By Kevin Drawbaugh - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ask corporate lobbyists which presidential contender is most feared by their clients and the answer is almost always the same — Democrat John Edwards.

The former North Carolina senator’s chosen profession alone raises the hackles of business people. Before entering politics, he made a fortune as a trial lawyer.

In litigious America, trial lawyers bring lawsuits against companies on behalf of aggrieved individuals and sometimes win multimillion-dollar settlements. Edwards won several.

But beyond his profession, Edwards’ tone and language on the campaign trail have increased business antipathy toward him. His stump speeches are peppered with attacks on “corporate greed” and warnings of “the destruction of the middle class.”

He accuses lobbyists of “corrupting the government” and says Americans lack universal health care because of “drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists.”

Despite not winning the two state nominating contests completed so far, with 48 to go, Edwards insists he is in the race to stay. An Edwards campaign spokesman said on Thursday that inside-the-Beltway operatives who fight to defend the powerful and the privileged should be afraid.

“The lobbyists and special interests who abuse the system in Washington have good reason to fear John Edwards.

“Once he is president, the interests of middle class families will never again take a back seat to corporate greed in Washington,” said campaign spokesman Eric Schultz.

Open attacks on the business elite are seldom heard from mainstream White House candidates in America, despite skyrocketing CEO pay, rising income inequality, and a torrent of scandals in corporate boardrooms and on Wall Street.

But this year Edwards is not alone. Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, sometimes also rails against corporate power and influence, tapping a populist current that lies just below the surface of U.S. politics.

One business lobbyist, who asked not to be named, said Edwards “has gone to this angry populist, anti-business rhetoric that borders on class warfare … He focuses dislike of special interests, which is out there, on business.”

Another lobbyist said an Edwards presidency would be “a disaster” for his well-heeled industrialist clients.

After this week’s New Hampshire primaries, where he placed a distant third behind New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, Edwards might not seem so scary. He ran second in the Iowa Democratic caucuses last week, trailing Obama and just ahead of Clinton.

Edwards suffered a blow on Thursday when Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry snubbed him and endorsed Obama. Edwards was Kerry’s vice-presidential running mate in Kerry’s failed Democratic bid for the White House in 2004.

BUSINESS’S FAVORITE UNCLEAR

Asked which candidate their clients most support, corporate lobbyists were unsure. Clinton has cautious backing within the corporate jet set, as do Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, they said.

These candidates represent stability to executives who have much to lose if November’s election brings about the sweeping change some candidates are promising.

Obama and Huckabee register largely as unknown quantities among business owners, both large and small, say lobbyists.

“My sense is that Obama would govern as a reasonably pragmatic Democrat … I think Hillary is approachable. She knows where a lot of her funding has come from, to be blunt,” said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Stanford Group Co., a market and policy analysis group.

But Edwards, Valliere said, is seen as “an anti-business populist” and “a trade protectionist who is quite unabashed about raising taxes.”

“I think his regulatory policies, as well as his tax policies, would be viewed as a threat to business,” he said.

“The next scariest for business would be Huckabee because of his rhetoric and because he’s an unknown.”

(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh; editing by John Wallace)

By Roy S. Johnson

Tuesday, Jan 8, 2008 4:38 pm EST

What is it about Duke? Okay, maybe that’s not fair. But it did make me scratch my head and wonder when I read what Kelly Tilghman (pictured with Arnold Palmer), a former Blue Devil golfer, said on the Golf Channel last Friday during her gig as co-lead announcer for the network’s telecast of the Mercedes-Benz Championship, the PGA Tour’s inaugural event of the season.

I have not seen the clip, nor do I know the context of the remarks. This is what I know — that Tilghman, who never played on the LPGA Tour, said golf’s young players should “lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley.”

Had Woods been white, to use the most heinous crime committed in this nation to illustrate God-knows-what point would have been egregious. But that he’s not makes the remark unconscionable. And punishable.

It would be a travesty if Tilghman is allowed to broadcast the next event for the Golf Channel. (It speaks volumes already that she was allowed to sit on the air all day Saturday, as if nothing happened. She then offered an on-air apology on Sunday but still did the entire telecast.)

At minimum, a suspension is in order. Some will surely call for a firing. If the network does nothing — just months after the Jena Six dominated the nation’s airwaves — it would make a significant statement about the network’s tolerance of such actions. A statement that would hurt the sport of golf and rekindle memories of a racist history that Woods’ success has helped it begin to move past.

Doing nothing would remind us of Fuzzy Zoeller

Doing nothing would remind us of Shoal Creek.

Doing nothing would not be smart.

Okay, so it’s just the Golf Channel. And Kelly Tilghman is simply a hottie that was given an opportunity to anchor a telecast because she can swing a golf club.

That is not the point. Tolerance at any level cannot be tolerated.

Your move, GC.

Tilghman has reportedly reached out to Woods to apologize. Here’s hoping, at least for the moment — until the Golf Channel makes its statement — that he does not accept the call. Or the apology.

Roy S. Johnson, an award-winning journalist who is currently the editor-in-chief of Men’s Fitness magazine, pens a daily blog called “Ballers, Gamers and Scoundrels.”

Tilghman apologizes for ‘lynch Tiger’ remark

Golfweek.com

Updated: January 8, 2008, 8:55 PM EST

You certainly have to file Kelly Tilghman’s on-air, on-camera comments during the Golf Channel’s coverage of the Mercedes-Benz Championship under the “What was she thinking?” column.

During their usual post-round banter as they wrapped up Day 2 at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, Tilghman and cohort Nick Faldo discussed young players who could possibly challenge Tiger. Faldo, ever the joker, said perhaps the youngsters should “gang up (on Tiger) for a while.” The pair laughed a bit before Tilghman responded by saying, “Lynch him in a back alley.” The pair chuckled awkwardly before moving on.

The Golf Channel said it received a limited number of complaints regarding the comment.

Tilghman, realizing her faux pas, explained her comments during the final-round broadcast despite the possibility she could have swept the incident under the mat.

“I’ve reached out to Tiger to make an apology, and I’ve done the same with our viewers,” Tilghman said.

“I can assure you that there was never any intention to offend anyone. I’m sorry for any misunderstanding.”

Attempts to reach Woods or his agent, Mark Steinberg of IMG, were unsuccessful. A Golf Channel spokesman said no disciplinary action is planned, “other than the mistake she made is regrettable and an extreme learning experience for her.”

Read this article at:

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/7651694

Kelly Tilghman

State of Race Relations (as posted after this story).

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and MEGAN THEE

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire viewed Senator Barack Obama as more likely than Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to beat the Republican nominee in 2008, according to exit polls conducted Tuesday, a reversal of the previous trends in national polls.

But in contrast to polling results in the Iowa caucuses, women here rallied around Mrs. Clinton. Nearly half the women who voted in the Democratic primary gave her their support, the exit polls showed.

On the Republican side, nearly half of primary voters said their biggest concerns were terrorism and the Iraq war. The exit polls showed that nearly half were dissatisfied or angry with President Bush. A third disapproved of the war. Each of those groups of Republicans broke decisively for Senator John McCain, suggesting more viewed him as a critic than as a supporter of the administration.

The wide-open contests in both parties drew record crowds, and some polling places were forced to send out for extra ballots. Voters in both parties said that they were worried the economy was going in the wrong direction — including nearly all Democrats and about 8 in 10 Republicans — but the exit polls suggested that a more complicated mix of issues decided the races.

Voters said they resoundingly rejected the populist appeals to their economic anxieties that they had heard from John Edwards among the Democrats and Mike Huckabee among the Republicans. Instead, Democrats said they were drawn to Mr. Obama’s promises of unity and change, and Republicans to Mr. McCain’s leadership in matters of national security.

Undeclared voters, who can participate in either primary, were a major factor on the Democratic side. Mr. Obama won big among undeclared voters but lost to Mrs. Clinton among registered Democrats. On the Republican side, Mr. McCain beat former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts among undeclared voters, who have been a mainstay of his support, and registered Republicans.

The exit polls were conducted by Edison/Mitofsky for the National Election Pool consortium among 1,799 Democratic voters and 1,300 Republican voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points for each party.

Mr. Obama received more than twice as much support as Mrs. Clinton among voters under 30, lost to her only narrowly among older voters and beat her handily among men.

Voters in the Democratic primary were roughly evenly divided among those who considered the war, health care and the economy the most important issues.

Mr. Obama campaigned as an early opponent of the war in Iraq, and Mrs. Clinton campaigned as best-qualified to overhaul health care. But the exit polls indicated that both voters most concerned about the war and those most concerned about the health care system favored Mr. Obama, while voters who cited the economy as their top concern went for Mrs. Clinton.

Voters in the Republican primary were roughly evenly divided among those who cited the economy, the Iraq war, terrorism and illegal immigration as their top concerns. In addition to dominating the votes of those concerned about terrorism and the war, Mr. McCain won among those most concerned about the economy — an area where Mr. Romney, a founder of a giant private equity firm, hoped to have an edge.

Mr. Romney, who hammered Mr. McCain with advertisements criticizing his support for allowing illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, attracted the most support from voters concerned about that issue.

But criticism of Mr. Romney for changing his position on abortion rights and his tone on other social issues clearly hurt him. About half the Republican voters who sought a candidate who “says what he believes” chose Mr. McCain. About one in 10 chose Mr. Romney.

What is Gotcha Capitalism?

Coughing up $4 fees for ATM transactions. Iron-clad cell phone contracts you can’t get out of with a crowbar. Paying big bucks for insurance you don’t need on a rental car or forking over $20 a day for supposedly “free” wireless internet. Every day we use banks, cell phones, and credit cards. Every day we book hotels and airline tickets. And every day we get ripped off.
How? Here are just a few examples of how big business can get you:

• You didn’t fill up the rental car with gas?
Gotcha! Gas costs $7 a gallon here.
• Your bank balance fell to $999.99 for one day?
Gotcha! That’ll be $12.
• You miss one payment on that 18-month same-as-cash loan?
Gotcha! That’ll be $512 extra.
• You’re one day late on that electric bill?
Gotcha! All your credit cards now have a 29.99% interest rate.

But not for much longer. In Gotcha Capitalism, MSNBC.com’s “Red Tape Chronicles” columnist Bob Sullivan exposes the ways we’re all cheated by big business, and teaches us how to get our money back–proven strategies that can help you save more than $1,000 a year.

You’ve heard of fantasy football, right? Why not a game of fantasy government? Any takers?

Barack Obama - President
Ron Paul - Vice President
John Edwards - Attorney General
Hilliary Clinton - Secretary of State
Rudy Giuliani - Secretary of Homeland Security
John McCain - Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Bill Richardson - Secretary of Interior

Issues:

Immigration

Why it is an issue:

• Taxes resources
• Growth of population that does not honor or respect fundamental values of citizenship
• Undocumented persons

What not to do:

• Erect wall with armed robotic sentries posted at intervals along border.
• Place minefield along border.
• Continue current border patrol program.

Proposition: Implement humane programs to deter illegal immigration including but not limited to:

• Create DNA database of all captured illegals.
• Retrain border patrol agents as detectives.
• Fine and/or confiscate businesses and property of employers hiring illegals and families taking them in without reporting them.
• Zero-tolerance enforcement.
• Property is sold to finance salaries and deportation expenses.
• Possible incarceration at work camps.
• Education initiatives on both sides of the border regarding immigration.

Economy

Why it is an issue:

• Gas prices
• Home foreclosures
• Lagging wages
• Stock market jitters
• Rising education costs

What not to do:

• Continue our dependency on foreign oil.
• Continue our relationship with the Internal Revenue Service.
• Continue operating within the current economic model.
• Continue to import goods and services to meet our national needs.

Proposition:

• Divert defense budget to research and development of alternate sources of energy.
• Overhaul the American Banking System to reclaim independence from world banking industry.
• Cancel our contract with the Internal Revenue Service.
• Invest in the development of environmentally responsible and efficient energy sources.
• Divest ourselves of dependence on foreign markets.
• Strengthen our commitment to academic and vocational leadership.

Health Care

Why it is an issue:

• Because everybody in America is sick (smile).

What not to do:

• What we’ve been doing.

Proposition:

• Follow the French.

Terrorism

Why it is an issue:

• Because people still don’t believe that the Bush Administration was behind 9/11.
• Because people don’t understand how the C.I.A. operates.

What not to do:

• Believe everything the media reports without holding it up to a candle.
• Believe we are above the law.
• Force feed our views down the rest of the world’s throats.

Proposition:

• Weed corruption out of our government and keep it out.
• Adopt extreme zero tolerance policies for corruption.
• Re-establish diplomatic relationships world-wide.
• Humble ourselves as a nation and right our wrongs.
• Understand our standing in the world and recommit ourselves to excellent values.

1. Drive less. Especially, avoid short trips. Cold starts are hard on engines, your gas mileage, and the environment. Short trips can also significantly shorten the life of your muffler. Basically, you get condensation in the exhaust when you start a cold engine, and if you don’t run the car for long enough to evaporate all of the condensation out of the system, excessive amounts of water can accumulate in your muffler, and rust a hole through it. Avoid starting a cold car just to pull it into the garage, for instance. Consider walking to the nearest store for a change. Combine short errands, and, if you have multiple vehicles, drive the one more recently driven when you go out again. Do drive a car at least every week or so, since cars that sit for longer than a week or two at a time have other problems, such as fluids gradually draining out of systems. Consult a mechanic if you will store a car for an extended period.
2. Check the fluids: You should check the level of your antifreeze, oil, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, and brake fluid, very regularly, like every time you buy gas. Even if your car doesn’t leak fluids, it can develop a leak and quickly have a dangerously low level of something. You should also check the color of some of these fluids. Some of these have see-through plastic tanks that you can look through, and some have dipsticks. Antifreeze should be either pink, green, or yellow (Pink for newer cars with “Dex-Cool”, green for old cars with plain Ethyl-Glycol, and green or yellow for cars that have been flushed and filled with universal antifreezes…brown antifreeze should always be flushed, it either has rust or a lot of dirt in it, probably both. Also, never mix antifreezes; if you don’t know what color antifreeze your car has, buy a universal brand. Oil should be relatively clear, not black - black oil has been left in the engine for too long. Oil that looks white and milkshake-like has water in it, probably from an internal antifreeze leak, or very rarely, just a large amount of condensation. Transmission fluid should be bright red, and should not smell burnt…it probably needs to be changed if it’s brown or smells burnt.
3. Change the oil regularly: This will improve your gas mileage and protect your engine. The recommended mileage between oil changes is 3,000 - 5,000 miles (or 5000 - 8000 kilometres) or every 3 to 6 months. Change the oil filter as well - there is no sense in putting clean oil through a dirty filter, and filters are very cheap and available at any parts store. Please check your service manual, or contact your dealer for your car’s specific needs.
4. Change the air filter: This is something you can do easily at home without using tools, and should be done approximately every 50-80 thousand miles. You can buy a matching filter at nearly any auto parts store and your owner’s manual will show you where your air filter is located. A dirty, dusty filter can lower gas mileage.
5. Flush the fluids every two years: power steering fluid, and brake fluid, cooling system. Check this timetable against your owner’s manual. Newer cars generally allow longer intervals between changes.
6. Monitor your brake pad thickness and don’t let the pads wear down to metal - this will cause damage to your brake rotors (”discs”) at least and possibly your calipers as well. Rotors and calipers are much more expensive to replace than pads. There is no such thing as “cleaning” a brake pad while it is still on a car - the friction between the pad and rotor will eradicate any outside substance almost immediately.
7. Rotate the tires. Changing tire position reduces uneven wear and tear on the tread, thus extending the life of the tires. The recommended rotation cycle is twice a year or every 6,000 miles. Rotate them diagonally - front right to rear left and front left to rear right. However, this pattern can change depending on the drivetrain of the vehicle, and the type of tire. Your vehicle manual will contain detailed rotation information. Keep in mind some tires (especially on sports cars) are directional and are meant to spin only one way. They will have a large arrow on the sidewall to indicate this.
8. Keep the tires inflated. Under-inflated tires can reduce the tire life by 15% and will slightly decrease your gas mileage, perhaps by 10%. Inflating tires is perhaps the easiest of all activities, and many stores sell tire gauges for a very small cost. Checking your tire pressure every other time you get gas will reduce tire wear and prevent these issues. Monitor your tire tread with a penny. Insert the penny into the tread with Lincoln’s head down. If the top of his head is not obscured by the tread, your tires need to be replaced. Basically, if you can see all of Lincoln’s head, you must replace your tires.
9. Keep the front end aligned. If you notice your car shaking while driving at high speeds (not while braking - shuddering while braking indicates warped rotors), or if your tread is wearing unevenly, then you may need an alignment. This is also key to extending the life of your tires and will keep the tread even for increased safety.
10. Get your car off to a good start every time you drive it. Start the car and drive off slowly and gently until the car reaches operating temperature. This reduces the strain on the engine while the oil is still cold and thicker. Another option is to use electric engine space heaters, and start the drive with a warm engine. Accelerate promptly to the target speed. For most modern cars, idling a cold engine is both counterproductive and wasteful. Additionally, as you accelerate, release the gas a bit to cause the automatic transmission to upshift while you are not pressing hard on the gas. This causes less wear on the internal clutches. It is easier on the clutches for the car to shift when you ease up on the gas.
11. Use your parking brake. Even if you are driving a car with an automatic transmission, use your parking brake regularly, especially if you’re parked on an incline. It helps keep the brakes adjusted in the rear of the car and makes them last longer.
12. Wash your car: Road salt, sludge and pollution can lead to costly body work. Without regular cleaning, you can start to notice rust on the bottom of your doors within four years. Another three to four years and the corrosion will creep to underbody components, like brake lines. It can cost thousands in rust-related repairs if you neglect to wash your car, especially near ocean/gulf shorelines where the road sand or morning dew might be salty.

Tips

• The best thing that you can do to extend the life of your car and potentially save yourself a bundle of money is to have your car serviced on a routine basis. All car manufacturers have a schedule of recommended service for each vehicle they sell. Follow this schedule. The best place to have work done on a new vehicle that is still under warranty is the dealership. On cars without a warranty, it is best to find a reputable independent shop and have it serviced regularly there.
• Check your local auto parts dealer for manuals specific to your car for complete instructions on how to perform basic maintenance on your vehicle. Often, you will save a bundle of cash doing simple tune-up work on your own. Schucks and Autozone are great stores that have these manuals.
• Consult your mechanic or your owner’s manual. Depending on the manufacturer, there are different procedures to take for each vehicle.
• If your user manual says it’s best to let the car warm up a little first before forcing it to apply power to the wheels, it’s best to follow it and do so; for as written several times before, the people who made it know best.
• Manual transmission cars or cars with turbo/superchargers will require different maintenance schedules, depending on the climate, road conditions. Always consult your owner’s manual or ask a local dealership service department.
• Synthetic oils may be initially more expensive, but provide better protection than regular motor oil. On your switch to synthetic, change the filter, drain all old oil, and add new synthetic. Then each 3000 miles, change the filter, but DO NOT drain the oil every time. Instead, add enough oil to replace what was lost in the filter change only (usually less than one quart). After 15,000 miles, change out all of the oil completely. This is safe for cars, especially newer ones. The synthetic oils are detergent oils, meaning they suspend dirt and carry it to the filter. Non-detergent oils wash oil around, leaving deposits of sludge elsewhere. Also, synthetic oil doesn’t breakdown as naturally derived oil does, as heat doesn’t affect it the same way. Synthetic is most recommended for cars that have had oil changes performed regularly since purchase, and for engines with less than 60,000 miles, as wear will be less. Remember, synthetics are designed to reduce wear, but they will not undo wear.

Warnings

• Check Warranty: Check the terms and conditions before repairing your vehicle on your own while if it is still under warranty. Unless you are a certified mechanic, this may invalidate your warranty.
• Beware First-time Repairs: Do not attempt to complete repairs on your vehicle without supervision if you have never attempted a repair before. Today’s cars are complex jigsaw-puzzles and might require removing several components to reach one particular screw. Get help at first.
• Avoid pot-holes: which can knock air out of tires or dislodge weights to throw tires out of balance.
• Avoid Fuel-additives: Do not use a “fuel additive” in an older engine without expert help: fuel additives can loosen a chunk of sludge that jams engine components, potentially throwing a rod and causing $$ thousands to fix an old engine.

from wiki-how.

Investigative reporter David Cay Johnston explores in his new book how in recent years, government subsidies and new regulations have quietly funneled money from the poor and the middle class to the rich and politically connected.

Cay Johnston covers tax policy for The New York Times, where he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on that beat. His previous book, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich — and Cheat Everybody Else, was a best seller.

The new book, which expands the inquiry beyond tax policy into a whole range of regulatory machinery, is titled Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill).

Click here for the story in audio.

by Ari Shapiro

Updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is one of Congress’s top priorities in 2008. FISA, as the law is known, generally tells the president that he must have a court order to spy on Americans in the United States. The law has not restricted the president’s ability to wiretap Americans traveling abroad. Some Congressional Democrats want to change that.

Click here for the audio story.

Question: What would life be like without music?

I find it both strange and refreshing to discover on occasion that somebody has a favorite song I’ve never heard of. In the spirit of sharing, here’s an opportunity to post your favorite playlist in the comments section. When you’re done, you can download one of my favorite playlists.

The password is: ricomachiavelli