clipped from www.cnn.com ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — A suicide truck bombing destroyed the packed Marriott Hotel, near the Parliament building and the prime minister’s home, in the city of Islamabad, Pakistan, on Saturday night. The attack killed at least 40 people and wounded another 200, police said. People were still trapped in the hotel, which burst into flames after the explosion caused a natural gas pipe leak, officials said. Details and the number of fatalities are still unclear because of conflicting initial reports. One or two vehicles was involved in the attack. The gas leak set the top floor of the five-story, 258-room hotel on fire, police said, and the blaze quickly engulfed the entire structure. The Marriott, a Western brand-name hotel, has been the site of attacks in the past, said CNN’s Peter Bergen. See where the attack occurred » Pakistani security officials collect evidence from the estimated 10-meter (33-foot)-deep crater at the Marriott Hotel on Saturday.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

clipped from www.nytimes.com Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, at the Capitol on Tuesday for a meeting with Congressional leaders on the rescue plan for American International Group. WASHINGTON — Fearing a financial crisis worldwide, the Federal Reserve reversed course on Tuesday and agreed to an $85 billion bailout that would give the government control of the troubled insurance giant American International Group. The decision, only two weeks after the Treasury took over the federally chartered mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank’s history. With time running out after A.I.G. failed to get a bank loan to avoid bankruptcy, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the Fed chairman Ben S. Bernanke convened a meeting with House and Senate leaders on Capitol Hill about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to explain the rescue plan.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

How's about a little Black Monday cha-cha in the financial markets? Well kids, hold onto your wallets because it is only getting worse from here on out.

The insurance giant AIG is making noise about going under, the Merrill Lynch sale to Bank of America announced this morning and the rejection of emergency funds requested by Lehman Brothers over the weekend which has caused them to file bankruptcy, when stacked with the recent failures of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, et al has made it clear that the economic policies of the Republicans and the Bush Treasury department are so many chickens coming home to roost.

Folks, this election should be about our economy and the financial drain that is the Iraq War. Tax cut and spend "fiscal conservatives" have had a fine time raping our economy for 8 years and our Democrats in Congress have largely gone along with it. When it comes to big money Wall Street issues there is truly only one party in our country.

We need serious financial markets reform and we need it now. The fact that there has never been regulation of the financial derivatives markets, and the bundling of mortgages into financial instruments sold countless times to investors which has caused the real estate bubble to burst paired with the goofy policies of the US Treasury under Bush has caused the once vaunted US ecomony to tank should be our top argument for electing Democrats to Congress and Barack Obama to the office of President.

So where are the D's? Mostly silent. A few people have been working dili9gently behind the scenes to bail water out of the dinghy, like Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and in the House Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and John Larson (D-CT), but most of the Democrats running for Congress in Indiana have not been speaking much about the issue of our time that makes all other issues pale, save for Baron Hill. If we don't save our economy soon this whole grand experiment of the last 232 years could come crashing down around us.

If you have money in the markets, give serious consideration to cashing in and put your money in something safe like precious metals or even a simple savings account. If we as a nation decide to elect John McSame as president we are definitely going down the tubes financially. This is a man who has already admitted to not knowing much about economics. This fact alone ought to disqualify him for the office, and if Obama doesn't start hammering him on this point and soon we will miss the greatest argument we can make to the voters.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Sixth District United States Congressional Candidate Barry Welsh is scheduled to appear before the Delaware County Election Board this Tuesday afternoon. Welsh appeared before the same board in April at the request of Ball State University students who were concerned that voter registrations would not be processed. Welsh comes before the Election Board once again on behalf of the Ball State Students and this time it is to request an early voting station on campus and relocating the precinct polling place for the November 4th general election.

"We should work to make voting more accessible to everyone. Since we have been under the Bush administration we have seen restrictions placed and people turned away. I plan to work to reverse that and make it as simple and convenient as possible to vote and I am starting with the Ball State Students." Welsh, who has requested a top level staff member from the Obama campaign to join him at the meeting, also said, "We are dealing with college students, and this will be the first time voting for many of them. We should make every effort to take as little time as necessary from these students who are juggling classes, studies, and work. If it is a good experience, they will be voters for life and our goal should be to make voting a habit not a hassle."

Welsh is challenging Mike Pence for a second time.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Stephanie DeKemper is a dynamic and hard working candidate for Indiana House in District 92 who has a real chance of flipping her currently red district represented by the atrocious Phil Hinkle to a blue district as part of the bluenami that will sweep Indiana this November. The Obama Effect is most prevalent in districts with high independent voter counts and where new voter registration efforts have had a large impact such as in District 92.

The district is located within Marion County/Indianapolis in the Wayne and Pike township areas. It has been represented by Phil Hinkle for 8 years and his retirement is calling. Some of you may know Hinkle from his involvement in the property tax restructuring fiasco, so all of you homeowners who are feeling the pain from that can thank him for his contributions.

Hinkle is a mortgage loan officer AND a realtor so making sure his own interests in the property tax fiasco were taken care of was a priority for Hinkle. As many Republicans do, Hinkle is a master of promoting his own self interests ahead of the interests of his constituents.

Stephanie DeKemper is a fantastic candidate who has a passion for service and a dedication to Democratic principles that this district desperately needs. She is a leader in the biosciences community in Indianapolis and has the experience as a business executive and as a former IPD police officer to understand the unique needs of her future constituents. She has been in our streets and in our boardrooms and can walk amongst the people who inhabit both worlds. Here is her biography from her website:

Stephanie DeKemper was born and raised in Indiana and proud to call herself a Hoosier. She has lived in Indianapolis for 18 years with her husband Stanley and her six sons. For the last nine years, she has called District 92 her home.

Stephanie completed the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and served as a police officer during a time in which a small number of women were serving in law enforcement.

For the last 14 years, Stephanie has committed her energies to improving access to and the quality of health care. Over this time, she has developed programs that reduce health care disparities, established a corporate foundation to improve the quality of health and care and worked with Indiana policy makers to establish Hoosier insurance plans for the uninsured and under insured.

Currently, Stephanie is the Vice President of Diversity and Special Projects for Centene Corporation. Her volunteer activities include serving as a member of the Indiana Commission on Civil Rights appointed by the U.S. Office of Civil Rights, and the Indiana Commission on Quality Healthcare.

Stephanie is the kind of candidate that can flip red districts like HD92 to blue districts. She understands the pain the voters of her district feel under the yoke of Phil Hinkle’s brand of leadership. She knows how to work with members of the opposite party to craft solutions for the people of Indiana and has a track record to prove it.

I have joined the DeKemper campaign as Internet Coordinator and together with the other candidates I am working with (Pam Hickman and John Barnes) we hope to turn the Indiana House a deeper shade of blue this fall. Candidates like Stephanie DeKemper are key to this effort and it is my pleasure to be working with her to help draw attention to her district and her effort to grab this seat from the Republicans this fall.

We will have her first video up on her website at www.DeKemperforyou.com and on her MySpace page at www.myspace.com/DeKemperforyou in the coming days. We hope to have many more videos and podcasts available for you to learn more about Stephanie in the near future, but in the meantime check out her website and MySpace page, then stop by her ActBlue page and give her a little Bloosier love to help her with her fight against Hinkle.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

clipped from indianalawblog.com Law - “Police Using G.P.S. Units as Evidence in Crimes” That is the headline to this AP article published today in the NY Times. Some quotes: Like millions of motorists, Eric Hanson used a Global Positioning System device in his Chevrolet TrailBlazer to find his way around. He probably did not expect that prosecutors would use it, too — to help convict him of killing four family members. Prosecutors in suburban Chicago analyzed data from the Garmin G.P.S. device to pinpoint where Mr. Hanson had been on the morning after his parents were fatally shot and his sister and brother-in-law bludgeoned to death in 2005. He was convicted of the killings this year and sentenced to death. Mr. Hanson’s trial was among recent criminal cases in which the authorities used such navigation devices to help establish a defendant’s whereabouts. Experts say such evidence will almost certainly become more common in court as the systems become more affordable and show up in more vehicles. * * *

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

clipped from www.salon.com Massive police raids on suspected protestors in Minneapolis Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff’s department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than “fire code violations,” and early this morning, the Sheriff’s department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying. UPDATE: Here is the first of the videos, from the house that had just been raided:

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Yes, I am still alive. Yes, I do plan to start writing on Monticello Politics again, this is the first of (hopefully) many new posts on this humble, yet dusty blog. No, I was not maimed beyond recognition in a farming implements accident or doing a triple Lutz with a twist into a limestone pit for diving.

These are some of the questions some of you, my readers (both of you), have sent to me via email this summer while I was working on a few things. Truth is, I didn't stop posting blog entries, I just have not been posting them over here. Most of my blogging for the past few months has been at Blue Indiana. I spent most of this summer staying busy with clients such as Pam Hickman, John Barnes and an author named TE Scott amongst other clients.There have also been a number of videos made this summer which have been posted elsewhere.

So it is now Labor Day weekend. Barack Obama is the Democratic Party nominee for President with running mate Joe Biden. Russia and Georgia had a tidy little war that Putin blames on the US. John McCain picked Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, the economy shrank, farmers have mostly stopped losing their farms due to record high commodities prices causing food prices to soar and hardly a peep has been heard out of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears all summer long. All in all, a mixed bag kind of summer, though the lack of Hilton/Spears coverage is definitely a major improvement in the world.

Sorry to have gone all radio silent there for a few months. I am attempting to transition this blog into more of a professional political portal type operation so you are going to see some major changes coming to Monticello in the next few weeks as we prepare for covering the Labor Day to Election Day Silly Season. You're going to see every video I shoot for someone posted here first. You're going to see more Clipmarks posts of interesting articles I have found in my Google Reader meanderings. There's going to be more features and activity here with a strict focus on politics posts only.

For those who have contacted me to find out whats been going on with me, thanks for the concerns. I have in fact been dealing with some recurrent health problems this summer residually related to my hospital vacation last December but with the help of my best friend Karen I am under strict doctor's supervision and responding to treatment well.  I have nothing major to report healthwise, but I will keep everyone updated on that front.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Cross posted from Blue Indiana

Bad taste does not begin to describe the remarks made yesterday by Hillary Clinton when she reminded everyone that Hubert Humphrey secured the nomination in June 1968 after Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Dog whistles like this have been occasionally used by the Clinton campaign by Hillary herself and occasionally surrogates such as Bill Clinton and others.

I’m tired of this desperate measures campaign that Clinton is running. It shows seriously poor judgement and makes me deeply question her ability to run our government. The insensitivity of raising the specter of assassination in the week we discover yet another Kennedy tragedy in progress with the word that Senator Ted Kennedy has a brain tumor by referring to his brother’s tragic death 40 years ago in such a manner is really bad form.

The chorus of condemnation that has formed from all corners of the blogosphere because of these remarks are completely justified. I will add my voice to that chorus too - Hillary Clinton should immediately be disqualified from receiving the nomination should anything happen to Senator Barack Obama between now and the convention in August.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Brian Howey is reporting:

Republican State Sen. John Waterman of Shelburn is exploring whether to enter the Indiana gubernatorial race as an independent candidate. “There’s a lot of disgruntled people,” said Waterman in an exclusive Howey Politics Indiana interview Friday morning. Waterman, who was elected to the Senate in 1994 after two terms as Sullivan County Sheriff, added, “I know in this area, people are living paycheck to paycheck. There’s no communication with the governor’s office. He’s got this open door policy that doesn’t work. Nobody will call you back. There’s a lack of interest in education. The schools are in bad shape and nobody wants to talk about it. Economic development in Southwestern Indiana is zilch.” Waterman said that “right now, things are exploratory.”

I don’t know much about this guy but it sounds like he knows a key constituency, local officials, who could form a formidable coalition. Never underestimate the power of the local politicians who can stand in your living room to influence elections in a big way. Again, my lack of knowledge of this guy makes me wonder how much of a threat this guy is to Mitch “Govfather” Daniels and Jill Long Thompson? It’s definitely the first big monkeywrench thrown by either party in this race, I would stock up on a lot of popcorn, folks, this is gonna be fun to watch!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!