilitating health problems. We don't leave injured people bleeding on the sidewalk, and we don't leave people hungry, especially children. It hurts.

Read that article by Ms. Overstreet, and remember -- this is conservative country, the land that gave us John Ashcroft. 

Also, check out this stunner on presidential impeachment.  Again, I remind you that this is some of the most conservative ground in America (and home to my sister and brother-in-law, though they're not conservative, so it's cool). 

McGovern's serious call for impeachment is being met with silence by a public which savors salacious information about cigars and blue dresses but does not consider a body count in the hundreds of thousands of foreigners in an indefensible and dishonest war to be worthy of note.

A Bush impeachment.  It may yet be an idea with life.

-- More soon --