OBAMA CAMPAIGN: What’s Hillary Clinton hiding?

UPDATE: Hmm. That story seems to have disappeared from CNN’s Political Ticker. Here’s the Memeorandum link. And here’s a Greg Sargent story.

COL. JEFF COOPER vs. the mindset of “the new feminized majority.” I’m betting on Cooper, even though he’s dead. Am I too optimistic?

LIKE MOST JOURNALISTS, the folks at The Atlantic wouldn’t stereotype black people or gays the way they stereotype members of the military.

HMM: Rep. Ellison: Clinton Trying To Reap Benefit Of Obama-Muslim Smear. “I think that Barack Obama’ s Democratic opponents will say and do anything to try and win.” Well, yes.

But why does Ellison think calling someone a Muslim is a “smear”? If somebody called me a Muslim, I wouldn’t feel smeared, any more than if someone called me Jewish.

UPDATE: Running with the story at Protein Wisdom.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ali Eteraz: “Muslim is not a smear.”

IRISH TERRORISM goes Islamic.

A SUCCESSFUL SURGE: “Hillary was eight points behind Obama in the March 1 Gallup national daily tracking poll. In the March 4 poll she is four points ahead.” It wasn’t so much additional resources as a change in tactics that made the difference . . . .

BLOGGING THE REZKO TRIAL, at the Chicago Tribune.

EXTREME MORTMAN: Hillary’s right.

DAVID WEIGEL: “Clinton truly might have won the Texas primary on the backs of Rush Limbaugh listeners.”

STENY HOYER didn’t get the memo.

IN PRAISE OF TAX HAVENS: “Tax havens rile communitarians precisely because they are a standing reproach to the looters who use democratic mandates to justify their depredations. They act as a brake on the power of governments with a temporary majority in a democratic assembly every bit as powerful as other checks and balances such as independent courts and upper chambers.”

DAN RIEHL: “Where has the Audacity of Hope gone?”

Plus, How Obama blew it.

FIGHTING THE NANNY STATE A BIT AT A TIME: The Picador Project.

UH OH: Did Rezko pay big-bucks bribe for Iraqi contract? (Via NewsAlert).

UPDATE: “Hide the bone”? That sounds kinda . . . dirty.

SEPARATE BUT EQUAL AT HARVARD: “In the old days, Harvard would have laughed if some Catholic or evangelical mother urged ‘girls-only’ campus workouts in the name of modesty. Today, Harvard happily implements Sharia swim times in the name of Mohammed.”

The Saudis think they’re buying Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, etc. Actually they’re just accelerating their marginalization. Meanwhile, GWU Prof. John Banzhaf emails that this is almost certainly illegal:

In 1998 a female weight lifter in Boston was awarded $5000 when she was denied admission to a male-only section of a gym which had a separate gym area for women. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination made the ruling despite arguments that separate weight-lifting areas were necessary to prevent “sexual harassment,” and a finding that it did in fact tend to reduce sexual harassment. [Hassan and DiCenso v. City of Boston, et al., 20 MDLR 83]

Just a year earlier Superior Court Judge Burnes ruled that a “women only” health club violates Massachusetts’ public accommodation statute by refusing to admit men, and could not justify its policy on privacy grounds. [Foster v. Back Bay Spas, d/b/a/ Healthworks Fitness Center, Suffolk Superior Court No. 96-7060 (1997).]

Although the legislature responded by exempting some health clubs which are established solely for use by one gender, that exemption does not appear to apply here because the gym is used by both genders together during most times of the day, and because Harvard receives public funds.

I had wondered about that very thing myself. “Given Harvard’s stellar law school, it’s surprising that it would take this action in the face of such clear precedent,” says Banzhaf. “It would be even more surprising if one or more male students didn’t take them to court over such a clear violation as my law students have so often.”

UPDATE: Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and The University of Texas.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Eugene Volokh thinks that Banzhaf may be wrong.

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Amy Winehouse is suffering from impetigo.

MORE TINY, CHEAP COMPUTERS: The Fit PC and the MicroClient Jr. I think we’re seeing a trend.

BEN SMITH: Attacking Obama works.

UPDATE: Exit Poll: Clinton Holds Whites in Ohio.

MICKEY KAUS: “If the superdelegates all voted with the winner of their state, would Hillary get the nomination? I think maybe. That would be one way she might colorably claim a superdelegate decision in her favor would vindicate democracy.”

PLAYING HUMAN TETRIS, with people as pieces. Hey, at least it’s not “Minesweeper.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL: “The perception that the U.S. troop surge in Iraq has succeeded is changing some public views of the war, potentially blunting Democrats’ political edge on the issue.”

YEAH, I SAW McCain’s speech last night. It was good.

MORE ON Berkeley, Stanford, and Saudi Arabia.

IN THE MAIL: Parag Khanna’s The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order. The blurb says it’s “in the tradition of Thomas Friedman and Samuel Huntington.” The book’s claim that “globalization is the main battlefield of geopolitics” certainly raises more questions about Obama and Hillary’s descent into protectionism.

A CALL FOR OBAMA to bow out.