the genius of the daily show
Think Progress has more on Clarke and McClellan:
McClellan apologizes to Richard Clarke for smearing him as press secretary.
And the Talent Show has photos of bush's play-date with the marines:
One person's plea for sanity and the continuation of the human race in an insane world.
McCain falsely claims Mosul is ‘quiet.’
Today at a townhall meeting in Wisconsin, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) tried to claim that President Bush’s policies in Iraq are “succeeding,” by pointing to the “quiet” in Mosul and other cities:
So I can tell you that it is succeeding. I can look you in the eye and tell you it’s succeeding. We have drawn down to pre-surge levels. Basra, Mosul and now Sadr city are quiet and it’s long and it’s hard and it’s tough and there will be setbacks.
Mosul, however, is not quiet. In fact, today AP reported, “Another suicide bomber driving a police vehicle struck Iraqi commandos earlier Thursday in Mosul, killing three of them and wounding nine other people, according to battalion commander Capt. Aziz Latif.”
CNN’s Yellin: Network executives killed critical White House stories before Iraq war.
Yesterday, CNN’s Jessica Yellin, who previously covered the White House for ABC News, agreed with Scott McClellan’s assessment that the media were “too deferential to the White House” before the Iraq war. Yellin said news executives pushed her not to do hard-hitting pieces on the Bush administration:
The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president’s high approval ratings. And my own experience at the White House was that the higher the president’s approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives…to put on positive stories about the president.
“[T]hey would edit my pieces,” Yellin said. “They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical, and try to put on pieces that were more positive.”
Exclusive: McClellan whacks Bush, White House
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence.Among the most explosive revelations in the 341-page book, titled “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95):
• McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.
• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.
• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”
• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.
• McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.
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nstead, McClellan’s tone is often harsh. He writes, for example, that after Hurricane Katrina, the White House “spent most of the first week in a state of denial,” and he blames Rove for suggesting the photo of the president comfortably observing the disaster during an Air Force One flyover. McClellan says he and counselor to the president Dan Bartlett had opposed the idea and thought it had been scrapped.
But he writes that he later was told that “Karl was convinced we needed to do it — and the president agreed.”
“One of the worst disasters in our nation’s history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush’s presidency. Katrina and the botched federal response to it would largely come to define Bush’s second term,” he writes. “And the perception of this catastrophe was made worse by previous decisions President Bush had made, including, first and foremost, the failure to be open and forthright on Iraq and rushing to war with inadequate planning and preparation for its aftermath.”
---Among other notable passages:
• Steve Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, said about the erroneous assertion about Saddam Hussein seeking uranium, included in the State of the Union address of 2003: “Signing off on these facts is my responsibility. … And in this case, I blew it. I think the only solution is for me to resign.” The offer “was rejected almost out of hand by others present,” McClellan writes.
• Bush was “clearly irritated, … steamed,” when McClellan informed him that chief economic adviser Larry Lindsey had told The Wall Street Journal that a possible war in Iraq could cost from $100 billion to $200 billion: “‘It’s unacceptable,’ Bush continued, his voice rising. ‘He shouldn’t be talking about that.’”
• “As press secretary, I spent countless hours defending the administration from the podium in the White House briefing room. Although the things I said then were sincere, I have since come to realize that some of them were badly misguided.”
• “History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided: that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder. No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact. What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.”
• McClellan describes his preparation for briefing reporters during the Plame frenzy: “I could feel the adrenaline flowing as I gave the go-ahead for Josh Deckard, one of my hard-working, underpaid press office staff, … to give the two-minute warning so the networks could prepare to switch to live coverage the moment I stepped into the briefing room.”
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‘Everybody hates George Bush.’Via Atrios, the Dallas Morning News reports that “even Texas Republicans such as Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions are distancing themselves from President Bush”:
The president, Mr. Sessions told a group of eighth-graders visiting the Capitol last week from Akiba Academy in Dallas, “is doing everything he thinks is correct,” and yet “the American people are fed up…. we’ve lost the House and Senate, and everybody hates George Bush.”
(Think Progress)
Citing desire for closed press, McCain cancels low-selling fundraising event.The McCain campaign has scaled back two fundraisers this week involving President Bush, claiming a policy of “closed press” for fundraising events:
The Arizona event, which was to be at the Phoenix Convention Center, was the first time Bush was to have appeared with McCain since their White House meeting in March.
A McCain aide said: “The McCain campaign has a policy that fundraising events are closed press. In keeping with that policy, the campaign requested the event be moved to a private home.”
Press concerns may have nothing to do with it. On Friday, the Phoenix Business Journal reported that the “event was not selling enough tickets to fill the Convention Center space, and that there were concerns about more anti-war protesters showing up outside the venue than attending the fundraiser inside.”
(Think Progress)
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The best part is that this is in Arizona - where McCain is the Senator!
McCain rejects Parsley’s endorsement.In February, Ohio televangelist Rev. Rod Parsley endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). McCain called Parsley — who once said Allah was a “demon spirit” — his “spiritual guide.” In an interview with the AP today, McCain finally said that he rejected Parsley’s support:
I believe there is no place for that kind of dialogue in America, and I believe that even though he endorsed me, and I didn’t endorse him, the fact is that I repudiate such talk, and I reject his endorsement.
(Think Progress)
Also from TP:
McCain rejects Hagee’s endorsement.Gen. David Petraeus said he expects to recommend additional cuts in U.S. troop levels in Iraq this fall. The WSJ states that the move “could boost the electoral prospects” of John McCain “if voters perceive the war is winding down.”
Pilots land on a wing and a prayer
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Two New Zealand pilots whose plane ran out of fuel landed on a wing and a prayer, literally, local media reported on Wednesday.
Grant Stubbs and Owen Wilson from Blenheim, at the top of the South Island about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Wellington, were in a microlight plane when the engine cut out.
"When you're in a microlight if you crash, you usually die. I turned to O B (Wilson) and he said we had no fuel," Stubbs told the Marlborough Express newspaper.
"I asked what we should do. He said: 'You just pray Grant.'"
Stubbs said he prayed to God to get them over a ridge and they finally landed in a small grassy area, and beside a 20 foot high sign saying "Jesus is Lord -- The Bible."
Obama leads McCain in November match: Reuters poll
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has opened an 8-point national lead on Republican John McCain as the U.S. presidential rivals turn their focus to a general election race, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.
Obama, who was tied with McCain in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup last month, moved to a 48 percent to 40 percent lead over the Arizona senator in May as he took command of his grueling Democratic presidential duel with rival Hillary Clinton.
The Illinois senator has not yet secured the Democratic presidential nomination to run against McCain in November.
The poll also found Obama expanded his lead over Clinton in the Democratic race to 26 percentage points, doubling his advantage from mid-April as Democrats begin to coalesce around Obama and prepare for the general election battle with McCain.
McCain’s New Iran Gaffe: If The ‘Average American’ Thinks Ahmadinejad Is In Control Of Iran, Then So Do I
Yesterday, the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss noted that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) often incorrectly portrays Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as if Ahmadinejad has a significant role in formulating Iranian foreign policy. He doesn’t. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iran’s National Security Council set Iran’s foreign policy.
Yesterday, Time’s Joe Klein pressed McCain on the issue, but McCain refused to concede he was wrong, saying he disagreed that Khamenei runs Iranian policy behind the scenes. McCain added that because the “average American” thinks Ahmadinejad is Iran’s leader, that’s good enough for him:
MCCAIN: I mean, the fact is [Ahmadinejad’s] the acknowledged leader of that country and you may disagree, but that’s a uh, that’s your right to do so, but I think if you asked any average American who the leader of Iran is, I think they’d know.
But as the National Security Network’s Ilan Goldenberg notes, “if the ‘average American’ thinks that Ahmadinejad is the ultimate leader of Iran” it would be McCain’s job as president “to dissuade them of this notion - not reinforce it.”
Duss adds, “Focusing on the rants of Iran’s mercurial president enables McCain and other war hawks to create the impression that Iran is an implacable enemy, with whom negotiation would be pointless.”
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) is “not expected back at work in the Senate this week” as doctors continue to search for the cause of a weekend seizure that put him in the hospital. Kennedy’s office says that “he’s doing well and anxious to get back to work,” but doctors are still evaluating him and his staff expects “the senator to remain in the hospital for a couple of days.”
Update from TP:
Sen. Kennedy diagnosed with a brain tumor.
damn....
“Just a few years after the Republican Party launched a highly publicized diversity effort, the GOP is heading into the 2008 election without a single minority candidate with a plausible chance of winning a campaign for the House, the Senate or governor,” notes the Politico. This dry spell is the longest since the 1980s.
McCain’s campaign manager’s name still on lobbying firm’s letterhead.
Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign has recently begun purging itself of lobbyists. Yesterday, a fifth aide resigned because of lobbying ties. Yet McCain is still refusing to fire certain top aides, like campaign manager Rick Davis, who is a former lobbyist. Charlie Black, another former lobbyist who is McCain’s senior adviser, told reporters today that “Rick Davis and nobody else at his firm either has been a registered lobbyist in five years.” CNN’s Dana Bash reports today, however, that Davis’s old firm “can still use his name to recruit business since it’s still on the letterhead.”
115: The number of lobbyists John McCain has either working for him or raising money for him. So far, three of them have resigned. The remaining lobbyists “represent all kinds of industries,” foreign regimes, and are some of McCain’s closest advisers.
---White House: Pentagon Propaganda Program Similar To Writing For A ‘Liberal Blog’
Stanzel also ignored the fact that the military analysts often had “ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess.” A Fox analyst, for example, was “seeking contracts worth tens of millions” of dollars while giving on-air assessments of the Iraq war. Liberal bloggers, on the other hand, generally do not have multi-million dollar government contracts at stake in their writing.
McCain's national finance co-chair resigns
WASHINGTON - John McCain's national finance co-chairman has stepped down, the latest casualty of a presidential campaign eager to cauterize damage caused by its ties to lobbyists.
Former Texas Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler, one of McCain's key fundraisers, resigned in the wake of a new McCain policy on conflicts of interest that required campaign volunteers to disclose their lobbying connections"Mr. Loeffler has resigned from his position with the campaign," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said Sunday.
Loeffler, who runs the lobbying shop The Loeffler Group, is the highest profile departure from McCain's inner circle since a summer 2007 shake-up cost McCain his campaign manager and chief strategist.
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More from Think Progress:
McCain’s finance co-chair resigns after conflict-of-interest allegations.
US: 500 youths detained in Iraq; 10 in Afghanistan
NEW YORK - The U.S. military is holding about 500 juveniles suspected of being "unlawful enemy combatants" in detention centers in Iraq and has about 10 detained in Afghanistan, the United States has told the United Nations.
A total of 2,500 youths under the age of 18 have been detained, almost all in Iraq, for periods up to a year or more in President Bush's anti-terrorism campaign since 2002, the United States reported last week to the U.N.'s Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Civil liberties groups such as the International Justice Network and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) denounced the detentions as abhorrent, and a violation of U.S. treaty obligations.
McCain attacks Obama over Iran comments
CHICAGO - Republican John McCain accused Democrat Barack Obama of inexperience and reckless judgment for saying Iran does not pose the same serious threat to the United States as the Soviet Union did in its day.
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He was referring to comments Obama made Sunday in Pendleton, Ore.: "Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, `We're going to wipe you off the planet.'"
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Responding to McCain, Obama told a town hall rally later Monday in Billings, Mont., "Let me be absolutely clear: Iran is a grave threat." But the Soviet Union posed an added threat, he said. "The Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons, and Iran doesn't have one."Obama said the threat from Iraq had grown as a result of the U.S. war in Iraq. "Iran is the biggest single beneficiary of the war in Iraq," he said. "John McCain wants to double down that failed policy." If McCain is elected, Obama said, "We'll keep talking tough in Washington, while countries like Iran ignore our tough talk."
The alternative, Obama said, is to follow the example of Presidents Kennedy and Reagan who negotiated with the Soviet Union. Obama called for "tough, disciplined and direct diplomacy. That's what Kennedy did; that's what Reagan did."
Huckabee quips about gun aimed at Obama
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Republican Mike Huckabee responded to an offstage noise during his speech to the National Rifle Association by suggesting it was Barack Obama diving to the floor because someone had aimed a gun at him.
McCain: Bush ‘Exactly Right’ On ‘Appeasement’ Remark,Praises Reagan’s Handling Of Iran Hostage Crisis
Referring to President Bush’s notorious comments, MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan asked this morning: Will Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “endorse this statement about Barack Obama that in effect he is an appeaser?” Today, McCain confirmed that he would.
The New York Times reports that McCain “wholeheartedly endorsed Mr. Bush’s veiled rebuke” at Obama. Talking to reporters this morning, McCain said:
Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain. I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.
McCain elaborated on his campaign bus today, claiming diplomatic talks are a “serious error.”
McCain’s praise of Ronald Reagan is wholly misplaced. To recap, during the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s, hostages were not released because of Iran’s fear of Reagan, as McCain suggested.
In reality, Iran released them after Reagan administration officials infamously sold arms to the country, which were transfered to Ayatollah Khomeini. As a result, 11 Reagan officials were convicted of crimes.
Furthermore, Reagan did not have to “negotiate” with Iran during the hostage crisis of the 1970s because he wasn’t involved in it. The extensive negotiations with Iran were done before his presidency. In fact, Reagan’s inauguration occurred only minutes before the hostages were released.
McCain should take note of what Reagan said in 1981: “Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will.”
Democrats accuse McCain of hypocrisy on Hamas
WASHINGTON - Democrats accused Sen. John McCain Friday of hypocrisy on the question of whether the United States should negotiate with terrorists and dictators, saying the certain Republican nominee had previously been willing to negotiate with the militant Palestinian group Hamas.
Saudis see no reason to raise oil production now
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabian leaders made clear Friday they see no reason to increase oil production until their customers demand it, apparently rebuffing President Bush amid soaring U.S. gasoline prices.
Republicans declare war on Michelle Obama, but they think Cindy McCain being a drug addict who stole drugs is off-limits?
Yes, she really did. Are you people stupid or something?
Reporter calls McCain’s ‘2013′ speech a ‘magic carpet ride.’
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) delivered a speech today in which he provided his vision of what the world might look like by the year 2013 if he is elected president. In 2013, McCain claimed, “the Iraq War has been won,” “Iraq is a functioning democracy,” a “newly formed League of Democracies” has gathered to “to stop the genocide” in Sudan, and the U.S. “has experienced several years of robust economic growth.” One reporter told McCain that his speech sounded more like “a magic carpet ride.” Taking issue with that characterization, McCain said, “I don’t think it has anything to do with fantasy.”
Bush administration has reportedly cut off Chalabi.
NBC News reports “that as of this week American military and civilian officials have cut off all contact with controversial Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi” due to “‘unauthorized’ contacts with Iran’s government, an allegation Chalabi denies.” Chalabi has been a darling of the administration’s neocons, drumming up reports of WMDs during the lead-up to the Iraq war and, more recently, promoting the surge. As recently as October, administration officials were promoting Chalabi as “a central figure in the latest U.S. strategy” and “an important part of the process” in Iraq.
McCain claims that that eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax would save “more than 25 million middle-class families more than $2,000 every year.” “But McCain’s ‘middle class’ includes families making up to $200,000 per year,” according to Factcheck.org. “Those earning more money will see the lion’s share of the savings. McCain also leaves out the fact that the proposal could cost as much as $1.6 trillion over 10 years.”
Edwards endorsement pays off for Obama
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama collected the support of four of John Edwards' Democratic National Convention delegates on Thursday, then gained the backing of a West Coast congressman and a large labor union as he marched steadily toward the party's presidential nomination.
The fresh support brought Obama's overall delegate total to 1,892, compared to 1,718 for his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. It takes 2,026 to clinch the nomination at the party convention in Denver this summer.
California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban
SAN FRANCISCO - The California Supreme Court has overturned a gay marriage ban in a ruling that would make the nation's largest state the second one to allow gay and lesbian weddings.
Obama says Bush falsely accuses him of appeasement
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused President Bush on Thursday of launching a "false political attack" with a comment about appeasing terrorists and radicals.
The Illinois senator interpreted the remark as a slam against him but the White House denied that Bush's words were in any way directed at Obama, who has said as president he would be willing to personally meet with Iran's leaders and those of other regimes the United States has deemed rogue.
In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.
"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
Obama responded with a statement, seizing on Bush's remarks even as it was unclear to whom the president was referring.
"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack," Obama said in the statement his aides distributed. "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."
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Lots more from Think Progress:
In Speech Before Israeli Parliament, Bush Compares Democrats To Nazi-Appeasers
Lieberman On Bush Comparing Democrats To Nazi-Appeasers: ‘The President Got It Exactly Right’
Perino: Bush’s Comments Were Not ‘Aimed’ At Obama, But Do ‘Include’ Him
Unclear on the concept
Just what we need — another evangelical Christian theme park, this one in the planning stages in Tennessee. This one has one particular instance of blinkered blindness, though, that I thought was rather funny.
The Park is planned as an "edutainment" experience, combining education and entertainment. The Park is without a particular religious ideology or theology and does not promote specific religious beliefs of any kind; instead, it is designed to bring to life history of Biblical times and stories from the Holy Bible.
If you read the rest, you'll learn that this thing is taking fundamentalist, literalist reading of the Christian bible entirely for granted…how this translates into an absence of theology or specific religious beliefs is hard to understand, unless these people are so oblivious to the narrow theological domain of their beliefs that they are unable to imagine its grossly sectarian nature. Or unless they're really stupid.
What were the “thoughtful” remarks of Malkin and O’Reilly on detention policy? In the Malkin column, she said that a “far greater threat” than Guantanamo to America is the “unseriousness and hypocrisy of the terrorist-abetting left.” O’Reilly said there were only “minor cases of abuse” there. In fact, when news broke of suicides at the prison, Malkin’s reaction was “boo-freaking hoo.”
In an interview yesterday, President Bush said he wasn’t “misled” into invading Iraq. “You know, ‘mislead’ is a strong word; it almost connotes some kind of intentional — I don’t think so. … Intelligence communities all across the world shared the same assessment. And so I was disappointed to see how flawed our intelligence was,” Bush said. “Do I think somebody lied to me? No, I don’t.”
By an eight-point margin, Democrat Travis Childers won a GOP-held House seat in northern Mississippi yesterday, “leaving the once-dominant House Republicans reeling from their third special-election defeat of the spring.” The seat had been held by Republicans since 1995; in 2004, Bush won the district with 62 percent of the vote.
Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens
VATICAN CITY - Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican's chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.
The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.
"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation."
In the interview by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes said that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom, he said.
The interview, headlined "The extraterrestrial is my brother," covered a variety of topics including the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and science, and the theological implications of the existence of alien life.
Funes said science, especially astronomy, does not contradict religion, touching on a theme of Pope Benedict XVI, who has made exploring the relationship between faith and reason a key aspect of his papacy.
The Bible "is not a science book," Funes said, adding that he believes the Big Bang theory is the most "reasonable" explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter.
But he said he continues to believe that "God is the creator of the universe and that we are not the result of chance."
Funes urged the church and the scientific community to leave behind divisions caused by Galileo's persecution 400 years ago, saying the incident has "caused wounds."
In 1633 the astronomer was tried as a heretic and forced to recant his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the
center of the universe."The church has somehow recognized its mistakes," he said. "Maybe it could have done it better, but now it's time to heal those wounds and this can be done through calm dialogue and collaboration."
Pope John Paul declared in 1992 that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."
The Vatican Observatory has been at the forefront of efforts to bridge the gap between religion and science.
Its scientist-clerics have generated top-notch research and its meteorite collection is considered one of the world's best.
The observatory, founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, is based in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside town in the hills outside Rome where the pope has a summer residence. It also conducts research at an observatory at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.
Clinton's W.Va. victory does little to slow Obama
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. - Hours after being routed by Hillary Rodham Clinton in West Virginia, Barack Obama picked up two more superdelegates, offering fresh recognition from Democratic leaders of his inevitable nomination.
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His campaign announced his pickup Wednesday of two superdelegates: Rep. Peter Visclosky of Indiana and Democrats Abroad chair Christine Schon Marques.Also endorsing Obama were three former Securities and Exchange Commission chairmen — William Donaldson, David Ruder, and Arthur Levitt Jr., who was appointed by former President Clinton. The campaign released a joint statement by the former SEC chiefs, well as former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, that praised Obama's "positive leadership and judgment" on economic issues.
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Nearly a quarter of the voters in West Virginia's primary were 60 or older, and a similar share had no education beyond high school, exit polls indicated. More than half were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less, and the former first lady was winning nearly 70 percent of their votes.Clinton won 20 of the 28 delegates at stake in West Virginia and Obama won eight.
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Obama has picked up about 30 superdelegates in the last week, altogether a bigger prize than West Virginia offered either candidate in the lopsided primary.
In order to “counter the Democratic push for change,” House Republicans have adopted a new message: “The Change You Deserve.” But “the change you deserve” is also the advertising slogan of Effexor XR, a drug used to treat depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder in adults.
(Think Progress)
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And if the American public votes repug again this year, they will deserve what they get...
Unfortunately, those of us who are sane enough to want real change will suffer, as well - as will the world...
More from Crooks and Liars, including the absurd repug talking point that though the repugs have been in charge for the last 8 years, the mess we're in is the Democrats' fault, so we should all vote repug! Wow!
A House Judiciary Committee deadline passed yesterday “with former White House adviser Karl Rove standing by his refusal to testify about allegations that he pushed the Justice Department to prosecute former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.” Rove instead sent a letter offering to respond to questions in writing, rather than testify publicly under oath.
Pentagon document dump: E-mailer suggested ’softball’interview with top general.
Last month, the Pentagon released an extensive document dump with details on its military analyst propaganda program. TPM Muckraker notes that in a 2006 e-mail, someone (with a redacted name) e-mailed Pentagon officials stating that Jed Babbin, a participant in the analyst program, would be guest hosting for right-wing radio talker Michael Medved. Babbin requested an interview with Gen. George Casey, then top commander in Iraq. Pitching the request to interview Casey to the Pentagon officials, the e-mailer said: “this would be a softball interview and the show is 8th or 9th in the nation.” Allison Barber, a Public Affairs official at the Pentagon, responded:
Thanks for sending this.
Just fyi, probably wouldn’t put “softball” interview in writing. If that got out it would compromise jed and general casey.
The e-mailer wrote back: “check, check.”
GOP congressman bucks Bush on signing statements.
President Bush has issued an “unprecedented number” of signing statements during his tenure. Today, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) introduced “the Presidential Signing Statements Act” in an effort to provide some oversight of these practices. “To enable a more complete public understanding of our nation’s laws, the U.S. Congress should also be able to call for the executive’s explanation of the meaning and justification for a presidential signing statement,” Jones said. The Washington Post’s Ben Pershing notes that Jones’s bill “might provide House Democrats with nice fodder for more public excoriation of the Bush administration’s alleged hubris and secrecy.”
Play of the Day: McCain faces Boeing blowback
PORTLAND, Ore. - John McCain faced turbulence even before he flew up the Pacific coast from Oregon to Washington on Tuesday.
A crowd of Washington Democrats planned to greet the Republican presidential contender when he landed in Seattle, not just to challenge his policy positions but his support for the local economy.
McCain, you see, was flying into Boeing Field on a Boeing 737 after having worked earlier in this decade to kill a deal to lease Boeing 767 jets to the Air Force for use as refueling aircraft. Two people went to jail and Boeing's then-chief executive resigned over the controversial deal, subsequently shelved.
Earlier this year, the Air Force decided to award a renewed $35 billion tanker contract not to Boeing, but the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. — parent company of Boeing rival Airbus — and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp.
Some of McCain's advisers lobbied for EADS, but the Arizona senator and former Navy pilot denied interceding on their behalf and defended his oversight of the tanker contract.
"I had nothing to do with the contract, except to insist in writing, on several occasions, as this process went forward, that it be fair and open and transparent. That was my involvement in it," he said in mid-March.
US flight arrives, Bush condemns Myanmar junta
YANGON (AFP) - The United States sent its first aid flight to Myanmar on Monday but President George W. Bush denounced the nation's military rulers over their slow response to the devastating cyclone.
"Either they are isolated or callous," Bush told CBS News radio in an interview. "There's no telling how many people have lost their lives as a result of the slow response."
He said the "world ought to be angry and condemn" the junta, which has been widely condemned for stalling the disaster relief effort.
Ex-State officials allege corruption in Iraq
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according to two former State Department employees.
Harwood: McCain ‘Has Benefited From Very Friendly Press Coverage For Many Years’
During a discussion of the possible presidential general election match-up between Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and John McCain (R-AZ) on Meet the Press this morning, John Harwood — CNBC correspondent and New York Times political writer — said that the McCain campaign is already “trying to work the referees in advance” to argue that Obama gets more favorable media coverage than McCain.
But Harwood noted that some would find McCain’s strategy “ironic” because the press — whom according to Harwood were McCain’s “base” in 2000 — have been “very friendly” to McCain over the years.
Play of the Day: A breakfast surprise — Clinton
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Doris Smith went downtown early Monday to see about getting tickets to Barack Obama's rally. Advance seats were sold out, she said, and the only option was to stand in line for up two hours or more and hope for the best.
Disappointed, she decided instead to go for breakfast — and walked right into Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign stop.
"Oh, I didn't want to do this," Smith said, embarrassed, wearing an Obama T-shirt as Clinton walked into the restaurant. "I didn't know she was going to be here."
McCain likely to flip on promise to change GOP abortion platform.In 2000, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) criticized George W. Bush during a debate for not being willing to make an exception for rape, incest, and the mother’s life in the Republican Party’s platform on abortion. Despite his prior position, ABC News reports that McCain is unlikely to change the platform to include the exception:
A senior Republican close to McCain told ABC News that building a more inclusive GOP is a top priority for the Arizona senator.
But this adviser does not see changing the party platform to include exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother as necessary for achieving that vision.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think you’re going to see a platform process that is going to maintain that plank,” said Sam Brownback (R-KS), a prominent pro-life senator.
(Think Progress)
Weekly Standard: Americans should be indifferent to the impact U.S. policy has on al Qaeda recruiting.Writing on the Weekly Standard’s blog yesterday, Michael Goldfarb said that he doesn’t “care” if President Bush’s policies have been a “recruiting tool for terrorists“:
As to whether Bush is a recruiting tool for terrorists–who cares? Al Qaeda was recruiting before Bush was in office and they will continue to do so after he’s gone. The important thing is that we keep killing those recruits. Eventually, one side will give up.
Justin Logan at Cato-at-Liberty points out Goldfarb’s flawed logic, noting that it justifies doing anything that is counterproductive because “after all, al Qaeda will continue recruiting whether we do it or not.”
(Think Progress)
Obama overtakes lead in superdelegates for first time
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama erased Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-imposing lead among superdelegates Saturday when he added more endorsements from the group of Democrats who will decide the party's nomination for president.Obama added superdelegates from Utah, Ohio and Arizona, as well as two from the Virgin Islands who had previously backed Clinton. The additions enabled Obama to surpass Clinton's total for the first time in the campaign. He had picked up nine endorsements Friday.
The milestone is important because Clinton would need to win over the superdelegates by a wide margin to claim the nomination. They are a group that Clinton owned before the first caucus, when she was able to cash in on the popularity of the Clinton brand among the party faithful.
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Plame seeks to resurrect lawsuit in CIA leak case
WASHINGTON - Former CIA operative Valerie Plame is trying to resurrect a lawsuit against those in the Bush administration she says illegally disclosed her identity.
A federal judge dismissed Plame's lawsuit last year, saying there was no basis to bring a case. Plame's lawyers asked a federal appeals court Friday to send the case back before the judge and force him to consider its merits.
Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, sued Vice President Dick Cheney; his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby; former White House political adviser Karl Rove and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
Plame's CIA position was revealed in a syndicated newspaper column in 2003, during a time when her husband was criticizing the march to war in Iraq. Armitage and Rove were the original sources for that story, which Plame believes was retribution for Wilson's criticism.
The article touched of a lengthy criminal investigation. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald never charged anyone with the leak but convicted Libby of obstruction and lying to investigators.
During the trial, it was revealed that Libby and former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer also discussed Plame with reporters.
Plame says those leaks violated her constitutional rights. But U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case, saying the law requires Plame's complaints be raised under the Privacy Act. Plame's attorneys say that law is insufficient. They asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to send the case back to Bates for reconsideration.
With the exception of Cheney, those named in Plame's lawsuit have left the administration.
McCain’s other pastor problem: Rod Parsley.
Mother Jones reports that conservative televangelist Rod Parsley has delivered hate-filled sermons calling Islam “the greatest religious enemy of our civilization and the world.” The historic mission of America was to see “this false religion destroyed,” he added. At a public event in March, John McCain embraced Parsley’s endorsement of him and hailed the preacher as “one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide.”
US: Ex-Guantanamo prisoner carried out Iraq suicide attack
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The U.S. military is confirming that a former Guantanamo detainee from Kuwait carried out a recent suicide attack in northern Iraq.
A spokesman for U.S. military's Central Command told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi took part in an attack in Mosul.
U.S. Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye says authorities don't know the motive for the attack, which was reported last week by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television.
Iraqi security forces were apparently targeted.
The U.S. transferred al-Ajmi to Kuwaiti custody from Guantanamo in 2005. A Kuwaiti court later acquitted him of terrorism charges.
Mich. high court says gay partners can't get health benefits
LANSING, Mich. - Local governments and state universities in Michigan can't offer health insurance to the partners of gay workers, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The court ruled 5-2 that Michigan's 2004 ban against gay marriage also blocks domestic-partner policies affecting gay employees at the University of Michigan and other public-sector employers.
The decision affirms a February 2007 appeals court ruling.
Up to 20 public universities, community colleges, school districts and local governments in Michigan have benefit policies covering at least 375 gay couples. After the appeals court ruled, universities and local governments rewrote their policies to try to comply with the gay marriage ban — so the effect of Wednesday's decision is unclear.
The new policies no longer specifically acknowledge domestic partnerships but make sure "other qualified adults," including gay partners, are eligible for medical and dental care. The adults have to live together for a certain amount of time, be unmarried, share finances and be unrelated.
The voter-approved law, which passed 59 percent to 41 percent, says the union between a man and woman is the only agreement recognized as a marriage "or similar union for any purpose."
Justice Stephen Markman, writing for the majority, said that while marriages and domestic partnerships aren't identical, they are similar.
Dissenting Justices Michael Cavanagh and Marilyn Kelly said the constitutional amendment prohibits nothing more than same-sex marriages or similar unions. They argued that circumstances surrounding the election suggest Michigan voters didn't intend to take away people's benefits.
Republican Attorney General Mike Cox in 2005 interpreted the measure to make unconstitutional existing domestic partner policies at the city of Kalamazoo and elsewhere.
Twenty-one gay couples sued, saying the amendment was about marriage and preserving the status quo — not taking away benefits from gays. Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm has sided with the couples.