DNC Lawyers Rule Against Clinton

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton stops at Mount Rushmore during a campaign swing through South Dakota. (By Elise Amendola -- Associated Press)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/28/AR2008052803093.html?wpisrc=newsletter
By Shailagh Murray and Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 29, 2008; Page A06

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's prospects of persuading Democratic officials to override party rules and recognize all delegates selected in the Florida and Michigan primaries suffered a setback yesterday after lawyers for the party ruled that no more than half of those delegations could be legally recognized.

Democratic National Committee lawyers wrote in a memo that the two states must forfeit at least half of their delegates as punishment for holding primaries earlier than DNC rules allowed. Clinton (N.Y.) prevailed in both contests, although the Democratic candidates had agreed not to campaign in Florida and Michigan, and Sen. Barack Obama removed his name from the Michigan ballot.

The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee is scheduled to meet Saturday to make a final determination on Florida and Michigan, which would have collectively awarded 368 convention delegates. But in the memo, party lawyers determined that full restoration, as sought by Clinton, would violate DNC rules, although it did note a loophole that would allow her to carry the challenge to the first day of the Democratic National Convention in late August.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters that the senator from Illinois is prepared to forfeit a portion of his delegate lead, as part of a compromise to resolve the Florida and Michigan flap. "We don't think it's fair to seat them fully," Plouffe said of the two delegations. But he added, "We're willing to give some delegates here" in order to put the matter to rest.

If the current delegate tally were to hold, Plouffe said, Obama could pull within about 10 delegates of the 2,026 needed for the nomination, assuming he wins the South Dakota and Montana primaries as expected on Tuesday. The Saturday meeting is likely to increase the threshold, possibly by several dozen delegates, but campaign officials said they are confident that uncommitted superdelegates will quickly move to endorse Obama, pushing him over the finish line as early as Wednesday morning.

Plouffe said the campaign is not stockpiling superdelegates to roll out en masse, as many political observers have speculated. "We announce superdelegates as they commit to us," he said. But he said mid-next week would be "a natural time" for those who have not picked sides to finally break.

Obama is already acting like a general-election candidate. He spent the past three days in New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado -- three states that held Democratic caucuses months ago but that are expected to be swing states in November.

Clinton visited South Dakota yesterday, including a stop at Mount Rushmore. Obama aired a new TV ad in Puerto Rico, which votes Sunday, and will depart Friday on a final three-day swing through Montana and South Dakota. Clinton is expected to spend the weekend in Puerto Rico, the biggest delegate prize of three remaining contests, and where she is favored.

But her best hope for late gains is at the DNC meeting on Saturday. Clinton supporters are organizing a "Count Every Vote" rally outside the meeting site and have bombarded committee members with phone calls and Florida oranges to press their case.

Obama's campaign sent a mass e-mail to supporters yesterday, urging them not to descend on the event. Plouffe said the campaign could easily muster "thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people" to counter Clinton's turnout, but said he wants to avoid an "unhelpful scene at the close of the nomination fight."

DNC lawyers found that the Rules and Bylaws Committee acted within its rights by voiding the Florida and Michigan results, after Michigan moved its primary to Jan. 15 and Florida moved its to Jan. 29. They did so in violation of party rules that called for state parties that did not receive waivers from the DNC to schedule primaries no earlier than Feb. 5.

Speaking to reporters on a morning conference call, senior adviser Harold Ickes refused to rule out a legal challenge if the committee does not rule in Clinton's favor. "That's a bridge to cross when we come to that particular stream," he said.

Clinton also appealed directly to superdelegates. "When the primaries are finished, I expect to lead in the popular vote and in delegates earned by primaries. Ultimately the point of our primary process is to pick our strongest nominee," she wrote in a letter to undeclared superdelegates.

Saturday's pro-Clinton event is being co-organized by the Women Count PAC -- founded by five top Clinton supporters, including longtime friend and fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell -- and a coalition of disparate other groups working under the umbrella of Count Every Vote '08.

Organizers said that they expect people to come from 26 states for the rally, as well as some major celebrity speakers, and that they are receiving logistical assistance or other support from the pro-Clinton United Federation of Teachers and Emily's List.

Count Every Vote '08 first came together in mid-March to lobby Democratic superdelegates on behalf of Clinton. Allida M. Black, project director and editor of the Eleanor Roosevelt papers at George Washington University, joined with Tompkins Buell to start Women Count PAC two weeks ago. They raised more than $250,000 and used the money to buy newspaper ads, including ones that ran in the New York Times over the weekend calling on female readers to attend Saturday's rally.

Vick reported from the Obama campaign.

The Devil in Crude Oil Prices

An enormous transfer of wealth is going to the countries with energy reserves. There seems to be no stopping the high-flying oil price as it leaps above $130, a price that seemed unlikely just last December. The growth in oil demand will continue to be driven by China and Asia, in spite of the U.S. economic slowdown and recent drop in demand for crude as shown in yesterdays (29/5/08) stats. But so is the wealth coming from the 'little' countries around the world, creating further hardship for the vulnerable rural domiciled especially, destabilising regimes and fanning the mockery that is the cycles of endless bickering in our August house. Does Africa really need multi-democracy? I ask myself alarmingly frequently lately, when we read about how they (them parliamentarians) rarely get anything done except take sides, the sight of mature beings reverting to a stubborn streak I am tempted to call childishness, and the voters peer through the windows...... anyway sidetracked. Come to think of it, parliamenterians do get together- to discuss increasing their pay packet....

The followers that we manufacture out of ourselves means that when the first world is trying to find alternatives to the crude, we sit idly, waiting to fund the new technology cycle by purchasing that technology when the West discovers it, and then the cycle of dependency starts again. Maybe we should invest in local technology with all the Engineering human capital we have graduated from our various colleges and universities since the 60's. Surely there is something we can do rather than wait but where do we get the direction from when these politicians who we know have the capacity of really changing Malawi continue to rip each other apart! With their priorities and therefore every citizens messed up, we have been importing motor vehicles for years on end! do we always have to? we can't do it ourselves? its just technology for Gods sake! No one to invest? maybe our financial institutions are not ambitious enough? maybe with the new cycle of senior management coming in it may be different. Anyways, in the meanwhile the price of crude is on the increase and all budgets and financial forecasts are back to the drawing board. Earnings are skewed, prices will rise, our currency may weaken and cost-push inflation may settle in.

Our efforts should be in the direction of reduction of dependencies, without that we are but just a ship on the high seas being blown hither and dither in the direction of the winds, and this time aren't we definitely caught in the oil winds? What will improve our situation will be answers to the following questions contextualised in reality; Should we anchor? use the sails? jettison some cargo? full steam ahead? back to port ? Decisions need to be made. We are the custodians of the future, its all in our hands, but only with a different type of maturity in our August House to provide forward looking leadership will our fortunes improve as a nation. We may not need to change our politicians per se, that would be too drastic and maybe as much as we would want to disown them they do reflect our society, ahem! but they need, no they MUST re-focus their efforts in large measure. If we cannot discuss a countrys budget to conclusion, how can we run a country? No wonder most are only thinking of themselves, not entirely because they are selfish but because thats where they are most effective, in the small manageable settings they are able to amass enough resources to fix their immediate institutions, their families and themselves individually, we need our our small successes, but the Country? now thats a whole different ball game! its becoming a Horror project......They were able to rebuild after the world wars, we havent had one so it is possible, however without legislative sanity and direction, without the meeting of minds of our politicians, it will take far too much sacrifice . Phew!! Depressing! something positive then,

Man U (Moscow).

Brian

"No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction."Charles Kendall Adams1835-1902, Professor of History and Author

Theft of Metal Soars Around The World. Why?

Theft of metal and a sudden increase in scrap metal merchants with seemingly ready cash to purchase from every willing seller in our neighbourhoods are a common feature recently and also in most countries around the world, images of goods carrying vehicles of all sizes laden with scrap metal coming from every possible village that has a piece of metal scrap is a common spectacle on African roads, as the scrap metal buyers then amass the metal and cargo ship it all to Asia, especially to India and China to satisfy the needs of growing economic powers, in building their new cities, as part of their electronic exports and to satisfy the new found wealth of the the new and massive middle classes with expanses of credit available, the demand for cheap metal to convert is on the rise.

Now why is Africa vulnerable? because there is no legislation governing scrap metal purchase, there is barely enough or no environmental legislation relating to scrap metal, there is no information on prices for the poor villagers desperate to make a 'buck', so here comes reverse quasi exploitation, with the ever far reaching tentacles of globalisation affecting our common man in the African village, albeit without a shred of realisation of his participation therein, that his old metal bed or grounded 'Teba' car will end up in a building in China, or as cable in some remote controlled flying toy Helicopter. Globalisation is in, and how does that affect the insurer as the desperate turn to stealing not only the iron sheet roofing of the bus shelter on our streets but also on our homes and buildings such as churches? An excerpt from the Ecclesiastical, a UK Insurer below indicates the effect so far on just one of the insurers

- Brian

www.ecclesiastical.com/ourproducts/insurance/churchinsurance/church_security/theft_of_metal/index.aspx

Theft of metal on the rise

Driven by demand in China, the international price of copper and lead has broken all records over recent months. Prices for zinc, nickel and aluminium are also at their highest since 1996. This has led to an increase in the theft of copper and other metals in all areas of the country.
Nearly every day we receive claims for theft of external metals from churches. Thefts can cost anything from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands. Theft of lead, copper and other metals – from roofs, guttering and lightning conductors – is prompted by the rising price of these materials.

It’s not just the cost of replacing the materials that is the problem, thieves have also torn holes in roofs causing them to leak and ripped stonework away from pinnacles and towers.
The thieves get a fraction of the cost for scrap and they’re causing irreparable damage to some of the nation’s most beautiful and sacred buildings.

Further links to scrap metal theft below

Joeschmo's Gears and Grounds: Metal Theft Tied To Asia
Metal Theft Tied To Asia. The New York Times has finally noticed the massive increase in metal theft around the world, which has usually been linked to the ...

[PDF]
Non-Ferrous Metal Theft Project (NFTCC)
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTMLNon-Ferrous Metal Theft Reduction. Page - 3 of 7. 2. Background. The theft of non-ferrous metals in South Africa has become a serious problem during ...

Cable theft costs South Africa billions a year
The estimated direct cost of cable theft in South Africa is R500-million a year. ... of copper and the strong demand for the metal, especially from China, ...

Theft Of Metal Soars (from Abingdon Herald)

Theft of Copper and Other Metals - Sculpture Community - Sculpture.net
17 Nov 2007 ... Arising from this, theft of metal objects from public and semi-public places are more .... Location: Adelaide, South Australia.

News - World scrap - Scrap plastic, metal, Paper,Rubber,Electric ...

In U.S., Metal Theft Plagues Troubled Neighborhoods - New York Times

Price Hikes Lead to Rash of Metal Thefts - US News and World Report

China - Israel news : Metal theft and Chinese foreign workers

Theft of metal, theft security
Read Ecclesiastical's advice for church security in order to reduce the risk of metal thefts, particularly bronze church sculptures.

Metal theft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

International Association of Property Crime Investigators
The theft of metals such as aluminum, brass, copper and platinum is a growing global problem.

news::Copper%20&%20Metal%20Theft

Motor Vehicle Insurance Theft: Catalytic Converters

If you are involved with Motor Insurance take note of a trend that will definitely catch on in other parts of the world soon....- Brian

Drivers warned that catalytic converters are the new car radios - THE INDEPENDENT- Insurance.
http://www.independent.co.uk/money/insurance/drivers-warned-that-catalytic-converters-are-the-new-car-radios-830126.html

Sunday, 18 May 2008

Thieves are increasingly looking to steal catalytic converters from cars, according to http://www.yesinsurance.co.uk/ .

The converters, located on the underside of cars, are part of the exhaust system and remove harmful toxins from the vehicle's emissions. Once they are stolen, they are either sold on to garages as a whole unit or broken up for scrap.

"Catalytic converters are attractive to criminals because they are expensive, easy to access and contain rare metals such as platinum, which have been rocketing in price recently," said Paul Purdy of the online insurance firm. "It's not unusual for a new converter to cost in the region of £1,000."

Four-by-fours are a particular target because most have enough room underneath to get to the exhaust system without having to jack up the vehicle. Thefts usually happen overnight, the insurer explained, so drivers tend to find out what has happened in the morning when they go to start their vehicle.

"While car radios can be a popular target for criminals, catalytic converters now appear to be offering greater returns due to the high value and the fact they are easily accessed," Mr Purdy added.

Where possible, the insurer advises drivers to park in private garages. But if they have to keep their cars on the street, it should be in a well-lit area.
Interesting? Click here to explore further

National Bank of Malawi buys 26% stake in United GeneraI Insurance Company Limited. (Great news!!)

Why is this great news then? Well for a whole host of reasons and especially for the insurance industry itself and the consumer,

• for starters local shareholding is a great thing in itself!! I have always advocated for this and it shows where we are headed with local participation being a sure thing and I believe we will have regulatory minimum local shareholder requirements coming soon...
• the possibility of bancassurance synergies available to the combination are boundless...
• further this has the possibility of amazing changes to interalia the banking approach to insurance payment systems, cross selling, insurance access etceteras imagine if you may selling insurance products to the vast data base of NBM's client portfolio, saucy!! the challenges bring the drool to mind.....great challenge requiring conversion to success, the drug I feed on.
• and it provides a formidable competition base to the Nico General Insurance Company Ltd outfit which hitherto (2007) held a 47% market share (47%!!) in a country with about 10 licensed insurers, the Nico General has a possible bancassurance angle with NBS Bank which at present from a consumer point of view has nt been fully exploited, mined.... but then again with 47% the motivation may not be as urgent.
• the consumer has a choice with two strong local companies that have a serious approach and credible history, not to say the rest of the competition does not.
• Career development for insurance staff in Malawi as a whole is not effectively exploited and with the Zim connection and more may bring a sharing of intellectual capacity which would benefit the consumer and bring much needed vibrancy.
• Whilst we have as an industry touted some products as new on the market, innovation has not been a strong point for the industry and sharing with the general insurance industry in countries with higher insurance penetration and higher level of sophistication in innovation is a great thing
• Great news!! Exciting news!! it takes the boring out of insurance, what next? the capacity of local management is in the driving seat, age old traditions may require unseating, staff may require retraining, consumer expectations may be at an all time high, all great for the Malawi insurance industry, my! my! we live in exciting times....

-Brian

Article by MOSES MICHAEL-PHIRI (5/22/2008) below, The NATION Malawi online

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National Bank of Malawi (NBM) on Tuesday made a landmark acquisition of 26 percent stakes in short-term insurance company United General Insurance Limited (UGI) in a move that means UGI will now be co-owned by NBM and ZimRe Holdings of Zimbabwe which owns 74 percent shareholding.

Before this purchase, UGI was a wholly-owned subsidiary of ZimRe Holdings Plc, a diversified group whose head office is in Harare. In Malawi, apart from holding stakes in UGI, ZimRe also owns Vanguard Life Assurance Company Limited.

Announcing the acquisition, NBM chief executive officer George Partridge said both the bank and UGI have met all necessary regulatory approvals from the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) and the Registrar of Insurance Companies.

Partridge said for NBM, the acquisition is a dream come true as it is in line with the bank’s vision to be successful in the country and the region at large. "The acquisition fits in well within the National Bank’s own vision, mission, diversification and expansion strategy within the financial services industry both local and in the region. "It is also one step further in our quest to become a near universal bank by offering a one stop shop of financial products in all our service centres," said Partridge. He indicated that it is envisaged that this development and relationship with UGI will be more than that of an equity investor. "We want to be an active investor so as at operational level both NBM and UGI will realise certain synergies. In fact, in future we plan to list this company on the Malawi Stock Exchange," said Partridge.

With this acquisition NBM will now be able to offer affordable packaged financial products and structures such as bank assurance services. In his remarks, Albert Joe Nduna, ZimRe chief executive officer and chairman of UGI, said he was excited that the insurance firm has found a trusted partner that is committed to growth of the company.

"This is the beginning of great things to come between ZimRe and National Bank. ZimRe has been in the Sadc [Southern Africa Development Community] region for the past 24 years and we are a diversified group. We have been looking for a partner to put up a strong relationship in the region and in NBM we have found a strong partner," he said.

NBM has other notable investments in Stockbrokers Malawi Limited (SML) and the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE).

NBM is owned 51.73 percent by Press Corporation Limited as its majority shareholder, Old Mutual with 24.83 percent, the public 22.03 percent and the employees hold 1.41 percent through the Employee Share Ownership Programme.

How Leaders Handle Failure

From JTK's email

Asked to give an example, from his own experience, of how leaders should manage failure, former President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum , Philadelphia , on March 22,2008, had this to say:


Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India 's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India 's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India ]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience

As Obama looks victorious, a desperate Clinton argues on

WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Clinton will campaign beyond Tuesday's West Virginia primary and take her fight for the Democratic presidential nomination all the way to the party's convention this summer if she or Sen. Barack Obama hasn't won enough delegates to clinch the party's nomination, her campaign advisers said Friday.
Clinton campaign strategist Geoff Garin and communications director Howard Wolfson, speaking to a breakfast meeting with reporters, repeated recent Clinton campaign assertions that the delegate majority is 2,209 to shoot down speculation that Clinton would drop out of the race after her expected defeat of Obama in West Virginia on Tuesday. Previously, Democrats had said 2,025 delegates would be needed to win, a number Obama is likely to reach on May 20, after the Oregon and Kentucky primaries.

The higher number would include the Michigan and Florida delegations, which have been barred from the Denver convention. Whether any portion of those delegations will be allowed will be discussed at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee rules committee scheduled for May 31.

The campaign's position comes as Obama's support among superdelegates — party officials and insiders who can vote however they choose — rises. Obama's aides said Friday that he'd picked up the support of eight new superdelegates, including one who'd supported Clinton.
Clinton also is lagging in the pledged delegate count and is short on campaign cash. Still, her advisers laid out a strategy in which her path to the nomination depends on wooing working-class, rural whites and seniors and pushing for the seating of delegates from Michigan and Florida. Those delegates were banned after their states defied party rules and moved up their primaries.

"Senator Clinton does far better with blue-collar voters, working-class voters in general," Garin said. "Historically, those have been the key swing voters in the general elections, and we believe that the evidence is clear that Senator Clinton is the better candidate to win those votes for the Democratic Party in November."

Clinton was more direct about her approach in an interview Thursday with USA Today.
"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she told the paper.
Then Clinton referred to an Associated Press article, saying it "found how Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening, and how whites in (North Carolina and Indiana) who had not completed college were supporting me."
At Friday's breakfast meeting, Garin and Wolfson suggested that Clinton's appeal to so-called "downscale Democrats" would give her longer coattails for congressional Democrats to ride on than Obama would.

They presented handouts that suggested that 20 freshman Democrats in Republican-leaning districts would have a better shot at re-election if Clinton were the nominee because she won 16 of the 20 districts during the primaries. "We believe the evidence is that Senator Clinton can do more to help Democrats win a bigger majority in 2008," Garin said. Clinton's brain trust continued to try to raise doubts about Obama's electability in the general election, pointing out that Clinton won big swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida. Wolfson aimed to set the bar high in West Virginia for Obama. "What is the basis for the so-called presumptive nominee not competing in a state that would be a key swing state," Wolfson said. "If Senator Clinton wins West Virginia by 15 points after magazines, papers, television have declared him the nominee, what does that say about Senator Obama's ability to compete in states like West Virginia that we will need in our column? It's a problem that Senator Obama has essentially conceded the state." But not everyone was buying the Clinton campaign's logic. Clinton suffered a major defection Friday when superdelegate Rep. Donald Payne of New Jersey, a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, switched his endorsement from Clinton to Obama. "After careful consideration, I have reached the conclusion that Barack Obama can best bring about the change that our country so desperately wants and needs," Payne said in a written statement. "He embodies the American ideals of hope, optimism and the ability to take on tough challenges in order to solve difficult problems." Wolfson said he didn't expect other members of the black caucus who supported Clinton to switch, but he added that "people are obviously free to exercise their conscience and support the candidate of their choice."
Clinton maintained a busy campaign schedule Friday, stumping in Portland, Ore., and Louisville, Ky. She's scheduled to attend a Mother's Day event in New York on Saturday.

Obama, meanwhile, was sounding more and more like a candidate who's looking toward accepting his party's presidential nomination this summer in Denver.
In a speech in Beaverton, Ore., on Friday, Obama didn't mention Clinton at all.
"There will be real differences on the ballot in November," Obama said in prepared remarks. "I believe it's time for Washington to work for your hopes, your dreams. And that's what I'll do every day as president of the United States."

McClatchy Newspapers 2008