Today, on his blog, Paul Krugman called out the Obama campaign for an ad that has been running in North Carolina and Indiana.

Is Obama misrepresenting what I said?

I wrote on Krugman's views on the gas tax holiday last week:

Paul Krugman: Barack Obama is right on gas tax holiday.  

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/4/29/1845 20/166

Krugman criticized the McCain plan as "a giveaway to oil companies, disguised as a gift to consumers."

He said this about the Clinton plan:

The Clinton twist is that she proposes paying for the revenue loss with an excess profits tax on oil companies. In one pocket, out the other. So it's pointless, not evil. But it is pointless, and disappointing.

After the fold, the Krugman's comments asking for a retraction of the use of his words in an Obama ad.

In an interview with People Magazine, John and Elizabeth Edwards made clear that they would not endorse either Obama or Clinton.

Bottom line: the couple said they will not endorse either remaining candidate, saving their political capital for their own causes - his, fighting poverty; hers, fighting for universal health care.

People: John & Elizabeth Edwards: What We Like (and Dislike) About Clinton & Obama

More, after the fold.

John McCain recently proposed a "tax holiday" for the federal gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  Hillary Clinton joined McCain in that call, but said she would make up the lost revenue by imposing a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies.  McCain will just let the highway fund lose money, a policy consistent with his borrow and cut taxes philopsophy, i.e., "voodoo economics."    

Barack Obama opposes a "tax holiday" for the federal gas tax.

Who's right?  Paul Krugman says Obama is.

More, after the fold.

Friends of the Earth Action president, Dr. Brent Blackwalder, calls out McCain:

You know how self righteous John McCain can be when he talks about corporate pork and earmarks, but do you know why he opposes the Lieberman-Warner global warming bill?  He plans to vote against it not because it could lavish $1 trillion on the profitable oil, gas and coal industries, but because he wants to add hundreds of billions of dollars more in earmarks for the nuclear industry!  

Yeah, what a maverick.

"Senator McCain throughout the campaign has been trying to make it seem like he's a moderate on the environment," said Friends of the Earth spokesman Nick Berning.  "But his actions haven't been consistent with his rhetoric.  We're going right after that image to put pressure on him, because we do want him to be a maverick on the environment."

FOE Action has a new television ad running nationwide on CNN.  Let's help out FOE Action and start smacking McCain around a little, instead of each other.

I saw a diary yesterday on Daily Kos that claimed that Clinton's critique of Obama as "elitist" was really a way of calling him an "uppity black man."  

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/14/ 193829/461

Arrogance and Elitism =Uppity where I came from.
by YellerDog [Subscribe]
Mon Apr 14, 2008 at 05:15:33 PM PDT
Oh now I get it.  

Arrogance and elitists are fashionable code words. Growing up in the segregated South the word they used was Uppity which was usually followed by the N....word and applied to any black man who had the temerity to speak from authority.  MLK, for instance, was uppity.  MLK spoke truth with authority and power.  Truth, power, and authority are dangerous notions especially in the head of an uppity black man.  

I commented in it and opined that it was bs:

The argument articulated in this diary is such a reach. Not every critcism of Obama can be twisted into a racial attack.  

It looks as if Barack Obama agrees with me.  Come around after the fold.

There is a new ad out by Senator Clinton criticizing the recent remarks of Senator Obama.

Announcer: "Barack Obama said that people in small towns `cling to guns or religion ... as a way to explain their frustrations.'"

Woman 1: "I was very insulted by Barack Obama."

Man 1: "It just shows how out of touch Barack Obama is."

Woman 2: "I'm not clinging to my faith out of frustration and bitterness. I find that my faith is very uplifting."
Man 2: "The good people of Pennsylvania deserve a lot better than what Barack Obama said."

Woman 1: "Hillary does understand the citizens of Pennsylvania better."

Woman 3: "Hillary Clinton has been fighting for people like us her whole life."

So what do you think about it?  Fair?  Unfair?  Effective? Not effective?

Y'all can fight now.  Have fun.  

According to the New York Times, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will change its rules so as to block the requirement of a vote on the free trade agreement with Colombia.

Pelosi says the House will vote on the rules change policy Thursday, effectively putting off a vote on a free trade agreement that is a key priority of the Bush administration.

''The president took his action. I will take mine tomorrow,'' Pelosi said.

NY Times

If she succeeds, the Colombian Unfair Trade Agreement is dead for now.

More, after the fold.  

X-Posted from Daily Kos.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4 /9/122915/7249/532/492715

X-Posted from docudharma

In a press release I received today, Friends of the Earth Action criticized both leading Democratic presidential candidates for their recent anti-environment, pro-coal comments.  

Senator Hillary Clinton expressed enthusiasm for coal and failed to condemn mountaintop removal during an interview yesterday on West Virginia Public Radio.  Today, Senator Barack Obama delivered a speech in West Virginia advocating so-called "clean coal" as a solution to global warming.

Both are wrong.

"These comments raise serious questions about whether the Democratic candidates are as committed to clean energy as they claim to be," Friends of the Earth Action President Brent Blackwelder said.  "Coal is not clean--period.  And it is especially dirty and damaging when it is mined through the mountaintop removal process, in which mountains are literally blown to pieces, wiping vast swaths of nature off the map and polluting valleys, streams and rivers."