Sen. Clinton sure sounds confident in her ability predict the outcome of this election. So confident, in fact, that she's already anticipating the outcome of elections in other countries.

Just how popular is Barack Obama in Canada? Pretty damn popular.  

On Friday the office of the Canadian prime minister denied that Hillary Clinton's campaign had given it any assurances about NAFTA. This was on the heels of its earlier denial that Barack Obama's campaign was saying anything in private that it was not saying in public. Does this mean that the story is over and we can all go back to talking about Hillary Clinton's inability to carry a tune and Barack Obama's middle name? Not likely. Soon there will be new charges and the delicate dance of leak, charge, denial, leak, and countercharge will begin again.

If you run for office you have to deny something at one time or another. Denial is more about expediency than truth. To deny something makes your supporters feel better, but it is not the end of the story. If denial was all you had to do, Nixon would have served out the rest of his term, and Bill Clinton would never have been impeached.

Denial is not just "not just a river in Egypt." And I have the Google stats to prove it . . . .

Apparently a bit over £500,000 annually

"Tony Blair is to take a job with JPMorgan Chase, the international financial services and investment banking group, The Times learnt last night.
(...)
Sources said last night that Mr Blair would advise the bank on global political issues. His salary is unknown but is likely to be more than £500,000."

Of course, the biggest story of this week has been the tragedy of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. For those as young as Figgins, I'm sure its particularly stunning, not having encountered this sort of thing before. I'm among those who still remember details of what they were doing when they heard of JFK's assassination. So, I've encountered this sort of thing before but that doesn't mean I can fully explain it to others, especially those who are dealing with it for the first time.

In June of 2007, President Bush began making entries in a daily online journal in preparation for his memoirs, believing the information posted to be confidential.

Unfortunately, he has misunderstood exactly who has access to craigslist and that no particular security clearance is required to view posts there. Below is today's diary entry

    Already diaried briefly by Marshall here, but I have my own take, including take-a-look at the Guardian front page. Whoo!

    Tony Blair was not Tony Soprano, but his poodleship towards Bush led to many dead Britons, Americans, and Iraqis. Shame.

    Back to Guardian, Brown declared prime minister,

    "Let the work of change begin," Gordon Brown declared today as he returned to Downing Street as the new prime minister of Great Britain. ...
    "I wouldn't be standing here without the opportunities that I received there. I want the best of chances for everyone. That is my mission," he said.
    "If we can fulfil the potential and realise the talents of all our people then I am absolutely sure that Britain can be the great global success story of this century."

    Go go G. Bro!!!

This guy just doesn't know when to quit, does he.

In a nationally televised interview on Sunday, [Australian Prime Minister John] Howard said Obama's plan meant al-Qaida leaders in Iraq should "be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats" at presidential elections in November 2008.

[Labor opposition leader Kevin] Rudd said Howard's comments amounted to calling the Democrats "the terrorists' party of choice" and could harm Australia's future with a possible Democratic U.S. administration.

"I'm doing nothing of the kind. I don't retract anything I said," Howard told Parliament in Canberra.

"I never said that. I refuse to take it back."

What the hell?

Conservative Australian PM John Howard made inflammatory remarks about Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama yesterday in reference to his calls to withdrawal U.S. troops from Iraq by 2008.

For us Americans, Howard is a bit of a curious figure.  Some details worth knowing . . .

© copyright 2007 Betsy L. Angert

Please dive in, be a voyeur, and venture into the world of battering Barack.  Tucker Carlson on Obama's church: "It's hard to call that.  YouTube.

When you are a threat, even if a peaceful one, criticism follows you.  Barack Obama is receiving a barrage of barbs.  The Junior Senator from Illinois is too inexperienced, too fat, too thin, too handsome, too elite, and not eloquent enough.  He is "clean," not as clean as he could be, and too conservative.  Barack is not Black enough.  Mister Obama declares that, for now, his race is perchance a novelty.  However, he surmises, the uniqueness of his tone will wear off.  

In a weird and wild attack Prime Minister John Howard, facing an uphill fight in elections later this year, rips US Senator Barack Obama for NOT supporting the endless and hopeless Bush war in Iraq.See http://www.usatoday.com/...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Major partners in Iraq's governing coalition are in behind-the-scenes talks to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki amid discontent over his failure to quell raging violence, according to lawmakers involved.

Who will succeed President Bush's close friend and ally, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi?

Update [2006-7-11 1:16:0 by The 40oz Funk]:

Q:  So Prime Minister Koizumi's term is almost over?

A:  His term of office is not limited by the Constitution.  However, it is limited by his party, the Liberal Democratic Party.

Koizumi has announced that he will step down from office sometime in 2006, per LDP rules, and will not personally choose a successor as many LDP prime ministers have in the past. This has led to widespread media speculation about who will be his successor, an issue popularly referred to as "post-Koizumi."

Q:  What do you mean "he will not personally choose a successor"?

A:  Japanese Prime Ministers are not chosen through a general election:

The Prime Minister is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members, and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office.

Stephen Harper, Bush's little brother to the north, has decided (he's Canada's own Decider, so he has decided) to Americanize Canada.  Apparently, this is what's wrong with Canada, we're not Americans.  So says Canada's decider.  Well, he doesn't come right out and say that, because he's leading a minority government which can be brought down any day now (I hope) by a motion of No Confidence, forcing the dissolution of Parliament and new elections.

So what does Canada's own Decider decide to do?  He makes a decision, that's what. He decides that Canada will hold elections every four years, just like in the USA.

More below...  and poll!

Where to begin? Politics or violence? Violence or politics? How about this story that combines a lot of both:

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A sister of Iraq's new Sunni Arab vice president was killed Thursday in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad, a day after the politician called for the Sunni-dominated insurgency to be crushed by force. [...]

Mayson Ahmed Bakir al-Hashimi, 60, whose brother, Tariq al-Hashimi, was appointed by parliament as vice president on Saturday, was killed by unidentified gunmen in a BMW sedan as she was leaving her home Thursday morning with her bodyguard in southwestern Baghdad, said police Capt. Jamel Hussein. The bodyguard, Saad Ali, also died in the shooting, Hussein said.

It was the second recent killing in Tariq al-Hashimi's immediate family. On April 13, his brother, Mahmoud al-Hashimi, was shot while driving in a mostly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad.

Much more to follow below the fold . . .

According to the Chronicle Herald, Nova Scotia's biggest daily, Scott Brison will be announcing his leadership bid tomorrow in his home riding of Kings-Hants. He will be the youngest of the candidates running and more conservative economically than most of his opponents.  Going against him will be his defection from the Conservative Party and, some say, his temper. Anyone here remember when he called MP Elsie Wayne a cow? And we can't forget that he was fingered for leaking information that led to insider trading.

What impact, if any, will these have on his campaign? What about his poor skills in French? Will that hurt him as much as anything else?

More after the break.....

Did anyone else notice how Bush was checking what appeared to be a cell phone while he waited to answer his first question from the press in India yesterday?

I like a country that can have a vote of' "No Confidence" to show the politicians that the people still run the country. Monday while the people in the United States were worried who would win the football game, one of the many things that seem to be more important than what is going on in the government.