Tuesday, February 12, 2008

? for President? Political Wire: "A new SurveyUSA poll in North Carolina, Sen. Barack Obama edges Hillary Clinton, 50% to 40%, thanks to the majority of support for John Edwards flowing to the Illinois Senator...The GOP race is a statistical dead heat with Sen. John McCain edging Mike Huckabee, 45% to 40%." Political Wire: "A new SurveyUSA poll in Ohio shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama, 56% to 39%, in one of her "must-win" firewall states that votes on March 4...In the GOP race, Sen. John McCain leads Mike Huckabee, 50% to 36%." TalkLeft: "A Brown University, Rhode Island poll taken Feb. 9-10 shows Hillary Clinton maintaining her lead over Barack Obama, 36% to 28% with 27% uncommitted and 9% undecided. In September, Hillary's support was at 35%, so she gained a point. Obama gained substantially, from 16% to 27%, garnering the votes of those previously for Edwards, Biden, Dodd, etc., but he's still 9 points behind Hillary. The undecided/uncommitted votes now are at 36%, in September they were at 35%." TalkLeft: "You might have missed that in today's Associated Press poll, Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama 46% to 41%." "2008 pres" 6:14:01 PM

War on terror Talking Points Memo: In an extraordinary interview with the BBC, Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed what he called the smugness and self-satisfaction of torture opponents: In the interview with the Law in Action programme on BBC Radio 4, he said it was "extraordinary" to assume that the ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" - the US Constitution's Eighth Amendment - also applied to "so-called" torture. "To begin with the constitution... is referring to punishment for crime. And, for example, incarcerating someone indefinitely would certainly be cruel and unusual punishment for a crime." Justice Scalia argued that courts could take stronger measures when a witness refused to answer questions. "I suppose it's the same thing about so-called torture. Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to determine where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited in the constitution?" he asked. "It would be absurd to say you couldn't do that. And once you acknowledge that, we're into a different game. "How close does the threat have to be? And how severe can the infliction of pain be?" We are indeed into a different game. "2008 pres" 6:12:46 PM

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