DEATH TOLL RISES IN BURMA
WHY SO MUCH APATHY ON THE WAR?
NEW TALK ON “DREAM” OBAMA-CLINTON TICKET

Will the Burma tragedy bring world pressure on the regime to step down? Will the World Stand By?

BURMA—THE TRAGEDY ESCALATES

Yesterday: YANGON, Myanmar - Bodies floated in flood waters and survivors tried to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails, while the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar said Wednesday that the toll from the cyclone and its aftermath may reach 100,000.

BURMA REFUGEES DYING: WILL THE AID GET THERE TOO LATE?

FRENCH NEWS AGENCY AFP: LABUTTA, Myanmar (AFP) - Thousands of shell-shocked survivors of the Myanmar cyclone emerged Wednesday, desperate for food and water after trekking for days through flood waters littered with the bodies of the dead.

An AFP reporter who reached the remote southern delta hardest hit by the storm, which left more than 60,000 dead or missing, said there was virtually no food or fresh water in this ruined town blanketed by the stench of death.

The grim accounts of survivors came as the United Nations said the country’s reclusive military rulers, under pressure to let in foreign aid workers, had approved an emergency flight five days after the tragedy.

WHAT NOW IN THE BIG RACE: SHH–MCCAIN HARD AT WORK:

YAHOO: In the two weeks since Senator Obama’s loss in Pennsylvania, Senator McCain has visited the struggling steel town of Youngstown, Ohio, to promote programs to retrain workers. He has gone to Allentown, Pa., to push a gas-tax holiday and argue that the Democrats’ healthcare plans gave too much power to the government. And in Appalachian Kentucky, he has pledged to bring new jobs and technology to rural America.

THE DREAM TICKET: IS IT A DREAM?

AP reported Wednesday: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Now that Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes appear to be fading, some Democrats are talking about the possibility of Barack Obama taking Clinton on as his vice presidential running mate.

SOME REACTIONS:

Robert Creamer: After his loss in Pennsylvania, Obama faced gale force political winds. The media had turned. Hillary was on the attack. Rev. Wright threw himself into the center of the debate. But in spite of it all, he won an overwhelming victory in the tenth largest state. All that counts now is how many delegates each remaining primary contributes to achieving Barack’s magic number — the 2025 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination. Barack will most likely lose West Virginia and Kentucky, but each one will contribute more delegates to the final number he needs. Click here to read more.

Ian Welsh: Obama’s Clinton Dilemma

To be crass and point out the unpalatable truth, there isn’t a lot in it for Hillary to back Obama in a more than pro-forma “going through the motions” fashion.

ROSS DOUTHAT—THE ATLANTIC

So while the design of the system technically allows superdelegates to do what they think is best for the party (or for themselves and their constituents), the realities of life in a mass democracy make “overturning” even a narrow margin in votes and delegates well-nigh unthinkable. Which is why Hillary needed a chance at some sort of popular-vote lead (with Florida thrown in, if nothing else) to justify continuing her campaign. And it’s why, after last night’s results extinguished even that thin hope, her campaign is finally finished, whether she’s ready to admit it or not.

WHY THE APATHY ABOUT THE WAR?

In an article in London’s Guardian on 1968 Tqriq Ali who organized many protests against the Vietnam War back in the l960’s asks “ “Where has all the rage gone?” A newspaper in Pittsburgh catalogues the frustration of anti-Iraq war protesters with seeming public indifference.

“After $500 billion in spending and 4,000 military deaths, this was supposed to be an election year dominated by the war.

Both Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, support a withdrawal, while Sen. John McCain, a Republican, argues that the U.S. risks losing Iraq to terrorist groups and Iranian influence if troops leave before the country is stable.

In Washington, D.C., Congress is preparing to consider President Bush’s latest emergency funding package for the fighting, with a price tag of $108 billion.

But a worsening economy has easily overtaken Iraq as the top concern for voters, according to a New York Times/CBS poll released last week. Only 17 percent of respondents picked the war as the “one issue” they’d like to hear the candidates discuss more.

Americans still have strong feelings about the conflict: 62 percent want the next president to pull out of Iraq within a year or two of taking office, the poll said. Yet war opponents and supporters are having trouble getting the public’s — and the media’s — attention.”

Why?

Part of the problem is our media of course which flits from issue to issue and when it only pays attention to politics, pushing everything else off to the side.

The absence of the draft and the lack of follow up on returning veterans also pushes the war out of sight and out of mind.

Its much easier to sit in your living room as a passive observer/voyeur and watch the see-sawing results coming in from Indiana—to be passive couch potato with the world mediated by TV images in our home entertainment centers than become actively engaged in trying to stop a slaughter. Signing on line petitions or sending a check to MoveOn seems to have replaced oppositional activism,

Do you know what’s going on? Do you know how horrific it is? Like, did you know this: Post-War Suicides May Exceed Combat Deaths, U.S. Says

May 5 (Bloomberg) — The number of suicides among
veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the
combat death toll because of inadequate mental health
care, the U.S. government’s top psychiatric researcher
said.

Community mental health centers, hobbled by financial
limits, haven’t provided enough scientifically sound
care, especially in rural areas, said Thomas Insel,
director of the National Institute of Mental Health in
Bethesda, Maryland. He briefed reporters today at the
American Psychiatric Association.”

ONE REASON MOST OF US DON’T KNOW

RELATED NEWS: A March survey from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press discovered that just 28 percent of Americans knew the approximate number of U.S. deaths in the war.

“Obviously, I wish that the American people were more engaged in understanding what’s at stake in Iraq,” said Pete Hegseth, who served there with the 101st Airborne Division and is now executive director of Vets for Freedom. “I think it’s unfortunate that here on the homefront we’re not interested in what’s going on overseas.”

A year ago, the situation was very different. In the face of growing public angst, President Bush committed nearly 30,000 additional troops to the war. News coverage was then absorbed by a showdown between the new congressional Democratic majority and the president over war funding.

The media’s focus on the war then began a steady decline. In February, only 3 percent of print, television and online coverage was dedicated to Iraq, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, or PEJ, a Washington-based organization. That’s down from 22 percent a year before.

SO NOW WHAT? BUSH SEEKS MORE MONEY FOR IRAQ

Local Cost of War Breakdowns Based on President’s New Funding Request

As Congress considers President Bush’s request for another $178 billion in total war funding for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2008 and the first part of Fiscal Year 2009, the National Priorities Project (NPP) released today a state-level table and breakdowns of Iraq war spending costs by state, congressional district, county and town, showing the local cost of the additional request and what that amount of money could buy in domestic services for each locality instead.

Of the $178 billion war spending request, $135 billion is dedicated to the Iraq War, with close to $84 billion allocated for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2008 and almost $52 billion allocated for the start of Fiscal Year 2009.

NPP’s state-level table shows the cost of the Iraq War thus far to each state, the cost to each state of the pending funding request and what that amount could buy each state in health care, school teachers and affordable housing. NPP’s “trade-offs” page offers similar breakdowns by congressional district, county, town and state as well.

SURPRISE: BUSH EMAILS MISSING

Matt Renner | Bush Iraq Emails Not Recoverable

Truthout’s Matt Renner reports: “A late-night court filing by the White House on Monday revealed that official administration emails about the run up to the invasion of Iraq and the initial occupation may never be recovered.”