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Hillary Clinton unveiled a new radio ad in Pennsylvania today attacking Barack Obama for what her campaign calls "misleading television ads claiming he doesn't take money from oil companies." Obama is referring to his refusal to accept money from corporate PACs, which he argues are a corrupting force in Washington. But he does take money from oil company employees, and that's what Clinton is using to accuse him of hypocrisy. Her ad also hits Obama for voting for the Bush administration's energy bill in 2005.

Clinton is "the one who will make the oil companies pay to set up a new strategic energy fund that will cut our dependence on foreign oil, invest in new clean energy, and create five million new jobs," her ad says. "It's time for a president who takes on the oil companies in real life, not just on TV." In real life, though, it is Clinton who has taken more money from oil and gas company employees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (see below). And it is Clinton who accepts PAC funds from energy corporations.

Source: Boston Globe

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stunned voters at a town hall meeting in Erie, Pennsylvania today by telling them that she was prepared to stay in the nomination fight for an additional century. "How much longer will I stay in the race?" she responded to a voter's question. "Fifty years? How about one hundred years?" When asked to clarify, Sen. Clinton replied, "I'll stay in this race for a thousand years. A million years. A billion years."

Sen. Clinton added that she was refusing to announce an exit strategy from the race because "that would send the wrong message to the enemy." The New York senator's comments echoed a strategy outlined in a recently leaked internal campaign memo, which calls for her to remain in the race long after the Democratic National Convention, even if Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) becomes the party's official nominee.

According to the memo, Sen. Clinton plans to follow Sen. Obama's campaign bus around in a Chevy Suburban in the hopes of running it off the road. "If necessary, we will sideswipe or ram into his bus," the memo said. "Just really mess him up." For her part, Sen. Clinton remained resolute at the town hall meeting, responding to a question about the recent surge in negative attacks her campaign has lobbed in Sen. Obama's direction: "What can I tell you? The surge is working."

Source: The Huffington Post

U.S. consumers' confidence weakened to the lowest in 16 years in March, pointing to recession, as worries over fading job prospects and rising inflation clouded the outlook, a survey showed on Friday. The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its final index of confidence fell to 69.5 in March -- its lowest since February 1992, when it was at 68.8 -- from the previous month's reading of 70.8. Economists polled by Reuters expected a reading of 70.0 in the index of confidence, which the preliminary report had said was at 70.5 in early March. The index of consumer expectations fell to 60.1, its lowest since January 1992, when it was at 59.1. In February this year it was at 62.4.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said in a release that "it is now nearly unanimous among consumers that the economy has already entered a recession." "Consumer confidence slipped due to growing concerns about weakening prospects for the economy as well as anticipated increases in unemployment and inflation during the year ahead," the statement said. The report showed the final reading on one-year inflation expectations jumped to 4.3 percent in March from 3.6 percent in February. That was the highest final reading since October 2005, when gasoline prices were soaring in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but was down from the preliminary March reading of 4.5 percent.

The index of consumers' economic outlook for the next 12 months fell to 46 -- the lowest since a similar reading in January 1991 -- from 54 in February. Financial markets showed little reaction to the data. Stocks remained higher on the day, mainly benefiting from an earlier boost due to benign inflation data in the U.S. personal income report. The dollar was up versus the yen and the euro. Government bonds, which usually benefit from weak economic data, were mixed.

Source: Reuters

The European Union has filed yet another lawsuit against Microsoft for being a supposed monopoly. First, it was for including Windows Media Player with the operating system, then for the server operating system line for being "too efficient" with its memory utilization, and now, for including a web browser with the operating system. To me, it seems more like the European Union wants to just shut down Microsoft than anything else. The lawsuits that they are filing are just down-right ridiculous.

First, there was the N-editions of Windows XP, and now Vista, that were released to comply with the first ruling on Windows Media player. The odd thing is, that despite the ruling about it being unfair to other companies, the N-editions have seen very few sales in Europe the last I knew of, and most people are continuing to purchase the original versions that have Windows Media Player bundle in with them. I guess there is a real worry about preventing competition on the part of the European consumers. Read more »