Politricks: Romney endorsed McCain. Obama’s delegate count detaild.. Hillary Clinton has now officially won the New Mexico Democratic primary.

NO FEAR: BIG ECO GUNS SAY NO RECESSION, “JUST SLUGGISH” ECONOMY
DON ROSE: COUNTING THE DELEGATES
IS THIS THE TIME FOR KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE?

Everything is going great: There will be no recession. That was the cheerful message during the Ben and Hank Show on Capitol Hill as the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Treasurry Secertary, Henry, “Call Me Hank” Paulson brought some good news to the nation. Both men, led us recall, failed to predict the current crisis. Or was it such good news? (You can bet they did not get as much coverage as Roger Clemons at the Steroids in baseball probe.) The NY Times reports:

“The outlook for the economy has worsened in recent months, and the downside risks to growth have increased,” Mr. Bernanke said, noting that the growing losses in home mortgages have dragged down the broader credit markets and shaken the broader economy.

Mr. Bernanke’s testimony put a damper on Wall Street on Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing down 1.4 percent, at 12,376.98, a loss of 175.26. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index posted a comparable decline.
P
In his own testimony, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. sounded more optimistic.

“I believe we are going to continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate,” Mr. Paulson told the banking committee, insisting that the plunge in housing and credit markets was a “correction” rather than a “crisis.”

Let me remind us of the axiom about statistics: figures lie and liars figure. Here’s a comment from the Think Progress website”

The U.S. economy is faltering. Family debt is on the rise, benefits are disappearing, the deficit is skyrocketing, and the mortgage crisis has worsened. Conservatives have attempted to deflect attention from the crisis, by blaming the media’s negative coverage and insisting the United States is not headed toward a recession, despite what economists are predicting.

The Bush administration’s latest move is to simply hide the data. Forbes has awarded EconomicIndicators.gov one of its “Best of the Web” awards. As Forbes explains, the government site provides an invaluable service to the public for accessing U.S. economic data:

This site is maintained by the Economics and Statistics Administration and combines data collected by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, like GDP and net imports and exports, and the Census Bureau, like retail sales and durable goods shipments. The site simply links to the relevant department’s Web site. This might not seem like a big deal, but doing it yourself–say, trying to find retail sales data on the Census Bureau’s site–is such an exercise in futility that it will convince you why this portal is necessary.

Yet the Bush administration has decided to shut down this site because of “budgetary constraints,” effective March .

iTulip: HOW MAD MAD MONEY’S JIM CRAMER?

WASHINGTON POST: ADMIN CAN’T KEEP UP WITH ECONOMY

For months, the government has been trying to get in front of the problems facing the economy, most recently with the stimulus bill President Bush signed yesterday.

POTENTIAL FOR GLOBAL FINANCIAL COLLAPSE IS FINALLY HITTING THE MAINSTREAM

SPITZER: GVERNMENT HELPED PREDATORY LENDERS

COUNTING DELEGATES IN THE OBSERVER (CHICAGO)

Don Rose reports Obama almost has it,

The fat lady is about to begin her aria.
The Democratic nomination is all about the delegates, so here are the numbers prior to the Wisconsin primary and Hawaii caucus on Tuesday Feb. 19:
Barack Obama has 1,116 pledged delegates-won in primaries and caucuses; Hillary Clinton has 989, with 2025 needed for nomination. A handful is pledged to others, such as John Edwards.
There are 18 more states and territories to yet to vote, with a total of 1,078 delegates to be selected.
Of these, three big ones-Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania with a total of 492 delegates-are believed to be Clinton’s “firewall.” Let’s assume she carries these strongly with an average of 56 percent and thus gains 276 more delegates to Obama’s 216. (If there are any surprises here they will be to Obama’s benefit as his momentum can seriously reduce the spread.)
That leaves a total of 586 delegates in states where Obama is strongly favored, such as Wisconsin, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont and North Carolina. He could win these almost as big as the recent blowouts in the Chesapeake area. Puerto Rico’s might be tipped to Clinton while the rest are at least even-but likely to go Obama. Let’s say, conservatively, he gets 53 percent of the remaining 15.
He would thus gain 311 more delegates bringing his total to 1,643 and hers to 1,540. He would lead her by almost as many as he does at this writing, give or take a few.
Then there are the 795 superdelegates, who can vote for whomever. According to the Associated Press, Obama has 163 committed to him; Clinton has 242 committed to her, though their commitments are not binding. That still leaves him ahead in total delegates with 1,806 to 1782. (This with his count underestimated and hers overestimated for the sake of caution.)
He also leads her now in the popular vote by nearly 690,000-or about 400,000 even if you include the disputed totals from Florida, which are not to be officially counted because of Democratic Party rules. (She is trying desperately to change the rules and permit the delegates she won in Florida to be counted.)
Obama is also likely to be leading her by a goodly margin in the popular vote when all the primaries are done.

SAAB LOFTEN: THE DEVIL AND THE DNC

THE AFFLICTIONS OF AFGHANISTAN

KABUL, 14 February (IRIN) - Over 170,000 patients with pneumonia and other acute respiratory infections have been diagnosed and treated at health centres across Afghanistan in the past month, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has reported.

At least 100 pneumonia patients, most of them children, died in the same period On arrival in snow-covered Shar-e-Buzorg District of Badakhshan the team was “soon overwhelmed by people seeking help while some were lying in the snow”, according to Sophia Craig, head of Merlin in Afghanistan.

NYT: The Pentagon plans to shoot down a disabled 5,000-pound spy satellite before it enters the atmosphere in early March, a Pentagon official said.

NYT: House Cites 2 Bush Aides for Contempt

The resolution cites Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, and Joshua B. Bolten, the president’s chief of staff, for refusing to testify about the firing of federal officials.

ANOTHER DAY IN AMERICA, ANOTHER SHOOTING

CNN: — A shooting at Northern Illinois University has left at leasts six dead. two people wounded, reports say. Gunman reportedly is dead.

HEZBOLLAH THREATENS RETALIATON

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — The chief of Hezbollah threatened Thursday to retaliate against Israeli targets after accusing the Jewish state of killing the militant Imad Mughniyeh in Syria.

Hassan Nasrallah addressed supporters of the Lebanese Islamic militant group in a videotaped eulogy broadcast on a giant screen at the Beirut funeral for Mughniyeh, who was accused of masterminding dramatic attacks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s.

“You have killed Hajj Imad outside the natural battlefield,” Nasrallah said in remarks directed at Israel. Hezbollah has long contended it only fights Israel within Lebanon and along their common border.

“You have crossed the borders,” Nasrallah said. “With this murder, its timing, location and method — Zionists, if you want this kind of open war, let the whole world listen: Let this war be open.”