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The Bill Clinton who met privately with California's superdelegates at last weekend's state convention was a far cry from the congenial former president who afterward publicly urged fellow Democrats to "chill out" over the race between his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Barack Obama. In fact, before his speech Clinton had one of his famous meltdowns Sunday, blasting away at former presidential contender Bill Richardson for having endorsed Obama, the media and the entire nomination process. "It was one of the worst political meetings I have ever attended," one superdelegate said. According to those at the meeting, Clinton - who...

Chris Wallace coming up next to discuss his interview with former President Clinton, and behind the scenes stuff.

I remember him coming rushing in from the garden that afternoon, in tears and covered in blood. After running his finger under the tap and seeing how deep the gash was, I decided to take him to our local A&E department at the King George hospital in Goodmayes, Essex. Tony cried all the way there but soon perked up at the sight of the hospital and the doctors. Because his wound was bleeding so heavily, we were rushed straight through to see a doctor and Tony was given a painkilling injection. When the doctors said they wanted to transfer Tony...

NEW ORLEANS - As Hurricane Katrina roared ashore and thousands of people waited days amid the floodwater for rescue, a series of letters passed between the governor and the White House that reveal delays, claims that requests for federal help weren't received, and concerns on both sides about public relations. Gov. Kathleen Blanco late Friday released 100,000 pages of memos, handwritten notes, e-mails, phone logs and other documents requested by congressional committees that are now investigating what happened behind the scenes in the frantic days surrounding the deadly Aug. 29 storm. Among those documents are the back-and-forth communications between Blanco's...

CHAPTER 6. THE LOUISIANA HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE AND DISASTER ACT These links refer back to the original Louisiana Legislature pages from which I compiled the body of the post. §721. Short title§722. Purpose§723. Definitions§724. Powers of the governor§725. State emergency and disaster agency; powers of adjutant general§726. Office of homeland security and emergency preparedness; authority and responsibilities§727. Powers of the parish president; penalties for violations§728. Parish homeland security and emergency preparedness agency§729. Parish homeland security and emergency preparedness agency authorities and responsibilities§730. Interjurisdictional homeland security and emergency preparedness agency§730.1. Interjurisdictional homeland security and emergency preparedness agency; providing assistance...

Federal government tried legal takeover of Katrina operations: state official    Kate Heneroty at 11:15 AM ET [JURIST] The Washington Post reported Sunday that Bush administration officials sent a draft legal memorandum to Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco just before midnight Friday asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, according to a source within the state's emergency operations center. Administration officials had been seeking direct unified control over local police and National Guard units that would otherwise be under the Governor's jurisdiction. According to a senior Bush official, the President has the power (by state...

When I saw the looters on TV and heard about the criminals and thugs taking advantage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina I thought to myself, this is the worst of America. I was wrong. The worst of America are the race-baiters and the Monday morning quarterbacks who have come out in the wake of the disaster response, even before the job is done. This is not to deny there is still racism in America. Craig Deluz points out an example of the Associated Press releasing two stories, one with whites characterized as finding food, another with a black doing...

California defense contractor warns employees following computer theft The Associated Press Feb 3 2005 3:16PM "Thieves stole several computers containing personal information on 45,000 current and former shareholders of defense contractor Science Applications International Corp., which began alerting those people on Thursday. SAIC is one of the nation's largest employee-owned companies. The computers stolen from an SAIC administrative building in San Diego contained the name, Social Security number, address and telephone number of current and former shareholders, including the number of shares bought, held and sold. The company said it had no evidence that the thieves accessed the information or...

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry , D-Mass., speaks Friday, May 7, 2004, at the 2004 Democratic Leadership Council National Convention in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

<p>Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge on Saturday defended the Bush administration's decision not to declare an emergency zone in Southern California forests before fires there erupted into one of the state's worst disasters.</p> <p>State officials have noted that Gov. Gray Davis in April asked federal emergency officials for $430 million to rid the forests of hundreds of thousands of trees killed by bark beetles during California's lengthy drought. The request was rejected by the Federal Emergency Management Agency just as the latest wildfires were beginning to spread.</p>

<p>The debate over thinning and who did what, when, is going to rage for months, if not years. But it should be noted that most of the damage so far has occurred far from the forests that are at issue. The chaparral that burned in Ramona, Alpine, Crest, the city of San Diego and the Simi Valley has never been a serious candidate for the kind of thinning contemplated in the Healthy Forest bill, nor would it be practical to include it.</p>

While watching the Yankess take game 7 last night, I had a discussion with a liberal friend who said she was voting for Howard Dean because he wasn't afraid to point fingers. And this, I think, is why Dean is good for the Democrat Party. Democrats like a finger pointer, as long as it's not pointed at themselves, and there is no bigger finger pointer than Dean. Just take a look: In fact, Deans finger pointing has become so successful that other Democrat candidates are forced to engage in it as well.

NEW YORK (AP) - Airplane maker Airbus Industrie blamed American Airlines in court papers for "improper" flight operations that it said caused Flight 587 to crash in 2001, killing 265 people. The papers, filed this month in federal court in Manhattan, said the airline "failed to operate the aircraft in the manner that was foreseeable and normal or intended by Airbus." "Nothing Airbus did or failed to do caused the accident or any harm or injury to the plaintiffs," the court papers say, referring to the victims of the crash. An Airbus A300-600 crashed on Nov. 12, 2001, minutes after...

Nasa chiefs 'repeatedly ignored' safety warnings Peter BeaumontSunday February 2, 2003The Observer Fears of a catastrophic shuttle accident were raised last summer with the White House by a former Nasa engineer who pleaded for a presidential order to halt all further shuttle flights until safety issues had been addressed. In a letter to the White House, Don Nelson, who served with Nasa for 36 years until he retired in 1999, wrote to President George W. Bush warning that his 'intervention' was necessary to 'prevent another catastrophic space shuttle accident'. During his last 11 years at Nasa, Nelson served as a...