friday queue cleaning: may 9, 2008

I don’t have any links to Tuesday’s results.  In fact, I’m not sure what the final tally in Indiana was (I never did find a “Final Results” kind of story).  But, Clinton is pretty much done.  Superdelegates are trickling away from her.  She is not mathematically eliminated yet, but the math is now a pretty advance calculus for her to win.  And, if she finds a way to pull out the primary, a lot of people are going to feel like they were cheated out of their votes.  Really, her only chances are for superdelegates to totally ignore the primary results (which they don’t seem inclined to do), or for Michigan and Florida to be counted (which would be incredibly unfair to Obama).  Either would be terribly damaging in the long run.

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The Kentucky Derby had a tragic ending, with runner-up Eight Belles injured and euthanized right on the track.  Horse racing has been in trouble for a while, and this could have been the death blow.  I’ve seen a lot of articles on this issue over the last week, and all I will add is this:  Horse racing may indeed be inhumane, I don’t know.  But I grew up in central Kentucky, the “horse racing capital of the world.”  So, I have met a lot of people in the industry.  And most of them are in it not because it is lucrative, but because they love horses.  In fact, in Central KY, some of the nicest homes are stables (a bit of hyperbole, I will admit, but not as much as a statement like that should contain).  In other words, painting these guys as evil and exploitative is not a fair picture in most case.  That doesn’t automatically mean they are right. 

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Last month, global cooling beats global warming.

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Cindy McCain says that her husband won’t go negative in the general election.  I believe her.  I don’t think either candidate will, in fact.  They won’t have to. Bush and Kerry really didn’t go negative in 04, but it was one of the most negative campaigns ever.  Now, there are plenty of people willing to go negative for you.

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I don’t agree with all of this article, but it had some interesting insights.  The basic premise is “I’m a woman, and since I know how crazy women are, I don’t want one as president.”  I’ve heard a lot of that actually.  I disagree with that conclusion, but it does offer some good critique of part of Clinton’s approach.  Keep in mind too that it’s largely tongue in cheek.  My favorite line:

I don’t even hate Hillary because she screwed up health care. Frankly, anyone can screw up health care.

Funny. 

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Finally, apparently INS is overworked, so they are enlisting UPS to help them.  A Mexican citizen but legal resident in Florida is being told to show her green card in order to receive her birth certificate shipped from Mexico.  Apparently, this is being done to keep us safe from the terrorist.  During my time as a mail room employee, I signed for thousands of UPS packages, not once having to show ID.  In fact, as long as you are at the address the package is intended for, you can claim the package, signing any name you want.  So, I’m not sure exactly how this keeps us safer. 

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Speaking of Mexico, I will be there for the next week on a mission trip.  Please pray for me.  I was hoping to keep the blog going, and if I get cell phone reception, I might, but it looks like we will be closing shop for the week (thanks to Jenny T for volunteering as a “guest blogger.”  I will take you up on that in the future).