Masters of War

Karim Kadim/AP. Via Kansas City Star

I pulled this photo from BAGnewNotes.

April 29, 2008. Sadr City, Baghdad.

Above is yesterday's photo of two-year-old Ali Hussein, pulled from the bombed rubble of his home, who died shortly after in the hospital. It's the shot which could have, would have and otherwise should have woken up all the sheep and cast a fiery and pin-pointed attention on the urban carnage inflicted on an overcrowded, poverty-stricken, urban Baghdad slum by U.S. fighter bombers.

From Bob Dylan's Masters of War

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

Almost Great Horned Owls

Photo by John Eaton

Taken at 1:15PM on the Claremont Canyon Trail in Berkeley, CA on Friday, April 25, 2008.

Another Clinton Pattern

Click to enlarge

I saw this graph over at MyDD but they rightly credit 2008 Democratic Convention Watch.

As in the pattern discussed below, Clinton's pledged super delegate lead on February 10, 2008 stood at 97. But on April 20, 2008 that lead stood at 25. A decline of 74% in a little over 2 months time.

Primary Patterns: Clinton vs. Obama

Gallup

Remember the joke about the person who makes a small fortune? The humor comes when you learn they started with a large fortune. This is the Hillary pattern against Barrack Obama. She starts the primary season with an overwhelming advantage in name recognition, fund raising and long time connections in the Democratic party. Consequently, her lead in the polls appears to be insurmountable - especially for a Junior Senator for Illinois. In the contested states that she wins, she is able to turn those large leads into much smaller leads which include 15 of the 29 states with contested primaries to date. However, a deeply flawed campaign strategy or execution of that strategy yields only a single win in 14 caucus states. Overall record: 16 wins in 43 contests. Pennsylvania is just more of the same. Hillary starts with a 20-25+ point lead and finishes with a 9+ lead.

So Hillary can sometimes turn a large lead into a small lead and can more often turn a large lead into a loss. In business terms, she reminds me of the Industry leader that loses out to the new, under-capitalized upstart with fresh ideas.

Currently, against McCain, both Hillary and Barack are losing in the Polls by three percent. The pattern to date shows that Obama can overcome an opponent's early lead. On the other hand, the pattern for Hillary is that she more often than not loses, even when she had the early lead.

OBAMA in Philly - April 18, 2008

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Growing Up Fast

Photo by John Eaton

Photo taken on April 16, 2008 on Claremont Canyon Trail in Berkeley. There are three chicks in this photo. The one on the left is much smaller. The one behind is the same size as the one on the right but its head is tucked in. Mom or Dad was no where to be seen.

Great Horned Owl

Photo by John Eaton
This photo was taken just before 1:00 PM on April 7, 2008 on the Claremont Canyon Trail in Berkeley, CA.